Sa - sa- Salvador

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The choice was between another 20+ hour journey on a coach for £50 or a 2 hour flight for £50. Needless to say the decision was already made for me. I am writing this update, sat in a hammock in Guyana whilst the heavens have just opened. This is winter in Guyana, but the temp this morn at 7am were 28 degrees and now whilst it is raining the temp has only dropped 2 degrees or so.
Arriving in Salvador early evening seemed a good time to arrive. After I collected my rucksack, I was faced with the decision whether to get a taxi to my hostel which was set at 45 BRL or get the bus to the centre of Salvador for 4 BRL. After walking around aimlessly for about 10 mins, and checking my Lonely Planet about 5 times to find out the name of the bus, I eventually saw one setting off, so, quickly flagging it down I hopped on and paid my 4 BRL. There was only 1 problem though, the bus was packed, there were no seats and the walkway down the middle wasn’t big enough for me (my arse), my bags etc. So there I was cursing the fact I had to stand for an hour on this packed bus regretting the fact I chose the cheaper option. As luck would have it, I met an English girl on the coach, Cornelia, who had been on the same flight from Rio, so we got chatting and ended up staying at hostels which were only a stone’s throw away. That night, after we had both checked into our hostels, grabbed some food and decided that the following day should be a beach day if the weather was nice. After finishing a mountain of chicken curry and rice, we called it a night and arranged to meet up in the morning to head to the beach.

The following day the weather was anything except for nice. For the whole day was rain, rain and rain. No beach day. An attempted sightseeing visit was made to a couple of places around the main square, but the rain put heed to that after 15 minutes or so. I headed back to my hostel to spend the rest of the day watching films, writing e-mails etc. The weather cleared up in the evening which was good, as it was the start if an 8 day festival in Salvador and there was a concert being held around the corner. A concert by a famous singer in Brazil called Geronhimo (I tell no lie)was being held close by so Cornelia and myself wandered down at 7pm when the concert was supposed to start to see what he was like. The concert didn’t start until 9, so we hung around, drank a little and met some people from Cornelia’s dorm, Ligia and Daniela. They didn’t stay for the concert so we arranged to meet up later for some drinks. After the concert (which was good, apart from I didn’t understand a word) we met up with Daniel and Ligia and headed to a Salsa club. Four words aptly describe my feeling in this club, out of my depth. I was easily the worst dancer in that place. For 2 hours it was pure torture. Cornelia took pity on me sat at the table by myself and sent a girl over to ask/show me how to dance. I wont write any more on the subject, lets just say, one song was enough. I was hoping for them to put on some Justin Timberlake just so I could show the locals how I run the dance floor back in London, but alas no Timberlake.

The following day we headed off early to visit a couple of islands off the coast of Salvador. The first island was Frade’s Island, which is a private Island about 60 minutes of Salvador by boat. The weather was good, no clouds in the sky, which meant a perfect day to go Island hopping. Frade’s Island is a private Island, which you have to pay 55 cents, about 20p to visit. We spent about 2 hours on the Island, enough time to try some fried shrimp, go swimming and also lie on the beach and work on the tan.
The next island we visited was Itaparica, which was about 30 minutes away from Frades. On this island I opted for the all you can eat buffet for 25 BRL and sun bathing, whilst the others decided to take the opportunity to ride horses on the beach. The journey back on the boat was spent sleeping off all the food I’d just eaten.

The festival of Sao Joao was starting in Salvador, so the nights activities consisted of watching the different acts on the stage, drinking, and also dancing (again, I was out of my depth) so i just kept drinking.

I made a decision that, although Brazil is a great place to come and visit, it was burning a hole in my finances to the point that i would be home very soon if I stayed here for much longer. So, it is with regret that I chose to leave Brazil and head to Guyana.
Guyana itself borders Brazil to its south, to the east it borders Suriname and to the west, Venezuela. With this in mind, you would think it would be easy to get into this country, but it is notoriously difficult. From Salvador I could either get 4 coaches, which itself meant 4 days travelling, or flying, which again is 4 flights. I chose the flights. I order to get to Guyana i would have to fly to the capital of Brazil, Brasilia, then onto Manaus and then from Manaus up to Boa Vista. From Boa Vista, I would have to get another flight into Georgetown, Guyana. I managed the part up to Boa Vista fairly easy. I left Salvador at 6pm and landed in Boa Vista at 3am. I had figured that I would be able to turn up and just buy a flight to Georgetown as soon as I landed, that way I wouldn’t need a hotel. That wasn’t the case. The Meta offices were shut and wouldn’t open til 8am, as per the English speaking man on the Info booth. I checked into a cheap hotel near the airport to get some shut eye, and head back in the morning to hopefully buy a ticket to Georgetown. Half seven my alarm goes, still in need for sleep i quickly shower, grab my bank card and passport and get a taxi to the airport. I arrive at the Meta office at 8am, and there is a big sign on the door. The only day the office doesn’t open at 8am is Friday, and guess what today is Friday. The bastards. With nothing open at the airport, as this airport only had 4 arrivals and 3 departures that day, so I grab another taxi back to my hotel and go back to bed. I head back for 10am, after checking out, to buy my ticket. One way to Georgetown was 337 BRL, about £110 and from Boa Vista they only have 3 flights a week into Georgetown. As luck would it, the next flight was leaving at 2.30 that afternoon. In actual fact, the flight left closer to 4.30. The plane was only a small 20 seater propeller plane, with a total of 8 people on board ( 4 of them were staff/pilot etc). It is probably the closest I am going to get to a private plane. The flight itself was good. For about 50 minutes of the flight, all you could see was amazon rain forest. I wanted to take pictures, but I had chosen a seat next to the exit and in every picture I had a big propeller obstructing all the shots.

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Comments

[Sian]

Girl who "showed" u how to dance
saw on facebook u have a blog. might be my first mention in a blog ever, I´m famous. I could tell you could bust timberlake-esque moves when required. You should have used my name tho man. I could feel it was torture for you but felt obligated to Cornelia, who is Irish by the way, not English. Enjoy your adventure

[Mark1981]

ha ha, well I try and protect people i dance with with anonimity. Cornelia, your right was irish, but she had an english accent, so that makes her english, sowrie :-) ha ha

[Nkem Emenike]

Run which dance floor bruv?!!....I went on one of them paper planes when i went to trini! 20 min flight from tobago to port spain over the Atlantic ocean!! Geez!x