Carnaval! Bahia Folia!

Well Carnaval has come and gone and Mitch and I now know what it is like to party with six million people; yet another big check for the to-do list. A party of pre-lent sinning where the booze is cheaper than water. I have never seen so much booze in my life, never mind in one city, or even one neighbourhood for that matter. The stores were stacked to the ceiling, people were loading their trucks and entire backseat compatments full and if all else fails we would see people carting wheel barrels full down the street to their party destination. As can be expected, this led to a level of debatchery I had never seen before. Men grabbing women as they passed by in hopes of the occational willing kiss. The women we equally forward and would grab my goatee or my hair or my ass as they walked by. While this was a little off-putting, I much preferred their attention to the gay men´s attention who were even more forward yet *shudder*. To be honest, carnaval seemed to be too much for me for the first few nights. A party of this magnitude was just a little overwhelming for me and I had a hard time relaxing. Fights were quite frequent and everytime it seemed I had relaxed after the last brawl had been quelched by the miliarty police and begin to dance to the next song, another fight would break out. I´m not a fan of violence (except for some good old controlled and regulated UFC) so this kind of wrecked my carnaval experience. The army of miliary police, patrolling and standing in posts with their billy-clubs ready, did a great job of keeping some fashion of order in such chaos, but it was still hard for me to really feel safe. The energy was intense though and it was quite an experience to be there even if I didn´t feel safe all the time. However, the last day and night proved to be a saving grace for me. We spent most of the daylight in the old city and got to witness some traditional costumes and drummers and the occational female dancer in not but festive paint. After heading back for some great home cooked pasta with our remaining roommates (some had left by this point for greatly reduced flight prices) we headed down to Barra for our final night. Mitch was pretty tired and not really feeling he had the energy until we found the best bloco we had seen all week. Shaped like a giant Skol beer can, this bloco rolled on by pumping some amazing electronica and house music that we could not resist dancing to if we wanted to! We followed the bloco for about 4KM until we reached the furthest end of Barra where all the blocos were parked and danced maybe ten more minutes until the sun rose above the horizon. Not only had we found the best music of the week, we had also met up with most of our friends from Itacare during the night and got to party away with each of them. To boot, the best part in my opinion, we didn´t witness a single brawl the entire day! I am really glad we were able to end carnaval on such a high note and can now leave Salvador satisfied. However, it turned out we could not leave fast enough as our druggie aparmtent owner decided to phone us up demanding more money for this and that and when we told him no, he yelled that he was coming over. Well after waiting all day he did not show and we left early this morning to avoid any other chances of seeing him. Spending 12 hours in the bus depot is well worth avoiding such an unstable man.
Next stop (after a 21 hour bus ride) is Fortaleza. Thanks for all the great comments guys, keep them coming!

Photos: A typical Bloco doing BOOMING sound tests outside of our apartment building (shakes the buidlings); Campo Grande circuit full of people; EVA's passing Bloco with people jumping for free stuff; 4 of the staples of Carnaval

Boa Carnaval!

We made it to Salvador on an overnight bus that left Itacaré Sunday night. Monday morning, we met up with Shimon and Dotan in their hostel before we headed to our apartment to wait for the rest of the crew. We are 12 people in the apartment now and there is enough space for all of us to sleep, eat and hang out. It was a very good find compliments of Shimon and Dotan.

Carnaval began last night at about 8pm and will carry on until next Wednesday, when lent begins. Carnaval is basically the last time to sin sin sin before the 40 days without meat (Carne). Because we arrived on Monday, we had a few days to kill before the chaos started so we killed some time with walking the streets, checking out the preparations, hitting up the beach (it was okay, but it's no Itacaré) and checking out the old city, Pelorinho. It seems the most abundant people here are Israelli tourists. We are very good at spotting them out, since we are living with 8 of them currently. Very good people and a lot of fun to party with, though sometimes difficult to keep all of us together.

Last night, we wanted to head out at about 8pm, but that didn't happen. From our apartment, we could see the streets becoming crowded with hundreds of people and finally made it out to join the masses at about 9:30pm. The 12 of us stayed together for about one hour (maybe two) before the inevitable split up happened. Some people wanted to go to Barra, and some decided to stay and enjoy the Blocos of Campo Grande. In the end, we all met up at the apartment at 2 in the morning, while the party was far from being over. It was merely just the beginning, and the climax isn't until Saturday or later I imagine. With this in mind, it wasn't a big deal opting for sleep after scoping the scene.

