Salvador (April 8th to April 14th)

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I guess I really am "a tumbleweed in the wind" - as a comment to one of my earlier posts suggested.

Trying to do Everything
Bahia was always in my plans, but around the time I started getting sick and bored of going to the beach alone in Recife, I decided to skip the next two stops on my itinerary - Macieo and Iracajú - and head straight to Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia. From what I had heard, Maceio and Iracajú didn´t have much to offer but beaches. Salvador, meanwhile, is not only a cultural mecca, but also offered a few good sidetrips that could easily fill up a whole week.

What made my Salvador idea even better was that I found a plane ticket for US$63, roughly the same amount that a 12 hour bus ride from Recife to Salvador would cost. I arrived in Salvador Saturday evening with a list of six or so low-cost hotels and posadas. First I headed to the Pousada Amber in the Barra neighborhood first, only to find it was full, then across town to the Pousada das Flores in Pelourinho, only to find that was full too. I was still recovering from the cold, so instead of going to one of the hostels, I checked in to an Accor Ibis Hotel in a nice neighborhood.

The Ibis had a travel agent near the front desk with a list of five or six tours of the Salvador area that were almost identical to Luis Fernando´s suggestions. The first day I decided to go to Praia do Forte ("Beach of the Mighty") where there was both a nice beach, and Project Tamar, a giant sea turtle sanctuary. The sea turtles were cool, and the town was really nice, but it was another day at the beach alone. Everyone else on the tour was Brazilian and middle-aged, save the couple from Boston with the matching Kellog School of Management tee-shirts. I think there should be rules against that.

After I got back from Praia do Forte my head started spinning about how I should plan out the rest of my week. I had five days and I wanted to do a full day city tour, a sailboat trip around the harbor, a day trip to an island 60 miles away called Morro de São Paulo, and possibly a 2-day trip to Chapada Diamantina, a national park that is a 7 hour bus ride inland. I was also getting sick of being alone in a budget business hotel and wanted to go somewhere where I could meet some friends. If I wanted to fit everything in, the best way to do it would be to do a city tour Monday, then take off for Chapada Diamantina on a Monday night bus, and return to do the other tours later in the week (this would probably mean going alone though).

Hostel, City Tour and a Couple Changes of Plans
Without really resolving anything, when I woke up the next morning, I tried to book a city tour with the agent downstairs at the Ibis. Their travel agency wasn´t doing city tours that day, and I didn´t want to go to the beach. So, I packed up my stuff and took off for the Hostel do Porto. When I got there, I found out that the Hostel do Porto also booked tours, and the company they worked with was doing city tours on Monday. A couple minutes later, I was picked up for the morning city tour - the "panoramic" tour. The tour covered most of the lower parts of the city, including the Muses (statutes of six african goddesses in the middle of a small lake), the lighthouse, a couple of churches and the Mercado Modelo. The Mercado Model has some amazing art at decent prices - wood statutes, colorful paintings, jewelry, musical instruments. If I wasn´t backpacking for another two weeks, I would have bought some stuff.

The first tour ended at about 12:30 and the afternoon "historic" tour didn´t start until 2:30, so I headed back to the hostel to relax. Tons of people there. Sweden, Argentina, US, Canada, Norway, etc. I had the luck of talking to a group of really nice Norwegians. When I asked them how long they were staying and one of them said, "We are going to Chapada Diamantina tonight." So I said, "Oh, I was thinking about going there," and she said "Well, why don´t you come with us." All my scheduling problems were solved.

The Norwegians took off for the mall, and I took off for my afternoon city tour. The tour was great. After Olinda, I was expecting that the historical tour of Pelourinho would also be a let down. It wasn´t. The Igrega de Sao Francisco was one of the most impressive churches I have ever seen - up there with Kohn, Lima, Cuzco and better then anything in Ouro Preto. The entire inside was covered in gold, and they did a 20 minute light show and sound show explaining the history of the church. There were beautiful buildings, a beautiful view of the city below, and also beautiful people in native dresses who charged way too much money for you to take their picture.

At one point when I was planning my trip, I was deciding between a week in Recife and a week in Salvador. For anyone making the same decision, go to Salvador!!! After visiting both, to me this is a no-brainer. For historical cites, Pelourinho is much more impresive then Olinda. For beaches, Morro de São Paulo is more special then Porto de Gallinhas. Salvador has a much more vibrant culture, great food, and also Chapada Diamantina as another potential sidetrip. Both cities can be dangerous and dirty, but just be careful.

