Gaúchos at the beach / Gaúchos Na Praia

As an Australian traveller I've been disappointing people for years. Generally, within the first few minutes of finding out I'm an Aussie, the majority of people ask me if I surf. The images that most people in other countries see are of sand, surf and sea. Unfortunately for me, I spent the majority of my childhood growing up inland where it was as much as five hours drive to the nearest beach, thus I never learned to surf (a fact which often leaves a disappointed look in the eyes of the person I happen to be talking to).

Copacabana beach is world famous

Brazil suffers from the same “problem”. When you think of Brazil its often Rio de Janeiro and the seemingly endless stretches of beautiful beaches and beautiful people. That is certainly the image I had in my head when I first came to the country.

And then I saw Porto Alegre.

Like I said in my post a few weeks ago, Porto Alegre has many great qualities, geography just isn't one of them.

So what are Gaúchos to do when they want a beach holiday? Well they can go to the coast of the state where there are some really nice beach side towns only a couple of hours drive away from Porto Alegre. These towns tick a few boxes; there are long beaches with plenty of space, nice restaurants and cheap accommodation.

The beaches of Rio Grande do Sul do have some beautiful scenery 

There are some key downsides though, with the key one being that the beaches have no natural protection from the wind. While it is nice to have a nice sea breeze to take the edge off the sun while you're relaxing at the beach, the wind you encounter at the beaches of Rio Grande do Sul is closer to a gale, and thus makes it hard to relax. The water is also less than inviting, being quite cold despite the heat outside and a murky brown colour, probably due to being stirred up by the relentless winds.

So what do the locals do when they want a better beach? They go north to the next state, Santa Catarina.

Embracing the Gaúcho beach lifestyle

All along the coast of the state is dotted with beautiful little beaches, most of which are well protected from the wind by the surrounding hills and headlands. Many of these beaches have beautiful little towns close by that have managed to remain fairly rustic and left alone by major developers, meaning not too many large hotels or apartment towers.

Santa Catarina's capital of Florianópolis, on an island just off the mainland, is surrounded by many of the most well known beaches, frequented by people all of the country – including the rich and famous – and has become one of Brazil's major beach destinations.

Checking out Praia dos Ingleses at Florianópolis

Further south, along the coast are less famous beaches which results in fewer crowds and a more relaxing time.

We were fortunate enough to spend our holiday in the beautiful town of Praia do Rosa. The town is little more than small hotels, bed and breakfasts and some restaurants (as well as a good quantity of hippies and surfers) and makes the perfect place to relax and unwind for a week or two. The beach is never crowded and has a good balance of services at the beach without being too over commercialised.

Praia Vermelha

If you're looking for an even quieter beach, Praia Vermelha, accessible only by a 30 minute walk along the coast from Praia do Rosa, is almost completely deserted and has nobody trying to sell you anything making it completely serene – nothing but the sound of the waves.

If you're looking for some more action, several other beaches are a short drive away. Garopaba is a bigger town just north of Praia do Rosa and has a much larger beach, with all of the services and crowds that go along with that. Close to Garopaba is Praia do Ferrugem, whiich is still crowded, but mainly filled with hippies and surfers, meaning it has a much more relaxed vibe. It also has much better waves for those looking for it.

Among the people selling drinks at Garopaba is Captain Jack Sparrow

Ibiraquera. just south of Praia do Rosa is a quaint little town that is built around the point where a lake meats the ocean providing a good place for stand up paddle boarding or a more relaxed place to swim (or drink beer).

The final significant beach we got to check out was Guarda do Embaú. To get to the beach you need to pay one of the locals to ferry you across the small lake in a small boat (basically a gondola). Once at the beach you're greeted with some great waves and lots of people. The waves bring a lot of swimmers and surfers to the water so it can get crowded, but it's certainly a great place to spend an afternoon.

Getting the boat across the lake to the beach at Guarda do Embaú

So while it takes an extra few hours to drive to the beaches of Santa Catarina, I can certainly see why so many people here decide to go the extra miles.

