North East Coast of Brazil – week 1!

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Hi Guys! Sorry its taken us so long to update the blog! Been really busy lying on lots of beaches as we travel along the coast of North Eastern Brazil and settling back into the real back packer lifestyle. We will try to include all details but the number of caiprinhas hasnt helped, so here goes………

Salvador
Leaving Rio we are still hung over (or drunk?) and still in a severe depression as the girls have left us! We board our flight to Salvador slightly scared of what is to come as we have sent back our high heals, all of our nice clothes and are left with horrible t-shirts that should never be worn in public (well in London anyway!). Arriving in Salvador, we find ourselves at a cosy Pousada (local term for guesthouse) and settle in for the evening.

Salvador is famous for its mix of different cultures largely influenced by the African slave trade back in the 1600s and used to be the capital of Brazil for two centuries. It possesses one of the largest colonial architecture in Latin America. The city itself is very different from that of Rio and Sao Paulo and we spend some time walking around taking in the local cultures. One of the highlights of this region known as Bahia is the local dancing known as Capoeira. This is a dance that was invented by the slaves and is a mix of dancing and street fighting which began in Angola as the ritual fight to gain the nuptial rights of women as they reach puberty (what men used to do for us!!!!). We are informed that there is a local dance school which lets you watch practice classes for a minimum fee. Thinking that we would avoid the touristy shows, we go in search of the school and walk through the local streets of Salvador (sticking out like sore thumbs :o) ). Finding the school closed, through our broken Spanglish, we managed to understand from the security guard that it opens in an hour. (we promise this story is funny so keep reading!). We get some lunch and head back to the school at 2pm, where we are informed that the practice will start at 3pm. We walk around some more, get absolutely drenched in one of the heavy rainy season downpours and stupidly head back to the school. The guard sees us and starts to laugh as obviously with the rain the practices have been “delayed”. We get told to come back in an hour!!!!! We think the better of it as the school still seems deserted and decide that we will be able to see this along our travels anyway! We can’t believe that we have just wasted three hours trying to see some local kids trying to beat each other up!!!

Whilst in Rio, our Fasano hotel manager informed us of a restaurant that we should go to in Salvador as being the best restaurant of the city. We head off in our flip flops (remember we got rid of our heals) and get served one of the weirdest foods so far. Interesting though, as we were obviously sitting amongst the elite of Salvador as the jewels and clothes surrounding us made us pretty embarrassed to be walking out in flip flops.

To be honest however, the city did not excite us that much…. May be due to the non stop rain, the harassment that tourists get here from beggars etc… so we were glad to move onwards.

Praia do Forte

Heading north, our first pit stop was a lovely little local resort known as Praia do Forte. This is exactly what we imagined the north east coast of Brazil to look like. Miles of deserted sand beaches, little cobbled streets, loads of colourful houses and polite locals! There are three main streets (of which only one has all the restaurants) whilst the beaches are endless. We spent two blissful days lying in the sun (and through the down pour once - well it is rainy season!). Our cute little pousada has a hammock outside with views of the sea (well over the palm trees!) - Heaven!

Here at least we see a great capoiera street demonstration however it’s the one night that we forget to take the camera out with us so unfortunately no pics to share with you! The guys weren’t collecting money but dancing for the love of it. They were so acrobatic, cart wheeling and back flipping all over the place that we were standing there looking like goldfish, jaws on the floor! Another funny story….. strolling down the main road, Heenz suddenly recognizes a face in the street and swears that the guy is from her birth town of Edgware, London. Can’t be…not in a place this remote! Anyway we see him again after getting our tattoos done and Heenz plucks up the courage to speak to him! Turns out that he didn’t just come from her home town, but also went to the same school and left the same year as her! Ooops - obviously did well with the boys at school then Heenz! (P.S. if any one from school knows of the guy please help as Heenz can not remember his name…. Indian, a geek (I’m going to hell anyway!) and an engineer now working in Rio!

