Apr 2008

Moving further North towards the great Amazonas. Jumping from town to town with mind mumbingly long bus journeys in between. One night in Fortaleza and then in Sao Luis. Neither town particularly remarkable by Brazilian standards but nice enough for for a well earned rest after so much bus travel.
Looking for somewhere to stay in Sao Luis we stumbled across what has to be one of the grottiest little hotels I have had the displeasure to set eyes on. When looking at the room the landlord took us first behind a busy restaurant then into what looked like a dungeon. Half plastered stone walls that were damper than the mangrove swamp we went to see the next day. You didn’t feel that you wanted to breath the air it was so musty. We have stayed in pretty terrible rooms in our time and I don’t like to bash humble abodes but when the shower bleeds insects and mud when turned on, you know that this is not the room for you. I wouldn’t have minded so much if it were dirt (literally) cheap but it turned out to be a lot more expensive than the other, cleaner hostel we ended up staying in.
The next day we took a trip to a small village called Raposa. It was set just outside a beautiful mangrove swamp that were lined with giant sand dunes. We took a trip by boat, watching the sea eagles and other wildlife fly and scurry about. After a bit of dune jumping we headed home to catch another bus to Belem. We got caught in the biggest thuderstorm on the way to the bus. We were so wet that the taxi driver who took us to the bus station asked us if we'd mind sitting on the floor mats rather than directly on the seats.
We set off on Friday for our 5 day Amazon boat trip where hammocks will be our beds and insect repellent our constant companion!

There is a warning that comes with this city, which is not to enter the sea further than a paddle as you'll be got by sharks. There have been 19 fatal shark attacks in the last 15 years and over 30 other 'shark incidents', whatever they may be... So we've not been to the beach here and have stuck to hanging out in the city, which incidentially has the highest murder rate in Brazil... It does say that as tourists we're much more likely to get mugged or pickpocketed than murdered or got by sharks though, so that's encouraging.

Other than that it's a nice enough place and the people are really friendly. We leave tomorrow to head further up the coast towards Belem, where our Amazon adventure begins. After this we're going to head into Peru. We're hoping we can pick up a cheap flight, as otherwise it could involve several days on a bus.

We went to a ceramic sculpure garden of Francisco Brennand yesterday - 'sexualised earthworms' was the description given to some of the sculptures. When we finally sort out our site for sharing all our holiday snaps you'll be abe to see for yourselves. It was a way out of town so we had to get a taxi and we even found our taxi driver wandering amid the sculptures with a bemused look on his face.

We've just been round a shopping centre which until recently was the local prison and all the shops are in the cells.

Very much enjoying the local customs of cake for breakfast and if it's a bank holiday, beer.

To look at our photos, the website is http://dansue3.shutterfly.com

This entry may be a little hard to explain...

Candomble is a type of religion/spirituality that occurs throughout Bahia. Last night we went to a ceremony in one of the Favellas here. We were accompanied by a tour guy from the favella and a motley collection of 7 other travellers. Being a bit sceptical that we may be visting a 'show' put on for the benefits of us tourists soon disappeared when we arrived at a small house where it seemed the entire local community were crammed, and a scattering of us tourists.

I was seated with the women and Dan the men. There was lots of drumming and singing (some cracking tunes infact) and several people went into a trance assisted by the lead guy who shook bells at them and an older lady whose job it was to make sure their cigars stayed lit throughout. Those in the trance disappeared upstairs and returned some time later in different dress. They wandered though the audience to more singing and drumming then stood in a line whilst everyone went up individually and were 'cleansed' of evil that inflitrates all of us. I declined to go up as not having the first idea what was going on at the time I felt it could have been a bit superficial and tokenistic to try to somehow take part. Everyone who was there, young and old took part with many people being profoundly affected by the experience.

From doing some research and visiting a couple of local musems it appears that these ceremonies happen sproadically throughout the year and at specific houses. As many of the people in Salvador have their roots in slavery, their ancestory is largely unknown. The homes in which these ceremonies take place are grouped into areas where people belive their ancestors were from e.g. areas of West Africa. The guys who go into the trance-like state connect with these ancestors and thus connect them with the people attending.

As well as having religious and spiritual roots, Candomble appears to also have a role in connecting communities together and in providing ancestory and roots that were taken when people were enslaved.

One of the local colleges with the local community has mapped back ancestory where it can and tried to put names and faces to the ancestory of some of these houses.

As I say, hard to explain, but a fascinating and moving experience.

