Salvador de Bahía

After 13 hs we arrived in crazy Salvador where the favelas are right next to the richer areas, modern buildings right next to colonial ones, restored houses side-by-side with the decaying ones and where dodgy streets in which tourists are not supposed to walk adjoin to the main tourist areas. Salvador is on the world cultural heritage list and is a very big city with many African-Brazilians since it`s the heart of their culture. It seems to be a rough city but has a cool vibe about it.
During our exploration-walk we saw some good street art, even joggers, passed out children on the pavement, forts near the sea, many tourists from all over the world, for the first time lots of backpackers and Rastafaris that started drumming and rattling in the streets spontaneously.
As everywhere in Brazil shops are totally over-staffed: most staff members only stand there and don't do anything really.
We went to one of those restaurants where you choose from a buffet and pay per kilogram. Down the steep side of the city towards the sea we took the apparently very famous elevator.
At night, on our way to an intoxicating African-Brazilian dance show with Capoeira (at least 10 back-flips in a row) and more in a theater we sat down on the square where Michael Jackson has made his "They don't care about us"-video and watched a big waste container where people, one after another, came to look for recyclable material. They all collected different things...

With the German girls Sabrina and Olivia that we had met up with again, we went to a restaurant where my tuna salad was disgusting and not eatable. We asked the waiters to replace it but they refused. When I, thereupon, refused to pay they called the tourist police and all of us walked over to the police station where a friendly old man welcomed us. He seemed very amused when we stated the problem and he heard that the whole concern was about 13 Reales (6 €). He sent for the chief who acted very diplomatic and suggested to pay half the price. Both sides agreed.
After that we walked to the crowded square where we drank a couple of Caipiroskas (wodka instead of cachaca) and Malte kept trying all different types (with passion fruit, cocoa, cashew fruit...). A band drummed and sang.
Later it was getting wild: parades drummed and danced their way through the streets. Behind the drummers African-Brazilians (consisting of muscles only) danced an incredibly powerful choreography which some of the crowd copied. Even tourists joined in. It was packed and there was such an energetic atmosphere; I was high on drums!
But very soon Malte got nervous. He said that a bunch of young men was always around us and that they reached into his pocket where he kept his wallet on a string. He was right: wherever we moved, they stood right behind us in the crowd. Olivia, too, started feeling uncomfortable. Suddenly there was a tumult, I turned my head and all I saw was Malte grabbing a guy from behind, the guy turned around, lifted his shirt and with the most innocent smile claimed that he hadn`t done anything. But Malte`s wallet was gone! Malte had felt them ripping the string but couldn`t help it. It happened too fast and there were too many of them. We went home.
Only about 12 Reales gone but unfortunately his ID card, too. Similar things had happened to other travellers we spoke to. Just like the Lonely Planet says: If you`re going to get pickpocketed or mugged in Brazil it`s likely to happen in Salvador. :( I was surprised and confused how obvious and impudent they had done it.

So today I spent most of the day in the hostel after I had walked Malte to the station where he took the bus to the airport because he`s going home today.

In total it was an awesome journey again. Brazil is a great country, but very expensive. Even though I missed the backpacker scene, especially the Australians and the English, we made friends with some very nice people. I wouldn`t mind staying for another month but I`m also looking forward to being in the snow again. Thank you again, dear parents, for your -not only financial- support.

Olinda

After breakfast the Germans and us left Praia da Pipa and with it the crazy Dutch girl from our room. On our way to the next town (where we had to change buses) we passed trees without leaves but instead they were full of either bright yellow or purple blossoms!

The searching for the bus stop in that deserted town (deserted because of the public holidays) was like a paper chase: we were sent from one place to another...but we finally found it and got on the bus to Olinda via Recife (2,7 million inhabitants). On the way we saw very beautiful landscape but also many run-down, desolate or forsaken places, scrap, rubbish, semi-finished buildings, so many things that no one seemed to be responsible for. Especially in the favela-like areas of Recife we felt very unsafe.

