There are a million places to visit in Brazil and João Pessoa is one of them. I had never visited before, but when the opportunity presented itself to stop by for a week on my way to Fortaleza, I did. I rented an apartment right on the beach (a nice beach) with a balcony overlooking it. In the mornings and afternoons I would sit outside and watch and listen to the wind blow through the palm trees as the light slowly faded.
I found a big gym nearby that was ideal and only a five minute walk from my apartment (in Havianas). The gym was always packed with people exercising (my favorite type of gym) and though I don’t speak any Portuguese, everyone was friendly. They do this weird thing in Brazil inside the gyms I’ve been to where they have full-time trainers who want to suggest you exercises or workouts to do. They really want to help you but the idea of going to a gym and then having someone tell me what I should be doing is strange. I don’t work for you ma’am!
After my morning workout I would eat my favorite Brazilian gluten free sandwich/omelette thing, tapioca! A nice Brazilian woman served it to me in a cafe attached to the gym. She really liked me even though I can’t speak any Portuguese and she would ask me these questions while smiling and laughing that I was unable to answer because I had no idea what she was asking me? That just made her laugh more.
I met some locals who took me to see baby sea turtles being released into the wild and also to one of the largest dance clubs in Brazil. Other than that though I stayed close to home and took the opportunity to catch up on writing in my travel journal (increasingly difficult to make the time for it alongside work and other things I’d rather be doing, but I think some day the effort may be worth it) and enjoying my door front beach.