Chapada Diamantina
After the city tour, and killing a couple hours at the hostel, I headed off for the bus station. The bus was sold out, but in a very lucky twist of fate, a guy came up to me while I was in line and explained to me that he had bought a ticket for tonight but needed to go tomorrow. His seat was even next to one of the Norwegians.

We arrived in Lencois, the city closest to the park, at about 5:30 in the morning. There were maybe 50 or 60 people awaiting our arrival, hawking tours and pousadas. I let the Norwegians take care of things, and they found a comfortable place for US$7.50 including breakfast. They also booked a tour starting at 8:30. I had a quick nap, drank my first coffee in a couple weeks for some energy, and we departed for a tour of the park.

Our tour the first day went through a small waterfall with a natural pool to swim, a scenic overlook of the park, and the largest cave in Brazil. It was a nice tour - althought exhausting - and I had fun with my new friends. I was surprised to Lencois itslef fairly lively. For my South-American-traveling friends, If Ouro Preto was the Cuzco of Brazil (minus the Inca Trail), then Lencois is the San Pedro de Atacama - a small town of a couple thousand people surrounded by an area with lots of freak natural attractions. Our group ate at a place owned by an Argentine ex-pat. After, we went to a "Cachaçeria." Cachaça is a brazilian liquor made out of sugar-cane. Generally it is pretty nasty stuff. Cachaçerias, however, have flavored cachaças, that while undoubtedly of lesser proof, taste quite a bit better. After the long day (and night) before, it only took a couple rounds to do us all in.

The second day we again awoke early, this time to do a hike to see the highest waterfall in Brazil (not the biggest - that is Iguazu). It was a 7km hike, rising over 1km. Not bad exercise. . The Norwegians opted to do the same hike as me, but to keep on trekking another day to hike to the bottom of the falls. I had really mixed feelings about whether to go with them or not. The hike was beautiful. I was having fun with the Norwegians. If I did stay on the hike I wouldn´t have been able to see Morro de São Paulo, which I had wanted to see since another American in Florianopolis described it as "the single most beautiful beach" he had ever been to. It was probably going to rain hard that night. Plus, I promised my friend Tom Ward from Michigan that I would check out potential honeymoon spots for he and his fiancé Becky. It was a toss up. In the end, I don´t know exactly why I decided not to stay. Probably because at the exact moment that I had to decide, I didn´t feel like staying. "Tumbleweed in the wind," I guess.

What I should have known but didn´t was that the bus coming back that night was sold out. I wouldn´t be able to leave until 1:30 the next day. If I had gotten a ticket on the night bus I might have been able to do a sailboat tour in Salvador the next day. As it was, I still would be able to visit Morro de São Paulo on Friday, but Thursday would be a lost traveling day. Taking the 1:30 bus did mean that I got to sleep in, so I took advantage and made another trip to the Cachaçeria. Fun, but sugar cane liquor is not good for hangovers!

Morro de São Paulo
As it turns out, leaving Chapada Diamantina was definitely the right decision. Morro de São Paulo was amazing! The villiage of Morro de São Paulo is located on an island about two hours by boat from Salvador. The tow was the cite of an old colonial fort, and there are no roads - so, I guess you could call it the Mackinac Island of Brazil (apologies to those not from Michigan). However, instead of horses carrying tourists´luggage around, luggage in Morro de São Paulo is carried on sand roads and paths by wheel barrows. There are tons of bars, and lots of beautiful young people (of course it probably helped that it was a holiday weekend).

I spent the morning on the beach, had a great seafood lunch, and then headed up to the actual Morro de São Paulo (Morro means "hill" in Portuguese). At the top of the hill was a zip line down to one of the beaches, so I just hung out at the top, got some sun, and wound up talking to quite a few people who had wandered up there. There was another group of Norwegians in town, some Swedes, and also a few Americans. I made the comment to one girl that if I had done my Northeast beach tour in reverse, I might have justed stayed in Morro de São Paulo the whole time. Everywhere I had been before I had liked, but had always wanted to move on to the next place. Morro de São Paulo was somewhere special, somewhere I could definitely stay awhile.

Right now, it is Friday night and I am in the internet cafe in Salvador right now wishing I was still in Morro de São Paulo. Only a plane ticket to Rio tomorrow morning kept me from staying. The next two weeks should be very different from the last two - I apologize that so much of my entries was about finding a place to stay or deciding what to do, but I guess that is how it is when you are travelling alone. I won´t say where yet, but starting tomorrow I will be going on a 15 day tour, so all the lodging issues will be taken care of. In fact, I will have no say in anything. In any event, it should be exciting, and I am definitely looking forward to Rio to start it off.

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