Olinda in contrast was wonderful and sweet. The historic center consists of beautifully restored houses, some of them with tiled fronts again and with flowers like bougainvillea, oleander and jasmine growing over the walls. Their odour was captivating! For the first time there were many beautiful Brazilian girls. We saw a breathtaking golden sunset behind Recife's very impressive skyline. The streets became very lively at night. Right next to one of the many churches there were huge crazy Christmas figures that seemed very weird to us and there was a stage where a loud party took place.

We noticed funny discounts in Brazil: e.g. you can get 2 for 1, but it costs just as much as if you bought each separately.

Finding a connection to Salvador was difficult again since everything was closed due to the holidays. We were sweaty and sticky and had to take an expensive taxi to Recife where we had to pay a lot again for the night bus to Salvador.

Praia da Pipa

On our first day in Praia the German girls and us walked past the touristy beach with mostly locals under coloured parasols on hundreds of plastic chairs. Women all wear thongs (no matter in what condition their bodies are). Men's beach fashion are tight speedos. We walked to the dolphin bay. I wasn't too optimistic that we'd see any even though people said they were there all the time. But within the first minutes we saw a grey fin and back in the water very close to the beach. We rushed into the water and around us many dolphins appeared and quickly disappeared again. I don't know how many there were but sometimes they were only a few meters away and it felt awesome!
Then we drank a fresh coconut...We saw lots of dads that tought their little boys how to surf. A couple practiced Capoeira on the beach. A dog played ball with a coconut. In the afternoon we had to leave the bay and hurry back over the rocks for the high tide was coming, and it was coming fast! In a restaurant back on the touristy beach the food had to be brought via raft, because the beach is separated from the mainland by some sort of huge puddle.
In the evening all four of us went out to eat and had a Caipirinha of course. A perfect day!

I really like Praia: it's that typical resort where you can walk around in the warm evening when the streets become lively, wearing a dress, to choose one out of many nice restaurants. It's a bit more expensive, but it has got such a pleasant atmosphere. It reminds me of former holidays with my parents. There's some nice shopping, too.

When chilling in the hammocks on our veranda a group of tiny monkeys jumped around in the tree right next to us and walked on the power lines.
We attended a Samba-party with lots of pretty people in their mid-thirties. Actually we were just watching because we were uncomfortable with dancing next to the professionals.
We went back to the dolphin bay twice. Sometimes the dolphins jumped and sometimes you could see them hunting fish that flew out of the water before them. Once a dolphin came so close that we could see its eye. It's so impressive to be in the water with them that I keep saying "Ist das geil".
We met Lukas and the Chinese again and went to another nice beach-party.

Tonight Malte and I had a delicious high class dinner- thanks to our parents! :)

We wish you happy celebrations!

Jericoacoara

Jericoacoara used to be a backpacker hotspot, now there are lots of rich Brazilians and only a few western travellers. It seemed to be a very good place to surf and kitesurf, but we didn't like it very much. Plus the weather was shit. It even rained a couple of times which wasn't too nice, especially since we spent the nights camping in our hammocks under a cashew tree that we had to share with many red bugs and ants.
We tought the 30-year-old Chinese how to smoke water pipe, beause he had never ever smoked in his life before. We had another interesting experience when we went to a tapioca place for breakfast. It was open, but the lady told us that the cook were too busy to work now. We should come back in 2 hours. That's Brazil!
The parties weren't as good as we had been told either and so we left Jeri after two days. With the two German girls we first took a 4WD to Fortaleza (beause there are no proper roads leading to Jeri), a (half-)night bus (we arrived at Natal's dead bus termial around 3 a.m. and had to wait on concrete benches) and another bus to Praia da Pipa. Lukas and the Chinese went somewhere else.
The landscape started getting prettier south of Natal. We checked into a nice hostel belonging to a friendly woman, a rich breakfast included.
By the way the most common food in Brazil is either meat or chicken with rice and beans. The most popular snack are "salgados", fried dough usually stuffed with chicken or cheese.

