Salvador

Location: Salvador (Pelourinha), Bahia and Pria De Forte
Temp: 27-30c mostly cloudy with outbreaks of sun and showers
Hostel: Albergue das Laranjerias  (R$66 for two bed –toilet + breakfast)
Links: http://www.bahia-online.net/  http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sergiok/brasil/salvador.html
 
Salvador is all about constant thundering drumbeats; acrobatic capoeira dancers; huge stretches of white, brown and pebbled beaches; Africana-Brazilians wearing resplendent bright colours, skilful beach soccer players and head shaking, body swaying, smoke blowing reggae, afoxe and samba music. I’ve never seen so many dreadlocks or drums in my life! Everywhere you look someone is dancing to or making music, kicking a ball or trying to put a multicoloured “welcome to Bahia ribbon” on your wrist. The place is a live with positive energy. I know now why the majority of Brazilians I’ve met unanimously agree that it is the number one city to experience the world famous February carnival. Forget Rio, Salvador is wear it’s at for carnival if you want to get stuck in and take part.
 
To appreciate the city, its culture and its people you need to know a little about its history. According to legend the city was founded by an Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, in 1501. In 1549 it became Brazil’s first capital. Salvador remained the most important city for two centuries growing rich on exports of sugar cane, gold and diamonds, tobacco, imports of African slaves and cattle ranching in the inland (sertao) regions. It was also world famous for its sensuality and decadence-until 1763 when the sugar cane industry began to faulter and Rio usurped pole position. The city experienced economic problems in the 19th century but nowadays with growing petroleum, chemicals and –helped by a face lift of the beautiful historical centre-tourism. However, for all its development and progression it ostensibly suffers chronic social problems with homeless people, street crime and prostitution rife.
 
The adventure started in Salvador the minute we left the airport. I took the very reasonable airport bus (2 euro, one way) to get to the port area Pelourinha which is situated bang in the cultural-centre of the city. The bus ride was one of the best I ever took. It was one and a half hours in length and rich in spectacles. I gladly would have paid double the price and stayed on double as long. Before getting to Salvador I had never realises there was so many beaches. And I never, for once, thought the city was by and large so intrinsically based on an ocean lifestyle. You learn quickly how to adapt when travelling. And before I knew it I was swinging my hips and banging my fingers to a mysterious beat on the seat in front of me. The dogs couldn’t stop wagging their tails and even the young surf board carrying 12 year old beside me was humming an Ivete Sangalo tune as we cruzed along.
 
My estimate is that the beaches run for about 15 miles. I’ll have to check up a book to confirm it but either way I’d say I’m not too far off the mark. I’ve never seen such a long stretch of beaches in a city before. And all the people seem to be on them. Half the population seems to be skating, cycling, running, walking, catching buses or selling pop corn, sweet corn or coconuts in little palm tree kiosks beside the beach. The other half are playing soccer, pumping weights, body boarding, surfing and snorkelling on the beach. It’s amazing to take it in from the slow moving window of a bus. When I arrived it was about 6pm and the light was fading, the sun was beginning to hide behind an ominous looking grey pall of puffy clouds and a gentle wind had starred to stir, but despite the atypical weather elements it didn’t seem to stop the people coming out in their throngs and thongs. There were thousands of bikinis, sarongs, Bermudas and Havianas on show. And amazingly, like a dream come true, there was almost a soccer match on every beach we passed. One thing that struck me about these games was the variety of pitches and balls that were in use: asphalt, grass, sand and mud; tennis balls, melons, coconuts and real deal footballs. Very cool. More affirmations for why they dominate soccer. The place was banging and hop-bobbing-throbbing with fun. And I couldn’t stop dreaming I was out there. I could see myself with the Irish number three “Deco” jersey the boys from work gave me before I left. I’d be out there strutting my Irish stuff against the Brazilian artists. Big punt up the middle Big Jack style, a shout for Ireland, a few sliding tackles, dirty elbows and an eye gauge, a cross from Brutos at the by line, a knock down from Eusebius, and as sweet as a ripe coconut a left footed half-volley from yours truly into the top right hand corner of the net. Boom! Bang! Keeper covered in dust. Brazilian boys’ mouths open. Ref pointing to the half way line. Nice one. 1-0 to the Gringo! Put that in your straw pipe and smoke it J……….. No need to laugh……… I`m serious………… It’s going to happen one of these days.  Mark my words.
 
