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Published: January 21st 2009
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We leave Caraiva with heavy hearts...it's easily our favorite place in Brazil so far and we'd love to stay. But all good things must come to an end and we know the vibe is about to change there anyway. It's no hardship going back to Arrial though. It's much busier than when we left but is still holding onto it's relaxed beachtown charm.
The main beach here, Praia Mucuge is the busy party beach, lined with barracas playing loud forro or reggae, but walk a mile south and you get to the beautiful Praia Pitinga. Sometimes we hang out at Mucuge, but most of the time we head for 'our beach' Pitinga, and the chilled Barraca Pirates, complete with resident talking parrot, becomes 'our bar'.
A funny thing with Brazilian beach behaviour...faced with miles of pristine, undeveloped coastline, they love to all cram together and the beach is like a big noisy pub, and maybe because we're all packed so tight on our small island back home, we crave a bit of space when we're sunbathing?! Whatever, both are easy to find here...splendid isolation or party time!
It's the night before Christmas and just outside our house, a
creature was stirring, a bit bigger than a mouse...we're sat in our little chalet on Christmas Eve, when we hear a light scratching and meowing from the other side of the door. Any potential homesickness and 'do we know it's Christmas time at all?' feelings melt away when we open the door to Itty Bitty Kitty. He's so tiny...at home they wouldn't separate such a young kitten from it's mother, but Alan and Maria rescued him a few weeks ago when they found him dumped on the street. They have gone out for the night and it looks like the kitten has been locked out by mistake. It's like Santa has been and we're happy to rescue him for the 2nd time in as many weeks. He laps up our attention and melts our hearts with his crazy kitten antics and it properly feels like Christmas for the first time. It doesn't even matter when Alan later tells us that the animals live outside and have their baskets in a sheltered part of the garden...tricked by a kitten!
It's weird when you're on a trip like this and everyday is a holiday and there's no build up to Christmas.
It makes you realise that it's your friends and family that make Christmas special, but teeny kittens can definitely make it better! As can spending Christmas morning swimming in a wonderfully clear ocean!
Actually, Christmas morning starts off with a thick covering of cloud and I kick myself for my recent smug Facebook status updates. But by the time we emerge from the internet cafe having Skyped our families, scattered as we are across Brazil, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, the sun has come out in force. It turns into a perfect day to spend at the beach supping a few Capirinhas which seem to be stronger than usual. By the time we head back to the pousada for a late afternoon bbq we realise we're pretty tipsy. I guess we're actually pretty drunk as we don't even really care when the Italian guy in charge of the grill manages to totally overcook our rather expensive steaks (I'm not quite so magnamamous about it in the cold light of Boxing Day however!)
Any plans for the evening quickly dissapear after Maria brings out a bottle of expensive cachaca, which tastes as rough as the cheap stuff really! I
soon realise that Ritch has been missing for quite some time and find him passed out on our bed...it's 8pm! But I only get a chance to laugh at his light-weight form for one day before history repeats itself and it's my turn to 'take a funny turn'. This time after just 3 capirinhas and before the sun has even set. I don't think I'll ever drink cachaca again etc etc...!
It's time to leave Arrial for Trancoso and this time I don't really mind. Almost overnight the place has transformed and now resembles American Spring Break. Thousands of college kids have arrived for Reveillon and the chillaxed atmosphere we've been enjoying is over...I hope the hippies haven't been run out of Trancoso too.
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