Winging it overseas

Time in Brazil ticking away, there was one last island to see –  Cotijuba, sitting off the coast of Belem and part of the same archipelago of islands that also contained Marajó Marajó – boats motorbikes and water buffalo. Cotijuba, however is a lot nearer to Belem and took just under an hour and cost circa 10 Real each.  We picked up the boat from the second ferry port in Belem Icoraci, a circa 20 minute taxi ride from Belem international airport.

Cotijuba is a very good place to escape to from Belem even if only for a few days. It has some beautiful beaches along the river bed, horse and carts rather than cars and is is on the warm river that despite not being as clear as some of the coastal beaches is still a good place to swim. They haven’t quite got their chilled beach vibe tunes nailed down yet. We arrived on the island at 8.30am and the beach bar in front of our accommodation was already playing hard core drum and base at top volume ! There seems to be a bit more eccentricity on this island in comparison to others. Again being off season many of the pousadas and eating establishments were closed. That led us on a Sunday night to amble down the main street to try and find some food. Alongside the evangelical churches that were in full swing were two bars pumping out a booming base to its clientele who seemed to generally be over the age of 60 with one man asleep with his head on the speakers!

Being off season, most of the places on the beach were closed well ahead of dinner time. Despite managing to successfully sniff out some food on Sunday we were not so lucky on  Monday. The street that had been fairly lively the night before was silent except for one guy barbecuing some questionable looking meat! It turned out to be OK but advice would be bring a butty!