Brasil 2022-23 Diary/Photo Journal

Week of 021 January 01 - January 08, 2023 - HAPPY NEW YEAR and looking forward to 2023!

With the New Year comes new thoughts to what we want our future to be.  Looking forward to Baja for a couple of months and so far as other travel, I am sure we are going somewhere in 2023.  The world is a big place and we will find a way to see more of it, that is for sure.

But for now, we are still in Brasil and squeezing out the last bit of family, friends, food and fun we can.  We spent the week with Marjorie and Carlos and thankfully the weather cooperated and we enjoyed many sunny, breezy, beach and pool days. 

Marjorie and Carlos - Cheers! Gerson and Marjorie just chillin in the pool Good way to start the New Years with a nice lunch at the beach

Nice morning for a walk on the beach Gerson refreshes in the ocean

Our initial plan was to spend New Years at Marjorie's condo near Matinhos and then head south to Camboriu for a couple of days with other friends, but alas, we were unable to complete the trip.  In order to drive to Camboriu from Matinhos, we had to take a ferry across a bay to Guaratuba and then the coastal road continued to Camboriu.

Quite the ferry trip due to a rather "important" person in a blacked-out window van was being escorted by three Policia Penal trucks and several heavily armed guards.  We weren't sure whether to feel safe or wary as the guards seemed to be on alert for a possible "escape" or "break-out" of the prisoner.  We just made sure we did not look the guards in the eyes nor point my camera at them (or at least when they were looking at us).

We passed through Guaratuba and unfortunately, a major road that connects to the coastal road had a large landslide that closed that road down to one lane and significant back up of traffic.  This back up of traffic reached the road we had to take out of Guaratuba and that resulted in a three hour drive to travel 20 km (about 12 miles).  So, with another 15 km to go to get to the junction with the main road, and another 2.5 hours to drive to Camboriu (for a total of another 5 hours on the road), we decided to salvage the day and return to Matinhos. 

We took the time to stop by a home Gerson's grandfather had owned in Guaratuba and saw that it had been torn down and rebuilt.  Gerson had many good memories of summers spent in Guaratuba and we had fun driving around with his memories.  We stopped for lunch and as our luck would have it, we endured another 2 hour wait to get back on the ferry. 

But wait!  Our run of 'luck' did not stop there.  We were waved onto the loading dock to access the ferry and they stopped our progress, 50' from the ferry.  With no way to turn around, back up or basically move, we were stuck waiting for the ferry to 'fix a problem' all the while watching the other ferry load its vehicles, cross the bay, unload the vehicles, return to the dock and load again.  Needless to say, we just wanted to get back to Marjorie's beach pad and write the day off.

We finally made it back to Marjorie's place and spent a total of 7 hours to drive to and from a place that is about 30 minutes away.  We definitely learned the lesson that summer traffic was and is horrible along Brasil's beaches and leaving at O'dark thirty in the morning makes a lot more sense.

Ferry rides are always fun Guaratuba in the distance Our heavily armed guards (had to take the photos on the sly)

Guaratuba - Gerson spent many summers on those beaches Old Downtown Guaratuba Loved the road service.  The man's battery died so the service tech delivers batteries via scooter.  Much easier to get around the horrible traffic

Now that we were back in Matinhos, we just followed Carlos around *lol*.  Seriously, he was venturing out to a local seafood market and he did not even have to ask if we wanted to tag along.  What a fantastic place!  We indulged in fish (Grouper), shrimp and oysters and Carlos made a delicious moqueca for our lunch. 

It's all about the seafood Shrimp, oysters, fish, crab - oh my!

Bags of crab (carangeijo) Gerson picking out his oysters And what a buffet!

I have always had a soft spot for Matinhos and quite surprised at how it has grown since we had last been there, some 10+ years ago.  We spent the day around the beach and Matinhos, had lunch, ate ice cream and just enjoyed the beach town vibe.

Matinhos views Just caught this local hanging out

Fishing boats always make for a good photo Fishermen repairing their nets View to Matinhos beach

We ended the week with a day of avoiding getting caught in a deluge of rain and then watching the sun come out and all as good with the beach world.  And, we topped off Saturday with a carangeijo boil, so-to-speak.  Carlos's family came over and with 120 crabs prepared, lunch was a mess of cracking crabs and conversation.  Gerson and I made up for years of not eating the mangrove crab and enjoyed the meal immensely.

It was an inside-day so lots of reading

120 crabs - cannot eat just one

The week flew by and was probably our most relaxing week during our entire stay in Brasil.  Back to Curitiba and easing into our departure set for January 16th.

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