Brazilian beaches are fun and chaotic public spaces where you can make anything happen, rain or shine, night and day.

Of course, you can go swim or just jump waves—this is basically beach 101. Another popular option is to grab a mesa, a table, and spend the day drinking beer and eating shrimp feet in the sand at your favourite barraca. This is a great spot to watch a game of altinha, where a ball is passed around a circle—use all body parts and show creativity but it can’t fall to the ground!

You can walk on empty stretches of beach, surf the waves, bring speakers and listen to the latest hits, read, gather your entire family and feed them off the giant cooler you brought, you can go fishing, get a massage, buy coconuts and ice cream, then go for a swim once again…

I’m always happy to go to the beach. Not only do I love water, but the atmosphere is always different and the potential to try or see new stuff is pretty high.

In fact, I’m such a beach bum that I do get up at 7:30 a.m. to go, well, beach bumming.

Damn. It was raining.

Never mind, the van, a driver and three other beach bums I would get to know over the next eight hours were waiting for me downstairs, across the street.

What do you do when it rains in Brazil? You still go to the beach.

First, we stopped at Tabatinga, the beach right behind Coqueirinho—it was pretty deserted on a Monday morning at 10 a.m. but still gorgeous.

Then we went to the “shopping rural”, a cute community-owned mix of shops selling local delicacies, including cachaça.

We ended up at Praia Bela, the main goal of the day, by 11 a.m.

And it was pouring rain.

The four of us took a table in one of the beach restaurants but nobody felt like drinking or eating, it was way too early. I tried the check the weather on my phone but there was no network. Oh well. At least I didn’t have to worry about my beloved Nikon getting wet—for once, I had left it at the Airbnb.

I ran to the beach as soon as it kind of stopped raining. The sky was still dark, low and heavy, but the light was actually interesting after so many days of clear blue sky and blinding sun (I know, you’re not feeling sorry for me). I explored the beach, climbed a few hills, spotted many crabs, then I joined my travel mates at a table by the water.

The older couple was happy to stay there, feet in the water, beer in hand. The other solo traveller, a Brazilian woman, was toying with the idea of trying quad biking. “I’ll do it if you do it!” I said.

Why not? This was one of the popular Brazilian beach activities I had yet to try. I went on a pirate cruise in Santos, tried sand surfing and dune bashing in Natal, I went bodyboarding many times… but buggy and quad biking, nope, never. I’m not really into driving ATVs (and driving, period) but hey, it’s an experience and a popular beach activity in the Nordeste.

And so we went, after a short lesson on how to drive a quad bike.

Was it fun? Hell, yeah. Bumpy too, especially off-road. We gain access to parts of the beach we couldn’t have hiked to, and she was a very fun partner.

I drove all the way back to Praia Bela.

We made it alive.

I had planned a relaxing day, just swimming and reading.

I ended up on middle-of-nowhere sand dunes and my phone is full of “Brazilian poses” pics.

Beaches are surprising places.