Thankfully, upon rising and realizing we were more than a little hungry, we were able to munch on a few leftover Pasteis de Belem cream tarts for breakfast (still delectable, particularly with some cinnamon and powdered sugar on top!).
We then spent part of the morning getting beach-ready, checking the interwebs, and generally enjoying the slower pace of beach town life (compared to our previous weeks of city and museum bonanzas). By the time we struck out for the sand and sun, it was lunch time so… eating again! We walked down the street to NahNahBah where we enjoyed reggae music, giant sandwiches, and sweet red sangria.
Tanks full, we set out for the beaches. Lagos has two main beach areas: one large, flat, sandy beach to the East, and another set of beaches set down from rocky cliffs to the West. The latter was our target for the day, particularly because they were more adventurous to explore and were connected by a hiking trail along the top of the rocky slopes above the beaches.
Our first stop was Praia do Camilo, where we dove into the eastern Atlantic and spent several hours sunning and swimming around caves, coves, and sea arches.
Then we moved on to Praia Grande, which involved a crazy hike down a steep erosion slope. So steep at points that we had to use ropes to slide, shimmy, and lower ourselves down!
Next we hiked up and out to Ponta de Piedade, where we saw the lighthouse and crawled all over a bunch of cliffs which overlooked the string of beaches we hiked past earlier in the day.
After an uneventful hike back we got cleaned up and went to dinner. We are at The Garden and had terrific BBQ. The only drawback was that the night was abnormally cool and included a swift breeze; fortunately the restaurant had a few spare blankets to help us survive!
Dinner and a blanket, who could ask for anything more?!
All in all, a pretty epic beach day.
-G & J