Praia do Forte

We went to Praia do Forte just for the day. We took a 2 hour bus ride there. They had a bunch of little touristy shops we looked through those and then went to the turtle sanctuary called "Projecto Tamar." There were all kinds of turtles there. From little newborn ones to large Leatherback turtles. They also had some sharks and lots of fish. It was pretty interesting. They even had a video that told us what to do if you find a turtle passed out on the beach.

After the turtle thing, we ate lunch and shopped a little more. Megan got a swimming suit and then we went to the beach to try it out. The beach had a lot of tide pools and the water was very warm. We started just looking at the tide pools and walking down the beach. We saw lots of brightly colored fish, crabs, and even an eel. I wanted to go swimming so Megan laid on a towel on the beach while I tried to find a place to swim.

Since there were so many rocks, I didn't really find a good place to swim right there so i walked in the tide pools and all of the sudden, everyone on the beach got up and started yelling "Balea!" Which means "Whale." Megan didn't see anything out in the direction they were all looking at except me so she though everyone was being mean or something. Then she saw the whales. There were two maybe 100 ft from where I was out in the ocean. It must have gotten deep fast.

After the Whales left, I walked down the beach farther to find a good place to swim. I found a nice place where there were no breaking waves and the water got up to my shoulders. I swam around a little and then looked down in the water. I was surrounded by a school of brightly colored fish. They were inches from me. It felt so much like paradise. I didn't even need snorkeling gear, they were all around me. We took a van back that was a little cheaper and actually cut the trip down to just over an hour. We even made it back for dinner.