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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As far as I can tell, Recife is just another smaller tourist town. They have the same type of street going down the same type of beach with the same vendors. So far the highlight of Recife has been the quilo place. It’s not that I particularly like quilo. I just don’t want to spend tourist prices for a steak at a fancy place on the beach.
The one thing that Recife is known for is shark attacks. There are signs all over the beach saying not to surf and others saying that certain areas have higher than normal probability of shark attacks. The water is very warm, though. If it weren’t for the fear of being eaten by a shark, I might swim.
I leave tomorrow for Salvador. A friend gave me the name of a good pousada so I’m hoping to get a room for a week or so.
There’s not a lot to this post but to say that the bus is extremely boring. I spent about 12 hours traveling from Fortaleza to Recife to arrive yesterday morning. Most of it was at night so I slept a bit, but in the times I wasn’t sleeping I wrote. Mostly I played word games, but I also came up with a list of items regarding bus travel.
Fun Bus Facts!
- The bathroom has no ventalation (I can’t spell)
- A Rolling Stones cover band exists with an all Brasilian cast.
- Driving a bus is a great stepping stone to Formula 1 racing!
- I can communicate with buses in a secret, telepathic language!
Most of these items also have a horrible drawing to accompany them. I’m no artist to begin with, but drawing on a moving bus is an added challenge.
Here are a few pictures of Fortaleza. There aren’t as many as I would have liked because I forgot my camera in the morning. There was a stark contrast between the number of people out in the city on Sunday morning versus Sunday evening. I don’t think people around here even wake up until 7pm.
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