The first time I reached it, I didn’t actually mean to—some explorer I’d been, stumbling onto the easternmost point of the South American continent without realizing it!

Mind you, Portuguese navigators mistook the entrance of Rio de Janeiro’s bay for the mouth of a river, Columbus thought he was in the Indies, and Hudson was trying to locate a non-existent “Northeast Passage” that would directly connect European trading vessels to the Asian mainland, so maybe that’s the European explorer signature—roaming around the world half-confused, half-amazed.

Initially, I just wanted to walk to the very end of lovely Praia de Cabo Branco beach. There was a hill in the distance, and when I reached, I noticed a pedestrian friendly road that kept going across the hill. I followed it because surely, it would take me to another beach just behind the hill. That’s what travelling is all about, right? Following roads that take you places you hadn’t planned to visit and following your instinct.

Plot twist, there was another beach but I couldn’t get to it because I ended up on top of a cliff, not on top of a hill, and going down a cliff is harder than going down a hill.

Forget what I said about instinct.

Anyway, it didn’t really matter because about halfway through the hill climb, past a coconut stand in the middle of the road—note the bottle of hand sanitizer!—, there was a lovely viewpoint.

And suddenly, four bikers coming downhill at full speed stopped at the edge of the cliff. Shit. Did I fall into a trap? Was I about to be murdered by the gang of four?

Three of them took off their helmet and the fourth one asked the coconut stand guy to take a picture for them. Phew.

Turn out they were plenty of bikers around stopping for the view and a selfie.

I kept on going. At the top of the cliff was a small park and other viewpoints, plus “the easternmost coconut stand,” “the easternmost campground” and other easternmost business opportunities.

I ended up having my picture taken by a Brazilian woman (emphasis on “woman”!) who also had a Nikon and insisted I should pose like a model. Since I’m not a model and I was standing at the edge of a cliff, the result is actually pretty funny.