Day 50: Praia do Forte-- Taxi, Turtles, Final Caipirinhas

Today we were arose at the crack of dawn (Chris), ready for our last full day of vacation (here). We decided to check out of our hotel (Tina also confirmed that the historic Pelourinho district is in fact as seedy as we suspected) and journey north to the TAMAR project in Praia do Forte. TAMAR (Tartaruga Marinha) is a project that started in the ´70s to protect endangered turtles. Since the turtle reserve was one of the highlights of our Oaxaca trip several years ago, this was a must-do. We viewed a variety of species in this site built right on the beach. There was even a petting pool, but unfortunately the stingray (with its stingers removed) was not present at the time of our visit.

 

We ended up hiring a taxi for the entire journey for time saving measures. Barbosa, our roly-poly driver, graced us with his samba music and poor-to-fair singing, always with a smile and the classic Brasil thumbs up. He seemed to have amigos wherever we went (and this was 70 km from Salvador!), and he brought us to an even better beach where we dined on a lunch for the last time in the sand. To spice up our meal, we ordered crab appetizers, which we vigorously beat apart with a mallet against a board, to harvest the meat. Conveniently, one dips their hands in the ocean to wash off after such an event.

 

Tonight we enjoy our last caipirinhas at a seaside establishment across from our pousada. This is our last post since we leave tomorrow for cold, gray, and wonderful Wisconsin!!! Despite an incredible 2 months, we are ready to come home, and most of all looking forward to seeing family and friends.

 

Thanks for sharing this experience with us. It´s been fun. See you soon. Obrigado!

Day 49: Morro de Sao Paulo to Salvador - Catamaran (what catamaran?), Christmas shopping, more friends

We had decided to take the fast catamaran from Morro de Sao Paulo to Salvador.  The trip was more expensive and everyone had told us that we would be sick, but this 2 hour wheel barrel to catamaran to elevator (yes, there is an Art Deco elevator that connects lower Salvador to upper Salvador) was much more convenient than the 4+ hour wheel barrel to ferry to bus to ferry to elevator combination we would have to if we went the cheap way.  So we woke up, had light breakfasts and said goodbye to the beautiful beach.  We hired a man to carry our bags in a wheel barrel to the catamaran.  While waiting for the boat, we both took half a Dramamine in the hopes of holding off sea sickness while staying awake.  We were the first two in line when the boat arrived in the hopes of getting a seat in front (again, to avoid sea sickness).  When we reached the end of the dock, ready to board the boat, a man asked if we spoke English, and said he needed to explain something about our journey. 

 

He said, "You´re not going directly to Salvador.  You are going to take this ferry across the river so you can take a bus which will take you to a ferry to Salvador.  This will take 2 hours.  The catamaran sank last night."

 

Um, the boat we were planning on taking sank last night?????? Not especially good news for two land lubbers.  In fact, it was quite shocking.  However, we weathered the trip just fine, no sea sickness, because we were on a bus most of the way, just irritation at buying the expensive ticket and still spending 3.5 hours getting to Salvador.

 

Since the announcement of our Brazil trip to Olivia´s former senior womens exercise class last spring, we have had tentative plans to meet up with the international exchange student sister of one of the participants, who lives in Salvador, Bahia. Tina invited us to the shopping mall (Brazilians LOVE their "shoppings") to assist us in Christmas and souvenir purchasing, followed by a lovely pizza dinner at her favorite local joint. She is a delightful, intuitive, interesting person who graciously answered some of our questions about Brazilian culture related to race issues and government and general domestic philosophies. She also invited us to see her tastefully holiday-decorated 7th apartment, which has a terrific view of the bay and for the first time in 7 weeks, we drank cold, filtered water without a charge. Her take home messages: "the world will try to get you down, and you must try very hard not to let it... it is your mission to love... I can sense this, Chris is a thinker and Olivia is a do-er..." What a fabulous person.

Day 46, 47 and 48: Morro de Sao Paulo - Boat trips, lazy beach days and English friends

The LP told us one thing we HAD to do when on Morro Island is to take a boat trip around the island to see reefs and beaches and mangrove swamps. Our hotel neighbors, super-friendly Londoners named Jimmy and Kate also read the LP so we joined them on the excursion. In the morning we hopped on the boat with about 12 other people and sped off across the ocean. Morro is an island that is straight out of a pirate movie or Lost - long sandy beaches surrounded by palm trees, tall cliffs, coral reefs just off shore.

