Jan. 2nd we loaded the 6 passenger rent microvan for a trip to Ubatuba. Ubatuba is a small town on the coast about 4 hours from Sao Paulo. A neighbor of Gretchen’s recommended an Eco Resort on the coast just north of Ubatuba.
Looking at the drive on a road map doesn't reveal the true adventure of just getting there from Sao Paulo. We started off driving the same toll road we drove to Rio the week before. Heck we’re almost locals by this time. We turned off the Dutra at the Taubate Exit and after fueling started down to the coast on the Rodovia Oswaldo Cruz also know as SP 125. Like the United States, Brazil labels their highways. In this case were in Sao Paulo state hence the SP label.
The first 60 miles of the 80 mile trip from Taubate to Ubatuba (you just have to love the names) was through rolling hills. There were large pastures and cleared land on the sides of the highway. It was a narrow two lane highway. Nothing extraordinary here. Then we hit the steep part. Like I described driving to Rio the week before, we left the higher plateau and descended to the sea level and the coast.
When was the last time you were on a roller coaster? The steep sections were at least 14 to 16% grade. I build highways, so cut me some slack that I know grade. That means 10 to 14 feet of fall in 100 feet. Several 180 degrees switch backs and now through the jungle. There was guardrail along the steep sections, so I didn't deem it unsafe, just scary steep. One thought I had, was if we did go off the road, would we be found or would the jungle simply grow over us in a short time.
One interesting phenomena was the number of hub caps along the side of the road. We’re talking numerous. I was told that the braking action on the smaller cars distorts the metal wheel and causes the hub cab to come off. There was a municipal worker at one location walking up the road against traffic picking them up. He has a string and was stringing the hub caps on the string. He had maybe 10-15 on the string already. At a switch back there was a small dump truck that had a load of hub cabs piled high enough so they protruded over the side boards.
Anyway, we survived the drive and arrived safety in Ubatuba, Brazil. We hit a lot of traffic as we approached town. Brazil is big on speed bumps. Where a major Highway passed through a town they have speed bumps very 100 meters. No wonder traffic backs up.
10 Kilometers out of Ubatuba we turned off the highway for the Itamambuca Resort. The resort was billed as a four star resort. We turned onto a dirt road. Does this compute? Yes, a mile down the dirt road we turned into the security gate and back onto a paved road. The guard allowed us through and we parked at the check in which was an opened air arrangement. They did have some fans running. Did I say it was hot? Again were we hot and humid. The resort in just a stone’s throw from the Itamambuca River where the river runs into the Atlantic ocean.
Gretchen and Eric had made the reservation. They reserved a bungalow that slept 4 and for Gretta and I a camping cottage. Well the pictures on the internet don’t show heat! Roger, the manager and one of only a couple of English speakers within 100 miles, showed us the bungalow. Not bad. You did have to slide your room key into a holder on the wall to fire up the AC, but it was OK. Then it was a short walk over to the camping area to show Pops his accommodations. Well, did you ever see the movie, “Bridge on the River Kawi”? Remember the sweat box that the Japanese Officer puts the British Colonel played by Alec Guinness in ? Yep, that’s what Pops was going to sleep in. Concrete block walls and a metal roof, two bunk beds, one against each wall, about 6 ft. wide and 12 ft. deep. Well, Roger being the consummate salesman said, “We have a cancellation and have another bungalow available.” Jack, thinking about his ability to survive and running some quick numbers through his head said,”We’ll take it”. Seriously, I don’t know if I would have survived three nights in the sweat box. The car we had had a thermometer in it and I saw 37 degrees Celsius which is dangerously close to 100 degrees.
We settled in for our stay. I really was a neat place. The resort ran both the bungalows which were separated from the camp ground by about ¼ mile. You had to walk through the camp ground to get to the beach. Getting to the beach involved crossing the Itamambuca River. There are two ways to cross the river; swim/wade depending on the depth or ride a tiny hand pulled ferry barrage. I questioned Roger about the water quality in the river which he assured me was tested weekly. (Having seen the water quality of the river in Sao Paulo and wondered if that was a tributary to the Itamambuca) I have since checked out the drainage of the Itamambuca River on Google Earth and believe the headwaters of the Itamambuca start in the Jungle we observed on drive down form Taubate. The river was about 100 yards wide where we crossed.
Crossing the river took you to a nice mile long beach where the resort furnished chairs and umbrellas. It really was a pretty nice set up. The Atlantic was warm and at the mouth of the river there was a sand bar so it was shallow along ways out.
There were waves and surfers. We had some quality beach time.
