Ituanas, Brazil

Clare and Renato’s amazing destination wedding in Brazil was not in any major city..it was in a tiny lost little beach called Ituanas in the state of Espirito Santo.

And I loved it! When else would I have ever gone somewhere like that on my own? Ok, well in Ecuador I did. But still, it’s not likely that I would’ve wound up being here if it weren’t for the wedding. I think it’s so cool that I get to discover the most random places because of my job.

There wasn’t much in the way of restaurants or bars so we ate at the one place in town pretty much every night and I discovered that I like prawns! This was shocking. I don’t ever eat seafood, but I’m glad to have one kind of ocean dweller added to my repertoire.

Then just outside of town, tere’s a national park with sand dunes and river and beach and ocean. It’s absolutely stunning. That’s where we took all the amazing pre-wedding portraits.

Along the way you can stop for some yummy agua de coco, or coconut water. I did this many times. Coco water has tons of electrolytes in it…and not to mention, it’s DELICIOUS. I’m kind of obsessed. Why don’t they sell it in Chile? It’s also become this big thing in the U.S. — it’s a superfood so everybody wants in and now they sell it at all kinds of grocery stores.

If you go a bit further to down by the beach there are just a couple of places offering the basics — caipirinhas, beer, french fries and a few sandwiches. They all have pretty much the same menu and look almost exactly the same, which cracks me up. How is anyone supposed to differentiate where they want to go?

Someone must ride a horse to work every day because I saw this guy outside the bars every time I walked to the beach. What a life, riding your horse to work!

The beach itself was so gorgeous. And deserted. Totally awesome. I took an hour long stroll with my iPod and made pit stops for dance parties to good songs all by my lonesome, without fear of any fellow tourist stumbling upon my ridiculousness.

I put my camera with a self timer and ran up and down the dunes about 18 times to get this shot. Trying to self time a jump in the air is freaking impossible! But I wanted at least one pic of me in Brazil! When I’m traveling by myself it’s hard to find people that know how to use my camera and take a photo of me that’s actually in focus.

Yay, rainbow! That pretty much sums it up. Rainbow=magical weekend in Ituanas.