Salvador

Dan introducing the shin kick into Caipoiera

What a eventful Island this turned out to be. After a short ferry crossing we arrived at the car-less, except for a fire truck and a rubbish cart, main village on the island. I got a lift with one of the cars but more on that later.
We had decided to camp on the island and soon found a site that would rent us a tent for not very much. We didn’t have any thing to lie on so the owner gave us a few blankets in the hope it was more comfortable than sleeping on the hard sand. It wasn’t but you soon get used to it. There was only two others camping, a Brazilian couple who were both veterans of the isalnd and the camp site. Carlos could speak English was happy to invite us for BBQ and some of his killer home made cocktails. It soon became apparent that he was after a drinking partner for the night and I was more than happy to oblige. Fuelled by his cocktails we all swapped stories and he was keen to show off his local knowlege of the island.
The campsite also had other residents. Land crabs the size of a clenched first with one massive claw and other smaller one. They only came out at night and as it was mating season there were hundreds of the blighters! You could hear them scuttling about the tent at night, some trying to climb it. There was also a troup of wild but very friendly Marmosets. They ate fruit right out of your hand and played about the trees in the campsite. The sea life was also very good. We snorkled with more turtles, fish of all colours and sizes and even a golden spotted konga eel.
The rest of the time on the island didn’t go to well, for me at least. On our last dive of the day my on going battle with plantlife was lost again. Those of you who remember me breaking my finger peeling an orange will have more ammunition to rib me with because this time a tree got me! A branch bending into the sea with clams covering it was over hanging shoal of fish. I swam under it to see them kicked out and sliced a very clean yet very deep gash in my heel. We were a hour from the village so the boat we were on called the ambulance to pick me up on arrival. Blood was flowing and It looked very nasty but it wasn’t all that painful. The rest of the boat were horrified and fasinated at the same time.

(Wanting a souvenior photo of his injury Dan made me take photos of him while he was still bleeding all over the boat - not winning me sympathetic girlfiend of the boat award! - Sue).
The ambulance turned out to be the fire truck. They gave me a lift to what was lovingly called a hospital but was Just a very small medical centre. The medi-ceter was only 200 meters from the port so the ride was swift. The fireman even stayed to see my wound. In fact during my stiches I had a small audience coming and going, having a look , a laugh but thankfully not a poke. It was bizzare but they got the job done. I became some what of a celebity on the island after that. People were even stopping at the campsite to see me.

We ended up staying in Florianopolis for longer than we planned. We had a nice little apartment with our own kitchen just 2oom from the beach and just next to an estury running up from the sea. It was cheap and as we had our own kitchen we saved a bit of cash by cooking.

There was a 100 year old fig tree in the centre that they illuminated bright green at night.

We brought snorkels in the hope that we could find some good places to snorkel on foot. We walked many a mile and the best place was just where we were staying, although not that great really.

We took an eventful sleeper bus from here to Sau Paulo (12 hours). It started with a small child locking herself in the toilet at the back of the bus. Half the bus joined in the attempt to free her and in the end the driver had to be summoned to stop in a layby and 6 men went outside of the bus and studied it for some time, deciding that 2 of them should lift 1 up the bus who would reach through the window to unlock the door. The other 3 men were to play the important role of watching this manouver. They did this and it worked. Hooray! - as a child I got stuck in many a loo and can sympatise with this girl!

We then fell asleep, remarkably soundly for a sleeper bus to wake up a few hours later to find that we were stopped on the side of the road and the bus was half empty. It turned out we'd broken down and the driver had been flagging down buses heading to Sau Paulo to put people on. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long before we were also herded onto another bus going past and amazingly even our luggage made it through the transition. Before leaving our bus I braved the toilet, only to find that the light had broken and I had to navigate a well used bus loo in the pitch dark - at least I didn't get locked in!

We even arrived in Sau Paulo not long after we'd been expecting to get in. After 41/2 hours at the bus station and another 6 hour bus journey we arrived in Paraty, 24 hours after we'd left.

It's really nice here in Paraty. It's old and small and has lots of cobbled streets. The Belgium guy who owns the guest house we're staying in once went for a job in Farnborough - small world! We're only staying here a couple of nights as we're heading to an island that has an interesting history. It was a pirates lair, then a leppar colony, then a prison. We're hoping to hire a tent and spend a few days camping and snorkelling.

We've just been to a natural slide, which is a 30 foot rock which a gentle waterfall passes over. Dan went down many times, but when I went I got swept slightly to once side where the rock surface is slightly less smooth - like riding a cheese grater! Alas I only managed one trip down.