Where should I begin? Maybe I should just start at the beginning…
We left our cozy ship M/S Endeavour this morning for an excursion to Lagoa Do Peixe (Fish Lagoon) National Park in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. Loaded down with coolers full of drinks and a picnic lunch fit for a king, we headed out along Brazil’s longest beach (600 km!), and perhaps the longest stretch of pristine beach in the world. Three jeeps and two mini buses headed down the coast for an adventure we would not soon forget, as the soft sand proved to be too soft in places and the mini buses became bogged down quite a few times! Along the way we watched several groups of fishermen hauling in their nets, and we even let one group use their tractor to haul one of our buses out of the sand! We did finally make it to the park, however, and we were treated to a feast of sea birds, shore birds, land birds and waders including southern lapwings, Chilean flamingoes, black skimmers, oystercatchers, black-necked swans and many species of gulls and terns.
The trip back to the ship was, for many of us, a long and winding (and muddy) road to follow, and had it not been for the torrential rain flooding out the road, we would have been back in time for dinner. Fortunately the galley was, as ever, happy to accommodate our late arrival, and even Marek the super-barman stayed up into the wee hours of the night as we trickled in from the rain and mud with tales of endurance and survival.
And that’s how it all began. The End.
