Atins: unique island owned by animals

We transferred from Barreinhinas to Atins through a boat ride, stopping few times for small lagoons, ice cream, and the farol. We realized that there are many tourists in this past, although never felt over crowded.

We had our own little boat and enjoyed the fast speed boat for a while

The first stop is small a lagoon with shops and monkeys

We continued to the next stop with the farol as highlight. Even more shops and we had second ice cream to cool down

We skipped the lunch stop and went straight to Atins. When we arrived at the “port” our truck arrived few minutes later to take us to our hotel. We realized immediately that this island has no paved nor dirt road, only sand road! Walking is challenging! Then we saw animals walking leisurely as if they own the place: cows, donkey, dogs, cats, goats.

We arrived our beach family home few minutes later and the girls were happy as it looks better than the last pousada. We had our own hammock

We went to the closest restaurant for lunch and enjoyed the sea/river view. This part of the island is there river meets with ocean

We saw many doing kite surfing and Sofia wanted to try so she signed up for 3 hours course to try it out.

Apparently this is a place to do kite surfing and we saw many taking lessons and surfer doing tricks.

Lizzy and I took a small nap at our hammock before picking Sofia and enjoyed the sunset

Sofia first impression of kite surfing: its technicality is underrated! Hahaha.. she said it is way harder than surfing and that she’ll stick to normal surfing but glad she tried it.

After shower we went out for dinner and had the best ratio of crust vs cheese pizza

Night night. I slept well while girls complained about mosquitos and warm. Lizzy woke up with 28 mosquitos, 8 of which in her face, hahahaha… thanks to her, the rest of the family got way less.

We started the day slow, enjoyed the quiet beach, long breakfast, and play with donkeys

Our private tour guide picked us up at 10am and we started another day of lagoons and bumpy ride.

We passed by the interaction of sand and land, with free roaming animals everywhere

Before entering the national park we stopped at the restaurant to order lunch so we wouldn’t have to wait when we get there for lunch. Very efficient!

Then we arrived our lagoon beach! What a paradise! Very few people as this spot is only visited by people staying in atins (fewer tourists as it’s more remote and expensive). This time we got some chairs and umbrella, like a real beach experience but better . One side is the lagoon

The other side is sand mountain

And the view

Girls swimmed, played in the water, went up and down the dunes (rolling down), while husband and I chatted and chilled. I absolutely loved this 1.5 hours escape in this little lagoon with less than 10 people.

Then we went to another bigger lagoon for half hour before lunch. After lunch, we visited a big valley that’s usually covered by water during rainy season

Then more lagoons

And finally sunset watching

Before ride home with this amazing sky color surrounding us

Dinner at the same pizza place which was packed!

What an amazing place Atins! I had no idea we would love this place so much! The scenery is so unique, beautiful, peaceful and isolated! When I planned the trip I was wondering if a week would be too much to see just lagoons and sand dunes, but truthfully each one is unique and I enjoyed them so much.

Onward to final stop: Santa Amaro. Today is our transfer day so will be chill and slow. 🙂