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| One of our hosts, Alex, making us a moqueca dinner |
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| Our other host, Gomes |
After
the long ten-hour bus ride back to Ilhéus, I had one day to rest and get
organized before my sister arrived. I had posted a little bit about or
time together - exploring Ilhéus, going to the beach, stand up paddle boarding
and traveling to the nearby city of Itacaré, but I wanted to write a little
more about the most adventurous part of her trip to Brazil - a three day hiking
and camping trip on the coast from Barra Grande to Itacaré.
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| On the ferry getting ready for the hike |
I've
mentioned previously that Brazilians, at least in Bahia, tend to be very
friendly, curious, outgoing and extremely welcoming and helpful. The
natives in Itacaré were no exception to this and raised the bar even higher in
my opinion. The little beach town has a nightly tradition of meeting
together on a certain peninsula at sunset. Tourists and locals alike join
together to watch the sun go down and make plans for that evening and the
following day. After the sun goes down the point of the peninsula becomes
a hive buzzing with networking activity. Guides try to convince tourists
to join their trips the next day, tourists share and compare their experiences
and locals check out the newcomers in search of new dance partners for the
night. In some ways it feels like
a giant meat market with the added ambiance of a sunset.
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| Hiking down the beach |
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| Setting up camp |
Sue
and I took part in this little ritual and met a lot of really cool people. The next day while we were walking to
the beach one of the guys we had met shouted out at us from his window and
invited us in for a “cafezinho.”
We chatted with him and his roommate for a little while and they told
lots of stories of their past camping trips. Both Alex and Gomes work as guides in Itacaré taking
tourists to hidden beaches, camping along the coast and teaching surfing classes. A rough life, for sure.
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| Hanging in the tent with Sue on the rainy day |
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| In the same position hours later after torrential rains |
The
next thing we knew, Sue and I were packing for a three day hiking and camping
trip on the beach from Barra Grande back down to Itacaré. We had to take a bus and a boat to get
to our starting point and on the way we picked up an Italian solo backpacker
who was keen to join in on the trip.
The trip was a lot of fun with the only negative being heavy rains on
the second day. Sue and I stayed
in the tent and napped, reminisced about old times and laughed . . . a
lot. Fortunately, Alex and Gomes
knew everyone in the area and we were able to camp on someone’s porch the
second night as the tents and ground were soaked. One of the highlights about the trip for me was being able
to try some of the typical Bahian food like bananas, coconut and cous cous and
lots of fresh fruit and coconut milk.
Hiking along the beach was cool (we even lucked out and saw
some dolphins), but my favorite thing was the ride on a friend’s four wheeler
part of the way. It was a bit of a
balancing act and at times I was afraid that my sister was going to fly
off. One of funniest things for me was Gomes’ dedication to his
surfboard. He hiked with it under
his arm the entire way and only surfed for about an hour and a half one
afternoon. He still concluded,
without a doubt, that it was worth it and looked at me as if I were crazy to
even ask the question. I think
it’s safe to say that I won’t be turning surfer-chick-hippie anytime soon.
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