I'm genuinely curious where Americans vacation. The short answer is clearly "places that Claire does not vacation." I don't think we've run into a single non-LeBrady American in two days in Pipa. Dutch people. German people. Tons and tons of Brazilians. French people, obviously. No Americans at all.* On the one hand, as mentioned yesterday, it is a little hard to get to. One the other hand, it's not like Amsterdam is any closer. What's doubly strange is that many of the people in the tourist/service industry speak enough English to help us out, and I'm kind of curious why. I suppose it's not a bad intermediate language to have to communicate with various flavors of European, but other than that...
That said, today, we started with another leisurely breakfast, during which the teenaged son of one of the (several!) French families staying at our Pousada fed bananas to the marmosets (at least 6 of them! They're like squirrels but with monkey faces, it's delightful). Then, after another leisurely hour by one of the two pools (kept clean through non-chemical means, somehow), we ventured off to join our "sunset cruise." Note that, in the winter, although the sun is still up for 12 hours because Pipa is so close to the equator, it sets around 5:30. It's rather surprising. Pipa is very far East in its time zone, which doesn't help. As a result, the sunset cruise leaves at 12:30 and takes approximately 5.5 hours total, which includes the sunset.
What does the sunset cruise entail? Short answer: a catamaran, complete with a relatively comprehensive sound system playing samba; a large collection of happy, bathing-suited and increasingly-but-cheerfully-inebriated Brazilians; a couple of European families; me and Brady; and a crew of Brazilians who take their jobs very seriously, the bartender especially.**
Long answer: it's certainly not for those who tend to seasickness, at least not today, and at least not for the first 30 minutes. The otherwise turquoise and picturesque sea was rather rough, with big rolling waves. I don't usually tend to motion sickness, and I was still taking some deep breaths and staring at the near distance.
However, once having passed again through dolphin bay, which involves a quick pit stop to swim in the sea (the catamaran has a special holding bay dedicated to pool noodles specifically to facilitate this activity), the boat turned into the lagoon. The lagoon is mercifully flat, bordered by forests of palm trees. At low tide, a central area of said lagoon turns into a beach in the middle of a big turquoise, brackish lake, complete with lovely warm water with sand dollars living beneath it.
And there, we parked, for a couple of hours, swimming in the lagoon; walking the temporary beach; drinking capirihnas out of what can be best referred to as capirinha goblets, beer out of cans, and water out of cups (soda is on offer too, and it seems that the word for soda, generally, is "refrigerante", translated directly to "refrigerant" on the signage, which is perhaps not what they mean to say); and eating olive spread and frankly excessively tasty guacamole on toast. I don't know where the toast came from. Nor do I know where the grilled shrimp and chicken kebobs, which appeared with grilled potato and salad later, were prepared, though I could smell the cooking at some point during the day. It's just not clear where it was taking place. The Brazilians further danced on the catamaran, which was not huge, mind, and smacked each other's butts, and were generally quite convivial. Dolphins swam by.
We then drove a bit further into the lagoon to see a bit more of the natural sights, and enjoyed the sunset which was, of course, lovely. We have photos, but need slightly more reliable internet to demonstrate, so I leave you with the one that Adam posted to the Book of Faces...
We followed it all up with a kickass dinner of filet mignon, but I'm too tired to tell you about it, so perhaps tomorrow, blog friends...we're off to Manaus, and then to Tefe, to take this adventure to the jungle proper...
*and no one from the Far or Near East, it seems --- too far, perhaps? I vaguely remember Japanese tourists in Peru, though...
**They definitely jam out to aforementioned samba while doing their jobs with gravity.
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