Amazing BEACHES, Crazy PARTIES, FAVELA, HOOKERS.... I think that was pretty much it!!

Heeeeey!!!

I’m back!! Long time no see!!!! I will write this in English, because this was for sure an amazing trip and I want everyone to be able to read this.

Get your coffee, popcorn or whatever because this post is going to be a long one, but mostly pictures.

I will begin to tell you that this is my first backpacker-trip and I have no experience of packing or carrying heavy bags – wow I felt like a turtle with a really heavy shell on my back I was always walking behind the others. Every or every other day we had to pack up and carry the stupid backpackers again. Guess what?!?! Berta’s bag was 10 kg mine was 18 KG!!! And I didn’t even use half of what I brought with me.

The trip began with Salvador, just as planned and actually Salvador became my favorite!!! The others didn’t agree with me (but Krisztina seemed to change her mind a little bit and like it a lot too… hmm). Salvador is a busy place with a busy beach, and as this people person I am (or what I say about myself nowadays without sounding scary… “People are my passion”). I like when it is busy, a lot of music, parties going on and a lot of people to watch on the beach.

I don’t like when it is quite and the beaches are empty.

DAY 1 – Christmas night

We arrived in Salvador without any hostel… hmm… so we tried to check in one day earlier at the hostel we already booked for the other two nights, but without success. But the nice receptionist let us sleep in the reception. We were 5 people sharing two coaches, but I can sleep wherever so I woke up rested the next day, haha!!

James sleeping in the reception. Berta and Krisztina in the background with the computers. DAY 1

DAY 2 – Christmas Day

5 am we decided to go and see the beach, we put over important stuffs in lockers and left, but we forgot something important – TO LOCK!!! Berta and Krisztina went to the beach, while me, James and José went back to the hostel, but the door was locked. If someone went downstairs to the reception and took what was in the locker, that person would become rich. We were desperate and banged on the door for 2 hours.

Me trying to calm down with some Yoga, but I don’t think yoga is my thing. José told me something about a light in the middle of my forehead… that was when he lost me…. Haha!!!

Later we went to the beach in Barra which was our neighborhood so it was very close. I loved that beach!! Crowded!! Alive!!! And imagine being in really hot water on Christmas Day (it hasn’t been Christmas for me this year actually), it was fantastic!!

Berta, José, me and James

When we were walking on this beach someone suddenly grabbed my ass really hard, I turned around and it was a girl saying “Olá!” – I was just too chocked to realize that it was Krizstina that grabbed my ass!!!

We also had, what we would say in Sweden – fruktstund! (fruit-time) But with really exotic fruits! Papaya, mango and passion fruit are so good here!

And the weird looking fruit is Graviola it is from Malaysia (as my Malaysian friend told me… Krisztina (she is Hungarian by the way)). Graviola tase like candy, it is soooooo good!!

The same day we also went to another beach one or two hours away (I don’t know I slept) – Praia de Flamingo – where me and James jumped in the waves, I have never swallowed so much seawater before!! The waves grabbed my hair and took me closer to the beach and span me around in the water, it was a fantastic feeling, I felt like a mermaid!! But it was a little bit scary too...

I also ate this disgusting looking food. All of it is shrimps made in different ways, it wasn’t very good. I ate a lot of better things later on the trip.

On the night we went out to a Samba place, it was some young people there before us, but the most of the people were older. But we had fun with the other people from our hostel. When the band stopped playing and left, the people there started to sing on their own instead. It was so much fun!!

Andrew from UK and me

DAY 3 – Morro de São Paulo

The next day me, Berta, Krisztina and Alonso (that just joined the trip) went to an island outside of Salvador called Morro de São Paulo. It was a beautiful island with small nice roads, no cars and a nice beach… but kind of empty.

They didn’t have normal taxis, but this is a typical taxi in Morro de São Paulo… for the luggage… haha!