Our first two stops were at reefs just offshore from the island. Our boat stopped in shallow water and we jumped into the warm turquoise ocean. We had rented snorkels so we could just walk on the sand over to the reefs and look down at the fish. Again we saw hundreds of fish. Some were very brave, following us around and nibbling at our toes, almost pettable. One fish followed Jimmy for several minutes before he escaped.

Our second stop was at an empty beach on another island, Boipeba. Here fishermen had set up a shack where they sold the fish and crustaceans they had caught that day. We feasted on fish and prawns and rice and beans. Following lunch we walked up the beach (our boat had already left) to the small village through a small jungle with a group from our boat and a guide. We saw some interesting trees and met some nice people from Brazil, Finland and Germany. Two of the guys we met, one from Brazil and one from Finland, were actually professional paint ball players who were moving from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego...professional paint ballers? Who knew such a thing existed?

Next we headed into the mangrove swamp. We stopped at floating dock about 100 meters off shore where people harvested oysters. We sampled some very fresh, very tasty oysters. After a long day on the boat, we returned to Morro and watched the sun set from an old Portuguese fort.

The following two days were bonus days on Morro. Our original plans had been to leave the next day to catch a ferry to a bus station where we´d catch a bus to another island near Salvador. Two days later we´d catch a ferry to Salvador. We decided instead to take the faster, direct and more expensive catamaran to Salvador and enjoy our last few days in a fantastic, car free beach town. Jimmy and Kate had also decided to stay a few more days and we were having a great time hanging out with them, so that was also a plus. Our first bonus Morro day was spent on the beach doing a lot of serious nothing. We rented chairs and sat in the shade of our umbrellas and watched the tide come in. Later in the day a massive thunderhead moved over the beach so we rushed back to our pousada to avoid getting wet. It didn´t rain in Morro, but somewhere a lightening strike knocked out the power, so, as the sun set, our super-tranquillo beach got that much more tranqi. We stumbled to our favorite restaurant with Jimmy and Kate and enjoyed tasty local fish by candle and moonlight. Soon after we went to bed the power came back on, so we were able to turn on the AC (we´re not roughing it that much...)

Because our bonus beach day was also most likely our last beach day Chris put on a very small speedo we had purchased at a TACO in Rio for 8 reals (the Brazilian GAP, no kidding, same font, same style, same music, same prices (except they´re in reals and with with 2 reals for every 1 USD, its like everything is half off)) that he hadn´t worn yet. Olivia, feeling a little left out not to be taking the skimpy swimwear up another notch, with the strong encouragement of Chris, decided to purchase a true thong string bikini. Since Jimmy and Kate left that morning, we felt free to anonymously enjoy the true Brasil style. Unfortunately we did run into some French friends who we met in Lençois, but they got a few laughs and expressed some admiration too. When in Brasil...

We really loved our time in Morro. The hotel owner, Ricardo, straight out of "Along Came Polly" (scuba?), is from Portugal, but has been in Morro for 4 years now, and vows never to return. We lounged in the hammocks for hours: reading, listening to the lounge music that was always playing, chatting with Kate and Jimmy, enjoying the ocean breeze. The hotel employees sang as they worked. It was a magical place.

Days 44 and 45: Morro de Sao Paul - Island paradise

Our little island has no cars and no roads, only sand paths along the beach and through the forest.  Instead of cars, men wait for the ferry with wheel barrels with "taxi" painted on the side.  You can pay them to carry your luggage to your hotel in the wheel barrel.  Our hotel is on the beach, from the hammock on our front porch we can see the ocean.  We watch the tide come in and out over the reef and the moon rise over the ocean.  The seafood is excellent, the atmosphere muite tranqi.

 

Yesterday Olivia took an introduction to diving course and loved it. Live Discovery Channel: eels eating fish, giant hermit crabs, reefs, fish disguised as rocks. Chris, while waiting for her, went snorkling off the beach and saw hundreds of fish, some brilliant blue, others striped with yellow, others that looked as though they might bite. 

