In Ceará, Cumbuco Offers Lagoons, Sea, Dunes and Lots of Wind

11/07/2013 - 09h11

Only 25 miles from downtown Fortaleza, the beach of Cumbuco in Ceará is the choice for those seeking excitement next summer, with a full menu of "radical" activities - thanks to the dunes, waves and winds that make up the landscape - or simply for those who prefer to stretch out on the sand and not do a thing.

For the first group, the strongest is kite surfing, a sport that gains new fans with every passing season in the country. "The Hawaii of kite surfing" is how the sport's aficionados refer to Cumbuco.

The beach is considered one of the best in the world for practicing kite surfing: from afar, visitors can admire the colorful kites blending with Cumbuco's blue skies.

For this reason, the place attracts tourists from various countries as well as from different states in Brazil, and has developed tourism specifically for kite surfing. There are Americans and Europeans of various nationalities, like Germans, Austrians, Spaniards and Italians. Asians also visit the area, particularly Koreans.

There are even dune buggy rides, a true roller coaster in the dunes, which includes "esquibunda''' (descending a dune on a boogie board), water slides, zip lines, rafts, banana boat (a kind of inflatable raft pulled by a speedboat), kayaking and others.

The dunes themselves are worth the visit. Their ascents lead to panoramic views of the beach and the extensive lagoons surrounded by the vegetation of semiarid Ceará. It's there that visitors can cool off in the icy waters under the blazing 30°C (86°F) sun.

On the beach, visitors can take advantage of the well-built tents for tourists, which offer up a pool, or seek less crowded stretches heading towards the Barra do Cauipe, dominated by the view of the clear blue sea and coconut trees in the background.

A must-see stop is the Lagoon in Barra do Cauipe, where the sea and lagoon divide the landscape with distance of a few meters between each other. Bathing in the lagoon is still colder than the sea, but water lovers compete for space with kite surfers.

Currently, Cumbuco is well equipped for tourism, with restaurants, hotels, lodges and beach huts. It is part of the municipality of Caucaia (the metropolitan region of Fortaleza).

As the site is near the capital of Ceará, it's fairly easy to take a trip out there and return the same day. There are regular buses and packages from travel agents who do this route. Besides the tourists, Forteleza natives are constant in Cumbuco.

"The number of real estate developments for apartments and vacation homes is growing here for residents of Fortaleza," says the Tourism Secretary of Caucaia, Silvio Lobato.

Translated by STEVE HUGHES

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