Berta, Krisztina and Alonso loved the place and stayed there for one night… but me… I just couldn’t stand a quite night without dressing up to go out when I knew that it would be nice parties going on in Salvador where I could meet a lot of people. I decided to go back (ohh, my God, I’m so happy that I decided to go back – but the reason for that is private ;-)

Anyway, on the boat back I met a very nice South African guy (that by the way promised to contact me through my blog – I hope he will). I asked me a lot of questions and we ended up talking for two hours – only about me!!! And meanwhile our conversation I got seasick and we had to stand outside and I had to stare at the horizontal the whole time. He told me that he was one of 22 kids and that he lives in Johannesburg in South Africa, that is all I know about him…

He told me that he didn’t like Brazilian food (wow, then he really missed the good stuff – so I told him what he should try). That night we ended up on the most expensive Churrascaria that I know of “Fogo de Chão”. Before going there I took a shower, put on a nice dress and made my makeup while he was waiting for me on a bar. It was so funny because when we went there everyone thought that he was really rich. He came there with a tall blonde in a nice dress while he was short, still dressed in swimming-shorts (that went to the knees) and a T-shirt. We were served by FOUR people!!

We had a great time, later… we went to another place and there I met some Swedish people! The South African guy had to catch the next day and only stayed a little bit longer. Besides from meeting Swedish people I met some Brazilians, a girl from Switzerland and a surf instructor!! It was so much fun! ;)

Brazilian guy to the left, two Swedish people (but their parents were from Bolivia) and me

(Look at my hand, what am I doing?)

DAY 4 – Favela visit and bye Salvador, hello Maceió!

The next day I went to the beach with the surf instructor, we also visited his house in the favela!!! That was funny! I would never imagine that, me, a blonde girl from Sweden would go into the favela!!! Haha!! But that was for sure an experience!

*favela – poor neighborhood, houses are being built on land which they don’t own. The government has no control over it, it is growing without control. There are no streets (with names), sometimes no water nor electricity.

Don’t worry I’m careful!!!

Later that night we went to Maceió – it was a bus ride of 10 hours and I slept like a princess (but I was the only one doing that – the rest of my group was dead tired when we arrived)!

DAY 5 – Maceió

Sooo beautiful, but too quiet for me… But at least here I could calm down a little bit. We arrived too early to get our room but they let us stay in another room in the meanwhile. Everyone but me and James wanted to sleep… we wanted to explore the beach!! So nice :-)

James with the giant bottle-boat!!

Me and James on Maceió-beach

José seemed to be a little bit sick… but on the evening he was fine again.

This is what can happen when you order a Sandwich with tuna, instead of bread you may get squash… haha!

Me and James went the safe way and order a giant fruit bowl with ice-cream… what is the worst that can happen?!?! That you get vegetables with ice-cream instead? That sounds disgusting by the way…

Beautiful Maceió

James, you are looking very much like gringo (stranger) on this picture… with the Nordeste tourist T-shirt and everything!!! Haha

Flotte!?!

DAY 6 – Maceió

The others went to some other beaches, but I got sick and stayed in Maceió instead… Our group was like a family and I was the youngest, so now I know how it feels like to be a little sister. Everyone gets worried and everyone takes care of you. I’m happy that I was travelling with such a great people that now are really good friends to me.

I spent my day alone on the beach and apparently I couldn’t reach to put sunscreen on my whole back and burnt in the middle of my back, the sunburn was shaped like a dolphin (what can that mean?? It has to be a sign haha!!). Worse was that I fell asleep and burnt one of my ear, I’m still peeling on that ear!!!

On that evening we went to eat typical Brazilian food – it is good – but I have to admit that it is not my favorite… Anyway it was an experience (and it was cheap – you paid per gram)!

Berta and me with the waitress

The doorman and me, he was so happy of being on a picture with me… rsrs

Brazilian food (and the cakes are not for desert)

Here is the desert:

Alonso and Berta

Nomorado e Nomorada
Boyfriend and Girlfriend

DAY 7 – Japaratinga

We took off to Japaratinga, but late… We didn’t have time to enjoy the sun on the beach. The water was extremely hot even though the sun was down. We played volleyball and football for a while and I have to say that this was the best night we had as a group. This place is a very quiet place, nothing happens there it is very small place in the middle of nowhere.

