Cheese AND Banana?
Another delayed flight finally took us from Fortaleza to Recife. While the city itself is pretty grim (and has the highest crime rates in Brazil), the surrounding area is stunning. Olinda lies on the outskirts of Recife and is a hub of creativity where artists, sculpturs and designers set up their studios and galleries. The pretty town is perfect for the arty vibe with colourful houses lining the streets. Although it only takes a day to wander the whole of Olinda, many hours can be taken up checking out all the different galleries. It must also be noted that Olinda is where we discovered the calorific Cartola Tapioca – cheese, bannana, condensed milk and cinamon in a Tapioca mmmm. We were slightly reluctant to try the banana and cheese combo at first but it really works!
Our bus to Porto de Galinhas was meant to be straight forward but we found ourselves waiting hours in the back streets of the worst part of Recife with people sleeping on the street and no one speaking English. After fighting to get on the right bus (not easy with large backbacks) we were on our way but packed into a bus standing in the isle for over 2hrs…we hoped the journey would be worth it. Porta de Gallinas has lots of incredibly long beaches, some parts are packed out with vendours and Brazilian families but you can easily walk to quieter space. A short swim out from the beach are natural pools where we went snorkeling and saw so many beautiful fish. The rest of our time here consisted of gorgeous sun, jumping waves and drinking agua de coca…whist of course thinking of everyone back home in the snow.
Our bus back into Recife wasnt such a drama as on the way and after popping into South America’s oldest synagogue (partly forced to by Ronnie) we snapped up the last 2 seats on a night bus to Salvador. I dont mean to complain but we were positioned right by the toilets and good lord did it STINK!
Jericoacoara
After a somewhat tubulent (and yet again late) internal Brazilain flight, a long bus journey and a trip on bouncy ‘4×4 bus’ we finally made it to Jericoacoara. ‘Jeri’ as the locals refer to it is a small, isolated surfer town set between beach and miles of sand dunes. There are no real roads, so you can only get there by boat, buggy or the strange 4×4 bus we opted for. We befriended areally cool Dutch couple (Bram and Tara) on our journey into Jeri and ended up spending most of our time there with them – it’s easy to meet up with people in Jeri as there are only about three sandy ‘streets’ and several small adjoining streets, all lined with cute artsy boutiques, restaurants and surf shops. We soon stocked up on new beach wear and found our favourite sunbeds. When you take away the odd storm and Chris’ day in bed with a bad stomach (which was MUCH worse than Sophie’s bad stomach in the jungle) Jeri was a truly stunning place to sit back, drink agua de coco and enjoy the Brazilian vibe. We even got involved with a private salsa class (which has given Chris his new nickname ‘snake hips’), had a very poor attempt at sand boarding and enjoyed speeding over the sand dunes on a buggy. Jeri is one of the only places in Brazil where you can see the sunset over the horizon so everyone climbs the sand dunes to watch this ritual sunset followed by the quality Capoeira on the beach and enjoying cocktails from one of the stalls until the wee hours…this is where we discovered the kiwioska that is a new must-have for any cocktail party (kiwi + vodka = divine).
Rumble in the Jungle
Shortly after arriving in Manaus we were keen to leave – imagine rush hour on Oxford St (the cheap and horrid end), only 38 degrees and unbearably humid. Luckily we only had to spend the day there before heading into the Amazon with well reputed Gero Tours. We were a small group of 5 people including a German mathmatics genius and a Hollywood premadonna called Kyle. Several boat trips eventually took us to the Jungle lodge, where we slept in hammocks inside a spacious straw roof dorm. Every night the room filled with more bugs than you could imagine and several frogs in the bathroom soon became my friend. Each day our guide took us out for both morning and afternoon excusions to explore the Amazon. We learnt and did everything you need to survive in the jungle, from Pirana fishing in the pouring rain (Chris catching the biggest, Sophie catching a slightly stunned catfish), to treking through the forest looking at medicinal plants (quite incredible really and slightly peeved I spent £90 on our Malerone when you can chew a leaf for the same effect!). We also saw the forests deadly insects as well as stunning pink dolphins and sneaky looking caiman.
The trip wouldnt have been complete without being hit by a stomach bug. Having spent all night on the toilet trying not to wake the dorm, Sophie had to spend the morning in bed to recover. Chris went to see sloths which almost look like they belong in Sesame Street. Sleeping was pretty hard given the seriously loud sounds you hear at night especially the howling monkeys and a stunning sunrise made the lack of sleep well worth while.
The final highlight of the trip were a couple of cheeky monkeys coming into the lodge to grab as many bananas as they could handle…check out the video. Allthough the experience was an amazing one we were quite relieved to be out of mosquito infested land and a toilet that had a light switch (not Chris holding a torch for me).
Southern Hemisphere Shenanigans... 