Our tour of La Guajira began when our guide, Pedro, picked us up in our hotel in Santa Marta at 4:45AM. We were driven a few hours away to Riohacha, the gateway to and capital of La Guajira. We had breakfast and changed vehicles to a large pickup truck with our Wayúu driver.
Taganga is a small village located just 15 minutes from Santa Marta. As the title suggests, it’s a backpacker’s paradise with lots of hostels and a relaxed atmosphere. It’s a far cry from the more upscale beach suburb of El Rodadero to the south. This small village is set dramatically beneath tall green mountains surrounding a small bay.
While on an organized tour to El Totumo Mud Volcano, we stopped for lunch at the small seaside village of Manzanillo del Mar on our way back to Cartagena. As lunch was being prepared, we had some time to swim at the not so nice beach.
Playa Blanca is considered one of the most beautiful beaches not only in Colombia, but in all of South America. With powdery white sand and crystal clear waters of several shades of blue, it’s the kind of beach people dream about.
I wasn’t too impressed with Fortaleza, the fifth largest city in Brazil. It’s very modern, doesn’t have much to see, but it has beautiful urban beaches. The fact it has beaches doesn’t exactly warrant a visit to this city in the northeast. Also, the humidity was terrible, at least for me. It didn’t bother my friend Mike at all.
While in Natal, I was very sick and couldn’t do much. On a day I was feeling better, Mike and I decided to do a day trip to the beach towns of Punaú and Maracajaú.
I didn’t get much of a chance to wander around Natal because I was too sick to do anything, but it’s a great place to spend some time. My trip to the city is incomplete and I’d like to go back to properly experience it.
On my last day on Ilhabela, I took a ride up to the town of Vila Ilhabela with Paul, a Dutch guy who arrived at my hostel the night before.
I spent a lot of time with the people I met in the hostel on Ilhabela, bonding after the bank robbery our first night. Ben, a Canadian, and Esmee and Julie, from Holland, went on a jeep tour with me to a nice beach on the Atlantic side of the island.
There isn’t much to see or do in Ubatuba. There’s the Ubatuba Aquarium (Aquário de Ubatuba) which is an aquarium geared towards children, and the headquarters of an organization that protects sea turtles in Brazil, Projeto Tamar. In addition, it’s possible to visit a local Caiçara community. The Caiçara are people of mixed Portuguese and indigenous descent who have been living a traditional life for nearly 400 years.