My Island Paradise

Hello Loyal Reader (since I think there's only one of you these days)

So last week I went on a trip to Morro do Sao Paulo. E-mail me for the link to the full photo album.

You saw in the last post (no you didn't see cuz you didn't read it did you?) that I was planning to go to Lencois, but hurt my knee. Update on the knee, it really hurts. I decided to go on a beach vacation to rest it but ended up hiking all around the freakin island - more on that.

So I was SUPPOSED to leave on Monday but missed the boat, so I left on Tuesday and almost missed that boat too since my wallet thingy broke as I was leaving out the door and I had to sew it back together.

To get to Morro you can either take a direct catamaran that take 2 hours and 50-60 Brazil dollars, or you can go for half as much and take a 1 hr boat, a 2 hr bus, and then another 40 min boat, so thats at least 4 hours total, but with the way they buses and boats are scheduled you can wait forever, making the trip usually take anywhere from 5-7 hours. I, of course set a new world record by leaving my apt at 8 am (to catch an 8:30 boat, yeah i was the last person they let on the boat), and making it to the Island at 12:45. I had the sense to look at the schedules first to try and make a route where everything lined up. Oh yeah OR you can take a private aero-taxi for 180 Reais *snickers*. That didn't even cross my radar.

So I got to my cheapie pousada (cheap hotel for the uninitiated) where I have 4 TV channels and the bed is so soft that i sat on it and both sides of the mattress flippd up, and I headed to the beach.

The problem with beach vacations is that there's nothing to do at night, esp. on a Tuesday in the middle of low season. Morro has a lil artisan fair, and then usually something at night that starts around midnight and goes till 5 am. To me, this is extremely counter productive because the sun sets at like 5 (horrible) that in order to really enjoy a DAY at the beach, I feel like you have to wake up at 6 am. Add to that that there's this eternal high-tide and that by 3 or 4 the tide is so high theres no beach left, and staying up till 5 am just really seems to be a waste to me. Esp. cuz the parties suck anyway, but I'm from Salvador where every night is poppin, so I guess I'm spoiled.

That first night I attempted to watch the sunset at the famed "Forte" but no one could understand my accent and they all directed me to the "Fonte" which was like 3 miles the other way in the middle of the jungle. Splendid.

On Wednesday I decided to go to nearby Gamboa. The tourist guide dude told me I could walk there, but I didn't hear him say "only in the morning." By the time I left at like 11 am, the tide was coming in and I ended up wading, sometimes up to my hips (and I'm tall) through water, over rocks, and climbing over boulders. I had been doing this for like 20 mins, but due to backtracking, I was only like 30 ft. away from the pier. I also didn't know WHERE Gamboa was, and was also on the lookout for this pink medicinal mud, that I also didn't know if I'd recognize if I saw it. Really the entire cliff face is made from this sandy crumbly clay stuff, so the mud is all over, and I thought I'd come across the famed mud bath spot earlier, but that wasnt the case. So, when I got to a dilapidated dock that was missing slats, where people were fishing by wrapping fishing line around water bottles, I assumed that was Gamboa, and was looking around in vain for the promised sparkling beaches. I tried to go into the "city" and found signs warning against vicious dogs because what I had found were private properties. So I sat down, ate my lunch (an apple) and eventually decided I'd try and keep walking. After about 5 mins, being battered against the rocks while trying to prevent my bag containing my camera and mp3 player from getting wet was begining to wear on me and my knee so I turned to go back, when I ran into a Gamboan who said she was heading that way, and could even guide me to the legendary waterfall. So, will my new guide I frollicked giddily in the pink mud and hiked on, tripping and falling through the water over the rocks.

So my guide took me to the waterfall, which involved a 20 minute climb up a sandy incline which i swear was an 80 degree slope. My knee, which was supposed to be resting, wasn't happy, but the medicinal mud was acting as an analgesic. After the incline, during which I almost died, we walked through the jungle, and I started wondering if my guide was really a guide, or just leading me to some ambush or something. I also wondered about the prudence of hiking through a tropic jungle in a bathing suit. Anyway, we make it to the waterfall, which the tourism office dude has warned me was more like a "strong shower" and I started cracking up. It was barely a trickle. BUT, the space itself, with a carved out cavernous rock was pretty cool, even though the water was cold enough to make breathing difficult. So I washed off the medicinal mud, pranced and spun around in the water, then slid and stumbled back down the trail.

At the bottom my faithful guide delivered me to a beach restaurant since I was hungry (which just "happened" to be owned by her sister). The beach WAS beautiful, tranquil, quiet, and just endless expanse of sand and trees. I ate moqueqa (traditional bahian grub) and then we trekked back to collect mud rocks for me to take with me to put on my knee.

Then my guide waited with me till I got on this lil teensy like 20ft long wooden boat that tipped over treacherously when I climbed in. Apparently this was "normal" and the guy held it up while i got on. Of course life jackets barely exist in Brazil, and the only life preservers I saw on the boat were old tires (I don't think those even float, do they?), and I started wondering, as we were flailing around on the ocean, if the boat ever tipped over and I was assured, that no it never did.

Later that night, I trekked across the beaches, till I cam across a youth playing the theme from Titanic on a wooden flute, so I asked him If I could sing with him, and so there the two of us were playing and singing the theme to titanic. Fun stuff. You can tell I was bored. Then I met my new friend, the guy from the tourist office to go to some show at a theater. First we redubbed the waterfall the "chuveiro" meaning 'shower, as in showerhead". Then we trekked 25 mins to the theater. I don't get it, to go there u climb nearly 200 steps and trek thru the jungle at night. It wasnt even a huge theater I dunno why they put it so far away. Its like a cruel taunt almost. And the show sucked, but I did get to sit around a campfire and learn to dance to a forro song or two.

