Trip to Praia Forte

Yesterday we decided to visit Praia Forte (Strong Beach).  It is ahour hour north of where we live.  The elite of Savador have week-end houses there.  Our main reason for going was to visit Project Tamar, a turtle farm.  We took along our swim gear in case we wanted to try out the beach.

The drive up was very nice.  It reminds me alot of driving toward the Keys in Florida.  The town of Praia Forte was very nice.  It is quaint without being touristy, even though it is obvious that this town survives off tourist. 

Project Tamar is well worth explaining.  It was started 30 years ago.  I have been to turtle farms in many countries.  The lay out of this one was probably one of the nicest I have been to.  There alot of Palm trees, and it is located right on the beach.  What really imspressed me was the level of education that is included in this project.  From the very beginning the Tamar Project realized that the protection of the turtles would only be successful with the support of the locals who lived off the goods from the beach and ocean.  They showed the locals how much they could make from ecotourism.  They also built the area around the aquariums where the locals sell everything from coconut bars, braided bracelets, and toys made from bamboo.  It is really a win win situation. 

Once we finished touring the turtel farm, we went through the shops that are of the area. I bought a key ring to use as an ornament for our Christmas tree.  I also found a really neat lounge dress.  It is made of what I would call indian cotton and has delicate lace in set in the body. The finishing touch are the green buterflies that are stitched on the cotton.  Can you tell I love it?  I will be making a trip back near the time to go home to buy some to give away as souveniours.  Gareth bought a rattle stick from a teen age boy.  The neat part was how proud this kid was of his work.  He explained to us exactly how he hollowed out the bamboo stick, then filled it with little pieces of rock.  Finally he burned the images and the words Praia Forte into the wood.  I bought another ornament from him, to support someone who is working hard.    

We got hungry in our wandering and stopped a really neat restaurant called Terra Brazil for lunch.  John and I got fabulous shrimp. Gareth was sooo excited when he saw the last page of the menu.  They had chicken nuggets.  They were usually served on a bed of spaghetti with red sauce, but they were willing to serve them American style with French fries and ketchup.  I have to say these were amazing chicken nuggets made of real chicken breast and crusted with parmagnan and herb breading.  But as long as they called them chicken nuggets, he was more than happy.

The only disappointment to us was the beach.  The sand was pretty, but there was a rock barriors about 40 yards from the beach.  This made the waves that came to shore ankle height.  The beach was super crowded with umbrellas.  We all concluded we like our beach in Stella Maris better.  Our waves get as much as 8 ft high on windy days but are always at least 4 feet.  We also have the beach vendors and the rental umbrellas but not near as many people.  For people who are from the south, it was like comparing going to the Gulf of Mexico versus the Atlantic Ocean side of Florida.  We decided to come home and go to our beach. 

Gareth carried his new boogey board to the beach.  He had never used one in waves this big and was a little timid.  Once John went out to about thigh high water and I was set up where the waves met the beach, Gareth started to relax.  He ate waves for a while until he got the rhythm of the biggers waves, but soon he was having fun riding.  It got dark before he wanted to get out to the beginning of the waves, so we will have to try that next week-end.