Where the sea is blue...And the beer is cold...

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Brazil's nordeste is famous for many things: its incredibly spicy food, its strong African cultural influence, its friendliness, its beautiful colonial era towns. Its thousands of kilometres of azure-watered, coconut-palm-fringed praias - beaches - are another. And so from pretty little Olinda I make my way along the coast to the next state south, Alagoas. Alagoas is Brazil's second smallest state - it's still a third larger than Wales, mind - and one of its poorest, despite its status as one of Brazil's most important producers of sugar (of which Brazil is the world's largest producer itself - that's a lot of sugar) and coconuts. Indeed, the view from the bus between Recife and Maragogi, the small seaside town where I will base myself for the next couple of days, consists of nothing but emerald green sugarcane fields and coconut palms as far as the eye can see.

The Atlantic Ocean only really comes into view as we enter Maragogi - an ocean so vividly blue it doesn't seem real. but it is: for miles and miles to the north and south of Maragogi is a seemingly endless expanse of pale, powdery sand - almost like the sugar Alagoas churns out in such vast quantities - warm, calm aquamarine waters and swaying palm trees. A place to indulge in doing precisely nothing while sipping on a beer - estupidamente gelada, of course - or a chilled young coconut. To fill one's stomach with fresh seafood - prawns, lobster, crab, ceviche - with the ocean lapping at your feet. To loll about in the shallow, crystalline waters while thinking of the rotten weather back home.

The word idyllic doesn't even come close.

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Photos

Brazilian beach lunch
Chilled beer (the little jackets are genuis), a chilled young coconut to drink, boiled crab with salt and lime. Heaven.

Comments

[Home and Away]

Rotten weather back home...
I can see why you would rather stay on a tropical beach...beautiful pictures by the way. Looking forward to your next blog to help us dream as we enter winter...a lot of snow due here next week, but that is expected for Colorado. Anyway, keep on blogging!