A coach trip, a capirinha and a bit of sunshine!

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Ola!

Just a quick update from the last few days! Rosies missing luggage finally arrived in the early hours of Friday morning so we got up at the crack of dawn and headed to the coach station (the right one this time). With our limited Portugese we booked three tickets to Salvador and hopped on the coach. From the offset we were the only non Brazilian travellers and for many this wasnt a problem. However, a certain rather scary Brazilian woman took a bit of interest in us. After many attempts of trying to talk to us, despite our faces showing complete confusion, a lovely Brazilian family we had befriended tried to explain to her that we were English and therefore didnt understand her. Cue a bit of casual racism from the lady, as she kept making obvious comments about us to other passengers and called us Gringos!! All I was trying to do was enjoy my journey, but on one occasion she even physically shook me to try and wake me from my fake sleep! Ah well, it was all pretty amusing.

The coach ride itself was long - 29 hours long to be precise but was completely bearable due to the amazing landscape we passed. We climbed up windy roads up the sides of hills, went through tiny villages and saw some great sights (donkeys pulling carts with signs saying WAGNER for Governor on the side) and some not so great sights (a burnt out bus on the side of the road). But after stopping at many random Brazilian style service stations we finally made it. The trip to the hostel was painless (for us) and we were greeted by some lovely owners. The hostel itself is amazing, with great facilities including hammocks in the front garden and free capirinhas each evening! Its very morroccan feeling with beautiful decor including stained glass windows in the bathroom. It really is a taste of paradise. Our first day in Salvador we just ventured locally and managed to find the most amazing Santas Grotto with a proper santa and fake snow to boot. So weird to see such decorations in this environment. Not sure how I feel about a hot winter just yet - ask me again when im sipping a cocktail on Copacanbana on the 25th!

On the first night we had all these grand plans to go out for a few drinks - however a steak dinner and 3 capirinhas later and we were all rock and rolled out. It seemed the bus journey had taken its toll, so we stayed up chatting till about midnight. Much of our discussions centred around the Holocaust and war films which entertained a few of our German hostel friends! Then we chilled in our room and went to bed. We had planned for a bit of a lie in but were rudely awoken by a random guy waltzing into our room at 6.30am - stating that he had been staying in a hotel with his girlfriend in a nearby village instead of coming back to the hotel. Hmm, bit fishy but he seems nice enough!

Had our first trip to the beach today which again was a case of 3 idiots abroad. We were unsure of which bus stop to wait at, so we waited at two different ones and I had to do a runner when Rosie saw the right bus approaching her stop. The bus ride was about 45 mins along beautiful coastline. Its hard to get bored when there is such diversity everywhere you look. The people, the landscape, the buildings all change within the blink of an eye. The beach itself, Flamingos, was beautiful. A little bit of Brazilian paradise. We played in the water, watched the locals in their speedos (not a pretty sight) and got a bit of tanning time in. We were also witness to some pretty frantic bat and ball action - the Brazilians take it very seriously! I also nearly got swept away by the sea whilst sunbathing. The water came in much quicker than any of us realised and I awoke to be floating along with my newly purchased sarong and book! Very amusing and a few of the locals came to save us and all our belongings from being washed away. We are back at the hostel now - Im a mixture of brown, white and red despite being careful and putting on suntan lotion. It seems im forever destined to look like a plonker rather than the sunkissed goddess look I was aiming for! Were off for dinner and drinks in a bit and have an action packed few days coming up - getting in a bit of the religious, the cultural and the dancing - cant wait to see a bit of the capoeira action! So ill update at the end of the week again.

Hope all is well back at home.

xxx

p.s Brazil is not helping at all with my love of small children. They are too bloody cute!

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