Recife, Brazil (inc. Porto de Galinhus)

After running for our bus back in Salvador, we settled ourselves for the jouney north. Lonely Planet estimated the trip at 11 hours which meant a we'd arrive at approximately 6am the next morning. We pulled into a pretty major bus station at around 6.30am and got off the bus along with everyone else. With no Portugese under our belts, too much pride to ask someone and the wise words of Lonely Planet in our minds, this must have been it. We gave our hostel address to the first cabbie who informed us that this hostel was in Recife. That it was, unfortunately we weren't. We were still 3.5 hours south in Masseo. We boarded another bus only losing about an hour from our blunder. This 3.5 hour bus ride turned into a 5.5 hour bus ride as gridlock set in on the outskirts of Recife. We finally made it and jumped in a cab to the hostel. Not only was the bus station at the end of the earth (approx R50 in a cab) but we noted down the address incorrectly and ended up at the wrong end of Boa Viagem. Even though much of this was our fault, Recife was in the bad books.

Our hostel was a bit creepy. It translated to 'Pirates of the beach hostel', had heaps of weird crap all over the walls and was basically a 4 bedroom apartment converted to dorms. Worst of all, it was expensive (R44 p/p with air con). Thankfully we managed to get it for R38 p/p after Nick passed himself off as a fulltime student, and I sold them a story about being a YHA member.

The next day was spent at the airport trying to change our flight with our good friends at TAM so we could get out of here. No luck. Even with our original flight costing only R220, the cost of changing it was going to be R360. Go figure. Given their previous incompetence dealing with our lost bags, this didn't really suprise me.

Plan B - Make the most of this place:
As it turns out, Boa Viagem wasn't so bad. It's a very 'Gold Coast-esque' area with high-rise apartment buildings, expansive beach frontages and alot of construction. Every building is clad with tiles which seems a bit excessive, costly and time consuming, but I'm sure there is a reason behind it.

The beach at Boa Viagem isn't actually that clean and we quickly learnt that most locals do day trips to nearby beaches. One of which is Joao Pessoa (our original plan), or Porto de Galinhus (our eventual destination. See below). Regardless, we decided to sample the local nightlife at a club called 'Nox', only 4 blocks from our hostel. This was a club for Recife's young and affluent and could probably be compared to Boutique, Eve, or any other stuck-up night spot back in Melbourne. The look on the bouncers face when we provided Australian drivers licences was gold. We were welcomed with no hesitation, most likely because we're gringos and presumed to have money to burn. Boa Viagem was also safe enough to walk home at 4am. (NB. Obviously not my photos).

Recife has extensive botanical gardens just north of Boa Viagem which was our first destination the next day. As it turns out, the gardens are bordered by a vast river which prevents entry. After 30 minutes of walking around the outside, we deemed it a waste of time and set off for Olinda.

Olinda is a world-heritage listed colonial town approximately 45 minutes north of Recife. The walking was quite demanding but worth the effort with the view from the top stretching down to the beach and all the way down the coast back to Boa Viagem in the south of Recife. Many of the buildings had been restored which was good to see, especially after the dilapidated old town of Salvador (not 'satisfyingly decaying' as stated in Lonely Planet). Stores and bars were open, and there was still some celebrations from the previous weeks Carnaval flowing over.

It didn't take much thought to conclude we'd travel down to Porto de Galinhus to check out what many Brazillians consider the best beach in the country. The bus took approximately 2 hours at a bargain price of only R6.30. We took a 20 minute sand buggy on arrival to Maracaipe for a 2 hour boat trip around the river mouth. We failed to bargain with the sand buggy driver and got fleeced R80 for the both of us. In hindsight, we probably could have got it down to R50-60. Not too bad and we got up some serious speed in the buggy on the way back which redeemed it a little. After some Tapioca for lunch, we went for a quick snorkel but there wasn't much to see (no corals and no colourful fish), plus it had started to cloud over so visibility was poor. We didn't take cameras with us so I've just ripped this photo off wikipedia. Unlike many wikipedia photos, Porto de Galinhus looks exactly like the photo. I think it speaks for itself.