 

Today we rented a kayak and paddled out to the reef.  We got out of the boat and snorkled on the reef. The fish were even more diverse and we saw two octopi.  The water here is as warm as bathwater.  Tomorrow we are taking a boat trip around the island to some more protected reefs with our neighbors, Jimmy and Kate from London.

 

We love it here, its so nice, we can´t stay in the hot, crowded computer lab when the beach is just 50 feet away.  Sorry to not write more, we hope you understand.

Day 42 and 43: Lencois to Morro de Sao Paulo-- massages, buses, boats, and beaches

We spent our last day in Lençois resting, exploring the town, blogging... We attempted to visit Jair and Regina at their ice cream shop, but it was closed. We had our pousada-keeper phone and find out how Regina´s arm was. It was not broken, but infected and needed to be drained. They were "thankful for our worry."

 

Then at 5 and 6 o´clock, we spent QT with Deiter the masseuse. He specializes in Shiatsu, Thai, and reflexology. It was definitely Chris´s and quite possibly Olivia´s best massage ever. We love Deiter.

 

Before we settled down for our last home cooked family style meal at Pousada dos Duendes, Olivia joined a few French travelers who has befriended a 13 year old local named Alessandra. Turns out she was just being friendly to Olivia to get to Chris (seriously), but she was very insistent about having us visit the capoeira class going on just up the hill. About 50+ kids, from ages 4 to teens, were crammed into a space, taking turns in the roda, laughing, singing loud and proud. It was just about the cutest thing ever to see the pee-wees doing kicks and spins, and of course some of them were quite advanced too, performing amazing acrobatics.

 

We took the night bus, changed at 4 am, and found ourselves in a dinky town where we caught a boat to the Island of Morro de Sao Paulo. We were exhausted, finally arriving at our hotel at 11, but glad to spend more time relaxing on the beach before returning to chilly WI in less than 1 week.

 

 

Day,40, 41and 42:Lencois to Capao: hikes, vistas, swimming holes and orchids

We left on our two day trek at about 9 in the morning. There were five of us for the hike from Lençois to the small farming village of Capão: our guide Jair, his wife Regina and an Israeli named Guy. We took the old donkey route from Lençois to Capão. Jair told us that it had been used to bring produce from Capão to Lençois as recently as 5 years ago. Only now, several years into the 21st century do the farmers use the highway to bring vegetables for the weekly market.

Our hike was very beautiful. We hiked up the mountain range from Lençois in hot, humid, sticky weather. We passed through high cliffs (again a LOTR experience) into a large canyon. We then hiked up to the end of the canyon. Jair and his wife were excellent guides, they showed us perhaps 6 different species of orchids -- this region of Brazil is home to over 100 different species of orchids. Our walk passed through grassy fields and deep forests thick with undergrowth and forests of rhododendron and hundreds of other trees and bushes we couldn´t hope to identify. We stopped roughly halfway through the hike to swim in a deep swimming hole. We also drank directly from the streams on our hike. This goes against everything we´ve been taught, but the streams are spring-fed from mountains with no people and no animals. Furthermore, we spoke with a group of people from Dublin who had done the three day trek, drinking stream water the entire time, so we knew we were fine. It is a lot of fun to drink directly from the stream, although this water was saturated with tannic acid, so in our water bottles it looked exactly like urine. It did not taste like urine, however, or what we can imagine urine to taste like.

Our hike was long. Before we left we were told it was 20 km. When we finally arrived (and it took all day in the hot sun) our guide admitted to us that it was more like 25+ km. We ate a huge plate of rice and beans and chicken at a small restaurant in Capão and stayed in a simple pousada. We were completely exhausted, falling asleep at 930. Capão is a very funky little town, its about 20 miles from the highway on a rough dirt road, full of farmers (they grow everything there: bananas, coffee, pinapples, manioc, mangos, everything) and hippies. We had a nice time eating breakfast in the square the following morning and watching the Sunday market.

Olivia also used her hand therapy skills that morning. Jair´s wife had fallen on our hike the previous day and hurt her arm. By the following day it was very swollen and Olivia was concerned she´d broken it. So, on a sidewalk in the central square of Capão she instructed her on edema control, tendon gliding exercises, and fashioned a volar wrist cock up splint from a cardboard box, a Swiss Army knife and some bandaging. We are going to stop by Regina´s ice cream store this afternoon to see how she´s doing. Brazil has public heath care, but from the casts and slings Olivia has seen, it looks to be using circa 1940s technolgy. We hope she is OK. Our hike with her certainly showed us she was a very tough woman.

After splinting Regina we met up with three more people who drove over from Lençois that morning. They were Martin and Ursula, a delightful couple from Zurich and Richard(?), a Japanese-Brazilian who lives in Santa Catarina (Florianopolis area) who was on vacation in Bahia. Jair lead the five of us to Fumaça (Smoking waterfall) supposedly the highest waterfall in Brazil. The hike was beautiful, we hiked to the top of a tall plateau and were rewarded with sweeping views of mountains and valleys in all directions. The waterfall was almost non-existent; the water falling off the 400 meter cliff did not reach more than 100-200 meters before being blown away by the wind. This "waterfall" is only a waterfall after a rain. The canyon, however, was magnificent. We all crawled out on a rock that looks a bit like a diving board, it extended a meter or two out over the canyon. Lying on our bellies we could look straight down over 400 meters to the pool far below. Beautiful, but somewhat of a stomach turning experience.

We ended our hike with a swim in a pool beneath a real waterfall. We drove back to Lençois in the back of a truck piloted by a tough woman from Sao Paulo named Fatima. We were happy to be back at Pousada dos Duendes and enjoyed a dinner of Brazilian Pad Thai (for Chris - and yes, he is the more homesick and missed Pad Thai and burritos) and ravioli with Brain and Emma (a couple from Dublin 4 weeks into a 1 year round the world adventure), Mark and Anna (an uber-London couple out traveling), Tanya (a solo Dubliner also on a round the world trip) and Olivia (the owner of the Pousada). We had a fantastic time.

Today we are chilling out in Lençois. We went to the Monday market, will eat hamburgers for lunch and plan on visiting Regina in her ice cream shop. We have massages at 5 with Dieter, a German expat in Lençois and then will take the night bus east, catching a connection tomorrow morning to a town where we will catch a ferry so that we can catch another bus so that we can go to a beach. We with then make our way north back to Salvador to close out our trip to South America.

Days 38 and 39: Lencois - Best Pousada ever, waterfalls and swimming holes

We arrived in Lencois (a small former diamond mining town in the Bahian mountains) at 530 AM and we quite groggy.  Luckily, many travelers do the same thing so all the pousadas in town let you check into a room and shower and eat breakfast and charge you only for the meal.  We had decided to stay at Pousada dos Duendes, primarily because the LP told us the proprietor was English, very knowledgeable about the nearby National Park and her name was Olivia Taylor.  Clearly a good sign when the owner´s name is Olivia.

 

Olivia´s pousada is fantastic.  It is on the outskirts of town, a quiet place with hammocks and a chess board in the courtyard that is about 10 feet by 10 feet in size.  We have had a great time talking with the other guests, we seem to have found the perfect place, where everyone is cool and in their late 20s.  We´ve shied away from hostels because we´re kind of tired of talking to cocky 20 year olds from Australia and Minnesota who, like, totally party all night at the clubs.  Not that we didn´t do the same thing, but we´re not doing that now.  Here we´ve met Adam and Emily, a couple from Sweden, who, among other things, are totally addicted to Lost (Emily confided in us last night that their first task upon returning to Sweden will be to download the new season). 

 

Furthermore, Olivia (the owner) is very knowledgeable about all the trips one can take in this National Park.  While hiring a guide is pretty much required (no trails are marked) and, as Brian (guest from Dublin who just completed a 3-day trek) told us, "There are many trails, but there is only one way.  You need the guides to show you the way."  A bit zen-like, and a little annoying to have to hire a guide, but its part of supporting this town which is trying to make the transition from the extractive industry of diamond mining to a more tranqi (tranquillo) eco-tourism economy.

 

That said, we have hiked for two days and have almost gotten away without hiring a guide. Yesterday we tried to hike to a natural water slide. The rivers pour off the rocks here in a series of waterfalls and rapids and the water slide is a place where you can slide on the rocks in the river.  We did not follow the correct trail, but due to our fatigue (remember we took an overnight bus) and our dehydration, we never found the water slide.  Undaunted, we left the following day to find a cave and a few more waterfalls and swimming pools.  We were sure we could find at least the water slide without a guide but were not so sure we could find the cave.  On our searches for the cave we ran into Cesar two times.  Cesar was about 17 years old, wearing yellow swim trunks, flip flops and a white shirt printed on it that said "Guide".  The first time we ran into him he told us he´d take us to the cave, the waterfall and the swimming hole for only 20 reals.  He also told us that the walk was very dangerous (peligrosso) and we needed a guide.  This is what we think he told us, he speaks only Portuguese.  Our thoughts were, hmmm, clearly this hike isn´t dangerous.  First of all, we could see the pools from where we were standing and knew walking to them should be easy.  Secondly, Adam and Emily had done the same hike the day before and told us it was easy.  Third, Cesar was wearing flip flops, how peligrosso could it be???  As we walked away, Cesar said, "quinze reals..."

 

However, we were stubborn, determined to find the cave the LP told us we couldn´t find without a guide.  So, on the second time we ran into Cesar we said "quinze (15) reals?".  He said "sim (yes)" and off we were, to the cave, the waterfall and the swimming hole.  We never would have found the cave (it was not impressive) and would have found the waterfall, but not the swimming hole, so, in the end, it was worth it.  We swam in the clear water beneath the waterfall, refreshed ourselves in the swimming hole and returned to our pousada, excited to spend another night with our new temporary friends.

 

Tomorrow we start a two day trek into the jungle (with a guide) to see the highest waterfall in Brazil (400 meters, supposedly), among other things. We will update when we return.

 

Quiz time!

 

True or false: Olivia is more homesick than Chris.

 

Multiple choice: The "American Food" Chris and Olivia miss most is:

A. Pizza

B. Burritos

C. Pad Thai

D. Both B and C

E. None of the above

 

Hint: This is not a trick question.

Day 36 and 37: Salvador - Tuesday night street parties, beaches and the mall

After writing the previous entry we walked around Salvador a bit more and staked out a place for the Tuesday night street party.  It turns out the in the colonial section of Salvador a street party is celebrated every Tuesday.  The origins of this street party can be traced back to a very special mass held at one of the churches in the area (what big party in Brazil doesn´t have roots in the Catholic Church?) but we were unable to find any religious undertones this time.  We were able to find, once again, bars set up on the street where we could buy capirinhas and beer and several live music stages scattered around the historic district.  We listened to some music and ran into the Professor from University of Indiana (Stephanie) and had a nice chat with her, her husband and her brother-in-law from Evanston. 

 

We woke the following day eager to explore parts of Salvador that were not in the old historic center.  Salvador is a very old, colonial city, but its hey-day passed several hundred years ago.  So now, while the colonial center is quaint, it is also very poor, and quite run down.  IT is the only place on this trip where we have been constantly harassed by people trying to sell us any and everything.  It is an interesting place, but a bit seedy, and quite exhausting.  So we did what we always do when we´re tired.  We went to the beach in a nearby suburb.  In Bahia the water is much warmer than we´ve previously experienced and the waves on the bay much smaller.  We enjoyed a relaxing lunch on the beach and explored the old fort protecting Salvador.

 

We had decided to take a night bus from Salvador to Lencois to save time.  Early in the evening we went to the bus station and dropped of our bags and walked over the superhighway separating the bus station from the MALL (by the way Brazilian bus stations are like nothing we´ve seen before, as big as airports and just as busy with buses going to all points of Brazil.  Quite impressive).  Brazilians love their malls, so we went to the food court for some dinner (Mediterranean food, very good) and then went to the multi-plex to watch a movie.  We managed to buy tickets to the only Brazilian film, after walking out we convinced the security guard to let us watch Happy Feet (animated about penguins) but that was dubbed in Portuguese.  Finally we walked into The Departed, but had to leave early to catch our bus.  Despite our adventures, it was nice to sit and watch a movie.  We almost never do that in the US and it was a nice break from the travelling. 

 

Our trip to Lencois was uneventful.