Cumbuco, Brazil - Kitesurfing, injuries and beaches

A direct flight from La Paz to Fortaleza would've been only around 2-3 hours. But those were extremely expensive, around 1500EUR per person! So, we took the 24 - 25-hour flight. Or it was four flights actually: La Paz - Iquique - Santiago - Sao Paolo - Fortaleza. Ush! All flights were with LaTam and all 4/4 were delayed by 1 - 1,5 hours. In Iquique and Sao Paolo we had to get our luggage, check them in again, and go through security and customs. Felt a bit unnecessary. In Santiago we tried to sleep on the benches but got maybe 30 min of sleep due to a) all noise around and b) the "very comfortable" benches. We asked if we could've bought entrance to a lounge but it was 49USD/person so we skipped it. But after all the hassle and 31 hours, we made it to Fortaleza, North of Brazil.

Trying to sleep at Santiago airport

We had booked accommodation in Cumbuco because there should be great kitesurfing. There were many kites in the air every day, indeed! It is a lovely sight with all different colors in the air 😊 Edda spent two first days relaxing in the warm sun (we had been waiting for it after Peru and Bolivia) and Markus went kitesurfing. The winds were good and there was plenty of space but water was choppy. Markus went also to Cauipe lagoon, which had flat water. It was a popular spot, but it is too crowded, except early in the morning. It seemed that the lagoon has sometimes more water and would be bigger. Now it was quite small and shallow. It was that crowded that Markus was rather kiting in the choppy sea than in the lagoon.

 Markus kitesurfing

We met a Canadian guy at our hotel, Dave. He is a kitesurfer, too. He was very kind and invited us to join him and his other Canadian friends, Bruce and Stella for dinner one night. We went to Secret Spot and it was okay. Fully booked by tourists, fish dishes were good but vegetarian food was disappointing. The next evening we went for dinner with Bruce and Stella to 0031. It was a lovely-looking place, outside the main street. All other worked well but we waited over one hour for our food because a larger group came in and they had claimed "they have to rush to the airport". The kitchen made their orders first and they were maybe ~20 people or so. Damn! Well, the food was good and we got a complimentary coffee so we left quite happy 😃

Then came the day that changed the course of next few weeks. Markus started to teach Edda kitesurfing! We went to the lagoon early in the morning with a buggy so there would not be that many people. We started with safety training and went on to handling the kite. It went quite all right, actually! We tested body dragging in the water and everything went quite good. After a short break, we thought it would be time to test the board, too. At this point of time, the lagoon was really crowded in all other places than the really shallow water. We stayed there.

Edda practicing bodydragging

This was maybe not a very good idea because - BOOM - handling both the kite and the board for the first time wasn't a walk in the park and the kite drew Edda hard and she landed with her knees first in the shallow water's sand bottom. 😭 It hurt like hell and Markus took care of the kite. Edda managed to walk to the beach but her knees hurt really bad and it was difficult to walk. We poured drinking water on the bruises and Markus went to ask if few Dutch guys could drive us back to our hotel. At the hotel we cleaned the knees and let them breathe. They didn't look so bad so we didn't go to a doctor (a 1h taxi-drive). This was a mistake.

Edda trying...uh, flying for the first time

Here the knees aren't looking that bad, but they were hurting like hell 😭

and later on they looked really bad...

Edda's knees got really infected the day after. But we didn't realize it because it was such a short time since the accident. We decided to go to a hospital but on our way to call a taxi, our neighbor said his doctor-friend is coming to Cumbuco and we could send pictures of Edda's knees and she would tell what to do. Well, let's do that, we thought. We bought the antibiotics she prescribed and kept on cleaning the knees. During our stay in Cumbuco, the knees didn't get substantially better... Edda couldn't walk and it was just painful to even lie down. Markus became a loyal customer at Cumbuco's pharmacy and all different cafés selling acai-bowls. (lunch to Edda)

Acai cup as lunch

We had to stay two extra nights at a really crappy, way too expensive hostel because Edda was still hurting so bad. 😩 We couldn't stay at our first place because the price would've been much higher for the extra nights (we had received an offer online for the first nights).

Our first hotel in Cumbuco made us smile 😊...

...The second hostel didn't

We had checked our self and gotten tips from friends about other places in Brazil, and many of the places were between Cumbuco and Salvador. Cumbuco was nice, but we wanted to see the other places also so we rented a car in Fortaleza (at Foco) and started our road trip. Our first destination was Canoa Quebrada, approx. 200km from Fortaleza. How was a doctor's appointment experience in Aracati? Find out in our upcoming post 😉