We met an expat on the bus back to Recife who had been living in Berlin for the last 20 years. He gave us some good advice for our Rio leg which should hopefully stand us in good stead.

The tradeoffs for the day were third degree sunburn despite being liberal with sunscreen all day (I'm not looking forward to hauling a backpack to the airport), and the tragic loss of 'Kathmandu micro-fibre towel'.



He was last seen on the downtown bus from Porto de Galinhus after I left him on the seat. RIP.

Our last night in Recife will be on the airport floor to save money from the overpriced hostel, before a 5:20am flight to Rio. Hopefully the cold hard tiles of the departure lounge will sooth my sunburn.

Salvador, Brazil

Second attempt at the Salvador post! Fingers crossed!

After the bags fiasco with TAM the previous night we were keen to get involved in the worlds biggest party - Carnaval. The Salvador rendition of the flagship Brazillian festival is a traditional street party, in contrast to the Rio de Janeiro counterpart which resembles a stage show style parade. Salvador has long been considered the African heart of Brazil stemming from it's slave roots and colonization by the Portugese.

Carnaval:
On our first real night in Salvador word spread quickly about a Carnaval pre-party down by the lighthouse. Within hours there were hundreds of thousands of people out on the street singing, dancing, drinking and having fun to the makeshift bloco's which consisted of a local band in the back of a Toyota Hilux. This went on till the early hours of the morning and left great optimism in our minds for the nights to come. These are some of the preparation photos. Apparently the work takes all year to get ready for the 6 day event.

For the Carnaval there are three options available. Tshirts can be bought for the bloco's (big trucks with performers and a private roped off area which moves down the parade route) and camarote's (purpose built grandstands which are a party in themselves including pre-party, massages and catering). Prices vary from AU60 for the cheapest bloco up to AU350+ for the most decked out camarote. If either of these are out of your budget you can party on the street for free, but this comes with obvious flaws.

For the first night we opted to party on the street to get our bearings and to suss out which bloco's we liked for future nights. This was good fun and very useful. Subsequently we decided to get tshirts for the 'Yes' bloco on the second night. Headlining this was DJ's Tocadisco and Kaskade, which was heavily targetted to gringo tourists. We left our purchase to the very last minute and picked the tshirts up for AU60 a piece. This was a bargain considering others at the hostel paid AU180 for them just that morning.

The bloco was crazy and really got us involved in the festival. We walked with it all the way from the hostel at the start (Barra) of the circuit down to Olinda some 5-6km away. This took it's toll on both lack of sleep (See below: our room had no air con) and walking 5-6km down, and back again. The photos below don't really do it justice as the crowd goes forever after turning the corner at the lighthouse and onto the main street.

Sam and Emma arrived on the Sunday after finally sorting out the Brazil visa issues in Lima. We went back to partying on the street for 2 nights and decided to hit a bloco again on the final night. We decided on the 'Skol' bloco that would feature Ferry Corsten and others. We increased our budget to AU100 and set off for the market again at the last minute like last time. For the purposes of explaination, the market is an unofficial gathering of locals on a random street corner that sell tshirts to passer-bys. It's a consortium of people that regulate prices on supply and demand which was not really in our favour. Long story short, we were within striking distance of our budget before the last 3 were sold to some others. Oh well, this is Carnaval and there is always fun to be had.

We caught up to the bloco and followed it on the outside from Barra all the way down to Olinda, taking in a few traditional Brazillian bloco's on the way. Time definitely does fly when you're having fun - before we knew it, it was 5:30am. What a night! Before tackling the walk back to the hostel, we waited for the next bloco to roll through. This was THE bloco for the locals, consisting of 4 trucks and thousands people. Organized chaos would describe it best. After returning, the sun was well and truly up. Carnaval, finished.