Finally, five random thoughts on Gaúchos going to the beach

Food is different

In Australia, aside from some Fish and Chips, there really wouldn't be any food I would consider very typical of a beach day. Here, while seafood is featured in many restaurants, the food you eat at the beach is typically more finger food – and usually sold to you by guys walking up and down the beach. It ranges from things like corn on the cob, cashews and fried cheese. Depending on the wind, you'll often smell the cheese guy before you see or hear him.

Seafood risotto at Urucum

While not often sold on the actual beaches, crepes, stuffed with everything from nutella to prawns and served on a stick are sold in all of the beach side towns.

Away from the beach, Praia do Rosa has some great restaurants including Tigre Asiatico which serves some very nice Thai and other Asian food, and Urucum, which specialises in seafood with a heavy influence from North Eastern Brazil. 

Drinks are Different

Many beaches in Australia prohibit you from drinking alcohol while soaking up the sun. In Brazil there are no such restrictions. You can bring your own drinks or buy from the local stands or even guys carting an esky around. It's certainly a part of Brazilian life I am adjusting well to.

I Love Brazil's liberal public drinking laws

Something I didn't think I'd enjoy but absolutely have is drinking chimarrão at the beach. As a hot drink you'd think it'd be the last thing you want while sitting in the sun, but I joined in on the ritual and loved it. Sharing some chimarrão as you arrive at the beach adds to the relaxing vibe and was something I looked forward to every day.

Clothing is different

Brazilians wear less clothes at the beach – and not just the women. The stereotype of Brazilian women wearing tiny bikinis certainly held true, but what I didn't realise was that many Brazilian men also like to wear as little as possible. I never thought of myself as a prude, but wearing my board shorts I quite often felt like people bathing at beaches 100 years ago wearing their head to toe swimming costumes. That won't be changing. No, there is no photo for this section.

Argentinians love Santa Catarina too

It isn't just Gaúchos who love the beaches of Santa Catarina, which becomes very obvious when you're surrounded by Spanish speakers. For Argentinians to get to the beaches they need to drive a a full day which shows their commitment to enjoying a great beach vacation.

People surfing close to shore at Guarda do Embaú

I still cant surf

Sorry.

Brazilians Love a Holiday

I always thought Australia had an obsession with public holidays. As well as having a day off for the Queens Birthday – which isn't actually on her birthday – my state of Victoria has recently added “Gran Final Friday” to it's list of holidays. While Australian football is practically a religion in Victoria, a public holiday for the parade held the day before the big game seems a bit of a stretch.

Oh, and then there's the fact we get a day off for a horse race. Who else does that?

Since being in Brazil though I've realised Australia are simply novices. This country seems to be world beaters when it comes to finding reasons not to work.

New Years Eve is celebrated much like anywhere - champagne! 

You have all the usual – Christmas, New Years, Labour Day, Easter etc – but added to that are countless religious holidays, mostly for Saints whom most people don't seem to be able to tell you much about.

There's even one for “Children's Day”, which is something I remember insisting that should exist about 30 years ago but being told by my elders “every day is children's day”.

It's not just that there are many days either, it's that the holiday tends to leak over to the days around it.

“Why is that place closed today?”

“Ah, well, there's a holiday Monday so...”

I'm certainly not complaining though as Brazilians seem to love to celebrate, and with so many excuses to celebrate, there's a lot of fun happening here a lot of the time.

Carnival Party in Porto Alegre

The holiday of the moment is Carnival, which is taken over the country. Being a foreigner, all I knew about Carnival was the street parade in Rio de Janeiro. Little did I know that as well as the various Sambas schools competing for the win in Rio that there were events all over the country occurring for weeks leading up to Carnival Tuesday. In the North Eastern states these events involve enormous street parties that start right after New Years. Unlike the parades in Rio, the street parties are more about participating than watching and are a completely different vibe.