Monday was a quiet night due to transit tiredness but with the cells recharged 24 hours later we were ready to take on the town. Tuesday night in Salvador is a big night. Very big. I’ve never known such an atmosphere surrounding a Tuesday night in any other part of the world I’ve visited or read about.  I had previously reported that Monday night can be a big night in Sao Paulo. But while a Monday night in Sao Paulo is like a normal Thursday night with its fair share of life leading up to a weekend. Tuesday night in Salvador is like a full on action packed Saturday night. Let me explain. It starts in the square in the cultural centre of the city. At about 6pm a huge stage is set up for some of the local bands and about 50 stalls are set up surrounding the square mostly selling chilled cans of Skol or Bohemia beer, skewers of a wide variety of meats, sweet cakes, big and small, exotic smoothies with fruits you’ve never heard the name of and don’t want to try pronounce and capoeira and samba paraphernalia. In addition, there is a huge number of individuals, children mostly, constantly asking you if you want your shoes shined, want to buy some cashew nuts, want some grilled mozzarella cheese or want to buy a drum. One punter even offered me a big bottle of Teacher’s whiskey for 10 euros. Declined on that one but I took one little boy up on a shoe shine and another on the delectable, mouth watering, addictively chewy grilled cheese skewer. Sex for the stomach.
 
On the night the Brazilian famous “Olodum” samba band were playing at Largo de Tereza Batista on Rua Gregorio de Matos 53. It`s the main attraction. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see them but luckily enough I got to hear some of them. Basically, by the time I arrived to see them the doors were closed. I’ll be going back in three weeks time so I don’t intend to make the same mistake again. Having said that we were very fortunate to see some of the countries most talented capoeria dancers in action.
 
Capoeira is a martial art that was devised by the Brazilian slaves in the eighteenth century. For centuries that slaves were not allowed to practice martial arts of any description so they cunningly devised an art of their owned that looked like an acrobatic dance but it used in the right manner in combat was lethal. The dance consists of between 4-10 people standing around in a semi-arc. One or two are playing precussion instruments  and singing and one by one the performers get a chance to throw themselves around. The best way I can describe it is as a mix of astanga yoga, kung fu and gymnastics all rolled into one. Mostly, the participants spend 30 seconds on stage and then someone else comes in. Sometimes you will see two of the dancers joust together but most the performances I saw consisted of one person back flipping, bouncing on their hands in a hand stand position, cart wheeling into a double flip, high kicking or free flipping from the ground without the use of hands into the air. I had seen it once or twice in Ireland but it was nothing compared to the Bahia performers. Much more athletic, much more flamboyant and much much more technical. Amazing. Their skill and fitness blew me away. Brutos wants to give it a go next time we go back. He’s so serious about it he bought some of the caopeira pants. I hope he doesn’t break his neck when he gives it ago. He always injures himself when he tries to mimic professional athletics. I’ll try get a snap of it when it happens.
 
The third and last day in Salvador consisted of a two and a half hour bus ride, 80km north, to the highly recommended Pria de Forte. Pria de Forte is a beach resort with a ruined fortress and famous turtle sanctuary.  When there I got an Indian hena-ink tattoo of a scorpion moving to a Chinese peace symbol on my bicep ( you can check it out in the photos), I got some acupuncture on my right ear and I took in an excellent massage. I also managed to cram in some of the Brazil v Paraguay copa de America qualifier and get a little sun.
 
I’m now back in Sao Paulo and with two other dogs from Ireland: the polymath-circumnavigator Chief O’Hara and the fearsome-merciless-man mountain, rip your head off with his bare hands (and worse dancer that I know!!!) Maddog McKeever. The hunting is about to get very interesting. Already one of them has found a bone. Amazing considering their only here two days!
 
