So last time we posted we were heading to Canoa Quebrada, a small-ish beachtown. It seemed surreal arriving at about 9pm with the street relatively quiet, when three hours later everyone was out socialising and dancing! We had planned on a quick beer and then head to bed after the many buses/coaches we took to get there....we ended up at a beach party at the ´Freedom Bar´ (essentially a beach hut on stilts) dancing in the waves under the stars- which are insanely beautiful here. It must have been easy to spot we were new in town- nobody else seemed to want to frolick in the waves with us. Shocking. The next day we took a boat far out from the beach, beautiful swimming in such warm water and seeing turtles! That night we had our fill of reggae (and trying and failing miserably to dance as well as the locals), and ended up on the beach again, this time watching the sun rise.
The next stop (or so we thought) was Ponta Negra, going through Natal. Arriving at the bus station in the evening we found that both the 11pm and 1am coaches were fully booked! Luckily we managed to get a bus further south to Joao Pessoa, which cost a fortune, only then to go back up north to Praia de Pipa, a very small surfer village. Getting a coach here is like entering a different world- air conditioned, soft reclining seats, and on the longer distance ones there is champagne! Local buses are a different matter. Twice now we have made the mistake of travelling at rush hour with our huge packs and ended up soaked in sweat and both squashing and being squashed- horrific! Having said that though, for girls on a budget, the fare of 2 to 3 reias makes up for the trauma. We do everything on a budget- we take rolls from the breakfast in the hostel to avoid having to buy lunch, and take overnight coaches to avoid paying for a hostel.
Back to Pipa: plenty of hammocks, surfer duuudes and cocunuts. We met some great people from Germany, France, Portugal and many Israelis who seem to all visit South America after their three years in the army is finished. Since it was a certain special someone´s birthday on the 7th (Dicken´s 200th. Oh and Bee´s 19th) it was bound to be a great day- and probably our best yet. Starting swimming with dolphins- reducing everyone to childlike excitement- on the main beach, we climbed around to another more secluded beach, separated by a rocky pass, to have a surfing session! One of our friends from the hostel negotiated a good price for the board for an hour- a quarter of the cost for others- and then we did our best to ´catch a wave´. It wasn´t exactly succesful (neither of us can surf and spent most of the time paddling or sitting on the board) but was so much fun! Back at the Sugar Cane hostel we decided to mark the occasion and actually look nice before going out. Wearing makeup is a thing of the very distant past- we spend most of the day covered in a slick of shiny grimy sweat, looking awful- so it seemed strangely exciting to look nice for once! Bee wore an incredible sequinned dress, catching lots of admiring and envious looks at the bar- especially since the fashion staple here seems to be mid-length tight jean shorts with a stretchy jersey top of some kind...
Next stop was Olinda via Recife! We wanted a change from the perpetual coating of sand at the beach towns so Olinda seemed like the perfect place- beautiful colonial architecture with a view from the old town centre over Recife across the water below. Getting there however was the most horrific and traumatic experience! Having got off the coach at Recife, nobody seemed able to tell us how to get to the metro or even a bus that would take us there. Recife was the largest place we´ve been through so far and all the people jostling in the dark was quite intimidating. Eventually we decided to get a taxi to the centre where we could get a bus to Olinda, but even showing the taxi drivers a map and street name etc of where we wanted to go, it was half an hour before we got anywhere! At the centre it was worse- buses in all directions from all directions. Luckily someone- maybe the only English speaker in Recife?!- tookus to the right stop and at long last we arrived in Olinda, exhausted, stressed and hungry.
Olinda was as beautiful as expected- very very relaxed and quiet- completely different to the beachside places we´d been before- lots of art shops and displays and open rooms with antiques. It was also exciting to see bands of drummers practicing for carnival in the streets at night and colourful decorations hung up all over town- apparently Olinda has one of the best carnivals in South America.
WE´ve decided to go to Penedo next, and in an effort to be proactive, left the lovely Olinda at 9.30am, only to find on arriving at the Recife bus station that the overnight coach is at 10pm....it´s a twelve hour wait, and we have been here for six hours already......only six more to go!
Bee and Jenny xxxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment