Trindade

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The decision to come to Trindade occurred by chance. We did not actively choose the location and arrived after a comedy of errors, as we believed we were staying in the town of Paraty, situated just under an hour to our East.

During a pitstop at Paraty bus station, Mike began to feel unwell. Whilst propped up at a urinal, we heard Mike enter through the door behind us. His shout of ¨Sorry boys!¨was interrupted by bouts of uncontollable, explosive and orange vomit which he skilfully directed into a small, nearby wastebin. As we left the toilet, his sporadic retching could still be heard from the street. Having emptied his stomach and refuelled with two litres of water, we proceeded to Trindade, where he would spend the rest of the night in a state of hibernation.

Trindade is a sandy enclave cut into the Mata Atlantica rainforest by the ocean accessed only by a single, winding mountain road which snakes through forest and fords before descending to rejoin the coastline. One unkempt road serves as the main artery of the village that would become our home for the next five nights (we originally planned to stay for two, but upon arrival it became apparent that we needed more time to explore the coves and beaches surrounding Trindade).

Our hostel, named Samblumba, immediately appealed to us, mainly due to the welcome we received from the owners, Mathias and Juao, two Argentinians with a passion for surfing, music and the outdoors. Their recpeption, combined with a garden-view room, ping pong table and plenty of ice cold beers, was a major contributary factor in our instantaneous request for another three nights at Samblumba. After six hours travelling between Rio and Trindade, we couldn´t have asked for more.

After a meal on the beach with our hosts and a good night´s sleep, we were well rested and prepared for our first full day in Trindade. In the company of Mathias and a small group of others staying at the hostel (including the ¨mildly attractive¨ Bostonite, Michaela, whom we all fell a tiny bit in love with), we headed up a narrow dirt track which soon joined a river leading up into the forest. We scrambled for roughly a mile, ducking vines and branches in our path, until the river opened out into a cascade perfect for swimming, a just reward following the steep incline through the moist and clammy temperate forest. Soon after we found ourselves plummeting feet first through a small opening where the waterfall had breached the rock beneath it, creating a subterranian pool, in which we all cooled down.

The following days seem to have merged into one extended period of exploring beaches, jungle trails, surfing and drinking Caiprinhas (basically White Spirit mixed with fresh lime and sugar). The surrounding landscape is nothing short of Edenic; we even saw a snake, at which point Pete made a swift evacuation of the area detouring towards the sea, only after saying ¨Fuck this, I can´t handle this shit anymore¨.

Whilst the sun provides warmth during the day, the clouds that cling to the forrest canopy remain a constant reminder of the tropical climate in which we find ourselves, and these reminders often manifest themselves through short, sharp bursts of thunder and rain. However, these storms are not necessarily oppressive; we have often found ourselves remaining on the beach, or in the sea as the rain lashes down.

The cost of living in Trindade is noticeably lower than Rio, which caters largely for the modern tourist market. Whilst tourism remains the heartbeat of the local economy, there is still an air of Brazillian authenticity and culture throughout the streets and attitudes of the locals. The main aim of our travels is to discover places yet to be consumed by mass tourism and Western culture, and although our presence in Trindade is testament to this inevitable fate, we believe that we have unearthed a real gem yet to be cut.

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