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Published: August 7th 2006
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Apologies for delay since my last blog, but I couldn't find the willpower to sit behind a computer - I've had a tough week relaxing on an island, soaking up the sun and drinking too many capirinhas.
The 36 hour bus ride to Salvador turned into 42 hours. The lack of movement caused my feet and ankles to swell, so much so that I struggled to fit into my Crocs. For the next day or so I held a new world record.
I spent a few days in Salvador where I met up with Janie. Salvador has good and bad aspects. On the good side, it is the centre of African culture in Brazil. The food is great, you can watch capoeira schools all day long, and there is always some form of live music going on in the streets. On the bad side, you are constantly pestered by street vendors, most people that try to befriend you are just out to get some money off you and there gap between the rich and poor is in your face
- the number of street children at night asking for money and sniffing glue is hard to stomach.
One
night we went to see a Candomble ceremony. Candomble is an African cult that was brought over to Brazil by the African slaves. Followers believe that each person has a specific angel or
orixa that watches over them. The slave masters allowed them to practice their religion because they replaced the names of their orixas with the names of Christian saints - despite what I later witnessed, the slave masters incredibly thought they were practising Christianity. The ceremony was held in a large room annexed to the priests house. A group of drummers played out African beats, whilst the followers danced lesiurely in a circle. The followers wore all white. Everything seemed quite normal until suddenly one by one they seemed to go in a hypnotic trance with their eyes closed. Their arms and bodies started shaking and they started dancing like crazy people at a music festival. Supposedly the dancers were now receiving the spirit of their chosen angel. It was hard not to laugh. For the next two hours, the dancers continued to look dazed whilst their angel danced their own unique dance. The evening culminated with an almighty dance from the priest who collapsed onto the floor
from all the effort he put into it. It was an interesting, all though somewhat comical, experience.
Another night we went to a party that had a live band. The queue to get in strectched the whole length of the street. I was told we had to buy tickets outside, so when I saw some locals buying tickets off a guy in the street, I did the same. Whilst we were waiting we made friends with some Brazilians, who made us their guests for the night. Luckily they spoke good English and we had a really funny night. They realised that the party was nearly full and we were too far from the front to get in, so we pushed in Brazilian stlye. We linked arms and bulldozed our way to the front. We made it next to the gate, when everyone else began to realise they weren't going to get in and decided to do what we'd just done. The next few minutes were like how I imagine Hillsborough to have been like. It was crazy and hard to breath. The surge from the crowd managed to push us right to the front of the queue. We showed
our tickets to the bouncer, he took one look of them and told us they were fake and that we couldn't come in. At this moment, some girls started screaming hysterically at the bouncers to let them in and it looked like they wanted to rip their throats out. It seemed that they were upset that they had been at the front and were now out of the queue. Their boyfriends were now getting involved and a mass brawl looked imminent. One of the Brazilians mentioned we were tourists and the bouncer let us in. It was like an outdoor Ibiza party, except the DJs were swapped with a 20 man band playing a blend of African beats, electric guitar and trumpets.
We left the hussle and bustle of Salvador and headed west to Lencois, a small town where people flocked during the diamond boom. From here we went on a 3 day trek in the Chapada Diamantia National Park. It was one of the most beautiful treks I've ever done. The first day started with a steep hike to the top of the Cachoeira de Fumaca or Smoke Waterfall. It is Brazil's heighest waterfall at 420m and gets
its name because it's so high that water evaporates before it hits the bottom, creating a smoke-like effect. It was Janie's first trek and after 15mins uphill, she blamed me for bringing her here, said she couldn't go on and wanted to go back to Lencois. Needless to say, she got through the 3 days, although she said she's never doing one again.
We did the trek with 3 others, a Mexican and Brazilian couple and a interesting but crazy German guy called Phillip who had spent the last three months researching the favellas of Rio. The days involved climbing and scrambling up and down steep mountain faces, admiring waterfall after waterfall, trekking through lush forests and drinking coca cola from the rivers. The soil is rich in iron which turns the water a deep red colour and forces bubbles to the surface. We camped in caves, had dinner next to log fires and gazed up at the stars.
We got the 6 hour bus back to Salvador and then caught the catamaran to Morro de Sao Paulo, an island two hours away. We only planned to stay for 3 days but ended up there for a week. It was such a beautiful place and reminded me of Ko Phi Phi in Thailand. The streets are filled with sand. The main mode of transport is the wheelbarrow. Taxi drivers with their yellow wheelbarrows carry tourists´ luggage to the lodgings dotted around the island. Donkeys supply the bars and restaurants which all their stock. The island was quite touristy, but it was still a great place to unwind and get away from it all.
We met up with some people we were in Salvador with, including two hiliarious Irish guys who have been drunk almost everyday for the last 12 months of their trip. It was a bit disturbing, but also funny. They sleep during the day, so don't get to see all the amazing places they've been to. To keep their parents happy they copy chunks of the Lonely Planet into their emails, describing all the interesting cultural sights they´ve been doing.
The mentality in Morro was very different to Salvador. People would talk to you without wanting anything. You could leave your valuables unattended on the beach. Street vendors were friendly and smiled when you said no thanks. Despite the size of the island and number of different beaches, we only managed to see two of them and never got round to organising a boat tour of the surrounding islands. We just spent the day relaxing on the beach, drinking coconut juice and playing bat and ball and the odd game of football on the beach, where the locals use coconuts instead of jumpers for goalposts. Everynight there was a party going on somewhere on the island, usually at the main bar on the beach.
Next stop is Natal, a two hour flight north of Salvador. From here we are going on a buggy ride of the sand dunes and then spending a few more days chilling on the beaches near Pipa. It´s a tough life.........
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