Guaruja

 Yesterday, the Woffindens drove us and the Wilkinsons down to Guaruja. It's a small port town on the coast of Sao Paulo State. As you can see from the picture, it was a pretty overcast day, but after our two-hour drive, the weather cleared just enough for the temperature to be really perfect.

 We spent some time just walking along the beach and observing the high rises along the coast and the other beach goers. We sat for a while on the beach under an umbrella and talked while we enjoyed some batatas fritas (french fries) and frango passanheiros (probably butchered that spelling, but its just mini fried chicken). It was fun to watch all the vendors come by, hawking things like fried cheese, peanuts, beach balls, DVD's, and earrings.

 We went in search for a clean bathroom, which we only found after our second attempt. The first bathroom we found had no light, no toilet seat, and just a small amount of toilet paper left....no bueno! Luckily, we found a very clean bathroom. When we came back, it had started to rain a bit, so we waited for our ride under the hut :)

 We drove down the beach a bit to the fishing beach. You can see all of the little boats behind us getting their catch for the day :)

 This little old boat was sitting on the shore. A few minutes later a guy carted it out to the shoreline, pushed it in, and jumped in. He took his boat out to a larger boat, and anchored the small boat. It seems like most of the fishermen did it this way because there wasn't much of a dock :) They just had two boats, one to get to the larger boat, and one to fish from!

 Here you can see the fishing boats all lined up, with clouds and forested mountains in the background. On our way home, we got to ride through the green forests and through a LOT of tunnels cutting through mountains. Brazil has it all!

 As you would expect anywhere in Brazil, there was a game of soccer going on the beach. As the tide came in, their playing field got smaller and smaller :)

 After the fishing beach, we headed to get dinner. We stopped at this busy, but really nice restaurant that had some of its wares on display! I like squid, but not like this! We ended getting a delicious salmon, and also sampled some bread and cheeses. Brazilian cheese is really quite good, but it's expensive (like everything here!) It was fun to look out onto the beach from the restaurant and smell the fresh ocean air!

This was the restaurant. It was a perfect, fun day and we are so grateful for our new friends who are willing to give us rides, advice, and a good time! It will probably be the only time this year I am near the beach, and I miss it a lot in Kansas. So I got to dip my toes in and walk on the sand and hear the relaxing crash of the waves, and that will tide me over for a while.