Trip to Ubatuba; Crabs and Sand

Today is Monday; let me show and tell you about what we did this past weekend! First, on Thursday, we flew to Campinas, a city of about 250,000 some 200 km south of Ribeirao Preto, where we met a friend of Uncle Bob´s, Sergio Celaschi.

We went with Sergio and his lady friend to a pizza place where Sergio and three other musicians regularly entertain the establishment with Brazilian music in return for which the musicians and their friends (that´s where Bob and I come in!) are treated to free pizza and drinks. Since Bob and I were going to fly the next morning we stuck to water and Coca Cola.

One of the musicians is a young (25) accordion player who I had met on a previous trip. Very skilled and very talented -- I think he could accompany or play solo with Lawrence Welk -- certainly with Florin!! The other musicians included Sergio on guitar, a guy on a mandolin (he could also play a mean guitar!) and a percussion guy. Various females came out of the crowd to sing on occasion -- one of the songs was `A Casa´, a sad song about a bad real estate deal; I have the words in Portuguese, with Bob´s English interpretations, and the music handwritten by Uncle Bob. We´ll have to have a Zimmerman songfest when I get back and see how many of us can sing it without crying.






Friday, early, we flew the two passengers to Adelaide´s condominium in Ubatuba, flying over some very interesting and rugged ridge that define the breaking point between the continents of Africa and South America some 200 million years ago.





Ubatuba from the air looks like a peaceful coastal village -- which it is, more or less. On our approach out of the clouds, we circled over the peninsula on which Adelaide´s condo is perched, getting these views of the beach and her condo in the process.






We drove and walked to this secluded beach on the bay side of the peninsula where I had fun photographing these crabs. Their eyes are retractable, as this one has one stowed and the other at full attention. The reason this crab looks so -- well, crabby -- is because Uncle Bob harassed him with sand until Bob had a chance to grab him from what he thought was the rear. Unfortunately, that turned out to be his front -- you know, the one with the two pinchers!! So perhaps if I had taken a picture that included both the crab´s face and Uncle Bob´s, you could see that they were both unhappy.






Also at this spot, there was a small fishing cabin and these genuine dugout canoes. I got some detail pictures of their construction which I will share with Jim and anyone else who is interested when I get home.






One other interesting phenomenon was the patterns of black sand on this otherwise yellow-sand beach. These cross-hatch patterns are formed by the crosswise flow of the surf as it comes and goes bouncing off the many big rocks found along this stretch.













By the way, the water was fairly warm out 50-100 feet from shore; cooler nearer shore. I enjoyed swimming in the salt water, where I do not sink like a rock.