Porto Alegre Street Party

Even here in Porto Alegre, described as cold and boring by much of the rest of the country there are events for Carnival. I was able to follow a “semi sanctioned” street parade as revelers followed samba singers through the streets of Porto Alegre's historic downtown district. While at just a couple of thousand people it was certainly a far cry from the parties in Rio or Northern Brazil, it was certainly a good taste of how Brazilians like to party.

Even someone like myself who's not a fan of dancing was able to have a good time with good singing and dancing among the crowd. Though to be fair, Brazil's liberal street drinking laws would certainly have had a lot to do with it.

All told, Brazil's approach to work and time off seems like it could be a good fit for me – if I ever get a job. 

Porto Alegre Weather: Hot, Wet or Both

In Rio de Janeiro I've heard several of the locals say they have two seasons; summer and hell. It's fair to say the heat in Rio can be tough to handle, but with huge stretches of beaches to escape to when the sun comes out, it is at least a little negated.

We don't have that in Porto Alegre. While it may not be as hot as Rio, the summer has definitely proven to be hotter than I'd like and without the escape of the beach, some of the days here have been very hard to deal with.

In the four short months I've been in Porto Alegre, I've found there has been very little “middle ground” with the weather. So far I've seen three weather types:

• Hot;
• Wet;
• Hot and Wet.

Porto Alegre on one of it's mild days

Arriving in late September, the rain that was hitting the city (and the whole state of Rio Grande do Sul) was unlike anything I had seen. Days would go by where it wouldn't have stopped raining for more than a few minutes. Not just light rain either. Torrential downpours that seemed to flood the streets instantly.

Flooding was a huge issue throughout the spring, with many areas in the countryside flooded and people all over left without power for days or even weeks on end. While in the neighbourhood I'm in we managed to avoid that, it was easy to see the city wasn't built to handle this kind of rain. Every local told me, “this rain is not normal” or told that it was a record week or due to El Niño and wouldn't continue. But it kept going. I got a bit of cabin fever after days and days of not being able to leave the house.

Then all of a sudden it stopped, but before I had a chance to celebrate, a new problem. The heat.

I'd heard people use the term “Forno Alegre” several times but never really understood it until the summer kicked in. Forno, the Portuguese word for “oven” eventually seemed the perfect term for the climate I was now enduring. For weeks the temperature has been hitting the mid 30's (C) during the day and getting no cooler than the low 20s over night with a humidity that would make you think we're in the middle of a tropical rain forest. That humidity, always in the air, also means that at any time we could be back to rain and flooding.

Trees down across Rua Republica

Like any region with high heat and humidity, Porto Alegre is prone to storms and on Friday night, we got a big one. A Super cell storm hit – last only a couple of hours – but doing a huge amount of damage to the city. Like with the excess spring rain, the storm was something the locals assured was completely not normal. Winds of up to 127 km/h uprooted trees collapsed buildings and took down power lines all over the city.

Along with it's heat, Porto Alegre is also known for having the most trees of any capital in Brazil, but in the storm this worked against us. At least 300 trees were ripped out of the ground during the storm, destroying cars, taking down power lines and even the occasional building. While there were at least 100 storm related injuries, according to reports there was fortunately nothing serious.

A Service station taken down by the storm

The aftermath of the storm did cause chaos however. Driving became treacherous (ok, more so than usual Brazil driving) with many roads blocked due to trees or flooding and power outages causing the traffic lights all over the city to fail. Many businesses were forced to close due to lack of power or just from being cut off from their customers.

Thousands of homes across the city lost not only power, but also water making life especially difficult for those with families – especially with nearby businesses also cut off.

Trees were uprooted all over the city

On Tuesday morning – around 84 hours after the storm – our apartment had it's power restored and life began to go back to normal. Although at the time of writing this, a new storm has moved through and is currently lashing the city with more rain and once again our power is gone.

I know it may sound like I'm doing an awfully lot of complaining about the weather because, well I am. Porto Alegre has a lot of great qualities, the weather just isn't one of them.