Chapada Diamantina, Lencois, Brazil
The cave
Waterfalls and slides
The backpacking- vale do paty
Morro de Sao Paulo
The end
6.20.2012
Chapada diamantina, morro de sao paulo, future plans
It has been an awesome time in brazil. Started in Salvador from the last blog and from there took an eight hour bus to a little gem to the west away from the coast. It is a totally outdoor lovers paradise with endless adventure which is why I stayed longer than intended.
The first day I went to a cave, and can't recall the name...go figure. It is the largest in chapada and I was really looking forward to it bc I hadn't been I a cave since I could remember. Well I or all the cave I could handle that day spending nearly 5 and a half hours underground with no light but the cheap rental the guide gave me. Forgot my headlamp. Well it was tough and think and hot and amazing as well haha, amazing stalagmites and stalactites and just amazing how many different worlds there on on te planet. I took almost three hundred pics and had trouble narrowing the ones to put up. It was insane though
The next two days I met a lot of locals and brazilians and my first Saturday night was one of the best nights I've had since leaving buenos aires. We went to a cafe/bar and there was a guitarist and all my friends told me to grab my guitar and it literally turned into a jamfest after a whole little band came to jam. I was understanding more and more Portuguese as well as discovering I had learnt more Portuguese than I thought and could put thoughts together. Anyways I could write about this forever but I'm typing on my iPhone and it's annoying.
The next several days were just day holds to waterfalls, natural slides, mesas, and I met two Israelis a German and a Swiss. We all decided after a couple day holes that we should get deeper and we hired a guide to take us to the number three most beautiful place I. South America vale do paty (patchy). And it was so worth it. Gret group, great hikes, great terrain and lots of swimming yAY. When we're returned I was supposed to again leave but then I heard about te weekend festivities which included a cultural horse fair where people rode from another nearby town to lencois where they were welcomed by families and friends. Very nice.
The German guy, Felix, and I decided to head to morro together where I am now. It's been fun. Beautiful place. Very tranquillo with a nearly empty beach outside the vendors trying to scrape every penny they could. Felix left today and ive found myself again bored and antsy and need a more social atmosphere and adventure which as I read Itacare has both. I really want to spend a couple days surfing before hauling ass south. So I think I'll be there until roughly the 26th and taking a bus or a cheap plane to rio to meet a Max, a buddy from school who decided to come down! Excited to meet rio as I have possible plans of moving down there after Christmas to hunt for some work and learn Portuguese. The Brazilian economy is the 5 or 8th biggest in the world right now and have heard job opportunities for English speaker (and bc I know Spanish and will learn Portuguese) a prime candidate. Anyways this is all I can write now.
Still loving the road and very excited to meet up with so many people alig the way. Max in rio, Shanny in Peru and Ecuador, mom and mark in Ecuador, and luli in Colombia, so even though I'm alone for a bit longer I am so happy knowing I am beig visited and will be able to share my adventures with friends and family and they will become characters and huge pieces I this 11month long journey. So for now tchau e bom noite
The first day I went to a cave, and can't recall the name...go figure. It is the largest in chapada and I was really looking forward to it bc I hadn't been I a cave since I could remember. Well I or all the cave I could handle that day spending nearly 5 and a half hours underground with no light but the cheap rental the guide gave me. Forgot my headlamp. Well it was tough and think and hot and amazing as well haha, amazing stalagmites and stalactites and just amazing how many different worlds there on on te planet. I took almost three hundred pics and had trouble narrowing the ones to put up. It was insane though
The next two days I met a lot of locals and brazilians and my first Saturday night was one of the best nights I've had since leaving buenos aires. We went to a cafe/bar and there was a guitarist and all my friends told me to grab my guitar and it literally turned into a jamfest after a whole little band came to jam. I was understanding more and more Portuguese as well as discovering I had learnt more Portuguese than I thought and could put thoughts together. Anyways I could write about this forever but I'm typing on my iPhone and it's annoying.
The next several days were just day holds to waterfalls, natural slides, mesas, and I met two Israelis a German and a Swiss. We all decided after a couple day holes that we should get deeper and we hired a guide to take us to the number three most beautiful place I. South America vale do paty (patchy). And it was so worth it. Gret group, great hikes, great terrain and lots of swimming yAY. When we're returned I was supposed to again leave but then I heard about te weekend festivities which included a cultural horse fair where people rode from another nearby town to lencois where they were welcomed by families and friends. Very nice.
