The southern coast: Coqueirinho, Tabatinga and the cliffs of Conde

About 35 km from João Pessoa, the municipality of Conde brings together cliffs, canyons and one of the beaches with the highest drowning risk in Paraíba.

Paraíba's southern coast begins to stand out from the municipality of Conde, about 35 to 40 minutes by car from João Pessoa via the PB-008 highway. It holds some of the state's most dramatic landscapes, shaped by cliffs that reach 60-80 meters in height in some stretches, with tones ranging from ochre to red, contrasting with the green of native vegetation and the turquoise-blue of the sea.

Coqueirinho beach is the best known in the stretch, with golden sand, generally calm sea and surroundings of cliffs and coconut trees. At the beach's entrance, companies offer quad-bike rides to lookout points such as Dedo de Deus and Tartaruga, as well as to the Coqueirinho Canyon, a rock formation carved between the cliffs by a local river. Tabatinga beach, about 30 km from João Pessoa, is divided by a tidal channel into Tabatinga I and II — the division forms a heart-shaped body of water, visible from the Dedo de Deus lookout. At Tabatinga II, it is common to find natural clay from the cliffs, used by visitors as an exfoliant.

Despite the beauty, caution is needed: according to a survey by Portal Correio based on rescue data from the region, Coqueirinho is the Paraíba beach with the highest number of drowning incidents, followed by Tambaba, Praia Bela (Pitimbu) and Gramame Sul, also in Conde. The risk at Coqueirinho is associated with a fixed rip current to the left of the rocks, which can reach up to 3 meters per second — a speed capable of dragging even strong swimmers out to sea.

Beachgoers should respect the signage, avoid moving away from the sand strip near the rocks, and if caught in a rip current, stay calm, float and swim parallel to the shore until free of the current, instead of swimming against it.