beach tagged posts

Cycling from Morro de São Paulo to Boipeba, 2008

Sorry, this entry is only available in Portuguese.

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Dos Mosquices and Cayo de Agua

Dos Mosquices and Cayo de Agua are considered the far away islands; they are about one hour by boat from Gran Roque. As the landscape is beautiful, I did not notice the time pass by. The first stop was Dos Mosquices where we visited “their Tamar”, a center for research and turtle preservation. The biologists told us about the turtles in the tanks, the species we can find in the archipelago and about the preservation work they develop.

After, our stop was Cayo de Agua, considered by many the most beautiful of the archipelago (see Carlos Quintana interview). The place is actually beautiful, the paradise. There is two islands linked by thin tripe of white sand and the sea is a bluish green gradient. The day was diving, walking on the sand until the lighthouse and sleeping under the shade. Everything one deserves on vacation. The place radiated tranquility, peace, and silence. It is impossible not to go back reinvigorated after a day around there.

No photos

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Noronsquí, Crasquí and Rabusquí

My first tour to the islands in Los Roques was to Crasquí. I had been in the island before on a stop from a dive. What impressed me a lot on the site was a “sea of conch sells”. Yes, in a part of the beach I could not see the sand, large conch shells, beautiful and impressive at the same time, covered the ground. It was worth it the trip only to see this surreal place.

On the way to Craqui, we stopped in Noronsqui to enjoy the beach, I stay some time observing the small lizards, they were ugly and had some strange feet. In Crasquí it was snorkel, lie on the sand, sleep and read…

The best part of the trip, in my humble opinion, was the stop in Rabusqui on the way back to Gran Roque. It was a sea of sea stars; I had never seen something like that. White sand, transparent water and dozens of sea stars spread all over the ground, it was like seeing a sky drawn underwater. Even though it was late afternoon and sunlight not so strong, it was impacting...

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Gran Roque, Los Roques

The great motivation to visit Los Roques was scuba diving, so, I spent my first day planning what I would like to do on the 8 days I had in that tropical paradise. The place, I can say, is one of the most beautiful I had been. The sea is incredible, clean beach, transparent water, fisherman, birds, beautiful landscape, great small hotels and interesting people. Everything was very simple and “not simple” at the same time. Almost everybody stay in Gran Roque, the island from where you can depart to dive trips and get boats do visit other islands in the archipelago.

On my first days in Los Roques I was diving. Later I decided to have a “vacation”, not to plan anything, it matched the place… I would wake up at any given time, go to the port and get a boat to wherever they were going. This way, little by little I could go to great part of the islands in Los Roques (Francisquí, Madrisquí, Noronsquí, Crasquí, Rabusquí, Dos Mosquices, Cayo de Agua)...

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Nearby islands – Francisquí and Madrisquí


transparent seawater

white sand and blue sky

mangrove

Francisquí and Madrisquí are the islands near Gran Roque, many hotels offer transport as part of the accommodation fee. Madrisquí I visited in one of the stops of a dive. We spent some time in the island enjoying the place and chatting. The sea is gorgeous, as anywhere here. There are many tourists that spend the day on the island. They bring their cooler with food, chair and umbrellas to sleep under the shade. The peace and silence are incredible, difficult to imagine when comparing to the beaches in Salvador, that are noisy and looks like people have a competition to see who has the loudest music.

Francisqui was my chosen place to “do nothing”. I spent two days laying down the sand, going for a few walks, reading and enjoying the sandbanks to be “soaking” in the water at midday.


Path to the natural pool

Natural Pool

self-portrait with sardines

The island is near Gran Roque, only a few minutes by boat...

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Signs: forbidden and allowed


It is incredible the amount of signs of prohibitions in Australia. In the great majority of the beaches, before one get in, there is a sort of “menu” of signs of things one can and cannot do. The feeling of controlling is so strong…

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Manly beach yesterday


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Phuket

Patong, in Phuket, was our choice to relax on the last days of the trip. Nothing better than a touristy place with good infrastructure for leisure. Here we would have all we need: sun, sun beds, parasol, cocktails, coconut water, fresh fish, restaurants on the sand, coconut trees…

The beach looked like those summer time beaches in Brazil. It was big, wide; we could walk on the wet sand. There were many options of activities: banana boat, water sky, jet sky, diving, boat tour, floating mattress… We could hear all the time people offering food and drinks to sell. Some people don’t like this “agitated” sort of beach. I grew up in beaches like that, so I like it. For me this is the idea of take the most advantage of what the beach can offer you. It is exploiting all its facets. Maxim, who comes from Siberia, was amazed by the possibilities of the tropical paradise.

Phuket is also known for the sexual tourism, what, we unfortunately saw a lot...

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Krabi – Ao Nang – Phang Nga


We arrive in the city of Krabi and went straight to Ao Nang beach. A pleasant beach, full of hotels, bars and restaurants. The beach is crowded with boats that, frequently, offer to take you to an island or interesting beach. We strongly recommend the 4-island tour. It is one day in a long-tail boat island hopping (Poda Island, Chicken Island, Tup island and Phranang cave). The boat trip is slow, what makes it an enjoyable trip so one can calmly observe the nature, rocks, sea, and other boats… Everything, without having the idea of being in a hush to arrive somewhere.

The Krabi region of is well known by rock climbers and divers. It is surrounded by rocks for climbing and waters for diving. Here it is the famous Koh Phi Phi, the island where it was filmed the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio. We benefit from that going to the Phi Phi area for diving. We had been diving for 2 day (4 immersions) in a place called Maya Bay and Koh Bida Nok...

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Koh Samui – Mae Nam

Koh Samui was our first place for “vacation”. Before, our trip had been busy and tiresome. Coconut and fishing were the main activity on the island (koh); nowadays it is a tourist paradise. This, therefore, would be a perfect place to start to relax. In general, the hotels were small, there were many resorts but one doesn’t see the big towers of a chain hotel. I read that here it was not allowed to construct hotels higher than coconut trees, what I consider brilliant.

People told us that it was the rain season. We check on the internet for the weather forecast and it said cloudy and rainy days. We were luck because it rained only a few hour when we arrived and on the day of the departure. The rest of the time we could enjoy the beach, relax on the hotel’s sun bed, sleep in the coconut shade and sea bath. This was what I missed the most. The beaches in Europe don’t give you that kind of pleasure. It is impossible to compare.

Walking on Mae Nam beach we saw pieces of wood ful...

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