The way to Jericoacoara

Lukas, a funny Chinese and the two of us left Sao Luis for the sufer's paradise Jericoacoara. We chose the route through the desert. We had to stop twice for the night because transport isn't well-organized at all and there's no direct connection. We spent the first night in Barreirinhas in a pousada that was more of a construction site or a ruin by a river where we could hang up our hammocks (3 €/night, breakfast included). In a four-wheel drive (very bumpy ride!) we went to Parque Nacional dos Lencóis Maranhenses to see and walk on the beautiful sand dunes in the whitest desert of the world. During rainy season the vales between them are filled with crystal clear water. Unfortunately it's not rainy season yet and so there was only one filled with water. Accompanied by tiny fish we swam in it. There were relatively many tourists for once. A flock of green parrots whirred in the sky. We found out that Malte is a bit colourblind because he couldn't see the rainbow coloured cloud.

As always I was very cold in my hammock. It seems to have a secret air con mode or something.
The next day we had to go by 4WD on a really bumpy road again to get to the next necessary stop on our way to Jeri. With 2 German girls that we had met on the way we passed little farms on dry land, two fogies, scrubland...Cows, donkeys, goats and sheep grazed at the dune's offshoots. Once we got stuck in the sand. We travelled the entire day and had to change vehicles often. It was a pretty annoying, difficult and expensive trip. All six of us spent the night in a shabby pousada.

After breakfast we had to wait for another 4WD to finally take us to Jeri. It was supposed to come at 9:30 a.m., but didn't. It was then expected to leave at 11 a.m., but didn't. In a cramped jeep we had to wait and didn't understand for what. We all were moaning.

After a few hours we were compensated for all inconvenience: we reached dazzling white sand dunes behind turquois water. We rode right on the beach; dark sky but sunny, every now and then some palm trees or bushes or a donkey in the dunes, a giant tortoiseshell. What a fascinating landscape! Everything seemed a bit surreal to me.
After a spectacular crossing via punt on a raft just as big as our car we arrived on the other side of a river mouth and made it to Jericoacoara eventually. An unforgettable experience!

Sao Luis and Alcântara

When we took our seats on the bus to Sao Luis there was some confusion among the Brazilians because some seat number tags were missing. Since seats were numbered consecutively it was obvious (to us) that the missing ones were numbers 37 to 40. For the locals this seemed to be an unsolvable problem. We helped them out. They were very thankful and seemed astonished as well as admiring. I was speechless facing the fact how poorly educated people are. I also realized that I've never seen a Brazilian read a book.

Due to the stupid air con it was freezing on the bus and the toilet stank.

We were happy to travel with Lukas since he's fluent in Portuguese and has a very diplomatic and open way to communicate with locals.

Sao Luis is another one of those degenerate colonial towns. Pretty, but I've had enough of them and after Colombia's enchanting Cartagena and the ruins of Panama City none of them is really able to impress me.
Its large suburban areas are very ugly.

The next day we went to another historic colonial town called Alcântara. We went by catamaran which was supposed to leave at 9 a.m. but then we were told we had to wait for the high tide to come, because the water level was too low. When we were finally aloud to board we had to climb over two other boats to get to the catamaran. Then the motor broke down. Although the crew consisted of 5 men, only one of them actually tried to fix it. The others were watching or sleeping on deck. "Inefficiency" is a very important word to describe lots of situations here! In the end, after 1,5 hours on the boat, we arrived one hour late.

Alcântara is small, nice and quite. Its buildings are all original, some restored, some deep in tropical decay. The fronts of many houses are studded with tiles to keep them cool inside.
We bought freshly baked coco cookies from an old lady and saw a very pink Ibis.

