Costa Verde 25 February 2006
Posted by Paul Cronk in Hotels, Uncategorized.add a comment
We flew south to Rio 
and then a four hour transfer down the coast to a small fishing village called Picinguaba.
It´s a really beautiful coast where some of the last remaining parts of the Mata Atalantica – the Atlantic rain forest – follow the coast on high, and 
strangely-shaped mountains covered in swirls of cloud. The uplands look across bays of islands and long beaches. Much of it is very beautiful and reminds me of pictures of green-covered coastal mountains of Hawaii or the South Pacific.
We´ve gone to a small boutique hotel called Pousada Picinguaba. Herbert Ypma – who came up with the whole hip hotels thing – has it as one of his favourites in South America and there´s a feature on it oin this month´s Vogue (OK, the Brazilian edition).
It has a wonderful setting, with a view over this bay. Still a small and genuine fishing village, it´s hemmed in by one of the protected parts of the rain forest so it cannot get bigger.
Quatro Cantos 20 February 2006
Posted by Paul Cronk in Hotels.1 comment so far
We spotted the hotel on the last visit. 
It´s an old villa of high ceilings, wood and antiques. Some of rooms are basic and windowless (and cheap) but we´ve got the suite; a remnant of when we were going to bring a friend with us. There are two rooms, two bathrooms and a huge balcony with a hammock for GBP80.
Olinda styles itself as an art town with seemingly half the houses occupied by painters. The hotel is strewn with the stuff.
