Other cultures... my observations on Brazilian peculiarities

All in all I have to say, Brazilians are great people and in many respects they are more cultured and better-mannered than most Europeans. They are open, polite and eager to help. I have not seen one Brazilian losing his temper or being stressed out or unfriendly in my time over there. They love to talk and are genuinely interested in the people they meet (and they love meeting people). I always felt safe and welcome wherever I went (and if I accidentally was about to step into a favela district people would stop me immediately and tell me not to go any further). And they have a great sense of humor. I guess, if you are as poor as most of them are, social relations and laughter make life easier. In a way, I think, they have a richer life than many of us.

There were a few peculiarities that I found rather amusing and I’ll try to describe them in the following post. When I said, their life seems to be richer, I would especially refer to their extraordinary ability to “fall in love” within what seems to be minutes. As a foreigner you face the constant dilemma: should I be polite and reply to this strange guy’s question (which is in 99% of the cases: “Vocé é de onde?” - Where are you from? without being bothered by any previous introduction) or will this give him the impression I’m interested in him and I won’t be able to get rid of him for the next 20 mins or so.

Nothing to worry about if you’re looking to improve your Portuguese by having a nice conversation or you are looking for a date, a guide or some other kind of information but a bit tedious when you really need to go somewhere or just want to do your sightseeing alone. I have not figured out how Brazilian girls deal with it.

One might guess that Brazilians are only that over-enthusiastic when it comes to tourists and therefore declare their deep affection (usually followed by a certain kind of invitation or in some cases accompanied by a marriage proposal) after only half an hour of friendly conversation.

But I have questioned my friend Miau on this and he said that indeed Brazilians don’t need too much time to pair up. Usually it can be accomplished in one evening. The recipe is as simple as effective (North-European men, listen and learn! At least to parts of it :)

Men: see a girl they like (girls: if you are foreigners, the chance that a Brazilian guy will like you lies around 99%), approach her, ask her to dance, or in absence of music either where she’s from or what’s her name. Make some compliments. If reaction not entirely negative attempt to kiss. If girl still says “no” after more than 10 attempts consider – but don’t understand why - she might not be interested.
If girl sticks around, make sure other equally interested Brazilians don’t have a chance to get near her. Every male that she might strike up a conversation with is considered a serious rival and has to be treated with utmost jealousy. Take her home.

Girls: see a guy you like, look at him for more than 2 seconds, wait.



A real different habit and offensive to European ears is the constant hissing and whistling in order to attract attention. Advice: get used to it, it is as polite as saying “excuse me” or “hello” in our country.

What is harder to get used to is the fact that the use of handkerchiefs seems to be entirely unknown in this country. The Brazilians have 2 methods to rid themselves of snot (and they all seem to suffer from constant colds): either blow their nose the “Styrian way” (with 2 fingers and straight to the ground) or, more frequent, pull everything up with as much noise as possible. Also, noisy spitting (men only) is totally acceptable.

Another thing that can be slightly annoying is their idea of service in clothes stores. Basically, the moment you come near the shop’s entrance a shop assistant will assault you, show you items you don’t want to see, question you (not only what you’re looking for but also “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?”) and basically does not let you do what you came in for – look around in peace.

Sometimes Brazilians seem to like communicating so much that they don’t notice the “little signs” we Europeans have to show that we would like to be left alone or are not interested. Also, they seem to like talking so much that they often forget to listen (at least that happened to me quite a lot - I would be telling a story and instead of some kind of comment or reaction the other person would just start talking about something completely different – in most cases ask “Vocé é de onde?”)

It surprises me that they don’t learn foreign languages better since they like talking to people so much. English is really hard for them, they say, but I suspect they were also a bit lazy at school. Like the Spanish they like to mutilate English words and often it took me forever to understand what, for example, a “heive” is (to spare you the time: it is a “rave” party). They have the tendency to attach an [e] at the end of foreign words, like “internetsche” or (my favorite one) “hippi hoppie”. Try to figure out the dish of the day on the right side:



This guy did not know about the blunder on his T-shirt until we told him:



But not only English ortography is a problem, also their own language has some difficulties (ice cream is “sorvete”):




With music styles they have a different categorization system. I have to say, I met quite a few Brazilians with an excellent taste in music. Some beach barracas in the South had the most up-to-date electronic compilations and even in remote Jeri they played some house and techno in the “clube”. What I cannot comprehend, however, is their unrivalled love for a local music style called “Forro”. Whenever a Brazilian overenthusiastically tells about a Forro-Party that night that everybody will go to the foreigners shrink back in horror. I would describe this kind of music as unpleasant noise with a dance rhythm beyond definition. I have a suspicion why Brazilians love Forro so much: it is danced similarly to Lambada. And since they are so “romantic” it takes more than this tuneless soundpollution to ruin their enthusiasm.