On Thursday,

After getting to bed at 4am I was too tired to wake up early (esp. since when I sat on my bed it broke, requiring me to sleep for half of the night with my body at a 45 degree angle) to do an island tour so I planned to go to the 4th beach to see the lil fishes. Well the stupid tide ruined everything again, and the lil fishes are nowhre to be seen after about 8 or 9 am. I was running late too since I was considering leaving my hotel after the dude told me he'd give me a discount but wasn't going to because I was using too much water in my showers. It's a BEACH! I was washing my hair! Jeeez. It was also the first time in months I was in a shower with truly HOT water - Half of which ended up on the floor since the shower had no door.

On my way to the 4th beach (a half an hour jaunt) I decided to take a kayak trip out to some pseudo island thats only there when the tide is low. The first dude had these closed kayaks, and since my butt is larger than many Brazlian rumpuses (or is it rumpii), it was a snug fit. I started realizing that even if I could get IN, if the thing tipped over due to a wave, I'd never make it OUT alive, even with the lifejacket I had on that I could tell no body ever used. So I went to another guy and got in an open kayak instead (and I almost fell out when we hit a big wave).



Then I sat on the quiet 4th beach until the tide came in, and after rounding the corner to the 3rd beach I saw that there WAS no more beach due to the tide, and no path either so I had to walk/wade/swim my way back like I did when I went to Gamboa.



On the way back I saw some guys playing futevolei - which is just like beach volleyball but you cant use your hands.

I ate at a pizza rodizio - an all you can eat pizza place with 30 kinds of pizza that they bring out. Since I was the only one there, I got to order slices of 9 dif kinds of pizzas, including Banana cinnamon and sugar (i had them leave off the mozz. cheez of that one, and also off of the chocolate pizza. Who thought to put it on in the first place?) Tasty.

The next day I went on a tour around the island, which i thought was a waste of money. The tour was supposed to be 9-5, but really was like 10-4:45, and at least 3 of those hours were spent on the motor boat (my 5th boat of the trip). We were following not 1, but TWO bigger boats, meaning we were directly in their wake,and thus tripping and flipping our way through the ocean. We were sposed to have TWO snorkeling stops, but at one the tide was too low to sustain marine life, so we only got one. There I fed bread to the fishes until they were fighting over it adn ominously swarming around my legs. Then some woman came along dumping bread in excess telling the fish "don't fight my pretties" - i was getting disturbed.

At a stop I got this plate of lobster (3 tails) for like $8.50 USD, not bad. And then hiked thru the forest (in a bathing suit again, what is this) where I saw where dende comes from and witnessed a parasitic tree engulfing another. Then a short relaxation on a super peaceful beach (this was the island of Boi Peba, and untouched island, more or less. Few people, few tourists, just palm trees and sand).

Oh that bush in the background is a kind of mango tree where the roots actually grow up from the ground to be exposed.

Then they whisked us off to some stupid historical city. Like I cared. Who goes to the beach to visit a convent. Who cares about the history of the beach? They were shocked when I refused to pay 2 Brazil dollars to go inside the convent - I just wasn't interested.

Back to morro de sao paulo to see the sunset (from the right place this time), and that night I had authentic homemade shrimp moqueca and caipirinhas at the house of a friend of the tour office dude, who told me a story how his ex-wife once sold stuff at a stand during carnival during which she didn't come home or call for 3 days and he thought she was dead or something.

During this evening, I was using the FCS (TM) [see previous post for explanation] egregiously. I just couldn't understand since I was tired, and there was music, and the guys had country accents and beer. So the FCS can be used to keep everyone happy (altho they did catch me once, so while not foolproof, the FCS is still pretty good!)

But first, as I was buying a Pastel (empanada) from an Argentinian named Foom, he asked me if I wanted to join him singing. He had a guitar, and a motley crew playing an atabaque (conga-ish drum), bell, and triangle. He asked me if I knew "Stand by Me", probably thinking I'd be to shy to start belting out a tune (he wasnt around when I sang Titanic. . .) Well not only did I have a great time singing Stand by Me, but afterwards he couldn't get me to leave and I hung around for a good hour - but I learned how to play the samba triangle!

Then I went to some pretty bad party, which again didnt start till midnight. Techno sucks, why can't they realize that? For a country with such amazing music, I don't get it.

The next day I sat on the beach and melted for an hour, while painting this picture.

I'm talented aren't i? looks like a kindergartner with crayons. . . . .Here's what I was going for:

See the resemblance?


Then I took the direct boat back, which were like the worst 2 hours of my life, I felt sooooooooooo sick. I missed the opportunity to take great pix going back into Salvador, but you know what I DIDNT CARE!! Here's the blank space where that photo would have gone:




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I was just praying to get off the boat, I thought I was going to die. I had been on much smaller boats, including that motor boat for hours, and I didnt feel anything like I did on that freakin catamaran. My friends over there (why do I always make friends when I leave Salvador, but in Salvador no one will talk to me) want me to go back adn visit, but after that boat ride all bets are off. . .

Oh and then that night I went to a really good jazz concert at an art museum. Salvador is pretty cool that way.


I was lucky on my trip - I had great weather (like 85-90 I'd guess, and no that's not hot, that's great) with not one drop of rain - whereas since I got back it's rained a couple times already. If I get caught in the rain one more time I'm going to consider wearing a bubble.