Our bracelets from the jungle are starting to sprout! :)

A boat on the Amazon

In Santarém we organized our boat back to Belém which was going to be our greatest adventure in Brazil so far. It cost 120 Reales (about 50 Euros) and was expected to arrive in Belém 48 hours later.
With Lukas we went on board and hung up our hammocks between hundreds of other peoples' below deck. It was absolutely packed, no space for swining at all, maximum discomfort, but somehow very cool! Special feature: an open shower on deck!
Because it reminded us of our cramped chicken bus ride in Central Malte named our boat the "Chicken Ship". We heard rumours that those boats sink every now and then.
We were supposed to leave at noon but didn't leave before 4 p.m. and had to wait in the heat on the boat till they had finished loading. On deck they started playing noisy music. Brazilians seem to be noise resistant and they never complain about anything! Whenever the boat docked and stood still the air below deck resembled a thick soup.
People spent their time chatting, sleeping or just laying in their hammocks, listening to loud music from their mobile phones, playing cards, drinking beer or even watching movies on their lap-tops. Every morning a group of dutch firefighters exercised on deck. Most people here are a bit fat.
Dutch firemen working out/ The shower
The Amazon is massive: it's several kilometers wide. For 2 days we were surrounded by nothing but brown water and jungle.
There were quite a few tourists; we met 3 other Germans and had a surprisingly good time. (No diarrhea -touch wood!)
The ship glided along the never-ending forest. We slept okay. It was a very peaceful atmosphere when everyone was silent in their hammocks.
When we passed some huts that stood solitary by the riverside far away from all civilization something strange happended: 3 little boats approached our ship. The kids inside howled and moved their arms as if they tried to fly. We took it for waving. Then we saw some packages wrapped up in plastic being dropped down from our boat into the water and the kids paddled to get them. This incident repeated a few times and later on people told us that we had misinterpreted their gestures and they were actually begging for cloths.
The most moving scene was when we entered a branch: the forest was now close, there were simple cottages once in a while. (Some had satellite bowls though or even christmas decoration which seemed very absurd to us. There was a tiny christian church, too.) Then hundreds of canoes appeared. Some managed to hook on to our boat in a dangerous procedure and sold shrimps, corncobs and Açai (popular purple drink made from a special palm fruit). Lots of people were on deck following the spectacle. It was getting dark and children were still canoeing near us. A group of kids that had docked with their little boats wandered around on the ship, watched men being really drunk and danced to the loud music.Canoes approaching our boat
The next day we passed many small islands in the Amazon river. When Belém's skyline, that looked fairly impressive, came into sight excitement arose again.
Straight away Lukas, Malte and I took a taxi to take us from the smelly harbour to the bus terminal. After some trouble with the driver (he wanted 15 Reales each even though he had told us 15 altogether before) we hopped on a night bus to Sao Luis.

The jungle

Lukas, Malte and I got up early to go to the real jungle. We took a crowded bus to a national park a few hours away. On our way we saw a lot of forest clearance for growing soy, manioc or corn instead. :(
For two nights we stayed inside the park with our supernice guide and his family. We slept in our hammocks under a shelter (a tarantula's net right above us) next to their extremely simple house. Like all other houses in the small community it was built by the government. His wife cooked very good food (fresh fish, chicken from the backyard...) for us. We went for a little walk in the forest and saw two sloths hanging in the trees close to our hut. They were veeeryy sloooow.
We bought bracelets made from coulourful seeds and went to see a little rubber manufacture. We also saw and touched shrinking violets- really cool!!
In the evening we played pool with our guide in what seemed to be the bar. Three men from the village were sitting in a corner, they were drunk and sang. There was heavy rainfall and a thunderstorm, lights went off frequently so our dinner turned out to be a candle-light dinner. It was a weird but cool atmosphere.

The next day we stepped into the primary forest, our guide equipped with a machete. He explained lots of medical plants to us, fruits and insects (all in Portuguese, but luckily I am able to understand some Portuguese because some words are quite similar to the Spanish.) Beautiful butterflies bigger than birds fluttered ahead. The guide showed me how to make a funny shrimp from a palm leave.
Deeper and deeper we got into the jungle. (Malte smelled like a wild animal.) We were accompanied by strange, mystic sounds. A magnificent green hummingbird and a tiny poison dart frog crossed our way. The guide noticed some jaguar traces in the sand. Finally we reached some giant trees. They were incredibly tall; we could barely see the top! By the way I'm a big fan of mushrooms now: brilliant, how those delicate objects decorate leaves and treetrunks!!
On our way back (after 6 hours in the jungle) we passed a baby sloth that had fallen off a tree and that some kids had laid on the ground to dry because it was soaked from the other night's rain. We took turns holding it...simply amazing! Afterwards we painted each other's faces with natural paint that we had taken from some kind of seed.
At night we went across the street again for pool and drinks.