I also found it interesting that almost anything that is not Forro, Techno or “Hippi Hoppie” is called “Reggae”. So an evening of Reggae music can just as well be an indie rock band or a singer songwriter presenting his work. Also, be prepared: Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is experiencing a great revival(?) there at the moment. You might not want to pack it on your ipod.

Brazilians love electronics and technology. Most of them are quite good with computers even if they cannot affort one, but internet cafes are rather cheap and omnipresent and they spend a lot of time in them (as we all know, the perfect match for their passions is Orkut, the online community). Most of them cannot even affort a watch but every house has to have an enormous satellite dish. In the most remote areas you will see this weird combination of poverty and modern technology...



But with all this craving for modernity there is still a strong connection to religion. “Deus é fiel” (God is faithful) is the most common “graffiti” to be found on houses, hot dog stalls and front windows of omnibuses.

There could be much more to tell, all these amusing situations and anecdotes but I will leave that to personal conversation (come and visit me in Berlin and I’ll tell you all about it :) I hope I did not offend any Brazilians with this post – it was not my intention. If I got anything wrong, I’m open for criticism and corrections, just let me know!

With this I close my Brazilian travel diary, I hope you liked it (quite a few people already told me they only looked at the pictures. Next time I won’t put up any, so you’re forced to read! ;)
Let me know your comments, thoughts and of course, if you’re going to Brazil!

A quick stopover in São Luis and back to Salvador

São Luis is famous for its historic center, which has been declared Unesco World Heritage site. The colonial buildings are painted in pastel colors or have facades made of colourful tiles. Unfortunately a lot of the colonial buildings are empty and in a state of decay. Apart from the evenings, where there was live music in the street and lots of people partying the historic center is rather quiet, there are hardly any restaurants or shops, on Sunday night it was difficult to find anything open for dinner.

But close by is the mercado central and a big shopping street with loads of clothes and shoe stores. I spent Saturday shopping for presents and found great stuff. Sunday I spent on the beach. It is not a really nice beach, the water is rather dirty plus loads of girls bleach their body hair right on the beach (there are even vendors walking around selling the mix for bleaching) and wash off the bleach in the sea. I first couldn’t figure out what the girls were doing, I thought they were all using sunblock.

I was happy to be back in Salvador and tia Rejane. I only stayed one day and did my last shopping. I tried to see the Bomfim church, where people supposedly have been healed of diseases and loads of crutches and other things they left behind decorate the church interior. It took me almost 2 hours to get there (the public bus system in Salvador is comparable to the one in Dublin) and when I finally got there I found the church closed (advice: don’t go there on a Monday!).

The next morning I went to Praia do Forte to say good-bye to my friend Miau. We had a nice farewell BBQ with fish that his whole family (and most of the people in his street) joined.


Unfortunately I ate a part of a fish that you’re not supposed to eat (it was very bitter, Miau said it was the fish’s testicles) and I got a bad stomach pain that lasted all the next day and night. So my flight back wasn’t exactly enjoyable but now I’m back a few days already and well again!

Away from the world – to Lençoís Maranhenses

The most remote part of my trip also lead me to the most beautiful places. To leave Jeri and NOT go back to Fortaleza is an adventure in itself. My plan was to continue north to see the dunes of the national park Lençoís Maranhenses. If you don’t rent a private jeep (very expensive) a trip of 7 hours takes you approx. 2 days, if you manage to get there at all. For me it would not have been possible if coincidence hadn’t brought together our group of 7, each of us from a different country. So, this is how it’s done:

Take a Toyota from Jeri to Camocim, then a van from Camocim to Parnaíba, then a bus from Parnaíba to Tutoía (you leave at 6.30 am and arrive around 6 pm, with some hours of stopovers). So in the evening there were 5 of us “stranded” in Tutoía. An Israeli girl and me and a group of a Spanish girl, a French and a Belgium guy.

You need to stay over night in Tutoía and now the tricky part starts. To get anywhere you need to find a jeep going you way and negotiate a price. Luckily the Belgium guy had already negotiated a brilliant deal before the rest of us had even gotten up for breakfast. He found a driver who was ready to take us as far as Caburé, a small fishing town across the river from the national park for a reasonable price.

On the way out of town we also picked up a couple that I knew from Jeri, an Irish guy and his Turkish girlfriend. We convinced them to join our group and do the same route.

As far as Paulino Neves we were still a public transport jeep but after that all the locals got off and we had our personal driver/guide. We drove through a beautiful, deserted landscape, visited “pequeno Lençoís", went for a swim, it was a great drive.



We arrived in Caburé by mid-afternoon, just in time for a great seafood lunch. Caburé is a fishing village built on sand – a few huts, a couple of pousadas, electricity comes from generators, it really feels like the end of the world and it is beautiful.