I’ve managed to finally compress some of my photos from a variety of my recent trips. There up in the new Brazilian photo folder. Hope you enjoy them.

Praia De Pipa

Day: 117
Location: Pria de Pipa (North East) 
Temp: A hot 31c
Hostel: Posada Piranha (R$40 per night plus breakfast) and Posuada Veriea (R$50 per night + breakfast)
Links: www.natal-brazil.com www.pipa.com.br www.praiadapip.com.br
Books: reading the excellent Pearl again by Steinbeck.
 
Am now chilling it out after the last few hectic weeks in a beach resort 90km south of Natal. The place is buggy heaven with colossal sand dunes surrounding a sea bay. Pipa is very lively and theirs loads of young people hanging out on the beaches, in the bars and restaurants and on the streets. Its got one main street with loads of interesting jewellery, clothes and paint shops. Its also got its fair share of international restaurants and street vendors. Interestingly, it has two very popular bars, right across from each other, called the Blue Bar and the Yellow Bar. Everyone goes to these bars up to 2am and then they very quickly close down and everyone makes the five minutes walk up the hill to the one open-air disco that they have. Last night was mostly techno music and some local Brazilian tunes. I enjoyed it and ended up staying there until the sun came up.
 
The entire resort has a very mellow feel to it. It seems as if the hands on the clock move slower here; maybe something to do with the beaming sun.  People generally are very haphazard with everything they do: getting to the beach, eating, drinking, talking. It’s just what the doctor ordered and I’m now tucking into a few books, working on the tan, studying a little more Portuguese (which is coming on in leaps and bounds) and drinking a few “agua de cocas”, which I can’t get enough of for 20 euro cents a pop.
 
Getting here was fun! First the plane in Noronha was broken so we had a 5 hour delay. The plane company, after busing us all to a restaurant for free food and drinks got us on a plane which they had to rent in from Manaus. Luckily we hitched a free ride with a crazy codeine taking Dutch doctor and a Dutch Soap Opera writer down to Pipa for free. Fun guys.  Since then we’ve hitched to all the beaches or took the 1 real bus everywhere. The people here are very friendly and everyone hitches. Bizarrely the place only has one taxi driver. A deaf dude that drives around a 70s banged up Volkswagen. Seen him twice now and he seems to be doing a roaring trade. For the life of me I can’t understand why there isn’t any competition.  
 
Overall Pipa was well worth the visit. Some of the most spectacular beaches i`ve ever seen. There is a lovely feel to the small town, the people are very friendly, the food is good and at a reasonable price and the quick trip to Dolphin Bay to see the daily appearance of the somersaulting dolphins is unforgettable. Definitely worth making the effort to get here from Natal for at least two or three days.  

Fernando de Noronha

Day: 110
Location: Fernando de Norohna
Tour Guides: Atlantis Diving Centre
Temperature: 27

Fernando de Noronha is a hidden gem. It is a volcanic island that shoots up from the ocean floor. Not many people know of its existence. And I’m glad that it’s that way. Noronha is 26 sq km and 360km off the north east of Brazil. It is nearer to Liberia in Africa than it is to Sao Paulo! It is inhabited by approximately 2,000 Brazilians and at any given one time no more than 420 tourists are allowed on it. To get there you have to take a jet plane for an hour. You can’t get there any other way. On entry you have to pay a hefty enough tax for each day you spend there. I ended up paying 30 euros in total. The island has some unique characteristics in its culture which you can detect straight away when you arrive: the taxis are sand buggies, the police hang out in burmudas and ray-bans on beaches speckled with coconuts and most of the locals have one form or other of a sea animal tattooed on their body. The main attractions are the multitude of gorgeous beaches, the ultra friendly natives and the wild life that hog its coastlines. The island has changed hands on more than one occasion. At first it was owned by the Portuguese explorers of the sixteenth century. It then exchanged hands from the Spanish, to the English to the French and then back to Brazil. It was a hide away for pirates, a penal colony, a navy base for the US during world war two and as of the late 1980s it was officially made a protected marine national park. Now diving is the fruitful waters is the primary attraction. People come from all over the world to experience it and very few go home disappointed. It’s commonly accepted that Noronha has the best diving in Brazil and some say if you didn’t dive there on your visit you really didn’t visit the island. I agree.

