Ubatuba - March 7th

We have an early start this morning, and so we have to brave the metro at rush hour.  But actually it is not that bad, and gets us to Sao Paulo’s massive bus station faster than expected.  Actually in 10 journeys on trains in 4 days we never had to wait more than 2 minutes for a train, it is an extremely efficient metro.  Mention has to be made of the bus station as well.  We have been in some big bus stations here in South America, but none beat this one which is huge, and has a range of shops that rivals any.  And thanks to the metro we are able to enjoy a quick breakfast here instead of having to buy bus snacks.


The bus journey itself is a 4 hour ride back to the coast, with amazing views as we descend 700m to the coast in only about 10km.  We are going to a place called Ubatuba, mostly because it is called Ubatuba.  It is a great name.  But it turns out this is a major holiday destination for the Paulistas, and rightly so because the bus passes a number of beautiful beaches on the way there.

When we get to the town of Ubatuba we do have a bit of a walk from the bus station, and it is baking hot, but we have arrived early enough to get a bus to one of the beaches after checking in, so we head straight out for Praia Vermelha which is a few kilometres out of the town.  Unfortunately we don’t realise that it is a surfing beach, and the waves are too strong for us to really bathe in (although we make an attempt) so we are confined to sunbathing.  Still it is an enjoyable afternoon.


In the evening we walk along the sea front looking for a restaurant that makes the local speciality, Azul Marinho, which is basically a fish and banana stew.  After trying the Lonely Planet recommended place to find they were out of bananas, we go to a restaurant called Fish and Bananas, where we get the stew.  It only comes as a portion for two, but 4 could have eaten what we got.  It was very good, if a little expensive.  Again as we are now out of season the town has a bit of a deserted feeling, but it is nonetheless quite pleasant to walk around,