Salvador (like...as a city...):
When we first arrived the poverty of the city was evident. We'd heard Salvador was one of the worst in Brazil but even in Barra, a reasonably affluent area of the city, families sleeping on the street was common, vulgar odours, rubbish was everywhere and there was no shortage of people wanting to rip you off. Awesome! The shops, restaurants and tours shut down during Carnaval which left us twiddling our thumbs during the day.

The morning after Carnaval ended the city reformed. No homeless families, odours gone thanks to washing the streets down with detergent, rubbish collected and the dodgy characters had vanished. Shops were open and restaurants serving as though the last 6 days never happened. We went for a walk around the lighthouse on the final night and grabbed these photos.

I think this more accurately depicts Salvador for the other 51 weeks of the year and would let it's character and laidback atmosphere shine. We didn't really get to experience this. That said, the only reason Salvador was on our itinerary was because of Carnaval so I probably won't lose any sleep over it.

If we had more time we were going to do a boat tour out to nearby islands which wasn't running during Carnaval. In short, I don't think we experienced the real Salvador but had an absolute blast regardless.

Some tips for anyone else that may read this:
• Get a room with air con!!! It's stupidly humid day and night, and the money you save won't come close to justifying the level of discomfort and loss of sleep.
• Despite missing bloco tshirts on the final night, I'm convinced the best and cheapest way to get them is just before, or even after, the bloco leaves. The 'market' was behind Shopping Barra or around the corner from the big HSBC bank (depending which end you come from...).
• You don't have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to enjoy Carnaval. I had the best fun on the last night and it cost me nothing!
• Theres a fair bit of pickpocketing and dodgy characters around. I usually took R20-25 out with me (R2-5 in my pocket, the balance hidden in my shoe). ALL drinks on the street are R1-2 so you won't need much...
• The biggest issue is getting out of the way of any fights between locals as Military Police move in quickly and don't mess around. This is pretty rare though. I only saw 2 in 6 days. I've seen more than this in Melbourne on a Saturday night.

Recife post coming up next - much cleaner and laid back than Salvador.

Off to Rio on 25 February!!

**Interim Update**

Currently in Recife after another nightmare run with transport. To make things worse, the Internet here is rubbish, and I wrote a lengthy post about Salvador/Carnaval that has gone missing when uploading! I'll retype it in the next few days..

Off to Rio on 25 February!

Flights and arrival

To describe the last 48 hours as hectic would be an understatement - delayed flights, lost bags followed by delayed bags just to name a few.

Flights:
Supringingly all the flights went pretty smoothly despite delays from the get-go. Our longest lay-over of 4 hours in Sao Paulo evaporated after arriving at the TAM check in to see a lenghty line and absolutely no order to it. After consulting the staff regarding the time, we were told to "relax - this is Brazil". Little comfort considering check in closed in around 25 minutes. As it turns out we made the flight with ease as it was delayed by 30 minutes. Oh well "this is Brazil"!

Bags:
Our luck turned to mud after arriving at Salvador. Despite our miraculous run thus far the carousel ran dry with no bags in sight. Our new relaxed Brazillian spirit vanished as the staff provided no answers. Basically this is a common occurence and our case was no more important that the other 6 on our flight. "9am tomorrow. They'll be here and we'll call you". Too easy. No phone call. Attempts to call them were met with an engaged tone, after all, lost baggage is part of the package with Brazillian air travel. Taking action into our own hands we travelled out to the airport again to sort it out. "They'll be here at 7pm". Excellent, only a 2 hour wait! 7.30 came around and Nick's bag appeared with mine nowhere to be seen. More questons received more empty answers. "The other bag will be here at midnight". Yeah, sure it will. Midnight came around - no bag. After conversations, translations and phone calls, there was no explaination. Great! After searching around the arrival terminal Nick managed to find it on a trolley behind a hoarding. It had so many destination tags we're convinced it went to 'El Salvador' rather than 'Salvador'. The only items missing from each were sunnies - dodgey baggage handlers must have decided to take a service fee for the inconvenience we caused. Oh well, back in business now.