We were invited out one day by a friend of Rosana´s to join them on a boat trip up the coast and over to the nearby island of Ihla Bela, a nice idea for a hot summer´s day.

I was expecting either a rented dingy or small wooden boat with an outboard motor. Well, we couldn´t have been more wrong (see the pics below).

We cruised around to a few neighbouring islands in the morning and then over to Ihla Bela to an exclusive beach club for cocktails and sunbathing in the afternoon.

It just goes to show, if you know the right people you can go anywhere!

Our third day in Massaguacu was spent relaxing on the beach and enjoying the glorious sunshine, check out the pics below, they came straight from the camera, although from the colour of the sky you’d swear they’d been through PhotoShop.

I awoke on our second full day in Massaguacu to see desmonds out front and had a pretty good feeling that there might be a wave to be had up the coast somewhere.

I convinced Rosana that I had to get to a surf shop asap so we spent the morning hunting down a new surfboard. Before travelling to Brazil, I had checked out a place called Breeder surfboards (more on the cool folk at Breeder later on), based in Massaguacu. It turned out that is was only a 20 minute walk up the coast road, or a 5 min drive. Rosana’s mum leant me her car and I cruised on down with Rosana to check out what they had. After looking around and seeing some nice boards, we decided to go to Lagoinha up the coast to see a few other options (it is always good to see what the options are).

After going to 3 shops I bought a second hand 6′3 fish (with leash, board sock, fins and wax for £130.00). This wasn’t exactly the board I wanted, I should have gone for a more versatile fun board, but I was so desperate to surf that day that I bought it.

The afternoon was spent at Lagoinha testing out the fish in the 3-4ft surf. I got a few nice waves and was stoked to be back on the board.

Our first full day Massaguacu was spent chilling out, doing a little shopping and walking around so that I could get a feel for the local area. A trip to the supermarket, a stroll along the beach and some sun bathing and a churrascaria (BBQ) in the evening with a few beers pretty much rounded off the day!

We set off from Sao Paulo on the 24th February and took the Rio-Santos highway up the coast and through the Serra da Mantiqueira (mountains) to Caraguatatuba, a medium-sized beach town on the northern Sao Paulo State coast. The journey took us about 3 hours and with Rosanas’s mum doing the driving, we could sit back and take in the view.

Rosana’s family have a small apartment just outside Caragua in a place called Massaguacu. They have been coming here (to escape the city for the beach) for the past 20 or so years. Massaguacu is a pretty low-key place with a few small supermarkets, apartment blocks and a surfboard shaping house, amongst other things. The apartment itself is situated on top of a hill (morro) with a view over the sea. Unfortunately there is no surfing here in Massaguacu, as the waves break directly on the shore, but you can get an idea if there is a wave to be had up the coast in neighbouring Lagoinha (small lake) if any swell lines are showing.

Our first evening was spent relaxing, having some food and playing cards.

On the way back from Ubatuba tonight we came across a Beetle in the foyer of our hotel, which I can only describe as being the size of a small horse, it was huge (I am told they get bigger than this), check out the picture below to see the evidence!

Sao Paulo Zoo is set in one of the biggest green areas in Sao Paulo, of which there aren’t that many. The zoo itself is beautifully kept with a vast array of animals: from predators and reptiles to mammals and birds. We spent a good four hours walking around the zoo, checking everything out, we even had a tropical downpour half way through the afternoon, which gave the lush, tropical vegetation an even more authentic feel.

On the way back from the Sao Paulo Zoo we passed by an area of favelas and I managed to get a few shots on the EOS. Favelas are areas of unplanned housing where people on low or no income live and build their own dwellings out of pretty much anything they can find.

We spent our forth day in Sao Paulo walking around the old city centre and visiting Pinacoteca. The museum is set in a restored building by the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. There is some amazing artwork inside, both Brazilian and international, combined with an inspiring physical structure to the building. They had an exhibit on the works of Margaret Mee, an English artist who painted plants, particularly from the Amazon. They also had some pretty cool modern art pieces (see the photos below).

After visiting the Pinacoteca, we headed over to the old centre (centro velho) and walked around the streets looking at the architecture and trying to avoid being mugged. The area is very run down and the streets are full of homeless people and kids sniffing glue etc. Not particularly nice, but interesting to see all the same. The area is slowly being restored, but still needs a lot more attention. It was probably the place I have felt most on edge on any visit to Brazil and you had that feeling that at any time someone could jump you on the next corner. As a precaution I didn’t use the Canon EOS and opted for the more compact Pentax point and shoot camera.

There are a few pictures below.

Day 3 was pretty low key, we relaxed at home, took in a little sun and then eventually wandered out to do a little shopping at the local fruit and veg street market. The market or feira (in portguese) had a vast array of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices being sold by local people. The thing I particularly like is that you can get stuff that you can’t get in the UK and also the quality is generally better, the experience unique and the prices are cheap. We returned home with mangos, pineapples, grapes and had ourselves a veritable fruit fest!