We spent the night there, it was the most romantic place and so totally peaceful and quiet. The next morning a little boat we hired took us over to the national park where we did a hike to various lagoons. It was all amazing, white sand, huge dunes, beautiful lagoons – just check out the pictures!

Dune country - Natal, Jeri, Maranhao

Jericoacora – a place to stay

I’ve already heard of the effect that Jericoacora (“Jeri”) has on people, most come for a couple of days and end up staying weeks. It’s hard to say what it is about this place, maybe because it’s quite a trip getting there (you first travel 6 hours by bus from Fortaleza and then change to an open truck-type vehicle that takes you the last 1 ½ hours to Jeri along tiny dirt roads, beaches and across dunes).

The town or rather village is about the same size as Stainz, my hometown, with a population of 2000, lies beside a huge white sand dune and is built on sand. There are no concrete roads, everything is sand, and the only means of transport are buggies, “Toyotas” (apparently Toyota has the monopoly on 4WD vehicles in the region), trucks, motorbikes or horses. But anything you need (except maybe a cash machine) is in walking distance anyway.

The beach itself isn’t the most beautiful but it has definitely something. There is a point break with small waves for beginners and longboarders but the main water sports are windsurfing and kite surfing. But you actually don’t see many people on the beach during the day and you sometimes wonder if there are any tourists at all in the place. In the early evening they all come creeping out of their hammocks or wherever else they chilled during the day, and the first real activity is climbing the dune to watch the sunset.



This ritual is repeated every day, followed by watching capoeira on the beach until it gets dark and time for dinner and some more chilling out.



Nightlife starts late in Jeri, don’t even try to show up before midnight, you’ll be bored. It centers around 2-3 bars/clubs at the beach end of the main street and a number of drink carts that sell freshly made coctails. Everybody ends up there, tourists, locals, hippies and street vendors and after 2 days you virtually know everybody (and you know why there is hardly anyone to be seen on the beach or in town during the day).

I did resist the temptation to laze around and was actually quite active during the day, due to the fact that I discovered a little surf beach nearby and I was able to rent a board from a local surfer for 4 days cheaply. On this beach I made my transition to shortboard (6 ft and pointy), I loved it. How easy it suddenly was to get across the oncoming waves and to drop into waves! For the first time I felt that what I’m doing there can actually be considered surfing. Besides, there were only locals on that beach and I was proud that I didn’t stick out as the tourist who’s in everybody’s way, we actually caught waves together and had great fun!

I did slack however with taking pictures of all the new friends I found there, which I regret a little now. I also managed to embarrass myself in front of everybody on my last evening. I rented out a horse to do a sunset ride across the dunes and along the beach. It was absolutely beautiful, I think I never rode a horse in such a spectacular setting.



The guys in my group were a bunch of Israeli’s, however, who apparently believed the only way to go is full speed. So we were galloping for a full hour. The horses seemed to be used to it, my bum however wasn’t. At the end we passed by the dune where everybody just descended from watching the sunset. I wanted to make a little show of myself and elegantly gallop by the crowd. The horse sensed that the stable was near and decided it’s time to go home as fast as possible. It started to run like crazy and me already being tired out and I lost my stirrups and balance and got thrown off into the sand. Behind me a crowd of at least 80 people.

I hit the sand hard with my lower back and for a moment thought I can’t get up anymore. When I got back to my pousada an area as large as a dinner plate was completely swollen up. Now I’m still sporting a massive blue bruise but I was very lucky in a way – I could have hit my head or broken something. Anyway, when I limped to the cocktail stalls later in the evening to have one against the pain, all the vendors along the street burst out laughing, I didn’t stop to ask why.

Dune country - Natal, Jeri, Maranhao

Natal - Com Emoção

In Natal I went on my first great dune adventure. That is, I booked a buggy tour "com emoção", which means you basically are looking for a near-death experience.

First we went along the beach to Genipabu, where got ourselves in the mood climbing donkeys, camels and an early-morning beer for courage. From that onwards everything was "com emoção". Our driver tried as well as he could to almost make the buggy topple over, racing up steep dune walls turning almost on 2 wheels just to go full speed back down and other tricks, us 3 girls hanging on the back rail screaming our heads off - it was great!

The other adventures offered on the way, like the "Tiroleza" that drops you down a dune into a lake attached to some kind of climbing gear and the "sand sledge" that sends you full speed into a pool of water, were mild in comparison (even though we ordered them all "com emoção" of course).

It was a great day, except at the end we got caught in the rain (again). I returned to my hostel, er castle (the HI Hostel in Natal, something else...):



The same night I caught a bus to Fortaleza arriving in the morning and continued on to Jericoacora after only a few hours stopover (which I spent wisely in an internet-cafe near Fortaleza bus station, as I was told by a fellow traveler that internet in Jeri is exorbitantly expensive).

