EMO\\GOTH

This post was started at 2:30am. I never got around to posting it because I fell asleep at the computer. So, here are pictures of my walk around Barra Beach yesterday.

The lighthouse is actually a nautical museum. It looked nice, but I didn’t go inside. Random historic museums don’t interest me much. The building itself was beautiful, though.

On the other side of the lighthouse is a large outcropping of rocks. I took a few pictures from there, but I’m not sure I took any pictures of it. The rocks and the ocean made it look like such a serene place. Upon closer inspection, it’s absolutely littered with trash and smells like pee garbage.

I had an interesting night last night. The pousada was too expensive so I told the guy that I would be moving. He said he had another, more simple room for R$50/night if I was interested. I took a look and it was definitely more simple. The mattresses on the rickety triple bunk were thin and stained with some unknown substance. The fan was plugged into a socket that cut out if the cord wasn’t dangling in exactly the correct position. To get to the bathroom I had to leave my room (which involved touching the mysteriously greasy doornob) and go slightly down a hall. Once there, it was dimly lit by a single bulb. Overall, it had the feeling of a nice bus station bathroom (that means it didn’t smell like pee). This was very strange considering how nice the pousada is. I don’t know why, but I told the guy I would stay there for one night to see if it was okay. Nobody even dared me to do it! The decision may have been horrible, but it was voluntary. I woke up this morning missing about a pint of blood from all of the mosquito bites. I also spent the night stewing in my own juices because the fan wasn’t keeping me cool. It was no fun. I told the guy that I’d be leaving today and he offered to let me stay there for R$40/night. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider it for a while. I am now in a 4-person room at a hostel. There are almost no other guests here so I get the room to myself. It has a bathroom attached and A/C. It’s also R$40/night.

This is the view from my room at the pousada. I think the pictures may look better than the actual view. I tried to take the pictures in a panoramic style so if anyone wants to stitch them together that would be dandy. This laptop is too freakin small for such a task.

It’s really difficult to shake this feeling of dread every time I take my camera out. I’m not getting as many pictures as I want or the kind I’d like to take. They all seem so hurried. With that said, here are some pictures of Salvador. This is only a small taste of what Salvador has. I’ll try to take more pictures later.

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I actually met up with someone from couchsurfing.com tonight. It was a lot of fun. She’s the kind of person who knows everyone so there were no shortages of people to talk to. I even got a few phone numbers.

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It has been almost a week of traveling by myself and I’m getting sick of it. The whole trip to the northeast has been alone. I was supposed to meet someone from couchsurfing.com in Fortaleza, but he flaked out. He replied to my first message saying he could hang out, but never answered the phone when I called. I didn’t even look for anyone in Recife. I was just passing through. Now, I’m in Salvador and this place is seriously alive. There’s so much color and atmosphere that I don’t even know where to begin. The couch surfing community here seems much more active so hopefully something will come from it. I’ve already had one person offer his couch and 2 more show interest in going out tonight.

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Last night I said goodbye to Recife. It was like saying goodbye to someone you met on a plane once and passed the time with idle conversation. There was no emotion except excitement to see Salvador. Granted, I didn’t really take full advantage of what Recife had to offer. I was only there for 1 full day. From the time I stepped off the bus I could tell I wasn’t going to be thrilled with the city. When I finally arrived in Salvador this morning, I realized what it was about Recife that I didn’t like.

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