I will certainly have more details about the Salvador Carnaval experience in about a week, but thought I would give a heads up as to what we are up to. No pictures yet, becuase I am a little reluctant to take my camera out into the streets. I shall buy a disposable and might try to scan them...we'll see.

Later!

Photos: Most of our roomates in Salvadors after a game of "Yaar!"; Some traditional costumes (filhos do Ghandy) in Pelourinho; Matt and I in the Upper Old City pre Carnaval

Illin' 'n' chillin' in Itacaré

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Not a whole lot new stuff to report on for this extended stay in Itacaré. We have been here for 2 weeks today, and have loved it to pieces. The only reason we are leaving soon, is because our apartment rental for Carnival in Salvador starts on Monday. Should be a really good time, and reasonably priced compared to staying in a hostel. More on that later...
What we have done since last post: not a lot...

Life doesn't get much rougher than 5am surf sessions or hour long treks through the jungle to remote beaches. And we still work up a sweat cooking meals for ourselves (Matt mainly).
Last Friday, a group of Israellis and other people at the hostel all pitched in to have a bit of a BBQ party. It cost us R$8 (~$4.25) each for sausages, burgers, ribs, steaks, caprinhas and beer. The Englishman, James, manned the grill while the rest of us BS'd, waiting for course after course of meat. After that, we all headed to a local pub for some drinks and music as the hostel has quiet hours around 11:00PM. The pubs are all very laid back as even our dogs were allowed to come and hang out. At the pub we found a new way to make some friends, money and drinks: why through the bonding of arm wrestling of course! Matt would find one of the larger and friendlier looking guys in the pub and challenge them to an arm wrestle while I would bet some other friendly looking people that Matt could beat the guy. Five bucks in the plus thus far! After which, a handfull of us went to a beach party, but seeing as how Matt and I are fairly stingy post-Rio and pre-Carnival, we opted for sleep instead.
The next day we had to mission to Ilhéus, in search of working ATM's. Seeing as it is a city 60km away, we decided to make a day out of it. First, we wanted to rent a motorbike like a Canadian friend, Jesse, but that bike wasn't available and nor was any other for that good of a deal. With that established, we headed to the bus stop and caught the 10 o'clock into the city. We wandered the streets in search of the bank, and my little lonely planet map had us a little confused. On our trek we managed to catch a glimpse of a bustling Saturday market in Brazil, find a Ice Cream buffet, and stumble upon some resting circus grounds with an elephant, bear and other amusing animals. The ice cream buffet was certainly the highlight. They had 10 flavours of ice cream, along with toppings of sprinkles, cashews, raisins, various syrups and candies. Like most buffets, it is all priced by weight, so it's not like all you can eat. You grab a bowl and fill it with whatever your heart desires, throw it on the scale and pay the lady-R$1.23 per 100grams. That day we both spent over R$8.50 at the shop...
As we carried on our way along the shoreline, we could see a magnificent church looming high above the city on a hill, so we headed up it. After being so used to walking around in no more than a swim suit and sandalls, city trekking in shoes, socks, shirts and backpacks wasn't so pleasant (nor did we smell very pleasant at the end of the day).
Accompanying the church were some fabulous views of the peninsula city. On our walk down the hill towards centro, a local man stopped us for a chat. He had been to the West Coast of Canada, and was keen to speak english. He also offered to give us a tour in his car, which we regrettably turned down.
Finally down town, there were plenty of banks. The first one did not work for either of us but the second proved successful...for mine. Matt had to try 4 or 5 banks and multiple ATMs before he scored some cash. With that done, we made our way back to the bus terminal a mere 4km away. Of course we stopped at the ice cream place again.

The ensuing days in Itacaré have been very similar. Surfing at dawn and dusk and killing the mid day with very cheap activities. Two days in a row, we hiked an hour to the most beautiful beach we have seen here yet. It was called Praia Prainha and though a bit of a grunt to get to (1hour hike in the heat of the day), it was certainly worth it both times. ALMOST would've been worth it to bring the surf boards, but alas we did not.
The dogs from the hostel came along though. Pingo and Preta come everywhere with Matt and I: beach, shops, kitchen, dorm...It's like they are our own and we sure are going to miss eachother.

Today was our last day of surfing, and unfortunately not the greatest for both of us. Matt's preferred board wasn't available, so he had to try to wrestle with a 6'1", while I managed with a 6'3". It was certainly my best surfing, despite the shite waves. It may have been our last surf day until we reach the Pacific coast, but perhaps we will get to do some more in North Brazil.
Next time I come to Itacaré, I'll probably get an apartment for a few months and surf everyday. Loved it here and hopefully we will find places just as awesome.