See some more pics of our buggy ride here:

Dune country - Natal, Jeri, Maranhao

Partying in Recife, recovering in Porto de Galinhas & Praia da Pipa

What a change it was to be suddenly in a city with loads of people partying in the streets as opposed to the rather quiet little beach towns! Terça Negra ("Black Tuesday") is a free party taking place every Tuesday in the center of Recife with live music, mainly Afro-Brazilian and Reggae. And everywhere really good-looking Afro-Brazilians!

I met up with some people from the hostel and some locals who took us along to another even better party, a Reggae party with a couple of live bands, one playing out on the street and the other one in something like an underground club, I think it was called "Garagem". At the end of the night we again had invested all of our money (except the taxi fare) in beer and in caipirinha, so I have to say, it was quite a good night out!

The punishment followed - slow and lasting... since consuming these lovely caipirinhas with the apparently not so lovely icecubes in a local bar, I´m back on my diet of coconut water, bananas and crackers - for a whole week already.

So my visit to Porto de Galinhas was nice but I wasn´t at my best, as was the weather. I stayed in an albergue that was recommended to me, Casa de Alberto, which was cheap but a little strange. I was lucky, however, there were 2 guys working there who were also into surfing (and - to my surprise - also advanced beginners) and we had a couple of great sessions. I successfully surfed a rather big wave on a rather short board (6'1"). One day we even got up at 5 a.m. to catch good waves!

The main attraction of Porto de Galinhas are the "piscinas naturais" - natural pools in the coral that are visible at low tide. People walk around the coral (I don't know if that's a good thing) and snorkel in the pools. Loads of fish remain in each pool and when you snorkel it is as if you were in a massive aquarium.



2 days ago I moved on to Praia da Pipa, which is already in another state, Natal. It is a beautiful beautiful place and quite developed (loads of expensive boutiques but also relaxed and with a great nightlife). It is the first place on this trip that actually has a lot of other European tourists around.

The beach that impressed me the most, Baía dos Golfinhos, is surrounded by red cliffs and you can swim with dolphins!! They are all over the place and come as close as 1 meter.

The next beach, Praia do Madeiro, has the most perfect, small beginner waves I've ever seen. They are easy to catch, straight lines and roll in slowly. When I saw them I immediately rented a longboard, caught loads of looong looong rides and was for once one of the better surfers on the beach :)



My second day in Praia da Pipa was the most beautiful and hottest day of my whole trip. Now I can imagine what it's like in summer here! To make up for it, the weather was truly shitty the day before and after.

My beach days are already counted - I'm heading to the city of Natal next to do a crazy buggy ride in the dunes (they take you to the "Wall of Death" and the "Vertical Descent"), then I'm staying in Jericoacora for a few days, a place that many people told me is absolutely great, and my last bigger excursion will be to the Parque Nacional Lençoís Maranhenses, a massive expanse of sand dunes. From nearby São Luis I will fly back into Salvador on June 4th and back to Europe on June 6th.

I don't know if I will be able to update the blog again during this trip, let's see...

I uploaded some more pictures of Recife, Porto de Galinhas and Praia da Pipa to this webalbum:

Pernambuco & Natal

O linda Olinda!

Saying good-bye from Praia do Forte and my new friend was difficult but if I want to see some more of beautiful Brazil then I´ve got to move on. I´m in Olinda today, which is 6 km north of Recife and is really charming. It has many things in abundance: churches, steep walkways, colorful little houses and tourist guides.

The guides are placed strategically at every corner of this little town and if they spot a tourist they make a run for him. It is almost impossible to convince them that you actually don´t need a guide. Although, today I went into town a second time they already seemed to know me or word had gotten around - I only got 1 offer.

I´m staying at a very special place here that I had heard about from other travellers. It is called "Casa de Hilton" (Hilton actually being the owner of the place). It does not look like anything special at first sight, but Hilton is the heart and sould of the place, which makes it very special (I´m wondering if the Lonely Planet will pick it up in their next edition, they should!)



The price is reasonable, the rooms are simple, there is no breakfast included but a well equipped kitchen, the difference to other places lies in details like the over 200 DVDs that Hilton offers (last night we sat together and watched 2 movies since it was kind of rainy), the use of the stereo sound system and CDs, the attention and good tips Hilton and the staff of the place offer and: a free 30 mins massage for every guest (I´m not joking)!

This is the address:
Casa de Hilton
Rua do Sol 77
Carmo - Olinda
casadehilton@bol.com.br
(081)3493.2379

Tonight everybody is going to a famous party that takes place every Tuesday night in the historic center of Recife, the "Terca Negra". Will tell more about it the next time I´m writing this blog!

