Luxury in the Treetops

After a lengthy bus ride which got in 2 hours later than scheduled, Jules and I met up with my cousin Natalie in Sao Paolo. She was studying in Curitiba and this was her last weekend in Brazil! We also met Aunt Rita (pronounced Hita) who was the aunt of Nat´s friend from NC. We hopped in Aunt Rita´s car with our huge packs strapped to the roof and set off for the drive to Guaruja, a town about 1.5 hours outside of Sao Paolo where she has a beach house. The drive was beautiful, winding along the coast. We arrived in the small town of Guaruja and stopped to get some lunch with was a stew of seafood served with rice. It was delicious and the seafood was so fresh. We picked up Pedro, the son of a friend of Aunt Rita´s and headed to her beach house. This place was amazing. It was basically a house nestled in the trees with a spectacular view of the beach.


Aunt Rita´s beautiful house. The window you
see is to the rooftop pool.

View from the patio.

The first night we relaxed at the house and headed to bed early. Jules and I shared a room with our own bathroom which was much appreciated by two budget backpackers! The next day Aunt Rita made us the most delicious breakfast, complete with scrambled eggs and bacon for us Americans. The one thing that I love about Brazil so far is the juice. It is all fresh squeezed and so delicious! She made us fresh maracuja (passionfruit) juice for breakfast. Yum!!!! After breakfast, we headed down to the beach. A local girl, Lolo and Pedro, both 11, were our guides for the day, showing us all the beaches. Lolo´s family was the first family to build a house on the island, and her family is the only family besides one other that lives year round on the island, so every security guard and lifeguard knew her. The beaches were all private so we weren´t allowed to take any pictures of the houses, but they were quite nice.

One of the many private beaches in Guaruja.

First beach day in South America.

We met up with Aunt Rita for some delicious cocktails made from fresh fruit and watched the many surfers pass by. Aunt Rita headed off to get some fish for the party she was throwing that night and we headed back down the beach with our guide Lolo.


Tasty tropical drinks!

Me, Natalie and her German friend Stefan

enjoying caiprinhas poolside.

View from the roof.

Underwater shot from inside the house.

So cool.

Aunt Rita threw a party with some of the neighbors and it was just one of those nights that I will always remember. The delicious fresh fish and rice, the samba music in the open air, dancing barefoot into the night. It was such a special night and we all had a blast trying to learn samba. Lolo´s parents & Aunt Rita were such good teachers, trying to teach us the feet movements which seemed simple but weren´t as easy as they looked. The people we met were so warm and Aunt Rita was such a gracious host.

Bringing food for the party!

Cooking up some delicious fish.

We enjoyed the food for sure.


Jules, Nat, Aunt Rita, Yolonda & I.

Dancing samba on the patio.

Oh yea, we were shaking it!

I was so thankful I got to meet up with my cousin Nat for my first and her last weekend in Brazil. When I was backpacking Europe in 2003 I met up with my cousin Sarah in Lugano, Switzerland where she was teaching so it was fun to meet up with Nat here in Brazil. I only have 3 cousins, so I am lucky they are so cool! I don´t know´Portugeuse so Nat and her friend Stefan were our translators the entire weekend. I said a lot of ´Obrigada` which means thank you. I hope my gratitude was properly expressed because it was a wonderful weekend with some of the friendliest people I have met.