When I arrived I checked out as quickly as I could what marine activities I could do. After a couple of hours sussing out the local tour operators, the prices and the content and location of some of the tours on offer I decided that this was the ideal place for me to try get my basic diving (PADI, www.padi.com) certificate. PADI is a certificate that allows you dive to a maximum of 18 meters in all the most popular dive sites in the world. The course takes in 3 theory classes, four dives and a written test. I was very fortunate to come across an excellent tour company called Atlantis and more importantly a brilliant guide. A beautiful young Korean/Brazilain instructor called Sandra. Not only was she very competent and knowledgeable about the myriad details involved in diving she was patient and made me feel assured at all times. And she always had the most beautiful smile on her face. The vagabond salutes her. The course started with getting to know the equipment: first stage, regulator, octopus, equaliser, weight belt, purge button, buoyancy control device (BCD) backpack, cylinder, din-valves, fins, pressure gauge, wet suit, face mask, and much more. Next was a trip into low water to get used to breathing and exhaling into the mouth piece. As part of the course you have to learn how to control your buoyancy which sounds easy but its not. The basic concept is to be able to descend, ascend and hover in the water in a controlled relaxed fashion. The primary way of doing this is by pressing one button on your BCD which inflates your jacket with air to bring you up, another button, which deflates it and helps bring you down and then by exhaling or inhaling air in your lungs to make them increase or decrease the air volume in your body. It takes a little while to master this and at the start you keep pressing the two buttons on your BCD but after a few hours you start to get the hang of it. After learning some of the basics on the first day I got a chance to take my first dive at about 12m which was on a 25m ship wreck just off the port. I thoroughly enjoyed inspecting the massive anchor and looking at the disassembled rusting hull of the boat. Fortunately, on my first dive I got to see a turtle. Unfortunately, he had been spiked by a local fisherman’s hook. It was caught in his mouth and in his back stream the line hung in the water like the tail of a barracuda. My instructor went down and tried to help him but he was a little nervous and instead of accepting her help decided to swim off into the blue. On my second day I did some emergency exercises: learning how to exchange oxygen, emergency ascents, putting on the weight belt in water and putting on the BCD while on the surface. Little tricky but I managed to master it fairly quickly. At the end of the exercise I took my second dive down along a coral reef. It was my first time coming across a multitude of sting rays and the first time that I have come in contact with a wild shark. On this occasion it was a mid sized 1.5 meter reef shark. Innocuous enough but believe me when they start swimming towards your hard jumps a beat. A magnanimous creature. The water was an explosion off colours. I saw flat fish that had silver bodies and pink fins. I saw big fat green and brown speckled fish with razor sharp teeth. There was one cool little fish which was one of my personal favourites that looked like he had a squashed rainbow on his tiny back. Then there were dangerous looking guys, one that looked like a samurai sword with various sized sharp teeth in his mouth. I kept away from him as much as I could. When I told the dogs about him later Brutos reassured me that if he had attacked that he would have leapt from the dive boat, as quick as you can say I’ve found Nemo, and come to my safety. When I prodded Eusebius about it he said he would have let one of the instructors know that I was in difficulty and a professional would have come to my assistance. In the end I didn’t need any help and I simply continued the 45 minute dive studying reef, being mesmerised by fish and hovering through, over and in algae. That night I had a class on breathing at depth. It took in modules on: air, contaminated air, oxygen, nitrogen narcosis, decompression air, redissolution, etc. Diving is a highly technical sport. And the main things I’ve learned about it is always be Eusebi-esqe: conservative, take your time, anal about detail and be prepared. The last dive the following day was magnificent. Sandra kept the best to last and brought me deeper into about 17m water. We explored black caves, undulating caverns filled with fish and tiny tunnel, vents and holes that left little or no margin of error for entry. Very different to the other dives I had done and much more technical. My favourite part was floating through the dark valleys, brushing aside some of the fish and seeing the deep blue abyss in front of you. The whole experience had a massive salty taste of more. I was instantly addicted. Unfortunately, my flight was the next day and one of the golden rules of diving is never dive 12 hours before a flight, so that was sadly the end of the diving on Noronha. That night I say my theory test. And I’m glad to report I passed. I now have my basic PADI certificate. I went out that night and celebrated with a little dancing and a few beers. It now means that when I get to the barrier reef, New Caledonia and some of the beautiful dive sites in Thailand, Sri-Lanka and India I can be captivated and mesmerised once again by the beauty of the many mysterious, tantalizing and truly beautiful animals that inhabit our wonderful oceans.

