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Brasil
Puerto Negro by dayArrived at Rio airport knowing I had to meet
Luke and Mike in Salvador on the 21st, that was as far as my planning went. Although I did read Alex Bellios book on Brasilian Football, very good.....After the cold weather of Patagonia and in
preparation for Carnival relaxing on a beach sounded like the best option. I headed to the
Go! desk and tried explaining my situation usual problem, me no speak tha Portugesa they no speak mucho Ingles. Luckily a Brasilian guy in the queue spoke english and helpfully translated my situation. A discussion with the Go! staff ensued where they all decided the best and cheapest option for me is Puerto Negro. The next flight was in 8 hours, result.
Puerto Negro is a beach resort in the north east near the city of Natal....the beaches in the north east, from Fortaleza down to Salvador are some of Brasil's
best...It turns out Puerto Negro is also a popular destination for Swedish holiday makers - there was me thinking I was getting off the beaten track. My hostel is a
mini castle with turrets and a draw bridge. A bizarre place, loads of Swedes and fake castles!
The
Brasil
Puerto Negro by night best way to see the beaches was a days
buggy tour, fun but really unsafe. Sitting in an open buggy without a harness flying across sand dunes and through city streets was an experience - as with the rest of South Am health & safety rules don't apply. To get onto the
sand dunes we had to cross a river by gondolier, thats the passengers and buggy on the same plank of wood. The sand dunes where fun, the driver seemed to take every opportunity to try and throw us out of the buggy. The day was filled with a succession of sandy white beaches and I even got to rope slide from a sand dune into a river.
The other
*big* attraction of this area was in a neighbouring town which claimed to have the worlds largest Cashew nut tree! Wwhooo! It was actually pretty impressive, the one tree covered an entire city block.
A few days in Puerto Negro was more than enough, my next destination was
Olinda a city 6 hours south. The bus journey was excellent, full cama and several hours of the
Ivete Sangalo live DVD, Brasil's biggest music star. And I really
Brasil
My Castle in Puerto Negro!! needed that, it took me a while to get into her and Brasilian pop, its very happy go lucky singing and dancing pop music, something like
Five meets S Club meets Kylie meets Robbie...you know interesting! Olinda is also on the north east coast and here I really started to feel the
Carnival build up. I stayed in a really cool hostel with a good mix of nationalities.....Quick word about a Brasilian breakfast, excellent! lots of fruit bread and really
good cake.
Olinda old town is full of windy colourful streets. My few days where spent on the Recifie town beach and nights in the old town. The streets where buzzing with people practising for Carnival,
impromptu street processions would take place. Everyone would just start following a practising band, this was all helped along but copious amounts of caprininhas.
With only a few days left before the chaps arrived and having had way too many late nights some chill time was required. On recommendation I got the overnight bus down to Salvador and catamaran to the island
Morro De Sao Paulo, about 3 hours off the Salvador coast. No cars on the island, the local taxi service
Brasil
Man in need of a tan! was provided by wheel barrow! Stayed at a nice hostel and even got a double bed!!! the first time in months. Spent my time sleeping, eating and trying my hardest to get a decent tan.
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