Sometimes life just happens. Work gets really
busy. I guess I am starting to discover the perfect formula for this mobile work
from home thing. Two days in a city is too hectic. Three days seem just fine,
as has been the norm for me for a few weeks now. This way, I get to delegate
one day of sightseeing and still have enough time to work and recover in
between. After all, you don’t have to visit all the tourist attractions, right?
In the case of Natal, I skipped the city center and just went to Extremoz.
Extremoz is around half an hour away from downtown
Natal if you take an Uber. Public buses also ply the route but I’m guessing you’d
have to allot at least an hour for that. I also don’t know how you will
actually reach the beach if you opt for public transportation, given how the
highway is farther inland. That stretch of road named after Genipabu Beach
itself stretches over a few kilometers. Just call an Uber. After all, the one-way
fare is not that expensive anyway. That way, you get dropped off right at the
beach entrance.
Genipabu’s sand dune beaches are unique and not
like most that I have already seen before. I mean, I’ve been to several
combinations in this lifetime: Tulum’s ruins by the beach; Costa Rica’s jungles
by the beach; Rio’s high-rise buildings by the beach; Cartagena’s colonial fort
and old town by the beach. Those are your most common combinations. Hills of
sand and beach, though, now that is unique. It’s as if Genipabu beach’s
shoreline panicked and evacuated to higher ground in fear of drowning, realized
that they are sand and couldn’t possibly drown, but decided to stay up there for the nice
view anyway.
Perhaps a better itinerary is to ask your Uber
driver to drop you off at Santa Rita beach instead. This area is on the other
side of the dunes but accessible via the other main road heading back to Natal.
Santa Rita has its own beach. After enjoying that, you can then head to the
sand hills to the west and not have to climb up. It’s all downhill to Genipabu
beach from there. That, to me, feels like a less exhausting way of enjoying
both beaches instead of doing it like I did, climbing the sand dunes from
Genipabu.
I believe we also have sand dunes back in the
Philippines, up north in Ilocos. However, they are not near the beach, but
rather the mountains, where you can go sand boarding. Sand boarding is not popular
in Genbipabu. Most people just climb the dunes on their own and take selfies.
While the hills are not really that much of a challenge to climb, they are
still on a particularly high vantage point, and the ascent while constantly
having your feet buried in the sand is an adventure in itself.
What you are bound to find at Genipabu are
buggies, along with posters and tourist agencies offering them for rent. These
are convenient ways of navigating the beach and the sand dunes. I don’t have any idea how much they would cost per hour because I didn’t really find the
necessity to rent one. In case you need them, though, there are plenty of them
to choose from at the beach. As for the beach itself, it’s not particularly
stunning. The sand is not that white, and the water’s shade of blue is kind of
monotonous. The real attraction here are the dunes and the views they offer
from high above.
Overall, I believe I spent an hour or two just
beach bumming. Getting an Uber back to civilization can be quite a challenge
because most visitors just bring their own cars. I had to wait for half an hour
for an Uber driver to come pick me up, him coming from the city center. I saw
beachside accommodations which you can explore should you want to stay here for
a day or two, even though I find it unnecessary given the place’s proximity to
Natal’s downtown.
[EXTREMOZ] Beaches and Hills of Sand
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