Note: We met the king of the island. A 40 year old drunk called Lombra. Everybody knew him. His day consisted of drinking tins of Skol beer the minute he got up, copious amounts of rock diving, marijuana smoking, snorkelling pissed, jumping, skipping and dancing. One of the best entertainers I have ever met. He’d make a surly mother superior with a heart, throat, foot, and tooth problem laugh. A special person. Brutos loved him and took a few snaps for the archives.

The Pantanal

Day: 109
Location: Capo Grande, Mato Grosso Do Sul
Temp: 28
Tour Company: Ecological Expedition, 4 stars
Hostel: Campo Grande Youth Hostel, 3 stars
Price: $R320 for guide, tour, accommodation and food, also managed to negotiate 2 free nights in hostel and 1 hour internet access
Tour Duration: 3 nights, 4 days
Links: www.pantanaltrekking.com www.aguasdopantanal.com.br

I’m just finished 3 days of trekking in the southern regions of the Pantanal. The Panthanl is 3 times as big as the Netherlands and as such very hard to take it in its entirety. I concentrated on one of the more popular wetland camps between Corumba and Campo Grande. For those of you that don`t know anything about the Panthanl just think of the Amazon with all its wildness and ferocity and you`re not to far off the mark. The major difference being that the Panthanl is wetlands (marsh, forest and lakes) were as the Amazon is more jungle and river based. My main base was Campo Grande. One of the three primary gateways in the marshlands. It has a population of 700,000, is heavily dependant on pastoral farming and tourism is the home of a very strong Brazilian military presence due to its proximity to the Paraguain and Aargentinain borders. As such it was pretty common to see fighter jets wizzing by in groups of two or threes.

When we arrived in the airport from the Falls we made our way to the bus stop to catch a ride into town and the local tour office to find out what type and with whom we were going to take a tour. But, we never got on the bus in the end and I`m glad we didn`t. A local tour guide called Owl stopped us and asked us did we want a ride to the city: no strings attached. We agreed. Within half an hour we had agreed to take his tour. One of the best salesmen I have ever come across. This bloke could sell an Argentinean soccer jersey to a Brazilian.

To get into the depths of the wetlands and into our camp we had to travel by open-top truck for seven hours. A long time in the heat, but despite the countless ubiquitous royal-pain-in-the-ass mosquitoes that were munching on us, and, despite of the industrial strength cream we had on, it was an enjoyable journey as we got to see a variety of birds, the odd mammal and had blessing to see a juxtaposed crimson purple sun set.