Photos: James warming up the grill. Dorió warming up the limes for caprinhas. Overlooking Ilhéus. Two of five (three for Mitch, two for Matt) bowls of ice cream. Willie, Matt & I getting ready for some sunset surfing. Preta, Matt & I en route to Praia Prainha. Praia Prainha. Hostel kitchen/common area from our balcony.

Sunrise Surfing

Our last day in Rio was a very lazy, money saving day. We did drop R$235 for a 23hour bus ride from Rio to Ilheus. While walking to catch the bus to the main Rio terminal (Rodovario), we caught a glimpse of some crazy acrobatics. A man shouting in the middle of the street was a sure way to catch ours and many others´ attention before he ran through an intercection into a round-off to a back handspring to a backflip over a man holding a plank with knives sticking out of it over his head. A surely impressive feet seeing as how he cleared the 6 foot high blades by a mere inch. We were going to miss Rio...
The bus ride was a long haul, but a big jump that we were glad to make. Plus, the bus was comfy and easy to nod off, do crosswords, sudoku, postcards and letters, and eat chocolate...LOTS of chocolate :)
We were anxious to get off the bus, because ended up getting off about half an hour too early when the bus stopped in Itabuna NOT Ilheus. Luckily we could catch the bus from there to Itacaré anyway, despite the extra 5 reais. We were told that the bus left at 8pm, so were in a mad rush since all of our time sources read 8:30pm. Who knew that in Brazil when you head north east, clocks go back an hour; a concept we still haven't wrapped our heads around.
We got into Itacaré 25 hours after leaving Rio, making it 10:30pm and a little worrisome for finding accomodations. As usual, it all worked out and we were led by a random "guide" to a beautiful hostel on the waterfront. We though we had best spend the night there that one night, and set out to search for a campsite the following day. However, for only 25 reais (about 13 dollars Canadian), we got a dorm room with 6 beds, bathroom, fan, big lockers and balcony. Camping may have saved us 15 reais, but the extra was worth the security, the fan and the aesthetically pleasing atmosphere.
Shortly after we arrived at the Hostel O Pharol, a couple guys we recognized from the bus arrived a little displeased that they paid R$10 for a taxi only to arrive after us. Jesse was from Winnipeg and Louie was from England, both of who were in Brazil for Caporeira mainly. It is a very interesting sub-culture said to have originated in the Bahia state of Brazil. Check the wikipedia link for more info if you'd like. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira Matt and I think we will try to drop into a class or two.
Since here, we have met many fellow travellers from places such as Israel, Chile, Argentina, Sweden, France & England. Also, we have discovered how much money we can save by cooking for ourselves. We pay half as much as we would if we would go out to eat, and eat about twice the amount for some sufficient food babies. We have also got our chiselling back on track with swimming, surfing, push-ups, sit-ups and anything else we can think of.
We have also finally got around to renting some surf boards and hitting the waves. It has been a blast and we are slowly but surely improving. Managed to both ride some shorter boards than we are used to with our stylish rash guards (mainly for the UV protection). Despite the shirts, we still got fried on our first day out, so have decided the best time for us to go is at dawn and dusk. Not only do we avoid the scorching sun, but also the huge crowds.
We are sticking around here for probably another week at least before heading towards Salvador. We are supposed to meet up with our Australian friends from Rio and hopefully get some floor space in their apartment for carnival. If that doesn't happen, we will figure something out. Fatboy Slim performs there every carnival in the back of a semi trailer and though expensive, we might have to hit it up if we can.

A couple side notes before the closure of this post:
-beard wager is on: Matt won't shave his gautee if I don't shave my face and vice versa, so things should be getting pretty gross soon. We are nearing the 4 week mark.
-Jesse from Winnipeg decided to spontaneously rent a motorbike for a cheap thrill, and said he would meet us at 11am. As it started to get dark, he still hadn't made it back, but in the end was okay. Just managed to break the mirror by hitting a tree and have the maching break down on him about 15km out of town.
-We took a couple of Israeli friends out to give them a crash course in surfing, and Lilan managed to put a good gash in his lip as he was going in to take a break. A crashing wave threw the 8 foot board right into is face, and at the moment he is getting stiches.

Well, that is about all for now I suppose. Enjoy the tales and be in touch soon. Peace ya'll later!

Photos: Matt, Jesse & Louie (with Pingo) gettin' ready to hit the waves at 5:30am. Caporeira performance. Some of our hostel friends.