Our pousada (hostel) was the cutest but the most simple I ever seen. Besides from the mosquitoes, we had two other pets; a lizard on the wall and a frog in the toilet… mmm nice…

Before going to Japaratinga James read in his Brazil-book that if it is full moon in Japaratinga the water will retire and you will be able to walk very far. Guess what?!?! FULL MOON! We had full moon! This had to be celebrated!! We picked a mango from the ground right outside of our hostel (there was a mango tree there). Made Capirinha of a really fresh mango, so nice!!! And we also made a lot of Capirinhas of banana, sooooo good!

Full moon in Japaratinga

Then we continued the party in the sea!! We took a lot of crazy pictures and had the greatest night ever!!!!

DAY 8 – NEW YEARS EVE

On the morning we went to Maragogi to see the natural swimmingpools. Natural swimminpools are places in the middle of the sea where it isn’t deeper than that you can’t reach the bottom. This can only be seen early because when tide comes it gets too deep.

Drinking pineapple juice through a pineapple... jummy!!

The girls and me, by the way.... that is a really good pose Berta - good job!

Floating bar with barbeque

Berta

Krisztina softar...!!

James on the boat

Me

Krisztina and José

José looking really cool!!! I love this shot!!!

Shrimps, here you eat with the shell on, not the heads though…

At the evening we were almost stuck in Japaratinga, but after a while we finally found a bus that took as to Recife. I would be very disappointed if we had to celebrate New Years in Japaratinga. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I can only remember this fantastic night of New Years Eve in my head!

This was the best New Years Eve ever… The party was on the beach, a big concert and a lot of people dancing. I ended up dancing the whole night in a circle of people, I have never had so much fun, and it was a good workout also!!! And then the sun raised and the music stopped. When the sun was up the music began again, it was so magical!

Before going to the beach party, we had dinner at Alonso’s mum’s place. She had cooked really good food and to dessert we ate “Neger’s tits” if you translate it from Portuguese, it was sooo good!! And the funny thing was that at night Krisztina told some people that she ate this and they just looked at her as she was crazy or something!! HAHA!!!

The mini-bus, they just kept on letting people in, the bus not full at all, haha!!

DAY 9 – The first day of the year

A softish day, I wanted to go to the beach to swim, but that wasn’t a good idea because there were too many sharks there… not good!!

So we went to find a place that was open to eat something. We walked and walked and walked and Krisztina said: I want to be in a car with air condition. Right after that she stopped a car to ask for the way and the next minute we were in the car and the old man started to drive us around the whole city. First we went to a place where we ate crabs and he appointed me to be Miss Crabs – I just love seafood!! They all thought that it was funny that I’m a cancer!! Afterwards he took us around in whole Olinda, different churches, gave us holy cookies, took us to his house to eat dessert and then he dropped us off and gave us two tourists book that he made.

The only picture I got before my camera went out of battery.

Some weird church with giant sculptures... a little bit scary
What a day!!

DAY 10 – Porto de Galinhas

We decided to leave our hostel to live closer to the beach (without sharks). But first we were going to see the famous beach, Porto de Galinhas!! Me, Krisztina, Berta and Alonso went to Porto de Galinhas while José and James went one day earlier to Jacuma.

Jacuma is for sure a place in the middle of nowhere; no one knows where this place is haha!!

We came to Porto de Galinhas a little bit too late so it was almost no beach left, because of the tide. Such a pity as it took three hours to get there and Krisztina was feeling sick the whole way…

And by the way Porto de Galinhas means chicken harbor. It got its name when it got illegal to buy slaves in Brazil. So be able to keep on buying slaves from Africa they had to use code names to not get caught, so instead of sending a message to the rich people that the slaves arrived they said that the chicken had arrived.

In this place, they even had whistle blows that sounded like chickens!! Haha!!

At night we went out, me and Krisztina with Alonso’s doctor friend. But me and Krisztina didn’t like the place and left to another place. A rock bar place, it was nice, I had a lot of fun!

DAY 11 – No Jacuma – fun is in Natal

Instead of going to the middle of nowhere we went to Natal! Alsono went back to SP and the other guys were still in Jacuma. We arrived at night because it was a long trip and we couldn’t find a direct bus so we had to connect in João Pessoa. The first night we went out to eat with my friends from São Paulo, Tereza and Patricia. We ate a lot of nice seafood.

