Days 26 & 27: Saquarema

In mid-morning I'm back at Rio's rodoviaria for the short 2 hour trip eastwards to Saquarema. And another RTBC: at the bus station I buy a replacement camera bag for less than a tenner, and it's arguably better than the specialist ones five times as expensive at camera shops. Saquarema is a beach resort popular with surfers and there is a lively weekend crowd. The guest house, a block away from the ocean front, is very nice. Another guest sees that I get checked in and compliments me on my Portuguese. I have to laugh.

Brazilian food can be spectacular with giant churrascos (steaks) and feijoadas (bean stews). Here it's all burgers and pizzas but this time my local restaurant excels itself and the pizza would feed a small village.

At the pousada, Barbara is determined to see that I don't waste away. Having had a self-service breakfast in the kitchen, I sit down to a much nicer one that she prepares with fresh bread, a multitude of cheeses, hams and jams, tropical fruit juices and fresh coffee. Not surprisingly I have an idle morning before walking into town. The weekend market is bustling and raucous with hundreds of souvenir sellers, making it a sort of tropical Blackpool. But the 18th century church, Nossa Senhora do Nazare, rises above all that on the above, simple and whitewashed in the imitable Portuguese Colonial way.

By nightfall it's all quiet down below as well; the weekenders have left and the beach is nearly deserted.Weiterlesen