Here are some more pictures of Olinda:

Pernambuco

Adventures in Praia do Forte

After all these tours and hiking in Lençois I thought I will take it easy for a few days on the beach in Praia do Forte (about 70 km north of Salvador), but things turned out differently :)

Praia do Forte is a popular vacation destination for people from Salvador and it also has quite a few beautiful and expensive beach villas of very rich people (which are vacant most of the year with only security guards minding the house, pool & garden - a shame!). The beach is a reef on one side that has natural pools to snorkel in and the other side is sandy and has some waves but is rather calm for swimming.

On my first day I met "Miau", a local who is a surfpro but at the moment is selling coctails and coconuts on the beach for lack of a sponsor. He is a very funny guy and we get along really well and hang out together most of the time.



We went surfing together, however we went out to the reef where his friends surfed and the waves were a little big for me. So I got trashed around, still had some fun and was proud of myself that I can hang out there in the line-up with the good sufers and not be afraid of the kind of waves that come along (a big step forward in my surf progress!). I didn't catch any waves but I at least tried. Miau's friends were joking "get that woman out of the water!"



So, if you´re visiting Praia do Forte make sure to stop by the beach by the first piscina and look out for Miau. He will help you with anything, whether you need surf lessons, a guide or just an excellent coctail!

Loads of turtles hanging around Praia do Forte - they have a project to save endangered species of sea turtles called TAMAR, which is right at the beach and really worth visiting.





On one of our walks at a more remote beach Miau and I encountered this little fellow who seemed to be a bit lost on the way to the sea:



Let´s hope he made it!



Yesterday we all went to a "Rave" together which was about 50 km away from Praia do Forte towards Salvador. It was in the garden of a house with pool, huge sound system and international DJs. It was all a bit chaotic (getting there, getting in etc.) but it was good fun in the end. I even met the nephew of Rejane in the middle of the party, he had come from Salvador. It's really funny, I know 4 people in Salvador and then meet one of them at a party!

The guy we got a lift from promised that we return around 8 a.m. in the morning but in the end he did not want to leave and we were all stuck there until noon (none of us had any money left, so the omnibus was not an option), that was a bit of a drag, but in the end we got back o.k.

Since we already knew that we won't be back from the rave all night I checked out of the rather expensive Youth hostel and left my backbag in Miau's house. I've never seen such a place before!

The house has a width of 2 m (!) and the whole family (3 brothers, 2 sisters and the mother) lives in 1 room in the first floor that has the length of 2 1/2 beds - so that means there are 6 bunkbeds, 3 on top of each other and about 1 m space before and after and half a meter on the side. There is no kitchen (the mother runs a little local restaurant nearby, which serves as their kitchen), only a shower and a toilet curtained off. To get into this "apartment" you have to climb a small metal staircase outside that has no railings, which is rather tricky. Kind of favela style... (it is only the top part there where the whole family lives):



So, I'm going back now to see if Miau is already awake and we can go for dinner in his Ma's place (she cooks really delicious dinner, and it costs almost nothing compared to the tourist restaurants on the main street).

Tomorrow I'm going to take an overnight bus to Recife and will explore the famous Porto de Galinhas and a pretty town called Olinda.

The wonders of Chapada Diamantina

The last few days I spent in Lençois visiting different sights of the stunning national park. The park is huge (1520 sq km) and has amazing waterfalls, swimming holes, caves and weirdly shaped mountains.

Lençois is a quiet pretty little town, apparently Jimmy Page liked it so much that he built a house here. In the past the area also attracted diamond miners who searched the riverbeds for the precious stones. Now - since it has become mainly a national park it attracts loads of tourists. Well, I could not quite experience that since it is - as I mentioned before - off-season and really quiet everywhere. The good thing about it is that in youth hostels I usually have the whole dorm for myself and that I meet many more locals - mostly the ones that normally work in tourism but now have little or nothing to do and are happy to have a chat or show me around. Also, our tour groups had most of the sights for ourselves. If you want to visit the sights of the national park you need to book a "passeio" (a tour). Some people also go on 3-day-hikes with guides and camping equipment but most people just go on 1-day-trips (lazy people like me :)

The 1-day-trips I did were really exceptional: I did not expect so many highlights and beautiful and extraordinary sights and activities (o.k., I did not go for the 400 m high base-jump, just looking down a rock face that is 400 m high was enough adrenalin - for the "irish" readers: just imagine the cliffs of Moher x 4, it is scaaary...)

I booked my tours with the agency "Chapada Adventure" and I was quite happy with them.
The first trip was filled with manifold attractions: We hiked along Rio Mucugezinho, which has - like all the rivers there - a reddish color due to the iron in the water. We went swimming in the "Poço do Diavo" - a spectacular waterfall with a huge pool of dark red water, swimming in pools of that colour took me a while to get used to.

