So while I thought Salvador was a beautiful city and I had a blast with their street fairs, I found myself getting a little itchy to be a little more active. (I didn't want to hang out on anymore beaches and there is only so much city wandering and church viewing I can take.) So at my urging, simon and I took a bus to the city of Lençois, six hours east (inland) from Salvador after only being there for a few days. There is a national park (Chapada Diamantia), which is loaded with waterfalls. To the left, I´m looking over the edge of the highest one in Brazil (420 meters).
Waterfall Trek
We signed up for a two night, three day trek to see the Fumaca, the smoking waterfall, and the highest in brazil. Interestingly enough, the guide we selected was also named Washington, like our guide in Macchu Pichu. We were told that it's possible to do it without a guide, but we thought it might be better to have some support social interaction as well. And I am glad we did, because it wasn't very clear cut and involved a lot of river bed hopping.
Anyhoo, for some reason, I didn't realize how hard it would be (and that reason is probably b/c I got too caught up in the pictures of the waterfall and didn't read the part in lonely planet about the level of difficulty.) It was a lot of up and down, with some pretty technical descents (which I really need to get better at). Since it was hot, I carried light clothing, but also had to carry my share of the food for the group. Or at least I carried it until I rolled my ankle on the first day (crap!), at which point, Simon took my share of the food to lighten my load. The ankle wasn't rolled too bad, it felt a little tender the first day and felt stiff for the remaining days on the trek, so luckily it was manageable.
But I was always the last person in our group of six, which sucked and I always felt a bit stressed out and rushed. I hate it when people are waiting for me, it's one of my peeves, even though everyone else in the group was really nice about it (Rafa, the spanish guy, even made me a walking stick during lunch to help me on the first day). And I'd hate to say it, but even if I did have a healthy ankle, I am sure I would still be last and probably wouldn't have gone much faster...I guess this is all prep for Patagonia and Argentina.
However, I am thrilled to report that I probably got no more than a dozen and a half new mosquito bites, and the buggers were much tamer than in the Amazon (not to mention, do not carry malaria), and none of those nasty blood sucking sand flies on the Inca Trail. So while I was tired and stressed out, I wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I was before. I did make up for the lack of bites in scratches from trees and bruises (I bruise incredibly easily and I've got one on my thigh that is bleeding out to the size of a baseball.) So once again, my skin is wrecked. But I am confident it will heal in time for the next trek.
Also, unlike Macchu Pichu, where I really enjoyed the journey, I was definitely more in the mode of trying to get to all the waterfalls (which were stunning). The landscape was nice, but nothing nearly as striking as Peru (or at least until the third day as we headed out of the park and into the town of Capon), and as the trail was much more technical, I had to focus on looking down and ahead rather than up.
We had quite an adventure getting back from Capon. I'll let simon talk about that.
Lencois
I must say, I really enjoyed the town of Lencois. It's a small town and not that touristy, but there are enough tourists so that you don't totally stick out. And you don't get bugged as a tourist, nearly as much. And because the town is so so small, there really isn't a delination between the "tourist" area and the local area. I felt in places like Cusco, Peru and even here in this small beach town of Itacare, Brazil, I feel like it's a little bit odd for me to go beyond the quaint part of town and I get a few more stares. But in Lencois, I didn't feel that there was one part of town I should be in, or a certain grocery store that all the tourists go to. What was nice about the town was also that there were lots of little day hikes to swimming holes and waterfalls that you could also take so it was almost something for everyone. So I was a little sad to leave.
Itacare
So we're now in the town of Itacare, which is essentially the Santa Cruz of Brazil. There is much surfing to be had here (Todd Lee, eat your heart out), which is sadly wasted on me. But I found that the food is a notch cheaper here than in other places, I think due to fact that there there are a lot of surf bums here, who are trying to milk their money for as long as possible. This is good, because we've found Brazil to be a lot more expensive that we expected (see the comment posted by simon's dad on simon's salvador post which might explain why.) We got the cheapest hostel accomdations so far and it included air conditioning. While I am well educated on the environmental horrors of AC, after traveling for almost 24 hours, on three different bus legs, the last two which had no air conditioning, it was very welcome. In addition, Simon caught some minor bug and was sacked out for the day in our room with a fever and some nausea. No worries, he's better now.
Jack Johnsoned Out
Okay, I really like Jack Johnson and I believe I own all of his albums, which I listened to fairly frequently at home. But they are playing him ad naseum here in the state of Bahia. You can't walk down the street without hearing him blaring in a cafe or something. And this is true for all three cities we've been to in Bahia - Salvador, a major city; Lençois, a jungle town; and Itacare, surfer haven. I guess the last one isn't that surprising, but still. Isn't everyone else tired of it too? Apparently not.
Happy Holidays ??
So Christmas is almost here and it's kind of hard to tell. It definitely doesn't feel like Christmas, as it's 85 degrees out and there are palm trees and pineapples as far as the eye can see. What's funny is we ran into some Belgians who were amazed at the amount of Christmas schwag that was put up around town, in stores and hostels. Simon and I, on the other hand, felt it was almost unnoticeable, since it's nothing like the states.
What's funny is that the heat here reminds me of the summers in Boston, which can get pretty hot and humid. And I find myself homesick for things and places from summers in the past - an ice cream stand in Bedford, MA, hiking trails near Smith College, running along the Charles, eating outside at night in Cambridge. And I know there was a big snow storm recently in Boston so I know Boston is nothing like I imagine it to be right now. And my thoughts are far from Christmas. We're still not sure where we're gonna be for Christmas right now.
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