EC-Rider Travels

Wow what a day. Goodness it is going to be a shock returning to reality next week. Analida and Eduardo are spoiling me SO much.

As it was forecast to be a sunny day, I rose early to see the sun-rise which was lovely. A little later we went for a pre-breakfast walk and snorkel. Much of the beach has coral which you can swim to at low-tide. I had not been before as the stormy weather has churned up the sea and although calmer today and I saw a few pretty fish, the visibility was still not brilliant…. fingers crossed for tomorrow.

After breakfast we headed off down the bumpy sand road to the local town, Barra Grande. Here we met George and the rib and we headed out into the bay. I assumed we would be spending the day on the rib, but oh no, we were then delivered to Eduardo’s wonderful/huge/party boat which he had made about 16 years ago. She is called Vento Norte (North Wind) – which of course is a good thing in the Southern Hemisphere! Needless to say she was equipped with two charming boatmen and we headed off to explore some of the islands. We landed at a totally deserted one with just a floating bar and had a gorgeous swim.

However, we were soon joined by another party boat in full swing. It is Saturday and there must have been fifty young Brazilians and their boom-box beating out heavy Brazilian/African music. Eduardo quickly put away Frank Sinatra and our mobile Sonos! It was sad to have our peace ruined but the viewing was gripping. Eduardo correctly anticipated exactly what would unfold…..The girls all raced off the boat in their very skimpy bikinis and very overweight bodies and took turns to take endless photos of each other draped over the palm-trees. The boys took absolutely no notice and were chatting together in the water – quite a number unable to swim and using life-jackets. The girls returned to the boat and danced together at the back and when they had all finished their photo-shoot, off they went. Most unusual!

Meanwhile Eduardo had cracked (another) bottle of champagne and we graciously drank this and ate rather fine Serrano ham and melon! Analida barely drinks, so every tine Eduardo cracks a bottle, which is often …. it seems to be just down to him and me! We went for another lovely swim and then headed to a second island for lunch. It was charming and very native, with houses decorated either with pretty shells of hideous tiles! The African influence is apparent with those houses not shelled or tiled, painted bright, bright colours.

A small fishing community live here, so there were people making nets, lobster pots and coming in with the days catch. They are also keen gardeners and have found an original method of edging their beds with Heineken bottles.

Eduardo had called ahead requesting his lobsters which had been caught that morning and were ready and waiting for us. Utterly delicious and particularly so washed down with a fine bottle of Chardonnay- hic!

As if by magic, George then suddenly appeared and drove us back to the quay, in time for another caipirinha and to watch the sun go down.

We walked back through Barra Grande which was gearing up for Saturday night, including a percussion practice playing on the central band-stand with everyone from granny to some pretty young children. Despite having no roads (the nearest tarmac is 58km away), Barra Grande is a happening place with many restaurants, pousadas, Samba bars and a night-club which would not look out of place in Dubai.