Blogs from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, South America - page 9

Everglades was fun – queuing for the coach to get on the tour wasn’t! Organised chaos. And once on the coach it was bloody freezing – really don’t like air conditioning. The German tour guide woman was a bit interesting but with the most grating voice but she did try hard. Once we got into the Everglades it was good tho – went on one of those hoveryboats – where the driver sits up high and passengers down below and it skims the water and the vegetation. Saw loads of crocs and alligators and as I learned alligators aren’t that dangerous cos they don’t like human meat whereas crocs do like to munch on us. Scott held a baby alligator ( he claims it wasn’t just a baby one – judge for yourselves from one of ... read more

Since last Wednesday I could feel that a change was happening to me. I could feel it inside and in every cell of my body. I had worked so hard at changing my life for the past 18 months, and now I felt that this part of the process has finished. I have changed. I have made it happen. I am now actually living this life I have been trying to attain, and now I feel like there is no going back, that whatever happens now, my life will not be the same as before. I do not know what lies ahead, I am definitely in unknown territory now! This week, life has yet again fascinated me with the twists and turns it has taken. I have met another great person, Stacey from New York. She ... read more

07/12 The three of us woke up this morning with the specific intention of making some plans. Until now we'd just kind've bumbled along with the plans we made before leaving the UK but now we really had to decide what to do before heading to Rio. So we booked hostels for Praia do forte, Chapada diamantina, Morro de Sao Paolo and Ihla Grande. We then went to the shopping centre, got Amy's glasses fixed, and booked flights from Salvador back to Rio to avoid another 30 hour bus journey which was more expensive anyway! This was done through a lovely travel agent who managed to understand the new language I appear to have created, henceforth known as Sportuguese. We then wandered down the coast and bought exciting ice cream and headed back to get ready ... read more

So the start of this entry takes me back to 23rd November, the afternoon that I arrived in Praia do Forte. Dani had told me all about the resort and I had looked at many photos back in the dreary office in England , waiting patiently for the time to come when I could actually visit. I was interested in the place as it seemed a relatively new resort with a focus on sustainability, so I thought it would be an ideal environment to teach Yoga. Well actually, the pull was a lot stronger than that for a reason that was soon to become apparent, and three days after I returned from Itaparica, I was there. As a very close friend once said to me, once I have made up my mind that it is, I ... read more

04/12 Before I start discussing today's highly amusing adventures, I wanted to cover something I have only briefly touched on since I left home, Christmas. Christmas in S America is, I am finding, a very odd phenomenon - the concept of a hot Christmas makes me feel slightly uncomfortable and uncertain. Arriving in Salvador has further compounded this. Our hostel is really near a shopping centre, in the middle of it was a massive Santa's grotto - and I mean MASSIVE. There was one Santa, several very attractive brazilian elves, a huge Christmas tree, candy canes and SNOW. The irony of the snow is not lost on me, given that many of you haven't been able to leave the house for several days - but it's strange to think that many of the kids visiting the ... read more