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Published: November 16th 2005
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Red Earth:
The Northern states of Brazil must have a poorer budget for their roads as we experienced for the first few days after Sao Luis.
Mud, dirt, sand was our lot with me trying to keep my bump off the seat for most of it! (minus that bit were we actually ended with our backs on soft sand -and that was after already a 4 hours ride on dirt and bitamen roads dodging portholes and mad bus drivers-). Tired, we retraced our steps back out of the sand road/track(?), opting for the ´highway´ this time. Mind you we were warned by a couple of Tcheks motorbike riders (travelling with 2 rescued kittens) that the roads could be a bit of a challenge...
Even the ´highway´is a big word for it as we still come accross ´pig town´(photo) then ´donkey town´then ´cow town´ as if each had their sacred mascot!. Houses along the road are made of mud too, showing more rural, poorer living standards, even regressing to tiny sheds made of black garbage bags for walls, typical of the Landless people (people movement to redistribute the massive land ownership to the other 10%!(NOVERB)
of the population- they even have a flag-).
Blue sea:
Luckily we got nice breaks from the hard riding days by stopping at beaches spots instead of the ‘spot on the map- city stop over’, and boy, wasn~t the beach nice after 1 month away from it!. Paracuru was one of those lovely little place with enough infrastructure to allow for a niiiiice fish -and Caparinhia- right on the beach (Check out the photo from our appart´s bedroom facing the beach!). (The roasted crush ´manioc ´gravel found on each table was no appealing to me somehow).
This is how I imagined Brazil: A caparinhia in one hand (lemon, cachaca, sugar), book in another, sunset with surf crushing hardly covering the sound of soft Brazilian music (see sunset photos). It didn’t start this way, as the gringos tourists (us) attempted a swim at 3pm (just arrived and didn’t know it was low tide), only to hit the big rocks hidden underneath the sea (thus my now-week-old bruise on thigh). To help, there was a bit of swell, which made the local surf contest that week end a bit more interesting -but nothing to write home about- (oups, I
just did).
The East north coast gets a lot of wind to the pleasure of kite surfers and thus until we hit the coastal tip going South, the unprotected beach have this fairly regular Easterly wind (near constant where we stayed overnight in Canoe Quebrada: no appealing walk on beach there for me. NEXT).
Green land:
And sure enough, as soon as we turn the tip (Natal), we find better beaches, greener landscapes of sugar cane fields (I counted 6 big smoke fires at the horizon one afternoon),
and more brick housing on the side of the road. Still a lot of trucks on the BR101 ‘two lanes highway’ being the only main way from agricultural North to the urban South. By that stage, the roads were good enough to attempt the coastal ones and after Recife, we had some great scenic rides on winding good roads.
White towns:
We stopped at some cool places afterwards like Praia da Pipa, yuppie but relax atmosphere on this cul-de-sac road above the beach. No dolphin spotting as advertised but a good place to experiment some international tapas -and the now conventional caparinhia (several this time)-. You´ll
find a photo taken at one of our beach lunch stop of a giant fish, freshly caught, with scales as big as my fist!. Porto Galihnos was a little more developed with resorts along the long beach with a modern French coastal town look (paved streets, curvy benches, etc). I had a lovely early morning exploring their famous natural aquarium and indeed, at low tide, the fishes do get caught in reef holes big enough for people to swim among them!. Swimming by myself on that early morning, I nearly had to chase them away from me! Beautiful.
I surprisingly enjoyed Salvador. With many beaches laong tis shores, it had a relax atmosphere and even the touts/pickpockets in the historical center didn~t feel freightening with the police nearly on each corner. We had a good night there, going from one eating place to another doing the local thing of ´liquid dinner´ with appetisers of cod balls or white bait. The music is to be enjoyed everywhere and particularly the groups of young LOUD drummers moving around in the town, acting as the piper attracting rythmic dancers (they even had a chef d´orchestre!). (Great youth hostel there too). {Photos in
next blog.}
Having to continue with the journey (Ted is to fly out of Sao Paulo at the end of the month for some work in Hawaii), we made it to another little groovy beach town, initially appearing over-developped to our taste but now we are mellowing into it (and spending a lot of time on their internet!!) and the nice posada we are staying at (even has a swimming pool).
I appreciate your comments/emails, so le me know if you want to know more about some other aspects of the travels. Cheers!.
Also to check:
www.tedgrambeau.com
www.travelblog.org/bloggers/unpaidbill or blogger=unpaidbill
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Roy
non-member comment
Really I don't have any useful comment, Wonderful experience but was I allowed to come on the trip - NO Just wanted to try out the comment box really See you in March