We got up at 4 a.m. the next day to catch the bus back to Santarém. In the distance we heard the strange sounds of a howler monkey.

By the way: I highly recommend reading Malte's entertainig and informative blog as well!

Santarém and Alter do Chao

In Santarém it was very humid and we had tropic fruits and plantain porridge for breakfast. The town is located at the confluence of the creamy-brown Rio Amazonas and the much darker Rio Tapajós. For kilometers the two rivers flow side-by-side without mixing, two bands of different-coloured water clearly distinguishable. Santarém appeared somehow backward. It doesn't have a proper harbour but a weird, dirty landing place. The river's water level is abnormally low at the moment so all the dirt shows.
After one night in a very simple but pricey hotel (Things, especially accomodation and transport, are not cheap here. And luckily we're already used to the lack of comfort.) we cought the bus to Alter do Chao, which is a hamlet at the river and lagoons in the Amazon jungle where a sandbar forms a picturesque white-sand island. It's an island during most of the year but since the water level is so low we could simply walk over to it. It was packed with families from Santarém and around that spent their weekends in this little paradise. The next day was a Monday and the town was, apart from some locals and a couple of elderly hippies on Ayahuasca, pretty much deserted. We were off the beaten track!
With the only other younger traveller we had met so far -a clever swiss guy named Lukas- we went for a couple of drinks.
After the first night in our new hammocks and tapioca (a gel-like omelette made of manioc flour) and a fermented manioc shake for breakfast we went -well aware of stingrays!- swimming in the shallow, wee-warm water. I tried Tacaca (an interesting manioc soup) for lunch. At the beach we saw some cute peculiar animals called Paca Pacas digging tunnels in the wet sand, ate mangos and cashew fruits straight from the trees and saw colourful birds. With Lukas we climbed a hill for an enchanting panoramic sight on the wide, wide river and the beaches and lagoons surrounded by forest as far as you could see. As we walked back there were thunderstorms with the brightest lightening coming up from all sides.
Panorama, Alter do ChaoPaca Paca
We spent another relaxed day in the heat, Malte and I did lots of planning so now our route is pretty much set.

Belém

We spent one night in neither pretty nor touristy Belém. It was founded in 1616 by the Portuguese and played a very important role as a port during the rubber boom. Still all goods coming from the Amazon have to pass Belém. The relatively dirty city (tons of black vultures everywhere!) consists of old, grey, ugly, tall buildings as well as beautiful old colonial-style houses. We strolled around in town on the mango tree-shaded avenidas, visited the great market with all fresh and colourful fruits and vegetables, fish, herbs and spices, weird nuts from the Amazon jungle....and cought our flight to Santarém -a small town in the jungle- the next evening.

On the road again

Reacting on several requests my public travel journal will be continued in English from now on. For those who don't know what this is about: I am travelling Brazil for 4 weeks with one of my best friends.
I left home on Dec, 3rd at 3:30 a.m. and arrived 25 hs later in Belém in the very north of Brazil (-the aeroplane had flown along the coast-line with endless beaches-) where I met up with Malte.
My backpack weighs only 12 kg this time which is about 5 kg less than last time, the weather is good -it's approximately 30 degrees Celsius and mostly sunny- and we feel safe.
Changing aeroplanes in Sao Paulo was quite stressful because the flight was delayed and the luggage hadn't been checked through...anyway, people were very friendly and act as if they know each other; a woman tried to talk to me in Portuguese and even though I didn't understand a word she gave me a kiss on the cheek and a bunch of sachets with shampoo and conditioner which she had taken out of her bag.
Many women have fake boobs and are dressed up like dollies so I felt well underdressed in my traveller's gear.
I'm very glad Malte speaks some Portuguese. Otherwise we'd be pretty much fucked because most people speak no foreign languages at all.