Then we went cave snorkelling in the "Gruta da Prainha", which felt like being in a suspense movie, swimming around pitch black caves with only small torches to see the way, beautifully scary.
We visited the "Gruta Azul", the first cave with mystical blue light I ever saw. It comes from a combination of minerals in the water (I've been told it is "calcario, carbonato de cálcio, magnezio" and natural sunlight), it is absolutely beautiful.



We also did a short hike up to "Pai Inácio", a weirdly shaped mountain that gives a 360 degree view of even more weirdly shaped mountains (that is the first picture on top of this post).

After that we did a 1 hour hike through an 800 m long cave, "Gruta Lapa Doce", which is full of stalactites and enormous like an oversized cathedral.
And on the way back I fell asleep in the van :)

The second tour was a hike to "Cachoiera da Fumaça". I did not expect too much, just another waterfall, and was not perpared for what we saw there - the 400 m drop that I mentioned before. Pictures cannot capture the view down that overhanging rock, I'm not afraid of hights but this was something else...



The next day I took a tour break and went to explore the surroundings of Lençois with Elisabeth, a Swedish girl, who was part of the tour group. We went to "Riberão do Meio" a waterfall that has a 30 m long natural slide, good fun! On the other side of Lençois there is the "Cachoeira Serrano" with loads of natural stone pools connected by small waterfalls, very unusual and also great fun.

The third tour took us 150 km into the national park to the "Poço Encantado". It is the most spectacular of all the blue-light caves (see the first picture of the webalbum at the end of this post). It is 60 m deep and the water is so clear and lit up by sunlight that you can actually see the ground! It is surreal and beautiful.

As the second highlight of the day we went to another blue-light cave that you are allowed to snorkel in. It is "only" 40 m deep and you can also see right down to the ground with all its strange underwater rock formations and the blue light coming in through the hole above the cave. Looks like an underwater laser show... I won't say more, just look at the pictures here:

Chapada Diamantina

Going south - Porto Seguro, Arraial d'Ajuda & Trancoso

So I did finally leave Itacaré, not without having the Friday party night out (the intention was to go out for 1 beer, I ended up just about catching the bus to Porto Seguro at 7 a.m. in the morning...)

I travelled with the Swiss couple, Simone and Bruno, who also headed down South. We stayed in Porto Seguro for a couple of nights to organize our onwards journeys. I ended up buying a plane ticket back to Salvador because it was only 10 EUR cheaper than the 11 hours bus trip (a good advice for Brazil travellers: if you need to do a long haul, double-check on the internet for cheap flights - I was lucky with TAM, but there are various cheap airlines: Varig, Voegol, Voebra. If you find a flight go to a travel agency and ask them to book it for you. Unfortunately you can´t book flights online for Brazilian airlines if you don't have a Brazilian personal ID number).

Porto Seguro has a charming historic district and for evening entertainment the "Passeio d'Alcool" (I guess I don't need to translate that). There is a big crafts and souvenir market along the passeio (Porto Seguro is a popular holiday spot for Brazilians), a lot of really nice stuff, also loads of horrible kitsch, but my absolute favorite was this stall (I would live entirely on "bolos" as cakes are generally called, if I could my body could process that much sugar):



The Lonely Planet recommended to visit nearby rustic and magical Arraial d'Ajuda, that supposedly is attracting a wilder crowd of "nouveau hippies" (whatever that is, it sounded interesting). As it turned out, my 2005 Brazil edition of the guidebook was not quite accurate (as it turned out to be for quite a few things, so wait for the upcoming edition if you can. Although, I am not saying that LP is a bad travel guide - I use it for all my travels and I can highly recommend it!), anyway, the place was quite dead, full of upscale shops and deserted restaurants, elegant pousadas and not a single wild hippie in sight (also maybe the fact that it is deepest off-season and the weather was rather shitty that day had some influence on that...)

The really beautiful Praia Pitanga was a good 40 mins walk away but worth the effort. In the beach barracas were a few lonely middle-aged, white and apparently wealthy tourists, a rather weird sight after the great mix of locals and young people on the beaches of Itacaré. Maybe if the weather had been nicer I might have gotten to like the place better...



The next day we moved over to Trancoso, which is around 2 hours south of Porto Seguro and muito simpatico. The town square of the size of a football field is surrounded by little shops and restaurants and actually is a football field, since it is only grass and no cars, no concrete, very romantic, especially when lit up in the evening.