After dinner me, Krisztina and Berta wanted to go out. Unfortunately it was only one place open a samba-place (sounds good doesn’t it)…. Yeah yeah!!! We came there and I felt that I was more stared on than usually, I was a little bit uncomfortable actually. There were two guys following me wherever I went and some guys trying to feel my hair with their face and another guy telling me in Swedish that he loved pussy. My friend Berta realized that we had ended up in a hookerhouse. It was hookers everywhere; the funny thing was that the place looked very European like.

When we went out from there we got a band around our wrist to be able to come back in…

Next morning at breakfast an old man was talking about last night with a young man. The old man was telling him that last night was sooo good, in Portuguese. When we left the table the old man grabbed Krisztinas arm and started to ask her about the band she had around her wrist (from last night)… Yes, it was a whorehouse, for sure!!!!

DAY 12 – Relax in Natal

We decide to go on a buggy tour (small jeep) in the sand dunes. But we didn’t find any for the same day so we booked one for the next day instead. The guy we booked the tour from was from Germany so we asked him about places to go out… and he told us that there is a good world and a bad world. Haha, thanks we have already been to the bad world. So he told us, as it was Monday the place we should go to are a hostel that looks like a castle, they will have a party.

Sounds great, and as we didn’t have a hostel for the night we decided to move there, good right?! The hostel was the most expensive during the whole trip, but it was only for one night… On the night we went out to eat, we started to walk down the street because it seemed like a busy area with a lot of parties. We walked a few meters and guess what?!?! We were now living on the whore-street!!!! Good job!!

Me and Krisztina went to take pictures of the whores, look in the background of this picture.

After sightseeing among the whores we went on this party in the castle, which was only for singles :-) and there were no whores there!!!

Party-light

DAY 13 – Buggy tour in Natal – hello Praia de Pipa

On the buggy tour we pretended that we didn’t know Portuguese and we had a lot of fun!! I have also noticed that Berta understands a lot of Swedish, so if I want to tell a secret I tell her in Swedish and she tells Krisztina in Hungarian!! Haha FUN!!!

Beto (driver) and Leo (the lion... rsrs)

Instead of a bridge...

The buggy tour was really nice and we got to see a lot of nice places, the most fun was eat when we went downhill on a sand dune on a board!!! So much fun!! Me and Krisztina also went on a wire in the air from really high down in the water, it was fun!!!

Going up the sand dune...

Krisztina: Let's not break!!

Here is proof of her breaking!!

Me without breaking!

After the buggy tour, we went to Praia de Pipa where we met up with the guys again. The guys told us their story and we laughed so much. They had really been in the middle of nowhere. They walked 25 km to the closest city where it was a supermarket. In their place there was nothing but their hostel! Really in the middle of nowhere!!

The hostel in Praia de Pipa was so nice, hammocks everywhere, and someone shat flowers in our toilet!!! (I looked up the world shit.... lol)

At night we went out and this place reminded me about Mallorca and this kind of places. Praia de Pipa is all about the beach and party.

DAY 14 – RELAX

I had the most relaxing day ever, doing nothing just enjoying the hot weather and the sun, eating shrimps. Wonderful, this is life!!!

Apparently Berta, James and José went to another beach and saw the wild dolphins at the beach!! I’m so jealous!!

DAY 15 – Praia do Amor before living to Recife

Visit Praia do Amor and then the girls went to hostel, but the guys went back to Recife. Me and Berta were going to stay two more days.

I went out with some friends and had a GREAT time!!!

DAY 16 – Last day on the trip

I spent some hours on the beach, couldn’t find Berta so I was alone the whole day… Later I found out that she was walking and got lost and had to call to the hostel from a hotel to find the way back!!!

On the night I went out with a friend from the hostel to eat on a Churrascaria, that’s how I got interested in coachsurfing – I will do that when I get my apartment back in Sweden (if I have to stay in Sweden).

DAY 17 – BACK IN SP

I had so much fun on this trip, so I decided to spend my last days here in Brazil (or my last three weeks) on the beach… so guess what!?!

The 26th of January I will go to Rio de Janeiro and the 29th of January I will go to Salvador!!! Then I will spend the carnival in Salvador, so I will not go back until the 19th of February… and on the 20th of February back to Sweden!!!