The Last Post...

I decide to stay and have breakfast at Jeri, I'm always missing decent breakfast thanks to early starts !  In Brazil you nearly always get brekkie included though what you get varies widely. This bit of tight-fisted economising costs me a lot later, as by the time I get to Forteleza (9pm) all the direct buses to Recife have just left. I then have to take an expensive night bus to Natal, and another morning bus to Recife (serves me right...). Recife is a surprisingly large coastal metropolis, I only want to visit Olinda, the old colonial city, and after a bit of drama finding the right local bus, I get there. Nearly all local buses in Brazil have a narrow gated turnstile inside the bus, operated by the "conductor",  just try getting through one with a large backpack, with the usual Ayrton Senna driving the bus, it never looks less than embarrassingly stupid !!! you always get stuck and have to "wiggle" through.

I'm not staying for long, but really, there's not too much to see, preparations for the upcoming carnival are well under way. There's a nice selection of crumbling churches and buildings and, walking around, you can see it all in a few hours. There are plenty of tourists from cruise ships in the harbour. At sunset time I take a few shots of the sun setting over Recife, as you may have noticed, I am loath to do...

And so to the last over-land leg of my journey, a 13 hour overnight bus to Salvador. This bus is nice and empty and I can stretch out. Going for a pee at a night time stop brings on the same drama, when I return outside the bus has gone ! and I am alone!!  It was, of course, re-fueling round the corner, I really wish they would not do that !!

Salvador is another big noisy dirty city, and one-time capital of Brazil. A long local bus ride takes you to the historical center, the Pelourinho district. It spooks me slightly because I've read in so many places how "dangerous" it is !! it really does not seem that way but it would be stupefyingly ironic to get mugged here (for the first time) with just a few days left on a 16 month trip. (n.b. Places, to me, on this trip, that genuinely did seem dodgy were central Guatemala City, Belize City, Tegucigalpa (Honduras) & Managua (Nicaragua), i.e. nowhere in South America). There are plenty of tourists in Salvador, hardly surprising, there is a cruise ship terminal and we are in range of European charter flights (the very reason I'm getting a cheap ride back to Europe from here). The local population is predominantly black, all with roots back to Africa & the slave trade no doubt, there is a distinct African feel to it. I stayed at a noteworthy hostel, the Hostel Cobre, a great little hostel right in the Pelourinho. I've no idea why most people head to Barra, it's completely souless, and expensive, out there ('cept it has a city beach).

Another bloody sunset picture !!   Biopeba.

After 3 days in Salvador I decide I've seen the significant stuff, large scale preparations are underway for the annual Carnival in 3 weeks time (some rate it higher than Rio !). I've got time to explore around a bit. I was going to Morro tomorrow (sic) but the hostel guy said don't go there, it's super touristy, go to Biopeba instead. And he was right !!  (well as far as I could tell, I never went to Morro). I had 2 days
in a perfect beach side village with deep sand streets.

Transport on the island, just this and horses...

I read books, swam in the warm sea, with black sky nights lit by starlight (probably how Jeri once was). Only issue was that restaurant food was very expensive, so lots more Pasta !! The overland trip (the cheapest way) to and from Biopeba, from Salvador, was a bit gruelling and took a day each way, but it was worth it. And once again I find that communities who have not adopted the motor car (no cars here) have a significantly better quality of life.

On the way back to Salvador, in Valenca, I find what I've been looking for, for quite a while (months), a hammock shop. The ones that I want are unfortunately too heavy (3.5kg), and I need to buy 3 of them as presents, so I have to go for lighter ones. I'm soon back in Salvador.

In Salvador, Tuesday night is party night !!, it's a mini Carnival (left) of street music and drinking. Next day I typically find a hammock stand at the market, I could not find one before! and this place is better, so I have to buy another hammock. This means I now have to squeeze 5 hammocks, somehow, into my pack.  My last night in S.A. and I sit on the beach at Barra, watching ships go by, eating grilled cheese on sticks (delicious, from beach vendors with portable charcoal grills) and drinking cold beer.