The beaches are much closer and very pretty. Unfortunately the weather was still kind of shitty and I spent one afternoon as the only guest in a beach barraca sitting beside the pizza oven (to keep warm) chatting with the restaurant staff - it turned out to be a rather entertaining afternoon in the end and I made new friends :)

The next day I was finally lucky (Bruno and Simone unfortunately had to take off that day and missed the good weather). I went to Praia Espelho - it is in the top 10 of Brazil's most beautiful beaches, a lot of effort to reach but really worth it!

There are 2 buses a day, one that goes there at 8 a.m. and one that comes back at 5 p.m. They travel along a dirt road and break down on a regular basis. I was lucky, not only did the bus break down before it reached Trancoso and not when I was on it, I also met a nice couple from São Paulo, who went the same way.

From the bus stop it is a good 4 km walk to the beach, but when we got off the bus, some guys on horses rode by and the couple bargained for us to go to the beach (and return) on horseback for a very cheap price. So we conveniently reached the beach and on top of it got some local stories from the guys. One of them told us, for example, that he bought his house in the area 13 years ago for a hammock, a walkman and 50 tapes! (now its worth much more, since the place developed)



Here are some more pictures of Porto Seguro, Arraial d’Ajuda and Trancoso:

Porto Seguro & Trancoso

Itacaré - Brazil´s coolest surf town!

Ha ha, I'm so stuck in Itacaré that I wasn´t even thinking of reading my email or writing my blog for the last 8 days! This is a great place to hang out, it seems to be Brazil´s equivalent to Byron Bay in Australia: it is incredibly relaxed, there is great surf and loads of different, extremely beautiful beaches, a good young crowd around (even now in the off-season) and loads of parties.

From what I heard about Itacaré I already suspected this was going to be my longest stop in one place, it is so far and somehow I don't feel inclined to leave (next stop should be Trancoso, south of Porto Seguro, tentative departure: Saturday, or maybe Sunday - depending on how bad my muscles hurt from hours of surfing).

Everything was great from the moment I arrived: I chose the best hostel (Albergue O Pharol) - it is not only a traveller's home but also a home for cats and dogs, who are lazing around everywhere and make for a nice atmosphere. The rooms are comfortable with balconies and the common room is converted into a pre-party zone every evening.

The very friendly owner of the hostel immediately introduced me to Peter, a Norwegian guy, who is also here for surfing, so I was not lost for company. On my first evening I found the "Local Surf School" to be most helpful and have the best offer for renting boards. Besides, the guy from the place is really good looking :)

I tried my first surfing at the beginner beach, Ribeira, which was a bit scary on that day. My second day of surfing on Engenhoca was equally unsuccessful - due to a massive hangover from the Friday night party (for visitors of Itacaré: Friday night is the biggest party night, there is a club on La Concha that everybody goes to).

So the next 2 days I took it easy and went to see Prainha (a very beautiful beach 40 mins walk from Itacaré), took a canoe trip upriver with Nino (a friend from the surf school crowd) and went on an adventurous excursion to the beach Jeribucuacu with a Swiss couple that are also staying in the hostel (adventurous meaning us getting slightly lost in a magrove swamp on the way to the beach and caught by the dark in the jungle on the way back).

Today I was back for the surfing again and spent most of the day in the water. Now I am sporting a surfers tan (well, at the moment its rather a surfer´s sunburn - red from the knees to boardshorts and the lower arms). I also sport some blue and black bruises due to some disagreement with the 8 ft board I rented on the first 2 days (I´m down now to a 7'6", which corresponds much better to what I'm used to). These days the waves at Ribera are smooth but big enough for some semi-spectacular drops, so I´m having a great time and make real progress (and I´m getting rid of the fear that I built up from my week in Fuerteventura, which was brutal to say the least...)

The only thing that is a bit annoying are my difficulties with food/water. Or maybe the Brazilian alcohol does not agree with me, I don´t know. I am dieting on coconut water, crackers and bananas at the moment and hope for things to get better. There is so much amazing food here to try out, it´s a shame to miss a proper meal!

Yes, and the other thing that can also be annoying is the frequent thread of rain - it is the beginning of the raining season and at least once a day the sky clouds over within 20 min and rain starts pouring down. After 1 hour or 2 everything is over and the sky is clear again - or not, and it stays cloudy all day and actually a bit chilly. In the morning it is usually sunny, so getting up is essential (also for the surfing: waves are good in the morning these days).

Speaking of - I'm getting hungry now, I think I´ll get a nice sandwich, so: here's some pictures of this magical place:

Itacaré - April 2007

New photos!

Since I didn't follow my brother's advice and brought my card reader, I needed to get a CD done with my pictures and now I am finally able to upload them here for your pleasure :)
(besides, one always has to be afraid that the camera gets stolen, so a backup copy of the photos never does any harm).

