The past weeks since I last posted on Brasil, we have not done all that much in the way of actual travelling. Mostly it has been the sitting still variety of travelling. We are very good at this and ended up spending three weeks in Pipa which was just lovely. The days consisted of: Arise whenever we wanted, eat fresh breakfast of fruit and juices, wax new surfboard, catch minivan to Praia de Madeiros, surf for three hours, catch van back to Pipa, chill out for the afternoon, drink 80 cent beers in hammock while reading book as the sun goes down, find restaurant and eat dinner, drink more beers, go to sleep. And repeat, always repeat.
Mike and Anna told us one day that they'd be flying into Recife rather shortly so we made plans to travel down to Salvador and meet up with them. This worked perfectly and made it our second almost-chance meeting with them after our entirely-chance meeting in Peru three months earlier. We hung out in the Pelhourinho area for a couple of days. During this time I was robbed by some half crazed fuck who's opening salvo was to draw his finger across his throat and say with some degree of menace "I'm going to kill you". I handed over my money and was completely unnerved every time I stepped onto the street. So we decided to leave and go across the high seas to Morro de Sao Paulo, an island two hours south of Salvador.
Morro was ideal: wide beaches, cheap accommodations, good breakfasts, Jeri-style drinks carts, a party almost every night and a nice right hand reef break. Oh, and it had satellite TV which was really good for watching the opening rounds of the Champions League. Six days later though, we had to leave which is why we find ourselves in this generic business-style hotel waiting for a plane that leaves for Miami late tonight.
The best bits, in no particular order:
- surfing with Beto in Jericoacoara
- running into Mike and Anna in Peru, and again in Brasil
- drinks carts in Jeri and Morro
- views of mountains from our hostel rooftop in Huaraz
- attempt on the summit of Nevado Pisco
- hiking in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru
- Morten and Kirsten, our Scandinavian medical connection, in Peru and Bolivia
- mountain biking in Ecuador and Bolivia
- Bellavista hummingbird sanctuary in Ecuador
- getting a tan and not being afraid of an immediate outbreak of melanoma
- Rio de Janeiro
- The Westcotts
- partying in Lapa
- Hamish and Chris
- meeting up with Heather in Cusco
- Jack's Cafe, every single time
- understanding the Spanish language
- Nemo's for breakfast on Easter Sunday in Miami with Beefa and Rusty
- Beefa's MASSIVE boat in Fort Lauderdale
- Beefa and Jillian's house in Fort Lauderdale
- Caribbean cricket
- Barbados rum shops
- reading about England being beaten 0-36 in the Rugby World Cup
- travelling with Rusty for the first time
- turning 30 on an idyllic Brasillian beach
- Rob the Scouser's knowledge of Neighbours
- the falling value of the US dollar
- Culley
- crayfish, crab and white wine at the Coconut Bar
- 27 consecutive Mondays where we didn't have to go to work
I think that's enough of a list for now.
Whoever lives in Brisbane, we'll see you very soon. Some of you even have gifts. Whoever doesn't live in Brisbane, stay in touch on the electric email.
I'm going to continue using this blog, but will not be emailing every time I post something. For me, it's good to have a venue for writing whenever the feeling takes me.
Oh, and if you want to read some funny tales of travels in Thailand and that area, go check out http://doyunchay.blogspot.com/
Bye for now.
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