Natal

We spent a few days in another city similar to Lencois, but it also had the most beautiful beach I had seen yet in my life.  The sand was actually white and the water had patches of green/blue water that was warm in the strong sun.  That was actually the first impression that I had of this beach: the sun.  The sun was incredibly hot.  Before I went on this trip everyone warned me about Natal because it was so close to the Equator and therefore the sun was extremely strong there. Apparently the city is even known as “The City of the Sun.”  

When we got there in the morning I went on a run along the beach to enjoy the scenery, running through the rocks and sand and the last stretch of the waves.  Although I had literally just put sunscreen on every inch of my body, I could feel the sun burning me after 15 minutes.  On my way back to my bag for another layer of sunscreen I saw some friends doing some strange, birdlike movements on the beach.  Soon I realized that it was the beginning of a surf class, clearly more important than sunscreen.  I hopped in and finished up the stretching session with them.   Then we worked on the technical stuff, how to get up, how to get over little waves, all on the beach.

Then we each got a different guy to go out in the water with us and help us surf.  After several failed waves, a ton of water up my nose, and a lot of slightly embarrassed looks from my instructor I finally got up! Yay I was surfing! Although the first one didn’t last long, I soon turned into a real surfer dude (hahaha só que nao).  I finished up the day with lots of agua de coco and aloe vera.  Can you say sunburn?

I would also like to take a minute to talk about the coke cans here in Brasil.  Most of them have adorable little positive messages written on them.  As shown below, peace and love are popular ones, but I have also seen cans that say, "beijos" or "happiness."  I love this.