The resort offered two choices for dinning. One was an open air high priced restaurant next to the check in area the other was a “Per Kilo” buffet near the campground. It worked like this; you filled up your plate and they weighted it at the end. You paid for what you put on your plate. The seating was open air cafeteria style. The place was made for us! Eliza’s a picky eater and the menu has beans and rice, one of her favorites. We ate there all three nights. The menu changed every night. The place was clean and the food was good. It was perhaps the best dinning we had traveling with the kids as it was instant food, good quality, clean and everyone got their choices.
The next day we were off to Paraty (pronounced Para-Chee) which was about a 45 minute drive up the coast towards Rio. Again it was hot. We arrived in town and found a place to park. Not always easy anywhere in Brazil. We took a short horse drawn carriage ride with a narrated tour. Paraty is a preserved Portuguese colonial town with a population of about 36,000. It is located on the Costa Verde, a lush, green corridor that runs along the coastline of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Paraty has become a popular tourist destination in recent years, renowned for the historic town and the coast and mountains in the region. Paraty is known for its brightly colored building and boats. It is over 500 years old.
One thing that really made Itamambuca a fun experience was the children’s program ran by the resort. There was one lady in charge of the operation and she had numerous counselors. Gretta and Eliza really have learned to go with the flow not speaking Portuguese. The lady in charge made a big fuss over the gringas. In Portuguese they tend to overly pronounce the girls names, Hence Gretta was GRET-TA and Eliza was E-LIZA. Carli is CAR-LY. The girls really enjoyed running with the pack doing handicrafts, playing games and participating in other activities. At one time they were sent out on a scavenger hunt. The girls didn’t have a clue as to what they were supposed to be looking for. Well, one of the girls a little older than Gretta spoke very good English, so she’d translate for the girls and off they’d go.
The most fun was Friday night when they turned the recreation center into a game room.
They broke out all sorts of games including a Wii. The instructions were in English and none of the counselors knew how it worked. A young man I’d say was about 10 named Igor had obviously been trained on Wi as he quickly set up the game and was showing fellow competitors how to work the controller which you hold in your hand. He quickly rolled three strikes in a row on the Wii bowling game. The girl who was playing against him quickly lost interest so I recruited Eric to take Igor on. Igor wilted under the pressure and Eric prevailed. Then they played a Bingo game. Pops was given a paper bingo card and a tooth pick. The toothpick was to be used to simply punch a hole in the number on the card when it was called. Pops played along with the assistance of Nicholas, one of the youth counselors. Darn it if I didn't understand some of the numbers. Nicholas inquired as to how many numbers I needed for Bingo and I showed him the card which was just missing the number 69. Darn it if the next number wasn't 69! I quickly gave the card to Gretta and told her to shout BINGO which she did. The prized was a bird book including pictures of all the birds that one could see in the area. A nice souvenir for Gretta.
The best part of Itamambuca was the breakfast buffet. It included fresh fruit from Brazil some I recognized and other I didn't. There were a few melons I don’t think we grow in the USA. Interestingly enough they have a unique Pineapple in Brazil that the meat of which is white. They were also smaller that the Hawaii pineapples we’re used to in the USA. Having read James Mischer’s book “Hawaii”, I knew that Pineapples originally were from South America. I believe the type we eat in the USA from Hawaii (Philippines) are GMO from the original species from South America. I found food the be relatively expensive in Brazil. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast.
We enjoyed our stay in Itamambuca. Eric rented a surf board one day and he caught a few waves. There were also some large rocks at the mouth of the river that people were jumping off. Eric and Gretta had to give it a try too. We also tried stand up paddle boarding which results in a funny story. Pops has SUP’d before and while not an expert did paddle well enough to catch a few waves at Pokei Bay in Oahu last winter. So Pops jumped on the board and paddled out into the river. We were in the river just behind the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. Well, remember the human powered ferry boat I told you about that was used to cross the river…well Pops forgot about it and with the murky water didn’t see the rope stretched across the river which resulted in Pops flying head first off the board. The locals though it was funny.
We were scheduled to leave Sunday. We had purchased a three day package. Saturday, we debated whether we should leave early and drive back to Sao Paulo to beat the traffic Sunday. Our plans were made for us when a very heavy rain storm came in as it was getting dark. Remember the Taubate- Ubatuba Highway. We had planned on returning to Sao Paulo via it as it is the shortest route. We found out the road was closed and thus we decided the best course of action was to leave early Sunday AM. We woke everyone up at 6 AM and hit the road. We had to go a different route because of the road closure. Therefore, we drove down the coast to Caraguatatuba where we took the highway up into the interior. We didn't hit too much traffic although every small town along the coast has numerous “sleeping Policemen” speed bumps which cause backups. The road along the coast afforded views of some nice beaches.
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