Morro Sao Paulo

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If you need a honeymoon spot this is the place to be. Trust me, I have taken full advantage of this little island I call heaven. Morro Sao Paulo is an island off the coast of Salvador about two hours boat ride away, and if you are looking for the best way to get there I’ll suggest the speed boat. I don’t remember much of it because I had my head on a friend’s lap the whole time dying of speedboat sickness. As you get off the boat there are teams of men ready to take your baggage to your hotel, hut, apartment, or house what ever you fancy, but don’t get tricked on the price anything more then 20 Real (the currency there) is too much. Now, you might want to be the tough guy and take your own stuff however, there is a twist, no cars! Imagine an Island where there are no cars, no bus, no taxi, and no means for transportation. Nothing but your two feet and a lot of walking up and down, on beach sand that surrounds the island inside and out. It’s not as hard as it sounds, you can walk from one end to the next in under an hour and if you’re in the middle of the beach you’re fine. The food is well priced and there are enough restaurants to please the general public. At night the restaurant strips fill up with hundreds of candles setting the mood for a romantic dinner by the beach. Lets face it, this island is amazing from breathtaking sceneries, more than six beaches, activities that can keep you busy for a week, water so clear you can swim out for a kilometre and still see your feet, no pollution, food from all over the world, parties that go on until the sun comes up, and a lot of beautiful people who just want to party.

That’s my overall view of the whole place... so let’s keep on going. We checked into our rooms launched our bags on the floor and headed for the beach. Travelling around the world for the past six months has really made me a universal globetrotter and I feel like I can add a lot of credibility to what I report on. This beach was perfect; you need to keep in mind that most of the people on this beach are coming from the biggest party the world has to offer - Bahia’s Carnival. You would think 6 days of partying, people would take it easy…nope! The beach was full with people in the sun as their bodies took in the rays, leaving their skin that much darker. During the day that’s pretty much the scene: everyone chilling on the beach taking in to the sun waiting for the night to cover the sky.

I would love to say that I was one of those people who took it easy and just relaxed while I was there, however, you guys know me a bit better than that by now. By the end of the night we went for our first beach party mixed with music from the carnival and techno, tropical fruit drinks mixed with my favourite Smirnoff Red, and a jam-packed beach. What I liked about this party was that we were surrounded by the biggest bar I have ever seen, it was completely around the beach, sand, dance floor (Whatever you call it) surrounding us in a 360. They had it all from food, drinks, candy; anything your little heart desired they had it. While I was dancing looking at my friends I had one of those moments, I tend to have a lot of them on this trip but that’s expected. Anyways, I looked up and I could see nothing but a blanket of stars looking over us. It was one of those moments that you have to pause and think to your self what is going on? Take a deeeeeeeeep breath and take it all in. Good times.

Thoughts…
(I constantly get reminded how lucky I really am to see the things I get to see, plus who else is going to have stories I will? Remember when Bilbo Baggins from the Lord of the Rings travelled all over the world and encountered thousand of things and went on all these adventures, well I kind of feel like that sometimes and this is my adventure that I will soon be telling. Because the stories I will tell the world will live on forever. Some times I think about the years to come and if someone were to ask me “Hey Kareem, have you travelled?” Hahahahahha have I travelled? How do I answer that question? All have to make sure I have a lot of coffee and we’re sitting down, crazy no? I can’t even think about the day I go home, then again I don’t really want to think about it, as much as I can miss my family and friends it’s inevitable that one day this will all end, like everything in this mortal world. Telling my friends about this trip is just going to bring back all these memories… and I know I’m only six months into this but its halfway and six months is LONG! I feel like I have been gone for way more then just half a year. I can only imagine how I am going to feel when it’s all done and I am sleeping in my bed looking up to the ceiling wishing it had just started.

If that didn’t put you to sleep or make you feel like you wanted to kill me ,I’ll go on. During the week, one of Luiza's friends -who happens to be the son of a very wealthy family on this island - was having a massive foam party at his club. What I liked about his club was that it was half inside, half outside and living in Canada you just can’t do that, at least not with 30 centimetres of snow constantly falling on everything you own. South America on the other hand doesn’t have that problem it’s just beautiful weather all the time. It was about 3am and there was still no foam but the party keep on going until the sun came up. I guess that’s when the administration had enough and made an announcement. “Anyone who can go down to the beach and fetch some water to fill up the foam machine will get some free drinks” and just as I suspected within a few minutes the foam machine was on and there was foam as high as your chin. All in all it was a wicked night, we met some really cool people and went home soaking wet.

I didn’t explain to you why the foam machine was not working; well being on paradise island does have its ups and downs. I recall it happening twice and both times I was unlucky because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. All of a sudden everything goes pitch black, no power, no Internet, no music, nothing. Now, that’s not the problem, the problem is no air conditioning. I can live without power I really can, I survived the ice storm that hit Canada in 97….I think it was 97….argh let me google it…. 98, I was close enough. Anyways, the ice storm hit us bad and we lived off of our fireplace for weeks. But that was winter and the weather was okay to deal with, being in Brazil with no power meant taking a shower as often as you could because it got really hot! I guess that’s what this modern technology is doing to us, making us extremely dependent on our luxuries and I am just another person suffering from my own depictions. There is always a bright light at the end of the tunnel right? Right…so this tragedy turned into a fairly tale, because as I walked to the beach in hunt for food I found myself on a beach covered with candles as far as the eye could see and every now and then there was a local holding a lantern to makes sure we all didn’t hurt ourselves. But what about the food? You would think that would be one of the major problems but they had that covered with wooded stoves, it was more meaningful items like ice and music you know, keeping things chilled. I know, it’s not the end of the world it only lasted half a day, but it was a good experience to see people partying down with the bare essentials.

Some cool stuff I got to do while I was there was go on a trapeza rope where you basically climb to the top of the mountain and slide down a chain on a rope screaming your ass off. I also got the opportunity to rent my own boat for the day and spent it island hopping with a friend of mine. We managed to stop off in the middle of a river where there must have been 50 boats all in a circle, around a bar with cold drinks and music coming from one rich dudes yacht. What attracts such a big crowd is the natural swimming pool, the sand raises and you can take a swim with the local fish and enjoy the view. We spent pretty much the day sitting right in front of the boat with our feet out enjoying the breeze, going to old Portugese islands with massive historical dead towns and churches, and taking a walk along side a beach with a tour guide. Brazil you’ve done it again and that’s why you’re on my list as being the number one destination…so far.

There is so much more to this place but the beach parties are what attracts the masses of universal people travelling in search of a good people, music, drinks and hopefully the experience.

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