My Travels with Sarah: Salvador, Morro de Sao Paulo and Itacare

Photos: (more to come)

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The last 2 weeks with Sarah have been wonderful. I left Rio to fly to Salvador in the state of Bahia with butterflies in my stomach. Would everything be OK, would we have become strangers, would I have turned into one of those annoying gappers who has no connection to the real world anymore.  Having managed to coordinate our arrivals within half an hour of each other, we took all of about 2 minutes to click in and feel at home with each other.  The only strange thing was seeing sarah so pale, and for her, everyone being so tanned.

We headed into the heart of Salvador, the Pelhourino which means 'the whipping post' where they used to whip the slaves that were the backbone of Salvador's economy, whose descendants now make up the vast majority of its inhabitants and create a very vibrant african-brazilian atmosphere.  Salvador was the first place the Portuguese arrived, and they quickly made it the jewel in the colonial crown.  It is laden with churches, vast buildings and beautiful colonial architecture.  The Pelhourino epitomizes this, although it is place of bygone splendors.  Much money has been spent by UNISCO in protecting it as a world heritage site, and the difference between now and 10 years ago is vast.  But despite this there remains an air of tarnished beauty.  The facades of the buildings, which would have once been bright and sharp, are damaged by years of tropical rains, its cobbled alleys welcoming but warnings of dangers beyond certain touristy streets and times.  It makes it all a very heady mix.  There is a beautiful art deco lift that connects the upper and lower port area. For a while we looked for the 'lower city' that the bloody guide book does not make clear, at least to 2 oxford graduates, is literally the area by the port, rather than up on the cliffs.  this sounds obvious, but the map is very unclear.  honest.

In the evenings we braced ourselves to be sold everything and anything while we ate.  I found the finger wag, developed in Argentina, was mostly very efficient at getting rid of unwanted sellers.  It didn't work so well on the street children, some of whom decided to freak us out my coming up behind sarah while we ate and trying to kiss her.  given it was 10-13 year old boys it was clearly meant harassing.  I also got told by one boy that i was 'discriminating against him'.  pretty impressive argument for a street kid.  Where on earth he picked that up is anyone's guess!

Although Salvador was lovely, both of us were itching for some nice beaches.  So we headed to Morro de Sao Paulo, which turned out not to be an island in its own right like we thought, but is actually a idyllic holiday resort on the island of Tinhare.  The boat trip there was less pleasure cruise and more sea sickness; i had a plastic bag at the ready.

But Morro was perfect.  Everything we had hoped for.  Set on three jungle topped hills, around a mango grove lined Canal de Taperoa and the shallow, calm Atlantic (borrowed from Lonely planet).  It is a proper little holiday town, including boutiques, numerous nice restaurants, bars etc.  But for us, and being out of season a little bit, it was developed but still retained its charm.  For eight days we sat on our sun loungers, learning the world 'limpar' for 'to clean' from the sunchair man when we wanted him to brush away the sand.  We floated (very little actual swimming) and chatted and oggled people from the sea when it was too hot to stay on the chairs, and we didn't have to finger wag at all the whole time we were there, despite all the people selling things.  started life in a bit of a grotty pousada, but changed to a lovely one with a balcony and hammock that fit the 2 of us.  bliss.

We took a great boat cruise around the island, seeing the villages of Boipeba (still very underdeveloped - great for honeymoon) and Cairu, which was the original village on the island.  The boat literally flew over the waves, so much fun at the front, although not so good in a little bikini without support bra!  Met some very nice middleaged couples who took us under their wings, making sure in following days we went to the port for the sunset (amazing red sky) and translating all the Portuguese for us.  We had lobster on a beach of Paradise, surrounded by mango groves and crashing waves, and later on tried oysters in oyster shacks on stilts in the river.  Perfect day.

Morro became a bit livelier on the weekend, and on the saturday night we headed to a full moon party on a different part of the island.  having had a few too many vodkas and caiparinhas, how we managed to stay on the hugely overcrowed boat I do not know!  The party was good, but i kept complaining i could not dance because there was no dance floor and the sand put me off balance.  Don't know whether it was the sand or me.

We finally got up the courage to leave our little island on the monday, and took the plunge to travel to Itacare, a surfing village about 9 hours away.  We promised ourselves we would have surfing lessons, but I think we both ultimately thought we'd chicken out. However, after being very proactive and changing hostel to one that didn't smell of damp, was bigger and cheaper, we awoke on our first morning to find that it was raining and a bit gray and cloudy.  So having no shops open to go shopping in, we went down to the beach, decided to get some boogie boards, and booked a private lesson for the next day starting at 8am.   Very impressed with the effort.

The reality was even better.  The day was glorious, and they took us to a deserted beach about 15mins away from town called Itacareazinho.  It was a huge expanse of beach, lined with palm trees, and when we arrived, no other person there.  The surfing was fantastic, the teacher was good, really patient, and after about half hour in the water I was able to stand up on most waves, realising my lessons from Morroco.  Sarah hadn't been surfing since Australia, 4 half years ago, but was up and standing pretty soon after.  The best moment was when we both caught the same wave, standing side by side, with our arms in the correct position(!) legs crouched, happy as anything.  We were surfing!!!

Returned to Salvador where I reluctantly let sarah leave after spending one more day at the beach, finger wagging came back.