Ihla de Sao Francisco

After leaving Igaucu we wanted to drive to the coast to spend some time checking out Brasil’s famous beaches.  The only problem was that the coast is A 500 Mile cross country slog away. We managed to drive this in two days stopping off at one of Brasil’s amazing truck stops for the night.

Of all the countries that we have driven through Brasil definitely takes the prize for massive number of trucks. There are loads of them and sometimes it feels like they are the only things on the road. The plus side of the vast number of trucks is that there are lots of truck services as well – every town seems to be brimming  over with mechanics, truck washes, spare parts and other services.

The trucks also mean that there are lots of petrol stations with big areas for overnight parking – we’ve even seen nice parking areas with picnic tables and grills. They also have showers for truckers and good restaurants. These are good places to spend the night and free.

When we finally hit the coast we drove straight onto the Ihla de Sao Francisco which is a small island separated from the mainland by a narrow channel which is bridged by a causeway.

We drove straight across the island to the beautiful East coast where we parked up for the night along the beach front at Praia de Enseada.

We were parked opposite a café and straight away noticed a small band of monkeys on the roof. The owners were feeding them fruit and the hung around until dark.

The beach itself was beautiful and mostly empty giving us a great sunset.

In the morning we had a lazy morning on the beach before driving to the main town on the island, Sao Francisco do Sul. This is an old colonial town, our first for what seems like a long time, and although small had a very relaxed vibe to it.

Igreja Matriz in Sao Francisco do Sul

The town was very pretty and despite the narrow streets we had no problems as there wasn’t much traffic.