Guarda do Embaú, south of brazil alternative

Discovering it, as with many great discoveries, was more a merit of chance than of anything else. It was a decade ago, almost at the end of the 20th century. We had traveled with a friend to the neighboring town of Pinheira in Santa Catarina, where we arrived looking for alternatives to the seasonally saturated Florianópolis. Those were times when spending a summer on some beach in the capital of Santa Catarina was almost the same as staying in Argentina, hardly during those years you heard some Portuguese on the island of Santa Catarina. For a young traveler looking for surprises and international news, the Argentinean floripa of the late 90's was not the best option.

Playa de Guarda do Embaú desde acceso a la Prainha

photo by Rodrigo Soldon - CC 2.0 by

Against that scenario Pinheira, a beach located in the municipality of Palhoça just 50 kilometers from Florianópolis , had been the exotic and alternative recommendation of a work colleague, the data that would take us from the common place. Among its main virtues was that virtually no Argentine knew it, and that it was quite cheaper than the beaches of the famous island-capital of Santa Catarina.

Playa de Guarda do Embaú

photo by Rodrigo Soldon - CC 2.0 by

We got off the Pen bus on the route and sat at a stand between the BR-101 route and the path indicated by our friend, and we patiently waited for the bus that would take us to Pinheira , when 3 girls appeared < em> paulistas . Then we started talking and they told us that they were going to a strange beach earlier in the bus route to Pinheira , this beach that was named Guarda do Embaú . When we asked them what was good there, they responded with a couple of reasons that were not too coherent. In spite of my youth, at that point I was already a veteran and expert in Brazilian beaches, and never in my life had I heard such a strange beach name, the girls continued to talk about reggae , rock and surf for justify their choice of beach, and while they told us they laughed with capital arrogance of the slowness of some people from Santa Catarina who worked at a rural pace nearby.

Surf en Guarda do Embaú

photo by Andrea Farias - CC 2.0 by-sa

Pinheira turned out to be a beautiful and quiet beach, with almost nobody speaking Spanish and attractions worth mentioning in another article. But the place was too familiar, with exclusively local tourism and few nocturnal options. One day, bored of the excessive calm pinheirense , we went walking to the exotic beach of indigenous name referred by the girls of the estrada de pinheira .

Río da Madre y playa de Guarda do Embaú enfrente

photo by Rodrigo Soldon - CC 2.0 by

We arrived after a not too long walk, and as soon as we walked the first blocks of the fishing village, it was the immediate sensation of discovering a secret. Some Rastas , hippies and surfistas crossed our path of dirt and sand, and among them an inconceivable and disproportionate crowd of beautiful women. We continue walking in search of the sea, surprised in front of the spontaneous parade of perfect and natural women, and above all humiliated in our Argentine pride by the irrefutable proof that the most beautiful women in the world were not in Buenos Aires as we had always believed. When we reached the end of the village, we sat on the banks of the Rio da Madre to see the canoes that crossed the beach. The humble wooden canoes traveled full of girls one prettier than the other. We thought for a moment that we had died somewhere along the way from Pinheira, and that God had given us paradise in exchange for our goodness in life.

Vista hacia Pinheira

photo by groundzero - CC 2.0 by

But the revealing explanation did not take long to arrive: Guarda do Embaú was a paradise but only earthly, and the disproportionate number of beautiful women was because a young Brazilian fashion soap opera hottie had fallen in love with the village, had installed a small inn and had moved to the solitude of the most beautiful and unknown beach of Santa Catarina , with the idea of ​​forgetting that the world existed. However the data had leaked in a newspaper or magazine, and then the most beautiful girls in Brazil came en masse, perhaps with the secret(and deluded) intension, a love of summer with the celebrity of the moment, or at least with Cross a glance and smiles with the coveted actor.

Rio da Madre

photo by Rodigo Soldon - CC 2.0 by

Ecology and Surf

Vista hacia Pinheira

photo by Rodrigo Soldon - CC 2.0 by

Guarda do Embáu ( View on satellite map ) is considered by some guides as a of the 10 most beautiful beaches of the entire Brazilian coast; although I personally disbelieve enough of the criteria according to which these parameters of beach beauty are established, in this particular case I must agree on the fact that Guarda is a beach of spectacular and unique natural beauty. Much of its original natural beauty is based on the fact that the main beach that gives its name to the village, is between a river and the Atlantic Ocean, and is bounded to the south, north and west by the beautiful hills of the state of Santa Catarina . The beach itself has no construction except a control tower, it is basically a band of sand isolated from the mainland dotted with small dunes of white sand which is accessed by crossing the río da madre in canoes , swimming or even walking with the water around your neck at low tide. Once on the other side just away from the people who accumulate in the sector closest to where the canoes arrive, you feel in every way the freedom and disconnection of the world as only it is possible to find in very few places of the Brazilian coast.

Playa de Guarda do Embaú

photo by Rodrigo Soldon - CC 2.0 by

Its attraction among surfers is that it has, next to the beach of Joaquina en Florianópolis and Praia do Rosa in Imbituba , the best waves in southern Brazil. It is a surfing paradise, but also an ecological sanctuary whose motto is "leave nothing but footprints, and take nothing except memories", is exclusive, sophisticated and rustic at the same time, although mainly frequented by surfers in search of a wave perfect, is also chosen by those who want to get out of the obvious of the classic circuit of southern Brazil composed of Florianópolis , Camboriú , Bombinhas and Ferrugem .

Bar do Ebori

photo by Rodrigo Soldon - CC 2.0 by

Music is almost always reggae everywhere and the atmosphere is one of constant freedom and relaxation, so it's not strange that one of the guitar hymns is "vamos fugir" (Let's escape) by Gilberto Gil with lyrics changed to incorporate the name of Guarda Do Embaú to the chorus. During the nights of the season there is a lot of live music, and it is not surprising that spontaneous and open parties arise in some house with rock bands or reggae .

On sunny days it is essential to have a few beers in the Bar do Evori listening to some reggae immortal Bob Marley and contemplating in front of the full beauty of the beach of Guarda do Embaú and the distant mountains of garopaba . In this rustic and comfortable bar, located in the Prainha de Guarda( View on satellite map ) and to which it arrives through an ecological path from the village, all of them are mixed regardless of origin, social status or fame; it is possible to find hippies , rastas , famous cariocas , models, actors, professional surfers and common travelers, all fascinated by the environment and the wonderful view .

The village has developed quite lately and the prices of the inns closest to the beach are usually somewhat more expensive than in other beaches in the region, however it is possible to find houses for rent at reasonable prices moving away a little along the road that leads to the neighbor Pinheira. It is a matter of looking for the posters aluga-se casa and negotiate according to the number of travelers.

To finish I must say that Guarda do Embaú hardly defraud the visitor, has long been the data that always gave friends who were looking for an alternative south of Brazil. And the advice always worked, everyone came back in awe.
 
Personally I returned a few years after that unexpected discovery, and I stayed directly at Guarda do Embaú so I would not have to walk from Pinheira like a stranger. The place continued to breathe that unique freedom in the middle of the same exuberant landscape. The Bar do Ebori remained just as rustic and perfect, just changed the wallpaper, with more and more photos of celebrities looking incognito.

If at that time we did not stay more than 2 weeks it was for 2 powerful reasons that tied us to the reality of that time: I had the commitment assumed of

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