Blogs from Bahia, Brazil, South America - page 56

We are now very close to Salvador, staying on an Island Ilha de Itaparica at a place called Sacatar in a town called Itaparica. To get here from the airport after our 2 hour flight we got on a bus and stayed on there for a VERY scenic trip into Salvador which took at least an hour and a half, went down a VERY cool elevator (Elevador Lacerda) that has at least a 100m drop that leads onto the point where we caught a wooden boat for about 45 mins across the waters to the Island.. from there we jumped into a combi van (the local budget taxi service) to the town of Itaparica which again was at least another hour before arriving at our final destination. We were met by Mitch and Taylor who are ... read more

Four hours' bus and a boat ride south from Salvador'll take you to Barra Grande, an astonishingly beautiful little fishing village at the end of a peninsula. Quite honestly the closest to Heaven-on-earth I've yet seen. The whole village is built on the sand of some of Brazil's most beautiful beaches. Peaceful doesn't even begin to describe it and the people are lovely. It's slowly becoming an upmarket tourist town and now's the perfect time in its development to visit it. Lovely restaurants, hardly any vehicles and a seriously laid-back vibe. So beautifully off the beaten track it was unreal! All of this and we'd arrived right at the end of the summer's tourist season so practically had the place to ourselves. We got a fantastic deal on a chalet, in a garden full of so ... read more

So, with teary eyes and muitos saudades, I left beautiful Brazil! I whiled away my days in Rio seeing more of the tourist sights - Cristo Redentor (the famous Christ Statue overlooking the town), the Tijucu Forest (the largest urban forest in the world), lazing on Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, going out in the funky suburbs of Lapa and Santa Theresa (with a gorgeous view over Rio), going to blocos and participating in Carnaval! I was also invited to some BBQ´s (Brazilian food is always the same staple of rice, beans, meat and maioca!). A group of Bruno´s friends play in a band, so I went along to hear them practice, and they invited me to a Sunday BBQ in the outer suburbs of Rio, about 1hr from the centre. The owner of the house also ... read more

My 28 hour bus ride north left Rio at 9am on the morning after Rolling Stones. My plan had been to stay up all night in the hopes of having a decent kip on the journey. As it happened I'd sneaked into the hostel I'd already checked out of and slipped into a coma on the pool table. Waking up at 8:50 I realised I had a problem. Rather conveniently, the only reason I made the bus at all was because unbeknown to me summer time had just ended and the clocks had gone back. After God knows how many weeks in Rio my body must've been pleading with me for a break as I slumped into my seat and slept for 24 hours straight! Salvador's a cool city. It's Brazil's third largest city and was ... read more

Good news: I found a way to share videos. If you want to view them, then read this blog. There you’ll find a video of Salvador but also of other locations I have been to. A quote from someone else’s website: Salvador's Carnival got into the 2005 edition of the Guinness Book as the biggest Carnival and the biggest street party on earth. Each year, two million people crowd the streets and roads of the city during the six days of Carnival. Yes big, crowded, dirty and smelly it was but hell it was fun. I arrived safe and secure at my hostel which to my surprise really had a bed for me. I had quite a few problems with the booking and at one stage I had four beds then none and then maybe one. ... read more

A quote from someone else’s website: Salvador's Carnival got into the 2005 edition of the Guinness Book as the biggest Carnival and the biggest street party on earth. Each year, two million people crowd the streets and roads of the city during the six days of Carnival. Yes big, crowded, dirty and smelly it was but it was fun. I arrived safe and secure at my hostel which to my surprise really had a bed for me. I had quite a few problems with the booking and at one stage I had four beds then none and then maybe one. You can imagine that I was really relieved when they had a bed for me. Due to the confusion with the booking I got put into a four bed female dorm (I did not complain ... read more