Day one was a simple meal, a visit to our hammocks which were inside a wooden shelter- home for the next few days-and the organisation of a wake up call for 7.30am the next day. When we arose we went on one of two three hour walks (I regrettably this time did the bare foot thing again) into high grass prairies, bogs, pools and forests. Our guide was constantly on the watch out for animals and would stop us if he saw anything. On show was armadillos, basically funny looking supped-up, armour plated mouses as far as I could tell; multi coloured parrots; huge blue friendly macaws, venomous snakes and ugly crocodiles. Also a huge variety of big, small, skinny, round and tall birds, speckled, dappled and spotted butterflies, green, black, red and brown ants and loud, quiet, benign, poisonous, down right ugly and down right funny looking frogs. Also more commonly spotted were zebu cows which the local farms tended to and herds of shy deers. Day two for me was more exciting. We started with some piranha fishing in a lake that was an hour away from the camp. We used steak meat as bate and amazingly the little predators kept chomping on the hooks for hours and hours as if their lives depended on being hooked to a flashing spike. By the end of the day the group of people we were with had amassed at least ten catches. Most of which were thrown to the alligators on the bank that were studying our every move. The rest were brought back to the camp to be cooked. For me the highlight was watching the guide demonstrate how the piranha bites. He simply placed some grass in its mouth and it snapped into action with its razor sharp teeth. Luckily enough they didn’t cause us too much problems in the water while we fished. Instead of coming for our legs and hips they seemed more interested in the bate. However, that said the water was dangerous, an Irish girl who was in the camp the day before we arrived wasn’t as lucky as we were. Our guide told us that while she was fishing a giant five foot otter (there almost instinct) attacked her and bit her on both legs. Believe me when I say that these things. Even scared Brutos who is not easily scared. She ended up going to hospital and the guide told us that it will probably be two weeks before she walks properly again.

After the fishing we spent the evening riding horses through the prairies. We spent about two and a half hours going through a variety of terrains. It had been years since I was horse riding so I really enjoyed it. Galloping, trotting and bucking brought a constant necklace of smiles, laughs and screams around my face. I had a little mare called White Silver. A curious little bullet of a beast with a hint of an attitude problem. On one occasion he just lay down on the ground and refused to move. Almost crushed my right leg but fortunately I was able to get out of my stirrup in time. He eventually got up after getting one or two gentle whips from my guide.

That night in the camp Una organised a Panto-vision ( cross between the Euro vision and some of the local Brazilian samba music) It was fun and everyone joined in. All the nationalities were lined up in horse shoe formation around a huge log fire. The Brazilians kicked it off with banging of multiple drums and a serious of soccer tunes, the English went next followed by Polish, French, Canadian, Scottish, Slovakian, Israelis, Australian and Irish. There was also a competition at the interval to see who could down a can of beer the fastest. The Irish contestant was a joke and got more beer on his chest then in his mouth, the Israel contender forgot to put his finished can on his head, the French contestant cheated by opening his can before he started. Surprisingly, completely against the bookies favourites, the dark horse winner was a shy quiet Austrian. A titan of a beer drinker. And the best fisher of the day I might add. Obviously a man with many talents. Great fun. And captured on film.

Overall, the Panthanl was a wonderful experience. I’ve never been so close to so many exotic animals outside a cage. I never seen howler monkeys screech continuously into the night as they run from branch to branch; I’ve never seen alligators chump on fish and scurry into lakes; I’ve never had a macaw perch itself on top of my arm or steal my shampoo; I’ve never been bitten by green ants that produce a sting like a wasp; I’ve never made jewellery out of cactuses; I’ve never got a tattoo from a fruit that lasts for supposedly three weeks and I’ve never ate piranha teeth and flesh. Hopefully, I’ll get to do it all again and more when we get to Manuas and the Amazon in a month’s time.

Note: Before I went trekking I was walking down the street in Campo Grande when I happened on something I had always seen on TV but never directly experienced. There was an open gate on the side of the street that revealed a sermon taking place. It was one of those ones like you see in America where a preacher is eulogising and showering down homilies and diatribes at the seemingly possesses crowd as if the apocalypse was upon us. People were roaring crying, some were holding their heads in their hands and sobbing and weeping and others were on the ground crouched down on walls shaking and gently hitting there hands off the ground. Strange. It was if the orator had cast a spell and everyone was puppets on a string acting out his every whim. At the end the crowd handed up envelopes of money up on the alter queued for a CD of the sermon!

Fact: Mosquitoes live for approximately 7 hours and come out to feed and die at dusk and dawn. I hate them. Eusebius couldn’t stop itching his bites.

Vagabond Tip: A piece of equipment that would be worth buying would be a super light, super small, super strong monocular. It would help looking at various different things at long distance. It would have been cool to inspect some of the shyer animals that kept at a distance and were harder to study.