Day 557 28th January 2018
44 miles (Porto Grande to Praia Siri) Average speed 10.3 mph Top speed 31 mph
A few more hills than I expected but still a good game day.
I was up at 8.30 and carried all my bags up the steps to avoid taking everything up the steep hill I’d come down last night. I cooked brekkie of leftover sausages and fried eggs with dodgy bread and tea with milk I stole from Carlos’s brekkie. I did ask permission first.
I showered, took some photos with Carlos and wife and said goodbye after paying the bill which was way too low, he only charged me for one fish instead of two and didn’t charge me for the two beers so only 53 reais for dinner and camping. What a nice man, I think he liked me.
Carlos and his wife who made me so welcome
I left at 11.45 after taking my empty bottle back to the supermarket as promised and followed the beach road but unfortunately it was mostly into the wind. I was struggling with the heat and hills and stopped for a rest after only 40 minutes. I was expecting the coast road to be flat but I was wrong. I stopped in Itaipava ( my favourite beer in Brazil but it’s not brewed here that’s done in Rio.) I had lunch on the beach of ham and cheese pastry and sausage heated up at the bakery.
Watching the waves
Then I pushed on to Marataizes where I looked for a hostel, but it was closed and only had a phone number to ring and without my phone I gave up and carried on along the sandy road back to the main road. Before long I came to Lagoa Siri but the campsite was another mile further on. I was met by a nice young lady who said I could camp but I needed to join the long queue of people checking in or out. This took about 20 minutes but eventually I was allowed in and found a camping spot after a bit of searching as it’s a very big site. I pitched up and showered and went to the bar where they only had pizza so I cycled back into town and found that most places were closed after the sun went down.
Seaside dinner
I did find a place still open, and had dinner of chicken, rice and breadcrumbs with chorizo and after went to a local bar, where the locals were very interesting after a Sunday on the sauce. There was one guy across the street with a woman dancing, who I thought was petting a dog, but on further inspection it turned out to be a chicken! He held it under his arm as it squawked away in protest. He tried to hail down a bus, but I don’t think it took chickens. The people in the bar were real characters. Then I returned to the campsite and had a beer on the beach before checking out the disco which was full of kids so I went back to the tent for an early night.
Camping Siri 44 reais.