Three days of trekking, sunbathing and swimming in pools and under waterfalls. It was wonderful! Lencois is a 6 hour bus ride from Salvador. We took the 23.30 departure and arrived at an awful 5.30 am! Luckily our room in the hostel was available and we were able to catch up on some sleep. Day One We walked 4km or so each way to some natural swimming holes and water slides. It was fantastic. The water was cool and deep enough to swim in. Sliding down the slide was a bit bumpy and not advisable without your specs so Trish missed out. She also missed out on the bruises! Our map to get there was very accurate, but the waypoints seemed a bit sketchy at first: "Steep Up", "Big Building", "Yellow Wall"! In the evening we ... read more

Backpacker heaven! We negotiated a price at the wonderful Casa Maloca which more than rivalled any hostel in town. Toni, the landlord, is from Slovakia but has lived in Brazil for 20 years. He looked after us very well and we were sad to only stay for 3 nights. The kitchen was fantastic and to eat on the veranda overlooking the skyscrapers of Recife was quite something. Actually, sitting there for breakfast was a particular highlight too, with more than enough fresh tropical fruit, delicious coffee, mango juice and hot German bread. Bliss!! You don't just go to Toni's pousada for the hospitality and the breakfast though, the whole house is an art gallery. He even has a print of a piece commissioned for the football World Cup which is an amazing work of art. The ... read more

It had taken us 18 hours on the bus to get from Belem to Fortaleza. Fortunately it was the best bus we have been on so far, but we are still yet to travel on one that can compete with our Argentine experiences! From the bus station we had about half an hour on a local bus into town, assisted by a very friendly and helpful conductor. After viewing the “Backpacker Hostel” we decided to find a cheap Pousada as it wasn’t really what we wanted. We found the Pousada Veleiro near the centre (despite warnings of robbers and thieves!) to be comfortable, friendly and very cheap. Fortaleza is a bit like Blackpool or Benidorm on a bad day! It actually wasn’t that bad though, but when it wasn’t cloudy it was very windy and sitting ... read more

Sorry about the amount of photos. Please continue onto Page 2 to see the rest of them! We expected great things of Belem. It didn’t disappoint but neither did it really live up to expectations. Arriving on a Sunday morning it is like a ghost town. The taxi drivers (as always) asked far too high a price and we ended up walking 20 minutes to our hostel. There was a wonderful market in town but that was as lively as it got on a Sunday. We had a bit of a wander around and saw the new docks area which has been regenerated. The restaurants in there are not cheap but a beer in the microbrewery wasn’t too bad. Cheap eats come in the form of street snacks and close to the theatre we had some ... read more

We were so pleased to have arranged for someone to take us to our boat. The taxi ride was a bit hectic and, of course, half an hour late, but that was nothing compared to the chaotic scenes at the port. We had expected to use the floating dock so it was a bit of a surprise to be taken past the banana market to what we presumed was the commercial port. In fact there were boats there going to many different destinations. We got to our boat over an hour before scheduled departure and it was already very crowded. Looking at the hammock decks we were sure we had made the right decision in paying for a cabin. And what a cabin! A double bed, air conditioning, a TV and DVD player (that we didn’t ... read more