16 months and it's all coming to an end !! I manage to sqeeze all 5 hammocks into my big pack (which weighs in at 19.6 kg, 20kg is the limit), and that's with all my small heavy stuff (6kg in all) in my small pack, to take on the plane. I have to wear much more clotheing than I need (plus walking boots) as it won't fit ! I get to the airport 5 hours early, and typically, as I'm flying on a German airline (Condor) I'm not the first in the queue !! 10 and a half hours on a Charter Flight is a little cramped, but it goes quick enough, and is well worth it, this flight is only costing me 399 GBP, one way, a bargain. During the night I get up for a pee and directly below us is one of the Cape Verde islands, here the weather is beautifully clear and the lights on the island twinkle charmingly.

My Dad surprises me by picking me up from Heathrow, and very soon I'm back in ye Olde Blighty,  London is shockingly cold and grey. There was not room in my pack for my well thumbed Lonely Planet so I gave it away (left).

And that's it from me ! If you've read the whole thing, you deserve a medal ! I think writing a blog, while travelling, is a worth while discipline, how else could I remember 16 months ??
Anyhow, I hope it has been worth the reading.

Never look a gift-bus in the grill

The jeep (right) stopped at Rio Novo for an hour or so, then another jeep took us to Tutoia for 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We all wanted to take a ferry to Camosim (as this would have been the most scenic and interesting option) but on arrival we were told there is no boat. As a bus was waiting, with it's engine running, half us (backpackers) got straight on it. After Central & South America I never look a gift-bus in the grill !!

At this point, I find myself travelling with a group of 3 young French students, 1 girl and 2 boys and they let me tag along. They are all in Brazil for a year's work experience. They all speak Portuguese and they are literally brilliant at negotiating !! for them this is expediency, but it's great for me too as over the course of the next week I get some great deals on accomodation. Arriving at Paranaiba we find a good, cheap guesthouse, seafood for dinner and cheap Caparinha's (R2). The guesthouse guy recommends a private van to Camosim which means we don't have to get up before 6am for the bus ! This seems great in principle, but does not work in practice. The van guy picks us up late then parks in the town square for nearly 2 hours, drumming up more trade (C.A. style...), by the time we get to Camosim we have missed the jeep to Jeri. This is not a problem !  Camosim is a quiet untouristy coastal fishing town with great natural beaches and a river, so waiting another day is not an issue. Especially when "the Frenchies" negotiate a wonderful discount at an actual hotel. I stay in probably the best accomodation I've had in 15 months, for a pittance & lap up the luxury !! Later on we take a ferry across to the beach and have sun-downing beers (pic above).


The jeep ride along the beach to Jeri is fun, much too fast of course. This time we waited 3 hours in the town square at Camosim before departing, tiresome ! There is an Italian guy on the jeep who is the first person I've met who has also worked in Port Harcourt in Nigeria (pronounced locally "pott-ah-cott"), as I did in the early nineties. 

The Frenchies @ Jeri @ sun down time

We arrive Jericoacoara in heavy rain. Seems like a bit of an anti-climax. However the overland trip from Barrinhas was easier than I expected. But Jeri is not exactly what I expected, it is LONG past it's "hippies on the beach" phase (like almost everywhere else...), it is not overwhelmingly touristy, but close...  Everywhere you go it's the hard sell, buggy trips, horse riding, kite surfing lessons etc.. I know there is a cheap busservice to Fortaleza, but none of the agencies want to tell me about it, frustrating...  The Frenchies once again manage do a fantastic deal at a nice little guesthouse just out of town. I get a room to myself (plus a bathroom) for just over half the price of a dorm bed in town ! I don't know how they do it, speaking Portuguese seems essential. In find that, written down, Portuguese is very similar to Spanish and I can understand it. Pronounciation is a world-apart though !! Very different !! I have not tried to learn it, most Brazilians seem able to understand my terrible Spanish, but I can understand nothing of what they say. Surprisingly, English is generally, not spoken much in Brazil.

