Surfer's Paradise Beach

Tiff has been working hard to avoid as much of the rays as possible -stating that her skin is too fragile for all this equator sun. Though, when walking around, the heat can get a little unbearable if you are wearing too many clothes. So the bikini top is always the best option.
 
As usual, Hans is leading the way to yet another exotic beach. We did not know where we were going - which is not unusual on this trip. But somehow, Hans always manages to get us somewhere great.
 
  When we get to the surfers beach, far off there is a typical tropical squall. Throughout our trip we often experienced these spontaneous storms. The warm tropical rain is a romatic blessing that cools things down and refreshes the senses for more sun. It's so important towards keeping things lush and green.
 
There were surfers everywhere on those perfect waves. Some we had seen on the plane with us just a few hours ago - they knew exactly what they came for - the perfect curl. 

This is Brazil's Hawaii!

 
  The local natural "surfers" were pretty damn good too. The birds skimmed the waves with their wings tips inches away from the water. They fly like that until they spot a school of fish. Then they shoot straight up, pull a loop and dive bomb the fish. Over and over again with such grace. It was mesmorizing watching their acrobatic flights. 

Way in the background on the right there is a gigantic white shark looking sea monster - just kidding!

 
 The soft fine sand left very deep foot prints.
 
  The sand here was very strange - like quicksand. Our feet sunk past our ankles. We were fascinated by how squishy it felt and started reminiscing about all those movies we saw as kids were people were getting sucked to their death in quicksand. You never hear about quicksand anymore. What happened to quicksand anyway?
 
 Then suddenly, one afternoon in paradise ....... 

an accident occured.  

As Hans climbed the rocks on the left of the beach cove, he slipped on one and fell jamming his feet between them. Major pain on both of his "very necessary for walking and touring" feet. 

 
  It took about a month for most of it to heal. He couldn't wear shoes for quite sometime. And this on top of the blisters he got in Natal. This has not been a good trip for Hans' feet. Hans seems to be partial to the external damage, while Tiff gets the internal food related maladies.
 
Hans in the surf with flippers playing with the big waves. While out there the surfers kept joking with him about seeing "tubarons" (sharks). He said jokingly, "cool, are they white ones!"
 
  Could this have been eaten by a local killer shark?  And right next to where I have been swimming? Hans checked it out, nope, just a broken surf board. No bite marks anywhere. The sharks on Fernando de Naronha are typical of  tropical waters. They are there - lots of them. You just never know when one is going decide you look like a tasty snack. Yikes!
 
One thing that did spook Hans was seeing all those Barracudas (see them on the next set of pictures) just under the waves everyone was surfing on. Never have we seen so many fish swimming all around as we did here. What would you expect from such a desolate group of Islands in the middle of the tropical Atlantic?
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More photos - of snorkeling and scuba diving.
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