Back to Rio, Off to Bahia

It has been a while since I last posted.  We headed from Recreio to the National Park.  That day was pretty windy and the weather was not so good.  I went in for a surf at Recreio beach corner which was a bit more sheltered but didn’t really catch any decent waves with the intense crowd.

The national park was very scenic.  I had never been beyond Grumari before so was interested to see the rest.  We grabbed lunch at this restaurant in a fishing village.  The portions were huge and it was cheap.  We drove around a bit before heading back into Rio (Copacabana) to stay around that area for 3 nights.

The next day we dropped off the car. It was a relief in a way to get rid of the car as though as I was a bit fed up of driving in Brazil.  I had an unsuccessful ses at Arpadoar.  Only chose to go in as it was the nearest surf spot.  Never really had a good surf there and don’t think I ever will.

Later headed into the centre, Uruguaiana market, where we picked up some football shirts.  Maria was keen for me to get a Colombia shirt sowe both ended up with Falcao 9.  Ended up having a Feijoida for dinner.  Maria was keen to go to Lapa for the night so we headed out. Walked around the area a bit, had some drinks and ended up in Rio senarium which was a strange place with lots of antiques as well as music. 

Having got in at 3am the next day was a bit of a slow start.  Ended up not doing much.  Instead of going to Santa Teresa, it was nice to walk along the beach in the sun.  There were actually some pretty heavy waves in Copacabana- I was tempted to body surf.  I even saw one surf get a barrel and make it out.  Maria went to see a flat in Ipanema which to be honest was not that nice, but I don’t think it is an area where you get much for your money.  We wandered up to Arpoador to see the beach.  I seemed to get a lot of positive attention in my Colombian shirt, mainly from Colombians who thought I was one of them.  We didn’t do much in the evening except pack the Salvador trip.

This morning we left around 7ish to the airport.  The flight was all fairly hassle free and we arrived to a rainy Salvador.  We got a taxi through to the port, which turned out to be half the price we expected.  I was really happy when I saw the Chelsea result on the way- particularly as I hate Liverpool. 

The ferry port was where our adventure began.  The ferry was fairly old and grotty.  There were many locals and few tourists.  Many tourists were heading to Morro Sao Paulo- which is an Island in the Salvador bay- we were not.  The ferry journey became wet as a rain storm hit.  It was a bit of a mission getting on and off with all our baggage.  When we arrived in Bom Despacho (otherside of bay from Salvador), we had to walk out with all the car. 

Fortunately the bus to Itacare was right there so we got it with no hassle.  However as expected it was a long journey of 5 hours with the bus stopping in many random towns- with people getting in and out everywhere.   Things take a while in Bahia I think.  There were some drunk local women at the front which was the cause of great laughter among the bus.  An hour before Itacare some English people got on.  Turns out they run a hostel in town and were able to give us some tips on restaurants, the area and show us to where we were staing which was quite handy.  After 12 hours of travellung we have arrived.  And despite the time we were lucky overall, as we never got lost, ripped off or had to hang around anywhere.

Had a local dinner of crab stew, rice and other accompanying foods.  Washed down with 1 litre of Bohemian beer.  Ended up chatting to the table next to us as well as buying some locsal Bahia chocolate.