Weird day. Possibly one of the sketchiest excursions I’ve ever been on, but some stunning views and beach time. Little odd and offputting start to Brazil and South America. We roll with the punches.
Late Start (All Around)
Reconfirmed my lifelong assumption that I’m not a morning person by (accidentally?) turning off my alarm and sleeping right through my excursion meetup point time of 7:45 AM. I hastily threw my stuff in my bag and ran downstairs to the meetup at 8:15 AM. As I was exiting onto floor 5, the captain comes on and says they’re still working out with port authorities how the gangway will work at this port as it was their first time here and there’s some issues to workout.
I walk into the theater to find that everyone’s still there, and at the excursion checkin table I’m not the latest one 🤣. I check in and take my seat, still half awake at this point.
Then we wait.
And we wait some more.
To the staff’s credit, they kept us informed the whole time and gave occasional updates. Not the worst place to wait…in the theater with comfy seats and air conditioning.
Eventually we’re released and those that booked an excursion get off first. The line to get off the ship is a little congested, but we eventually make it.
The Tour
Port
On first glance, it appears as though we’re in the middle of a factory. We get herded onto a bus and a quick 3 minutes later we arrive and get off the bus at the cruise terminal control point (it really wasn’t that far…but I guess it’s controlled that way). Barbed wire fences everywhere and lots of security, which is good I suppose, but we’re definitely out of the caribbean.
Another choke point into the terminal turns out to be some welcome gifts for everyone (so everyone had to slow down to get maps, hats and some colored sand). Very hospitable inside the terminal, to say the least.
The various tours get split up and our beach tour got onto our buses. We then did a couple loop de loops waiting for something? Not entirely sure why we circled three times. Maybe there was someone that was supposed to be on our bus that got on a different bus.
We *finally* depart around 9:50 AM (excursion was scheduled for 8:15 AM)…not much we can do about it, gotta work with local port authorities, so it is what it is. Multiple checkpoints that we have to go through on the way out of the port.
Trek to Morro Branco Beach
We travel about an hour and a half to Morro Branco Beach, which was stated in the description, so no shock that there’s a bunch of travel time. all my limited research had said this was a great place to go see the multicolored sand dunes and beach transition into each other (Beberibe Cliffs Natural Monument).
Here’s where it started getting more sketchy (I’m sure we were fine…maybe).
As we’re getting close, we’re informed that in order to see the dunes, we either have to pay $17 to ride a dune buggy (4×4) or walk yourself. Difference being 25 min vs 45 min to 1 hr (unsure if its 1 way or round trip). They also tell us that we have to be back by 1 PM (which only gives 1.5 hrs there).
Thankfully we had someone on the ship on our bus and they went up and they negotiated a 2 PM return time instead (nice of the tour company, cause it’s not their fault or problem that it took us so long to get off the ship and departing).
So we had about 2.5 hours at Morro Branco. Upon exiting the bus, I look around and it’s super unclear where exactly I’d even walk to if I wanted to walk, and they had a credit card machine, so whatever…I paid the $17. No need to get stingy now after coming all this way (I guess).
After paying, there’s very little instruction except, go outside in 15 minutes. I just linger outside and hope I’m in the right place but a bunch of people from the ship gather so I’m good. Wandered a little bit in a circle taking some photos of random things.
I look over and the dune buggy drivers are all in a circle and they’re going over the itinerary with a lot of them asking each other questions etc (at least that’s what it looks like)…definitely a lot of conversation…I wonder how many of them are there normally cause there’s no way to know how many of us on the cruise would’ve said yes to the buggy rides.
We end up splitting into 4s and going into different dune buggies…I counted 9 of them. We end up going to a couple stops but definitely would’ve walked or wandered by myself and not been herded in a pack on a schedule if I had known where we were going. Very easy walk for the first part, and definitely could have walked.
The dunes themselves are incredible. The sand is beautiful (and hot as heck to touch….my poor toesies). We ended up walking through some canyons and made it to a beach which was just lovely and refreshing. Only had about 5 minutes there before being whisked away back in the buggy to get back.
I did linger behind a little and wander before they started yelling to get to the pack, and as everyone left, I turned around to some squawking and found a burrowing owl that yelled at me for a bit. Was pretty cool and cute.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I’ll never understand why humans feel the need to leave a trace and destroy nature…makes me sad. I’ve also done a lot of 4-wheeling, but doing it on the dunes, always feels a tad weird when we’re supposedly going to a natural monument / preserve.
The ride back was fun, lots of hills and sharp turns on sand. Our driver was definitely having some convos with the other drivers (one in particular seemed to be the leader). I don’t think we were ever actually lost, but I think there was a lot of debate and confusion on which route they wanted to take.
At one point, we had to check our engine, and at another point they had a deflated tire so they had to reinflate with a hand pump. Suuuper interesting from the data and logistics perspective and I would be fascinated to hear about how they organized and arranged it all (and how chaotic it must’ve been).
All in all, we all got back safe and sound, so can’t complain too much. Not sure it’s worth $17, and feel a little bait and switched. Just a weird day and excursion….not necessarily bad, but weird. Or as my hockey team says….Not Weird. wild.
Back at the beach, we had about 15 minutes to chill at the beach.
Got back to the bus at 2 PM, and waited for about 30 minutes because apparently they had decided to leave 30 minutes later, but didn’t tell everyone, so several of us just chilled on the bus waiting for everyone to get back.
Winding Down
Got back to the ship and I settled down on the deck with a great view of the city. Quite enjoyed the view as the sun set behind the skyline, and we pushed off and on our way to our next port.
Food
Didn’t eat all day till dinner, so ate for two. Corn fritters and melon and prosciutto for appetizer, ahi tuna and special (brazilian moqueca), then pineapple cake and tiramisu for dessert.
Running
Ran under the moon and stars at night, and had a pretty decent time out there feeling a little better. Full moon tonight (the “cold full moon”). Just beautiful and stunning.
Vibe Check
1 part joy
1 part anger (for the bait and switch)
3 parts sadness (for the state of some of the places we drove through, the destruction of nature and just general atmosphere of the day)
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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