The German guy, Felix, and I decided to head to morro together where I am now. It's been fun. Beautiful place. Very tranquillo with a nearly empty beach outside the vendors trying to scrape every penny they could. Felix left today and ive found myself again bored and antsy and need a more social atmosphere and adventure which as I read Itacare has both. I really want to spend a couple days surfing before hauling ass south. So I think I'll be there until roughly the 26th and taking a bus or a cheap plane to rio to meet a Max, a buddy from school who decided to come down! Excited to meet rio as I have possible plans of moving down there after Christmas to hunt for some work and learn Portuguese. The Brazilian economy is the 5 or 8th biggest in the world right now and have heard job opportunities for English speaker (and bc I know Spanish and will learn Portuguese) a prime candidate. Anyways this is all I can write now.
Still loving the road and very excited to meet up with so many people alig the way. Max in rio, Shanny in Peru and Ecuador, mom and mark in Ecuador, and luli in Colombia, so even though I'm alone for a bit longer I am so happy knowing I am beig visited and will be able to share my adventures with friends and family and they will become characters and huge pieces I this 11month long journey. So for now tchau e bom noite
6.07.2012
Welcome to Brazil-Salvador and Praia Do Forte
Hello hello hello. It has been a while since my last post, but I am happy to say that from now on...since things be be constantly changing and I am alone (have more writing time)... I will be blogging again and more frequently. I left Buenos Aires, and it was hard...but I knew I had to continue my journey. I loved Buenos Aires so much, but it was getting cold and I was getting antsy. I took a flight to the North of Brazil, and right now am staying in a city called Salvador. It is, as Brazilians have told me, unlike any other place in Brazil. It has a very distinct flavor and a very unique culture to the rest of Brazil.
It is a city of roughly 7 million and is literally set right on the beach. It is beautiful and has a very tropical flavor to it. It is known for its flavorful unique cuisine, made of seafood, spices, picante, and has very unique dishes that I will not even try to spell. But it is fucking delicious. It is a dominantly black population, as it had the highest importation of slaves back when the Portuguese first settled. It was originally the capital of Brazil, and made money of Sugar...white gold. But the city sort of died when other market spiked. It is an amazing place and it has a reputation of being extremely laid back and everything sort of moves at its own slooooow, tranquilo pace, which is a good change from Buenos Aires.
It is a bit dangerous at night, but I don't let that interrupt my exploring, I just have been safe, but at night you are constantly bothered with aggressive beggars, and has a reputation for muggings and thievery. Today when I was taking pictures with my nice camera, several police officers stopped me and told me to be careful. During the day it is extremely safe, but as always...the night brings the danger. Today I had a very relaxed day at the beach just soaking in the culture and observing the way of life here. As a sociologist major, i find observing cultures very interesting and can entertain myself this way forever. The water is beautiful, clear, about 70 degrees, and everybody runs to the beach after work around 2 or 3pm.
One cool thing that I never expected is that I can understand, and speak with the people in Brazil using Spanish and some broken Portuguese. It really is not that different. Alot of the words are the same, and I have been studying from a Portuguese book and have been able to get by. After this amazing discovery I really am determined to become trilingual, perfecting Portuguese and Spanish. It really is an amazing thing to be able to speak another language. I had never experienced this before, because I was never in a place for so long. I know I won't get Portuguese down, but I think I may move back to Brazil after Christmas, with hopes to get Portuguese down and work in Rio. The economy is booming and it is just a very flavorful and beautiful culture.
Yesterday I went to a little and relaxing destination called Praia do forte. It was very nice. The bus drops you off at a cobblestone path and it takes about twenty minutes to walk down to a little town and then the beach. It is famous for its turtle preserve. I went to their museum and facility there, where I saw gigantic turtles and baby turtles. They explained how they help the turtles to fertilize etc. It was a beautiful day and finally I got in the water and rented a snorkel and did some of that. It has been several years since I last was in a climate like this and I am truly in heaven. I am so happy I came up here and have 20 days to work my way down the coast. Although I would like to stay north because the further south you go, the more colder it gets.