On Saturday we wake to the realization that actually there is no way north out of this town! We would have to travel the two hours back to Salvador before getting on a 6 hour bus journey to where we want to go! Finding a local travel agent he decides to take pity on us and offers to drive us there himself for a fee of course! We manage to barter him down by 20% which we are proud of as he doesn’t really speak English and on Sunday head off in our air conditioned private car to Aracuja. Could definitely get used to this kind of traveling!

PS The tattoos were henna of course!

Maceio
In Aracuja, we are dropped off at the local bus station and with the assistance of our Portuguese phrase book (thanks Seema!) we are helped by a ticket officer to get on the next bus out to Maceio. Here we are immensely proud of our achievement and realise that we haven’t even booked any accommodation in Maceio. Innz starts having a heart attack at her lack of planning, but as we realise that its not a problem, we relax into the bus journey (much more comfortable than National Express - they could learn a thing or two). Once in Maceio we open our guide book, find the only pousada that mentions that they have cable TV and internet, ask the taxi to drop us there and wait while we try to sort out accommodation! SUCCESS!! This is how to back pack and we can not believe at the day’s accomplishments (it’s the little things that excite us now). Deciding to celebrate we search out a restaurant with good white wine and end up in a tourist trap drinking a brazilian mix of chardonnay, sauvignon and riesling (what? Who? Why?) only because the man at the door (Carlos) could speak English and translate the menu to us!

Maragogi
Reading our guide book, we decide to head off the beaten track a little, to a small fishing village called Maragogi (small by London standards with 38,000 people) renowned for its gorgeous beaches (as everywhere along the coast seems to advertise). We call ahead to book a pousada and luckily come across an English speaking owner who sends a car to pick us up! What we didn’t know, is that the taxi was a communal taxi, so we cram in with two other locals and the driver into a small natural gas driven car. Whilst filling up the car with gas, people happily smoke - health and safety regulations clearly haven’t made it to Brazil yet!

At the pousada we settle in and go in search of restaurants for dinner. We won’t say much but our lack of Portuguese leads us to ordering a fish stew with beans and lots of oil, which officially becomes the worst meal we have had on our travels. The gag reflex at every mouthful is cleverly hidden by smiles all round as the owner watches our every move - we are the only tourists in the village. Politely finishing one fish steak each, we immediately leave and head back to the pousada to eat some chocolate praying that our stomachs do not react badly to the hideous meal that we have just swallowed.

Katja, the English speaking owner takes pity on us the next day and organizes for us to go to the local natural swimming pools - an area of corals and reefs two kilometers from the shore where you can scuba, snorkel or just swim and observe the natural beauty. As we wait for our catamaran (thankfully with only 10 other people) we sit out another storm slightly worried about being on the open water in a storm. As it blows over (and we put rum into our stomachs) we board the boat ready for the beauty that is ahead. Unfortunately coming from the Great Barrier Reef and Galapagos, snorkeling for us is disappointing as the rain has caused visibility to diminish to the point that we can’t even see our own feet. However the water is warm and flat and we manage to get some exercise in trying to avoid the huge corals underneath us! As we board, we are joined by 5 other tourist boats with 60 people on each (no idea where all these people have come from) and suddenly paradise turns to hell as they all scream, jump and swim around. We ignore the noise and sunbathe on deck.

That evening, too scared to sample any more delightful local cuisine, we beg Katja to allow us to use the pousada kitchen. This turns out to be her own kitchen which she happily shares with us. We are starting to “like” the brazilian hospitality. We leave Katja slightly bemused at our meal of plain boiled rice, yoghurt and salad but our stomachs are singing a happy song at the plain food. Having already spent so much time in Brazil, we already know the TV timetable and rush off after dinner to catch the latest episodes of Greys Anatomy. We are also addicted to House, CSI NY, CSI Miami, Law and Order, and Law and Order (Special Victims Unit). Again - it’s the little things but watching English speaking TV is a god-send as very few people here are bilingual.

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