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.
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.
A great day trip from Paraty took me to the nearby village of Trindade. The village itself has just one road going through town lined with restaurants and small pousadas, but the beaches around the town are incredible. Trindade is surrounded by national park land part of Serra da Bocaina, a UNESCO World Heritage site, making it a very undeveloped place.
One of the best things you can do in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Paraty is take a party boat tour of Paraty Bay. You’ll have the chance to go swimming in the warm waters of the Atlantic while sipping caipirinhas, enjoying the sun, and meeting friendly people.
The longest and best boat tour I took on Ilha Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was the full island tour (Volta à Ilha). It takes visitors around the entire island in a speedboat, beginning and ending at Vila do Abraão. In my opinion, this boat tour stopped at the most beautiful beaches on the island. It should cost about R$220 (as of June 2025).