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We left Lencois on May 26th with a plan to be in Rio de Janeiro by June 1st, hoping to visit three place before arriving there. This meant we would be travelling about 2750km in a very short time, so we weren't optimistic that we'd left enough time to actually see anything!
We took a 6 hour bus ride back to Salvador, waited there for 5 hours and caught a 12 hour ride south to Porto Seguro. When we arrived we took a bus to the seafront, walked to the port, took a boat across the river and finally another bus 5km to our destination, Arrial d'Juda. What a mission! Although Porto Seguro is the main town of the region, we were more interested in the smaller places stretching south along the coast; we had been told they featured some of the best beaches in Brazil. Despite our fatigue from the journey we quickly found a pousada, dumped our bags and caught a bus to Trancoso, a little town 22km down the coast.
We arrived in sunshine and followed other tourists down to the seafront. Small restaurants and cafes lined the tiny street, which opened out in to a
park with a striking church in the middle. Behind was a great view of the blue Atlantic Ocean. We found our way down to the beach, which was perhaps the most stunning we had seen so far. Our travelling ordeal from the previous 30 hours got the better of us, so we collapsed on some sun loungers and enjoyed the rest of the great weather. It was so nice to feel genuinely relaxed, but the sun inevitably disappeared so we headed back to Arrial after a few hours.
Whereas Trancoso was tranquil and quaint, Arrial had a bit more life about it, so in the evening we explored the broadwalk and the road to the beach, which had many bars and restaurants along it. Both towns are popular with Brazilian tourists for their nightlife, lazy beach days and tasteful shops but, being low season, it was nice to walk around without tripping over lots of people!
By this time we had not eaten a proper hot meal in a week so we searched high and low for somewhere not too expensive before stumbling across a small place away from the main street. For £7 we were fed like
Kings - rice, chicken, beans and salad has never tasted so good!
After that and a big breakfast the following morning you'd think we would be ready for a good long walk, but as the sun was out we headed to the beach for more tanning! Being a Saturday it was quite crowded, but it didn't detract from the beauty of the beach. It seemed to hug the ocean as far as we could see, though we decided it wasn't quite as idyllic as Trancoso. We spent a few hours lying there before walking in to town to briefly look at the shops...and then it was time to go. We were gutted to be leaving as we only saw a fraction of the area; it was one of the few times we felt we had not spent enough time somewhere, but time was running out.
We made the reverse journey to Porto Seguro, meeting a nice Brazilian guy along the way. He told us stories about his country and bought beers at the bus station while we watched Barcelona beat Man United. We then boarded the bus, our last long distance journey - all the way to Rio.
Opening out in to a park
The sea is not far behind the church. 19 hours later we were there, though we weren't staying. We immediately got a 4 hour bus west to Paraty, a small colonial town. The drive along the Emerald coast was incredible: around every corner were huge bays of brilliant blue water pocked with lush green islands, each one a mini paradise. Lots of tourists visit this part of the world and it was already very clear why.
We met another British couple on arrival (the first we had met since Peru!) and found a hostel together. We then strolled around the town, enjoying the historic centre with it's narrow streets of huge cobbles lined with cute white houses. We were very glad to be there in low season - in holiday times it must be very overcrowded, and we noted almost every other building was a hotel of some kind. In the evening we had a great caprinha at an Argentinian bar/art shop, before heading back to bed.
We awoke early the next morning to arrange the one thing we had come to Paraty to do: a boat trip around the nearby islands. All of the organzied trips seemed to depart at 11am, but we needed
to leave Paraty early so we went to the docks to find anybody who might take us our earlier. We couldn't find anyone so we walked along the sea front; the sea looked beautiful with the morning sun hanging over the bay, which only made us more determined to visit the islands!
When we returned to the dock we found a boat, a little pink vessel with a nice top deck. We agreed to sail after breakfast and at 9:15 we were heading in to the sea to see some islands.
It was a gorgeous day, so everything around us looked like something from a postcard - this was probably what most people imagine when they envisage a trip to paradise. We've seen and done some incredible things on our trip, but this really took our breath away. We felt so lucky to be sailing among these exotic lands - and on a private boat too!
We stopped at a hidden beach on the mainland, our driver quickly hopping off to pick some green oranges, before heading to a small island surrounded by colourful, hungry fish. The final island we visited was actually inhabited, a tiny hut
being a the top of a small beach. A huge rock provided great views across the water.
Every island we passed was beautiful and unique, most outlined with deserted beaches. It was a great way to spend a morning in the sun, though while Carina could enjoy the sea Chris had stupidly forgotten his trunks so was stuck on the boat the whole time!
When we got back to the dock we had to rush to get our bus, which was a 2 hour ride back east towards Rio, to Angra dos Reis. We had to rush even more to get a ferry, which took us to Abraoo, a small town on Ilha Grande. Like Paraty, Ilha Grande is a very popular tourist destination, and we saw more on the ferry than we had seen in the whole of Brazil so far!
We found a nice pousada and spent the evening walking around the tiny town. There is no transport allowed on the island so the streets were narrow and sandy - the town though is basically a collection of shops, tour agencies and reataurants.
We had a good long sleep, got up early and had
a magnificent breakfast - in fact, we ate so much we had to rest for 20 minutes afterwards! We then walked for 2 hours, over hills and along the sea, across beaches and over huge rocks to Lopes Mendes, one of the most famous beaches in Brazil.
Curved along a huge stretch of south facing coastline, it was incredibly picturesque. However, Carina soon discovered it was better for photos than for sunbathing as trees cover much of it in shade! Still, we spent a nice day there before heading back to town. Most people seemed to be getting a boat back but we decided to walk again - this proved a mistake as we were more tired than we realised, and by the time we got back we were pretty miserable!
It had been a tough few days since Lencois; we had enjoyed some wonderful beaches, some of the best we had seen in Brazil, but we felt we had rushed a bit too much. We would love to visit the area around Arrial d'Juda again as we didn't get time to really enjoy everything there. We were still glad we visited these three different paradises though, our
last taste of rural Brazilian beach life. This is what we pictured when we imagined going to Brazil, and we weren't disappointed.
The next morning we got up early and took a short walk west along the coast, stopping to see some huge arches in the forest and the former prison. There were also lookout points to sea; it was a nice way to start any day! At 9am we took a boat back to the mainland, and we were then heading for Rio de Janeiro, our last stop of an incredible adventure. We knew that the six days we would be having there would be pretty fun...
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