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Greetings from 'Isla do Boipeba'
It took 12 hours to get here that involved 9 hours overnight on a bus with a mother, baby and 2 annoying children in the seat behind me. 2 hours wait in a deserted bus station at 4am, a 1 hour bus driving at Rally car speed through dirt tracks in the rain forest, a boat for 1 hour, a 40 min walk through the main town carry 5 bags in 40+ sunshine, then a 20 min tractor ride to our hotel in the small village of Morere. You can understand that when we reached the hotel - all we wanted to do was collapse, however the town of Morere can best be described as what 3rd world life would have been like in the 1930's. The water was brown - you couldnt flush paper down the toilet, we had 2 single beds (one of which fell apart) and the insect inhabitants of our room could have made a David Attenbourough documentary but itself!
LOL now you may get the feeling that I was not at all impressed with Morere - and this was my first reaction - but after eating a traditional Bahia breakfeast (fried banana in batter, tapioca, sweet coconut rice, fruit, toasted hamburger buns with butter and oragano, cheese and sweet guraba jam) we met up with the friends of Vanessas we had come to see (they were staying at the same hotel - hence why we chose there) and they took us on a walk to the neighbouring beach. It became apparent why this is such a destination for many tourists. The beaches here were almost untouched. Beautiful naturalistic landscapes - with rolling blue sea to boot. We were here for 2 days and although I didnt like the conditions, hygene, expense local insect life - I did really love the atmosphere and the sights.
All along the beaches are restaurants (where I am told that if you like seafood and dont mind the wait) you can eat some of the best food in Brazil. LOL shame I dont eat seafood. Conversly I CAN assure you that if you like pizza it is entirely possible to eat possibly the worst pizza in brazil here too.
The second day we traveled by tractor over to the town of Boipeba to meet my brother and sister in law. We met up and had a magnificant meal here. It became apparent that those who like their creature comforts and....well.....the basics of hygene should stay in Boipeba and visit the beaches of Morere.
We walked back to show them some of the beaches on our side of the island and then had some drinks. That night the bar right beside our hotel decided to have a Foro 'Traditional dance' night. Phil and Kate exhausted headed back to Boipeba. We too also tried to have an early night. Unfortunately the party lasted until 6 am. Nice to have the windows in our bedroom rattling along with the latin beats all night!
The next day we wanted to head out to some more beaches and the reef and had been befriended by a local tourist guide who chartered himself and his tractor for use and 3 other couples for a day - he mapped out a nice day visiting another local town and then chartering a boat to take us out to the beaches and then reef and then to a cave known as Jaguar Cave. We duely hopped onboard and drove over to the town (a Bumpy 1 hour away). When we got to the town it became apparent that our guide did not have a boat scheduled and we had to wait in the town centre for about an hour while he found someone for us. This someone was a local called 'Flavio' a really sweet and nice guy! He drove us in his boat to a local beach which was untouched by man. Unfortunately it did suffer the touch of many many men out in the sea, as huge ammount of their litter was carried by the ocean currents onto this beach. Plastic bottles, petrol tanks, plastic bags. We were told to go and explore and to come back to the boat in a couple of hours so we wandered around a bit sheepishly as neither of us was too impressed with the day so far. Once we got back to the boat the day was saved by a visit to a sand bank island in the ocean with a small shde hut set up and a local family who come by boat and sell cold drinks, beers and Caipas to anyone who stops by. There was a budding community of this island (perhaps 20 m in diameter) including the guy who was driving our tractor and a HUGE old guy in the tiniest of spedos. About 6.6" and 180 kilos and absolutely smashed out of his mind. He was apparently NOT gay however really wanted to hold my hand most of my time there - and kept kissing it. I pointed out to Vanessa I would need to get off this isalnd pretty soon for fear of being raped! Back on shore we had a nice meal all together with the group and then bumped and jumped our way home.
Our final day and we had planned to leave early for our next destination - 'Morro Sau Paulo' however when we got to Boipeba with all our bags we found out that the only way we could go was by 4WD and only at 1pm. So we met up with my brother and Sis in law again and relaxed on their beach. Thedriver turned up at 1 - but in the apparently usual Bahia way decided he wanted to eat and we left after an hour.
Isla do Boipeba IS a beautiful island. No car, no roads to speak of. Natural slow life. If you dont mind the smell, the garbage, the flies, the lack of service and just want to enjoy some of the best beaches in Bahia and soak up the sun - hell even see a completely different way of life that most people are used to then Boipeba is really great!
I have high hopes for Morro......
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