Cumbuco Week 1

After a week in Cumbuco, my daily routine seems to consist of the following:

1. Wake up sans alarm, go to window and confirm that the ocean is still white-capping
2. Drink chocolate milk out of carton, eat orange and handful of cashews
3. Drag a bean bag to the edge of the beach, and read a book until the wind hits 25 knots (at the moment, the book is a combination of Portuguese Phrases and Eat, Pray, Love - no comments please, but yes I am desperate)
4. Kite until I drop
5. Eat nutella  sandwhich
6. Kite again
7. Walk to town to get dinner, pick up bottled water, chocolate milk, ice cream, nuts, bread and more nutella
8. Engage in awkward Portuguese conversations with Pousada staff
9. Read
10. Sleep
11. Repeat

Monica's eye is still on the mend, and perhaps tomorrow will get her out on the lagoon for some kiting. She is being extra cautious with it just to be on the safe side, and has so far been burning through 1.5 books per day.

Cumbuco is an interesting town. It has a relatively small population (apparently 1600), and consists of a small town square with several restaurants that cater mostly to wind tourists, and locals from the nearby city of Fortaleza(2.5 mil). It has a large number of Pousadas in and around town, most of them completely empty because of the time of year. There is also a lot of half completed construction similar to the left. I can't tell if the town has seen better days or is just in the off season.

The food so far has been good, consisting of mostly grilled or barbecued chicken or fish. Being a tourist town, it isn't as cheap as one would expect. 40Reais (23CAD) will get you dinner for two with drinks and tip all in.  

The weather has been pretty amazing - it it spring here, which means that the temperature during the day gets up to a steady 29 degrees. The ocean feels like bath water, and is warmer than the swimming pools. I spend most of the day in just board shorts, and the shirt and flip flops come out in the evenings for strolling around town when the temperature drops to 25 degrees.

The beach is beautiful! One of my favourite things to do is to watch the sand change form throughout the day. In the morning, when the wind is not as strong, ripples form in the sand that have an amazing consistency. By the afternoon, the wind picks up, and smooths out all the ripples. Footprints disappear in a matter of minutes. Then by the evening, the wind slows down again, and the ripples show up.

The end of the day is usually punctuated by a few buggys returning from the lagoon 6km down the beach, and a few people getting out for that last sunset session before packing it in for the night.

Sunset session

one happy kiter

A fishing boat apparently - don't see where you put the fish once caught?

We tried to put together a bit of video and pictures to show the wind scene here. The fun thing to do is to spend and hour or so riding the 6km down the beach in the waves to the Cauipe Lagoon (freshwater). They have little huts by the waters edge that are served by the restaurants (coconuts, fanta and fried fish). The lagoon is busy, and full of local Brazilian kids who hang out on the off chance that a tourist will let them use there gear, and then they light up the lagoon and put everyone to shame.

**video taking too long to upload and timing out, but will try and post tomorrow**

Here are some pics that Monica snapped off while I was riding her kite today. It has been 6 days of kiting in a row, which is a first. 5 days on a 9m kite, and today on Monica's 6M.

I see that we have 11 followers - maybe you can figure out why there are no seagulls in Brazil? More soon...