Praia de Pipa - Jacuma

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After quite a heavy last night in Praia de Pipa, we dragged ourselves out of bed after about an hour´s sleep to pack up and make our way to Olinda. We had arranged to travel with 2 girls we met, so when we all discovered that the 3 buses we had to take to get there worked out more expensive than splitting a taxi 4 ways we were all over the moon! The drive took about 4 hours though we slept for most of it. Upon arrival in Olinda, where the streets were already bustling with Carnival preparations, we bumped into some others we had met and decided we would all share a little house for 2 nights and worked out very cheap. After getting settled and a few hours rest we headed out into the streets to see what was going on and found a huge party bus that everyone was singing and dancing around pretty quickly. It was, in fact, quite a tame night though as the whole of Sunday was meant to be the main precarnival party. Unfortunately I woke up ill and was bed-ridden for the day, so Chris ventured out to find the celebrations. (Chris - The streets were full from about 4pm, after the beach party that started at 10 in the morning, so everyone was very drunk but most were in good spirits. The percussion bands lined the streets and each was followed by a group of dancers and a lot of drunken people, many of whom, the men anyway, were dressed as transexuals! The party continued until about 11pm when the music and life died down and so I headed back to the apartment).

The next day (Monday) we packed up our belongings and headed for the bus stop in Recife, Olinda´s twin city, via the bus and metro. We got a bus out to Joao Pessoa, which we got off early to catch a little bus to the fishing village of Jacuma. It was a very different place to the other beach resorts we have visited by which I mean it wasn´t a little gringo haven with beautiful shops and restaurants, it was a bit more real. We shacked up in a little room beside a bigger hostel for one night as it had a kitchen and I wasn´t feeling too adventurous with food yet. The next day we moved into the main section, which was very attractive and then hit the beach. The following day we decided we would venture a little further and ended up doing a 3 hour walk to Tambaba, the only official nudist beach in northeast Brazil, with the intention of catching the 5pm bus back to Jacuma. The walk was long but very scenic and on arrival to Tambaba, we were told that when we crossed over the rock to the nudist section we were NOT allowed to keep our clothes on. Over we went. It felt quite strange stripping in front of other people and we were both pretty self-conscious of our little white bums with all these bronzed latinos around, but I have to say it felt very liberating! After a swim and a sunbathe we decided we should go to the beach bar (naked) for a beer (naked). Everyone but the barman was nude and he was very good at averting is eyes so it was pretty fun! As the place started closing we threw some clothes on and went back to the main beach where we started a huge climb uphill to a restaurant where the bus was meant to go from. The moody barman up there announced that the bus wouldn´t arrive until 6ish but probably wouldn´t come at all so we started to worry a bit. After standing on the road for a while considering what to do a beach buggy pulled over and offered us a lift and the people in it happened to be the bartenders from the main beach so off we went, a much more stylish ride home than on the bus (which we crossed paths with en route). After getting back we headed for a well deserved dinner at a little house/bar/restaurant/shop belonging to a friendly old lady where we had arranged to have peixada (fish in coconut sauce). She had cooked us an absolutely huge feast for peanuts!

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