But everything is amazon here. I met a Brazilian my first day I arrived who spoke perfect English so that was a relief, and took away alot of my stress. He left today, but I met two girls today, one from the Netherlands and another from Germany. It really is an amazing thing to travel by yourself because you are forced to put yourself out there and meet people. At the same time when you travel alone, you are in turn alone alot and you have to hang out with yourself and literally just be with you. You learn and debate with yourself, you decide whether or not you like yourself, and it really is a treat. Luckily I like myself (but not too much). I can keep myself entertained and actually have a good time. It is also important to keep moving because then you are always doing something. For instance I like it here, but I am leaving Saturday morning to go 6 hours inland to a jungle sort of place with waterfalls, underwater caves, hiking, rivers. But luckily two days ago in Praia Do Forte I met two girls from California and will be meeting up with them there. So things tend to work out. And even if I don't meet people, it is really a growing opportunity when you have so much time alone, and you make yourself try and communicate with vendors, hotel staff, locals, waiters...and through this you get a flavor of the place you are in. All in all things are really good and I love it here. After Lencois (the inland jungle adventure), I am heading to Morro Do Sao Paulo, a small island where I'll surf, dive, and just literally hang out on the beach. After that I am heading to a famous Surf beach called Itacare. And just keep working south.
It is a city of roughly 7 million and is literally set right on the beach. It is beautiful and has a very tropical flavor to it. It is known for its flavorful unique cuisine, made of seafood, spices, picante, and has very unique dishes that I will not even try to spell. But it is fucking delicious. It is a dominantly black population, as it had the highest importation of slaves back when the Portuguese first settled. It was originally the capital of Brazil, and made money of Sugar...white gold. But the city sort of died when other market spiked. It is an amazing place and it has a reputation of being extremely laid back and everything sort of moves at its own slooooow, tranquilo pace, which is a good change from Buenos Aires.
It is a bit dangerous at night, but I don't let that interrupt my exploring, I just have been safe, but at night you are constantly bothered with aggressive beggars, and has a reputation for muggings and thievery. Today when I was taking pictures with my nice camera, several police officers stopped me and told me to be careful. During the day it is extremely safe, but as always...the night brings the danger. Today I had a very relaxed day at the beach just soaking in the culture and observing the way of life here. As a sociologist major, i find observing cultures very interesting and can entertain myself this way forever. The water is beautiful, clear, about 70 degrees, and everybody runs to the beach after work around 2 or 3pm.
One cool thing that I never expected is that I can understand, and speak with the people in Brazil using Spanish and some broken Portuguese. It really is not that different. Alot of the words are the same, and I have been studying from a Portuguese book and have been able to get by. After this amazing discovery I really am determined to become trilingual, perfecting Portuguese and Spanish. It really is an amazing thing to be able to speak another language. I had never experienced this before, because I was never in a place for so long. I know I won't get Portuguese down, but I think I may move back to Brazil after Christmas, with hopes to get Portuguese down and work in Rio. The economy is booming and it is just a very flavorful and beautiful culture.
Yesterday I went to a little and relaxing destination called Praia do forte. It was very nice. The bus drops you off at a cobblestone path and it takes about twenty minutes to walk down to a little town and then the beach. It is famous for its turtle preserve. I went to their museum and facility there, where I saw gigantic turtles and baby turtles. They explained how they help the turtles to fertilize etc. It was a beautiful day and finally I got in the water and rented a snorkel and did some of that. It has been several years since I last was in a climate like this and I am truly in heaven. I am so happy I came up here and have 20 days to work my way down the coast. Although I would like to stay north because the further south you go, the more colder it gets.
But everything is amazon here. I met a Brazilian my first day I arrived who spoke perfect English so that was a relief, and took away alot of my stress. He left today, but I met two girls today, one from the Netherlands and another from Germany. It really is an amazing thing to travel by yourself because you are forced to put yourself out there and meet people. At the same time when you travel alone, you are in turn alone alot and you have to hang out with yourself and literally just be with you. You learn and debate with yourself, you decide whether or not you like yourself, and it really is a treat. Luckily I like myself (but not too much). I can keep myself entertained and actually have a good time. It is also important to keep moving because then you are always doing something. For instance I like it here, but I am leaving Saturday morning to go 6 hours inland to a jungle sort of place with waterfalls, underwater caves, hiking, rivers. But luckily two days ago in Praia Do Forte I met two girls from California and will be meeting up with them there. So things tend to work out. And even if I don't meet people, it is really a growing opportunity when you have so much time alone, and you make yourself try and communicate with vendors, hotel staff, locals, waiters...and through this you get a flavor of the place you are in. All in all things are really good and I love it here. After Lencois (the inland jungle adventure), I am heading to Morro Do Sao Paulo, a small island where I'll surf, dive, and just literally hang out on the beach. After that I am heading to a famous Surf beach called Itacare. And just keep working south.
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