Little House in Pipa

Despite considerable beach time already, we were still ready for more. The easy two hour journey from Natal turned into one of our worst, as we had to take a small, non-air conditioned bus in extremely humid weather with lots of traffic. We were happy to arrive in Pipa Beach, to say the least. We just had to find the place. Luckily, the airbnb host had given us very good instructions as our little house was inside a larger complex with narrow paths, lots of vegetation, and multiple gates. Our lovely house had two hammocks, a pool in the complex, and a bbq, so we were set. We spent so much time relaxing Marieke even got yahtzeed out. Fortunately, that affliction only lasted for a day.

Really the only downside to our place was the bbq. Well, the term bbq is generous. It was more of a shelf with a wire grill over it. Jon was a bit skeptical, but Marieke and I were more confident based on our mostly successful experiences using charcoal ones in Argentina. Plus, we were not going to be the ones doing it.

The first night we successfully found a large bag of charcoal and we already had a lighter. Unsurprisingly, the charcoal would not stay lit. The next day we hunted for lighter fluid, but had trouble finding some, not really knowing the Portugese term. With a lot of help from google, Marieke’s language skills, and our airbnb host, we finally found some at one of the many small grocery stores. Jon got the hang of it and made us a couple of great meals but by the last night he was pretty done when he had to resort to using a fan to keep it going.

Beaches of Pipa

Despite the name, there were actually lots of beaches in Pipa. At least for most of the day. The ones near town disappeared every evening when the tide flooded the beach chairs and tables, so we didn’t end up spending a lot of time there. It was a long walk to the nicer beaches, which tended to have big swells. While not ideal for swimming, we had a lot of fun bodysurfing, and watching each other get pummeled by rogue waves.

The big waves meant it was also great for surfing. As it was Jon’s first time trying, we signed up for a private lesson, which wasn’t the most instructive as the instructor only spoke Portugese. But he sure made it easier to know where to go and to catch a few waves as he would push us off at the right moment so it worked out well. After doing her duty as our private photographer, Marieke scouted us out some reasonably priced beach loungers where Jon had another first: a coco loco. Basically a fresh coconut with rum poured into it. Despite the coco loco, we were not ready to take on the Pipa nightlife scene, which was definitely something. Unlike in Canoa Quebrada, our house was far enough from the action we didn’t hear music at night so we didn’t mind it.

Sim Cards Strike Again

Towards the end of our time in Pipa, Jon and I’s internet stopped working on our phones. It took us a while to realize what the problem is, as we assumed the networks were just down or out of range, but eventually it dawned on us that time was up on our 30 days of data on our sim cards. Stay tuned for a full post on the debacle of trying to get a sim card in Brazil as a foreigner….in the meantime, we had a harder time ordering our Uber (involving all three of us waiting at strategic locations and acting as a human chain to pass on the message the car had been ordered, while another locked the door, and another locked the gate…).

Overall, we enjoyed Pipa, despite it being quite developed and busy. Closing the main street to cars for most of the day would have helped as well, as it was pretty difficult to walk on one stretch. Maybe they will in the future. Until then, we enjoyed a restful four days.