How bad can a little bit of rain be?! Idiots Abroad strike again

---

After a very early morning arrival in Lencois (at approx 5.30am) we were led to our hostel and given beds to rest our weary heads. We awoke about 2 hours later, and there was a bit of a mad rush with Rosie deciding to head off on a 2 day trek. This left me and Amy (dumb and dumber) to fend for ourselves. Not being so great with the Portugese ourselves, we decided to take it relatively easy, and following advice from a girl we met in our previous hostel, we asked for directions to a nearby natural waterslide. The owner of the hostel (Rodrigo) led us up the cobbledy streets (it is a gorgeous little town with houses of all different shapes, sizes and colours) and with a few basic directions off we trotted. He assured us that we´d be fine in our flip flops, so when we saw the first steepísh incline we slightly panicked but continued nonetheless. It was blistetingly hot, and it soon became clear that this waterslide would not be so simple to find. So, after asking about 5 different people directions along the way we were finally on the right track. And track is the right word to describe it - it went from being red mud/sand to rocks and was defnately not terrain fit for haivannas!

However, we trudged on and I must warn you now - what follows is nothing short of genius. A pure comedy of errors. I was leading the way down the track as Amy has a fear of snakes and I kindly said that I would look out for them. What i didnt account for was a black cat like creature darting in front of me and in my stupid panic, my first though was Jaguar (apparently you get them in brazil). So we slowly creeped forward to find....a domestic cat hiding in the bushes. Did i feel foolish. Anyway we continued on, weaving up and down this path until we reached a small hut selling refreshments. Here the nice man reassured us we were heading in the right direction and we carried on. It was at this point that it started to rain slightly, and stupidly we both said óoh, this is nice, its a welcome break from the blistering heat!´(infamous last words). We marched on until we heard a dog running up behind us and barking - it was the dog from the mans hut but it didnt look very happy at all. It was showing its teeth, growling at us. I for some reason reverted to being a complete coward, whilst amy transformed into some kind of dog whisperer and with some open body language (training at work it seems does come in handy) and soft words from Amy it calmed down and left us be.

So again, we marched forward determined to reach our destination for our solo adventure. We saw a few people heading in the opposite direction (in hindsight this probably should have been a sign) which again reassured we were headin the right way. The path started to descend quite dramatically at this point and became very rocky. At points it felt like me and amy were bouldering and it was about 15 minutes after leaving the hut that the heavens really opened. Any boy did it rain! I´v never experienced rain quite like it and within a minute we were soaked through. But convinced that it would stopsoon or that we would find shelter we stupidly continued. After 5 more minutes of trudging we came to a difficult decision - carry on or head back. The rocks we were clambering over (not very gracefully) were incredibly slippery and upon turning around, we came face to face to a river of muddy water gushing towards us! Panic set in at this point and we decided we needed to head back or risk getting stuck. so head back we did. Cue, my flip flops getting stuck in mud, falling off my feet, slipping on rocks and wading through water which came halfway between my ankle and knee! At this point, Amy had a mini panic when she saw the water we had to wade through ´but Tasha, there could be anaconda´s in there!!´But with a bit of encouragement from me, she took off her flip flops and waded on through. The rain it kept coming, heavier and heavier and the water was gushing towards to us dragging leaves and debris. In true British style, we did what anyone does in moments of panic - we sang! A bit of singing in the rain was belted out to keep the spirits high and it was around now that we realised that we had all our electrical goods in our backpacks - cameras, ipods! Fools. We had no choice but to hope for the best and keep going. We kept praying that the little mud hut would be round the next corner; The return journey seemed so much longer and for a split second we panicked that we´d taken a wrong turn somewhere and would be lost in the jungle with no map and no idea of where we were. But suddenly, there it was. I have never been so happy to see shelter in all my life. When we arrived, the owner laughed at us, but kindly gave us towels to dry off and explained that we should stay until the rain stopped. So, sopping wet and halfway up a mountain, I did what anyone would do and stripped off into my bikini to pose for pictures in the rain in front of the amazing view (its not like i wasnt wet already). We also inspected the damage o the contents of our bags and except for a few soggy guidebooks and postcards, our electrical goods somehow escaped unharmed! Result.

We waited for around 30 minutes for the rain to calm, send our thanks to the kind man and continued on our way. Again, we had to wade through water and sinking mud barefoot until we reached the town. At this point we looked like victims of a tsunami. Completely sodden, barefoot and covered in mud. The locals must have thought we were mental. By this point we could definately see the funny side to our adventure, even though we hadnt reached our intended destination. We got back to the hostel and Rodrigo exclaimed ýoure alive!´(at this point i wanted to mention that he was the one that had sent us of in the first place) but instead went and had a lovely hot shower and put on some joggers to chill. That night me and amy went out for a well deserved meal and couple of drinks! We laughed alot at our days antics - mainly that it didnt surprise us that we´d got ourselves into that situation in the first place. it seems we still are idiots abroad!

Tasha

xx

---