Up the Coast to Salvador
-- Story by Erin --
Wednesday, Sept. 18th: Time to leave Rio.
Elcino meets us with his bike in the morning before we leave and escorts us out of town.
We ride over the bridge and get one last view, a different perspective of Rio, before we
leave. Not far out of town we spot a Carrefour, like a Wal-Mart with a grocery store back
in the states. We stop to pick up some things and spend quite a while there! We finally
get on the road and get to the beach resort area of Buzios sometime around sunset. We
decide Buzios is too expensive (which everyone told us before we got there) and ride to
the next town of Raza where there is supposed to be camping. The ride along the coast is
very windy and dark clouds appear to be moving in. We finally find the camping place,
which also has cabanas. The difference in price for camping and a room is only $1.50US so
we opt for the room. They have a kitchen that we could use so we cooked ourselves a
homecooked meal for the first time in months.
The next day was still windy and drizzling with rain. We
decide to move further along up the coast and end up in Guarapari. The drive all day is
through one little dull-looking resort town to the next. Maybe it was the weather, but
nothing inspired us to stay and hang out for a few days. Guarapari was a nice enough
place, but full of people and tall apartment buildings all along the beach. We managed to
find an adequate hotel room for the night for $30 reais and plot our course for the next
day.
Friday, Sept. 20th: It was another fairly
uninspiring drive which took us inland a bit. There were some interesting views of the
coffee plantations but way too much traffic on the roads to enjoy the scenery. Early
afternoon we find a big Honda dealer in Linares and the mechanics there help us to replace
a few lost screws and get new spark plugs for us. All that for just $3US! Finally, later
that afternoon we arrive in the seaside town of Conceicao da Barra, paradise as we had
envisioned it! It is a small village with nice little pousadas on the beach, and a long
beautiful beach. We immediately find a great little place on the beach for $30 reais (or
$10US) including breakfast. The little restaurant on the beach next to the pousada
specializes in strong and cheap caipirinhas and very good fish dishes done Bahian style
(African-originated cooking from the next state north of here). We get drunk (literally)
on two drinks each and feast on a huge fish stew. There is also a full moon to make the
whole atmosphere complete for a romantic evening walk on the beach.
The next morning we sleep off our caipirinha hangovers and
enjoy a big breakfast of tropical fruits and cakes. We don our swimsuits and go down to
the beach for a relaxing morning.
Sunday, is a gray day so we decide to head further north to
a beach town called Trancoso. Our German friends Steffi and Alex stayed here for several
weeks while waiting for some parts to arrive, and they considered it paradise. We arrive
late in the day to find a quaint and compact little village on a hill, stretching down to
the beach area below with several upscale pousadas (guesthouses/hotels). We head for the
beach area first to see if we can find a reasonably priced place to stay, within walking
distance of the beach (didnt really think wed find an economical pousada on
the beach!). In the last 10 years this little village has grown a huge reputation for
being laid-back and beautiful, so now its full of foreign and local tourists alike.
The price has also grown proportionately to its popularity. After checking out several
US$30+ hotels, we find a new pousada just 50 meters from the beach, run by a lovely
Argentine couple, Adrian and Estela. Last year, they had sold their home in Buenos Aires,
packed up their 3 young girls and headed for this place to start their little pousada and
a new, better way of life. They had opened their pousada, called Som do Mar (meaning sound
of the sea) just last week and were eager to start having guests. As it turned out we were
there second set of guests. Their first guests were two girls from New York! Looks like
theyve got the US covered already!
For the next 4 days we enjoyed life the slow way in this
little beach community. Adrian brought us a wonderful breakfast each day, made fresh by
his wife with different breads, cakes, tropical fruit and fresh fruit juice, ham, cheese,
and of course fresh brewed coffee. After lounging in the big hammock outside our 2nd
floor room for most of the morning and watching the waves break we would either go to the
beach or explore the nearby community of Porto Seguro. In the evenings, the town center of
Trancoso is lit up with little shops and restaurants with outdoor tables. We would either
have dinner in town (and make the walk back in near complete darkness) or Estella would
make us a wonderful meal, complete with the famous Argentine flan for dessert (Chris
favorite).
This area has quite a history. It is the sight of the first
landing of the Portuguese in 1500 and therefore has some historic buildings and churches
to be proud of. Both Trancoso and Porto Seguro have a unique historic town center with
houses lined up and connected to each other in one long row. Each house is painted a
different, bright color to differentiate it from its neighbors. Both town centers are
built up high on a hill with good views out to sea. Trancosos town center is called
