Today have to face the long bus trip back to Salvador, and then taxi from bus station to hotel near the airport for flight the next morning at 10 .15 back to Rio. Started off after breakfast eploring the walk to a warfall which begins near the pousada. This is one of the points it markets itself on but when I asked about it the day I arrived was told that I shouldn't do it without a guide!! In fact acording to LP there are lots of walks that you can do out of Lençois itself but none of them are signposted. I have worked out that this is to ensure that the guides make a living. Anyway surely even I cannot get lost within 15 minutes. No, I can't although I do come back a ... read more

The night was a bit cooler than in Salvador, thank goodness, or at least the temperature in my room was. The terrace where they serve breakfast is lovely. I am the only one here at the moment but there was a great range of food to choose from, including toast and avocado paté made from avocados hanging on a tree right next to the terrace. Was picked up as arranged for the day trip - it turned out to be a group of 10. As predicted, a lot of people had signed up during the previous evening. They were a mixture of Brazilian, European, American and Brits. I sat next to a young multi-lingual German girl who very kindly carried my bag when we did the difficult scramble down to the waterfall and pools. I know ... read more

Seem to be spending most of my time since 'the incident' googling 'is it safe to go to X on Saturday/Sunday am/ pm ( perm any two)? The rest of the time I spend trying to work out what it is safe and not safe to take with me. Today I opted for the money belt and a water bottle, but no mobile phone, so no photos today, which is a great pity. As advised by the guide books, I also carefully calculated the amount of money to take with me on the basis that this would be just enough for my outing, about £20. I decided to go to an island which is a popular day trip or holiday retreat for Salvadorians - it's called Itaparica. I picked up a taxi to take me to ... read more

If any of you thought some of my blogs were interesting, wait until you read this one which, unfortunately, is interesting for all the wrong reasons! I phoned the credit card company first thing using Viber to see why my payments were being blocked. The customer services guy I spoke to confirmed that this card had indeed been stopped and that security wanted to talk to me. Before he transferred the call he asked me what I thought of Brazil, fine, I replied I replied, until now. Yes, but what was it really like - he had always wanted to go to Brazil. Did I speak Portuguese and if so how much? I explained that without Portuguese it would be difficult to travel independently, particularly on public transport, and that even the taxi drivers appeared to ... read more

This guesthouse has all mod cons including an iron so am able to leave for Salvador tomorrow with most of my clothes clean and ironed. Have discovered there is only cold water in the two sinks in the kitchen and in my bathroom's washbasin -the only hot water seems to be in the shower. Yet there is a water dispenser which supplies filtered water at iced and room temperature on tap. I suppose that when you are travelling and moving around a lot losing things is inevitable. Am already tired of living out of a suitcase. Did try to unpack here but it's difficult to organise so many toiletries and electronics and medication and there is beach gear that I haven't yet used. This morning I spent half an hour looking for a little bag with ... read more