Ilheus

is a fairly uninteresting town, but Rich and I had to stop there for a few hours before getting the nightbus to Vitoria, Espirto Santo on the way from Itacare. Jorge Amado is what makes the place famous. But to buy one of his books here costs around £25 for pb. Outrageous!

Itacare

The Monday of my second week in Salvador Katelyn left which was very sad. The strange thing about travelling is that you make very intense relationships with people in a very short space of time and then they vanish from your lives.

I started a weeks intensive Portuguese class and met Bryce who had met Diedrick on a bus who were both staying in the hostel in Pelourinho where I was going after class. There we met Rich, another kiwi. And that made my travelling companions for the next three weeks. I definitely got far more of an insight into men (boys?) minds than is really ever necessary for any girl but it has been fun.

After class on Friday Bryce and I travelled to Itacare where Died and Rich were waiting for us. It's probably one of my favourite places. Lovely beaches a stones throw from the centre, a decent but not too full on night life, a great hostel and a chilled place.

Salvador de Bahia

We went via Recife and Olinda and arrived in Salvador - about a month ago now - where has time gone?

Nicola had rented an appartment that sleeps five so we picked up Katelyn (she had flown straight there) and finally had some home made food.

Salvador is a weird place. Great nightlife - although we did get maced by the police at a street party. Apparantly that's how they disperse the crowds. Nice.

I was there for 2 weeks in total - not because I liked it but more because I needed the impetus to start travelling again.

The men are pretty gross. I got a henna tatoo on the beach and the guy kissed my neck. Guys would grope you in the street. I ended up looking at the floor so as not to make eye contact with anyone lest they think it means I want to have sex with them. The behaviour was APPALLING!

But the second week I couch-surfed with a cool guy - but he is from Rio, but he did at least restore my faith in Brazilian men....somewhat.

The picture of limbs are from the Igreja do Bom Fim - people take copies of their broken body parts to the church, hang them up and ask God for a cure. Pretty weird.

I did a weeks intensive Portuguese language course and thereby met my next set of travelling friends....

Fortaleza Brazil

We left Ubajara - small little town - with some sort of hells angels equivalent bunch of 12 year olds who the hostel owner had commissioned to take us to the rodaviaria (bus station) on their motorbikes. It was an interesting ride to say the least. We arrived in Fortaleza (it really is a shit hole) an hour early to our horror. We'd had only a couple of hours sleep and no-one woke us up - it was pure chance Nic woke to an empty bus. We got off - toiletries spilt everywhere - a mess. Nic booked us another night bus to take us to Recife that night....or so we thought.

Spent a couple of hours in Fortaleza town decided it was horrid to went to the beach - I forgot my bikini. Sam was literally horrified at the idea of me going in in my underwear. We did manage to get an amazing seafood lunch - and that really was the highlight of the day. Nic and I even left it too late to get a bus back to bus station and rushed in a taxi. Total disaster. Then we're all happy under blankets on the bus ready to leave and we find out we didn't actually have tickets for that day - but a week later. Packed up, ran back upstairs - only 10 minutes to the next (and last) bus. Really didn't want to stay the night in Fortaleza. The woman behind counter was being slow even for Brazilian standards - but so was the bus so 100 reais poorer we made it.

Ubujara National Park

So we left Jericocoara - all three of us - with terrible hangovers. Sam admited the only reason he actually got out of bed to come was because he was too hungover to think of an alternative plan. He made one mistake - thinking that Nicola and I were in better states to organise this journey than him!

We got in a van to take us somewhere (I cant remember where now) where we needed to get another bus. At some point the driver decided to take us elsewhere - apparantly better. Now, sometimes its good to listen to local advice. Sometimes not. This was one of the latter times. We got there - having driven through bumpy sand on the back of a truck trying not to vomit for a few hours. And there were no buses out of that place! So after much screaming - in Spanish - I cant seem to do angry in Portuguese he took us to EL TRIANGULO - which is basically a triangle of grass in a main road..... but not without having blown his tyre and us having to hitch about 10k. Then we waited at the triangulo for a couple of hours not really knowing if the bus was going to turn up. I have to say that Sam really came into his own. He had a slight tendency towards moodiness that Nic and I had detected and I was terrified he was going to be moody but he was very jovial and I think we may have sort of even had fun waiting in the middle of a main road, hungover as hell and boiling hot.

We got to Ubujara - all a bit of a blur and went to the national park and saw monkeys. It was def. off the beaten track. The only other tourists there were Policemen from Fortaleza and they weren't even proper tourists - they had been sent there for work for the week. Oh and there was a dodgy paedophile with two young girls hiding out in the park. But the monkeys were super cool! And the waterfall was bloody freezing!

OK, I'm blogged out. More soon. Im actually in Rio now so quite a lot to catch up on.

from Parnaiba to Jericocoara

The rock was Jeris highlight....not so spectacular but a very windy walk along the beach to get to it!

We left Barreirinhas to go to Jericocara. We had to go to Tutoia where we ended up entrusting a lady who ran a restaurant by the bus stop to look after our bags while we went to a very deserted beach, which we think may have been a river, rather than sea with an american dude. From there we went to Parnaiba - where we ate pretty horrible pasta and got up early to get to Camocim where we had to hire a buggy (see pic) to get us to Jericocoara. This was probably the most fun part of my trip so far. Val, our buggy driver was a good laugh. We drove basically through endless sand, went sandboarding down some dunes, and went to a beautiful spot by a lake where we lay in hammocks in the water, drinking beer and eating seafood. It was idyllic.

Jericocara was cool- VERY windy - as it's known for kite-surfing and windsurfing. We had a few good nights drinking caipirinhas and met up with the Dutch couple also from the boat.

Lencois Maranheses NP, Brazil

We left Belem on a nightbus to Sao Luis and then onto Barreirinhas to go to Lencois Maranheses national park. This was the beginning of some more unconventional transport modes. We staying in a nice spot by the river and went to the LM NP which is basically loads of sand dunes with a couple of lakes that Sam, Nic and I messed around in having swimming races. I think the locals thought we were crazy. It was really beautiful but actually the journey around this area was more spectacular - or just as spectacular as the dunes themselves.

Brazil - Belem

I flew from Manaus to Belem - it was either that or another 5 days in a hammock on a boat. Sam, a kiwi from the boat came with me and we arrived in the wee hours. I met Nicola (school friend) in a nice hotel. We spent a couple of days walking around Belem which was a much nicer city than Manaus. We went to a couple of parks with animals in horrible captivity, got upset by it and left. The lili-pads - shown here - were cool though.

Brazil - trip to Amazon from Manaus

After arriving in Manaus I went with Katelyn (from the boat) on a fairly non-descript amazon trip. Didn't see many animals. Here are a few pics.