the Quadrado, actually shaped more like a long rectangle, with houses on opposite sides of
a great lawn, big old trees with horses and donkeys roaming the lawn eating the grass, and
an old scenic church (early 1600s) at the sea-side end of the rectangle. Behind the
old church is a big green space leading out to a beautiful lookout point.
Porto Seguro is bigger and was popular before Trancoso and
Arraial nearby (both have better beaches than Porto), and therefore has a busier feel
about it. Many tourists stay in Porto and visit Trancoso for the day. We were glad we did
it the other way around! We checked it out on one rainy afternoon, taking a bus to Arraial
and a 5 minute ferry across the river to Porto. After touring most of the town, we ran
into two other foreign travelers outside the bus terminal, who we ended up swapping 4
books with (we were both desperate for new novels in English!)
Thursday, September 26: The rain just wont go away it
seems. We decide to leave our little paradise and our nice pousada owners and new friends
and head north again. The ride was beautiful, taking us through lush, green tropical
forests. This area is poor though and you can see it in the run down little towns, and the
people running out in the road, desperate to sell you anything from potted plants, to
endangered species! Yes, we did actually pass two young men trying to sell a Lion monkey
and an exotic parrot at the intersection of one town.
Chris programmed the GPSs for the coastal town of
Itacare, about 250 kms south of Salvador, but the rain made us change our plans. Rather we
went a bit further north, kept inland on the main BR-101 highway most of the way and only
turned toward the sea at Camamu, where we stayed for the night. Camamu is not a
beach/resort town but it does have a very scenic little port with schooners of varying
sizes and colors docked and waiting to take tourists to the local hot spots.
Friday, Sept. 27: Before we depart Camamu, a nice
gentleman named Wilson comes over to us while we are packing the bikes and asks us where
we are headed. Turns out he is a Biologist, originally from Salvador but now working
on a project in Sao Paulo. He is here on a researching trip trying to find a boat
maker. He is in the market to have a 60 foot schooner built. Interesting guy.
The ride up the coast towards Salvador is very scenic, through rolling green hills
and through small fishing villages. We cross a bridge to get onto the island of Itaparica,
and then catch a 45 minute ferry boat to Salvador from there. Once we get onto the ferry
it seems that the sky opens up with rain. The seas are pretty rough and we have to stand
in the rain next to our bikes to keep them from tumbling over. Waves crash over the side
of the boat and drench the cars on either side. Luckily we are positioned in the middle
and are partially covered on the sides and top by the Captains Bridge.
We arrive in Salvador, Brazils 3rd largest
city, at about 2pm and its still pouring down with rain. We have an idea of where we want
to go but the flooded streets and our obscured vision make riding very difficult. To make
matters more complicated, Salvador is laid out in two sections, the Upper and Lower City,
and finding the correct road to the Upper City is also a challenge. Luckily the
hotel we are looking for is not far. It is a particular hotel called Caramuru, listed in
our guidebook as having safe parking. Turns out to be a good place, economical and indeed
has safe, covered parking. The rains continue in Salvador for the next one and a half
days, and I mean really rains. The streets are flooded and its difficult to get
around. We spend our time walking around the historic district of the city with all its
fine architecture and quaint cobblestoned streets, and in the local shopping centers
looking for odds and ends. Finally in the afternoon of Sunday, the weather breaks and we
take a nice long ride along the ocean road. Salvador has some very scenic beaches with big
rocks and coral reefs nearby. It makes for tranquil, clear waters near the beach, which
are good for bathing. Sunday afternoon and all the local men are on the beach as well are
playing soccer (football to the rest of the world!)
September 28th: We landed in South America (Buenos Aires) 1 year ago from New
Zealand. During this time we've visited 6 countries, learned 2 languages (sort of),
past 100,000kms on the trip, and covered over 20,000 miles/32,000kms just on this
continent.
Now its Monday, back to getting some work done, like adjusting Chris' valves,
purchasing new back tires, and writing this story. The computer screen has a long
crack running down the center from an accident back in June and is now widening into a
dark patch. Time to send it back to Sharp for a replacement, so off it goes
tomorrow. It will be back to the internet cafes for us for awhile!
The old Jesuit church in the center of the Quadrado.

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Evening walk along the beach in Trancoso

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The great breakfast!

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Serious hammock time

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Salvador: Elevator from upper to lower city
cost is US$0.03 round trip

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FINALLY-- A SUNNY DAY!

View to Barra Lighthouse
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