For my 4 days in Jeri, the best bit, by far, is watching the sun go down over the sea from the big dune that overlooks the town. If the weather is good, every tourist in town joins in with this Pagan ritual, bringing a couple of cold tinnies. It's glorious, a warm wind, hot dry sand, cold beer and very dark in only 15 minutes.

I've still got a way to go to get to Salvador and I want to get there a week early so I can "see the sights"and buy some souvenirs before I have to fly back. I say goodbye to the Frenchies and take the bus to Fortaleza.

the sandy North coast of Brazil

I arrived in Belem in not a great state of health. I treat myself to the pricier HI hostel (strange when a HI hostel becomes a luxury !), it's a good one, and I stay there for 4 days without much recollection as I did not do much but attempt to recover from 5 days of illness. After the 3rd day I still had bad diarrhea so I really had to visit a doctor for antibiotics (Brazil is strict this way, you need a doctors prescription for lots of things (that you don't in most other parts of South America)). A 10 minute consultation costs R150 ($90), with no warning it was going to cost anything at all !! but at least I do now have a prescription (as it was, for the most expensive drug of the doctors "favorite" drug company, I was advised by the pharmacist to go back and ask for a "generic" prescription, which I did, and that was only $5).

Belem is a big noisy town. My observations were that it had a lot of expensive cars & some of the people seemed rather wealthy (from exporting products from the whole Amazon region, apparently). The center was poorer but a great place for shopping and food markets (hammocks just R15 here and cheap tropical fruits, I've become addicted to fresh Mango, just R1 each). Down at the old grubby fishing port (pic left) vultures were hanging around in large numbers, squabbling, waiting for scraps from the fish market, they seemed almost tame.

some of the Colonial streets of Sao Luis

Next day I'm feeling better, wasting no more time I head for Sao Luis (12 hours East) on the overnight bus. I found Sao Luis to be somewhat over-rated. I made the mistake of staying at the first place I went to "Pousada International", it's grotty and there were much better places just around the corner for less money, it's unlike me to give up so soon, I'm getting tried. I arrived on a Saturday and most places are closed, the next day, Sunday, everything is closed. I actually went hungry on the Sunday and was saved by just one open restaurant in the evening, a funny way to encourage tourists. The colonial architecture is fine, there's no doubt, but it's in quite a small area and rest of the town is ordinary. And the appeal of colonial architecture goes down a lot when you can't buy anything to eat !!

On the Monday morning I leave for Barrinhas, this is the start of an excellent over-land trip across the sandy dunes of the North coast, towards Jericoacoara (Jeri). On the 4 hour bus trip we pass through lots of very rural towns, the first proper rural Brazil I've seen. I arrive just in time to go on an evening tour of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, which was a bonus, no hanging around ! I know that I'm here at the "wrong" season (start of Feb), but I want to see it anyway, 1000 square kilometers of sand dunes and nothing else !!

The park is famous for it's translucent Aquamarine blue pools of water set in a sand dune backdrop, but this only occurs at certain times of year. There is a gentle warm wind blowing, it is supremely quiet and tranquil (no motorised traffic allowed within the park), a sublime and beautiful place.

To get here it's a 2-3 hour trip in a jeep, bumping along sandy tracks and crossing a river on a barge. It would be a superb place to camp out for a couple of nights (& you can do this) but you'd need everything + water. There is a small lake for swimming in & we all do, but it's brown not blue.

Next morning I'm up for the start of the self-organised jeep trip to Jeri. It's a near disaster at the start. I was told to wait outside the Banco do Brazil at 9am. Nothing turns up at 9am but at 10 minutes past I see a heavily laden jeep pulling out 200 meters down the street. I sprint after it and it is the sole daily jeep to Rio Novo. I get onboard and there are a few other backpackers and few locals onboard, it's a squeeze ! And off we bump, for 4 hours, down deep sand tracks East along the coast.

More of the beautiful Lençóis Maranhenses park and some pretty clouds, ahh...