Here we are: my birthday in Salvador, Caetano Veloso, leaving Salvador on the ferryboat and in Morro de São Paulo! (click on the picture to open the full album)

Brazil April - June 2007

Taking it easy in Morro de São Paulo

Hi again,

today we took all these really great pictures that I wanted to upload to the blog (thanks for all the enquiries for more pictures :) and now the computers in this internet café fail to recognize my camera. Well, some pictures are already on this computer, I'm just going to use them!

I arrived in Morro de São Paulo yesterday - I had to delay my departure from Salvador for, ahem, a very bad hangover after my birthday on Friday.



I don't know if it was the mix from caipirinha, beer and craviño (the latter is evil, some local fruit-schnapps-specialty from Bahia) or if part of it was "traveller's disease", anyhow, I had a lot of trips to the toilet for 2 days.

But my birthday was absolutely great! I brought some Linzer-Torte to school that I had made the day before, all the students from all classes and the teachers sang for me in our break, I got presents (CDs with Brazilian music) and we all ate cake together. In the evening I went to see some Flamenco in the Pelourinho (night-life quarter of Salvador) and went to a private party in a cultural center (it was more like a loft, a really amazing old building).

The next day - despite certain difficulties - I went to see Caetano Veloso. I really liked his show, he has quite some stage personality (photos to follow soon).

My "family" did not want to see me leaving all by myself to Morro de São Paulo so they attached me to a friend of theirs who happened to do the same trip on Sunday. He took perfect care of me with ferry ticket and bus connections, meanwhile my family called about 4 times during the 3 hour trip enquiring how we were. Dalton (the name of the friend) also put me up for 1 night with his friend Liz and I could sleep on her sofa (neither he nor she had met me before, people here are really really amazingly hospitable and easygoing!). They took me out for great dinner and an even more amazing breakfast (do not leave Brazil without having had "mingao de tapioca"!)

On Morro I checked into the HI hostel, which turned out to be a good choice, since a really nice German girl and me are almost the only ones staying there, and the German girl is friends with the Brazilian receptionist. Since my arrival we have been an inseparable trio and we all speak Portuguese (the German girl spent 5 months in Mato Grosso - somewhere in the center of Brazil where no tourist ever finds his way - doing charity work in a hospital, she has loads of very interesting stories about that time). Today we hiked to a beach where there is some special kind of clay that you can smear all over you as a treatment for the skin and hair. It was very nice (afterwards :)



So, now I digested my very large dinner and I can go and get one of the great cakes that the women sell on the street (food will be another chapter here I guess, especially cakes! They are sooooo yummy), and then walk down to Segunda Praia (second beach if you haven't guessed it) to get a huge, hand-made Piña Colada (with hand-made I mean they actually squeeze the coconut milk and pinapple juice in front of you) for 4 Reales (which is about 1 Euro). This is where it's at:

Salvador da Bahia, tía Rejane e na escola de Português

Wow - I´ve been in Brazil for almost a week and it seems so much longer, all these new impressions...! Salvador is a beautifully derelict town and rather relaxed for a metropolis of 3 million inhabitants. I am especially lucky because I am staying with a local family - aunt Rejane (the aunt of Neida, my former work-collegue, but now she is my aunt also :) and her 3 nephews. They welcomed me as if I was part of their family even though we never met before.

They picked me up from the airport and we went directly to their beach house (yay!), so this is where I got my first sunburn:



Monday I started my Portuguese course in the highly recommendable language school IDIOMA. We are 2 students in class and Rosângela, our teacher, is challenging us every minute of the class. It is great, I´m learning so fast I feel as if there must be smoke coming out of my head with all the new words (or maybe it is my imagination and I´m just speaking "Portuñhol" and people are too polite to tell me that half of my Portuguese is in fact Spanish :)

The weather is usually nice and warm but at the moment it is also raining season and we had 2 rather rainy days so far (as long as I´m in school I don´t mind, but this weekend I´m moving on to Morro de São Paulo, a beach paradise so I'm told).

Saturday is going to be a highlight: our language school invites us to see Caetano Veloso apparently the greatest singer from Brazil. I don't really know his music, but I heard that he has contributed music to films by Almodovar, so I guess he must be interesting. This is what I found online about him:

"...Music critics struggle to find an Anglo-American equivalent to Veloso. According to one, Gerard Marzorati, he has "the poetical and political allusiveness of Bob Dylan, the melodic seductiveness of Burt Bacharach, the good looks of a French New Wave actor, the hip thinkingness of Susan Sontag in her Partisan Review days, and the sheer pop weirdness of Captain Beefheart". He is adored by the artier end of pop from Beck to David Byrne, with whom he appeared last month at the Carnegie Hall in New York."

So, now I'm going to try the "Torta de Linz" that I just made with my new brasilian family because - pst - amanhã é meu aniversário :)

Here a few more pictures from Salvador:

Brazil April - June 2007

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