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The time had come to give our livers a much needed break from the chaos that was Carnaval, so after a week in Salvador we decided it best to continue our adventure up the coast of Brazil.Thinking this shouldn`t be a problem, we headed to the bus station mid-morning to try and catch the next available bus out of town. You would think that with all of our traveling wisdom, we would be smart enough to forsee the potential problems with this plan - we were two people among thousands who had the same idea.There were no seats available on any bus to our ideal destination (which was Maceiò) for two whole days. Not willing to spend another night in Salvador (due to the pain in our heads and the growing emptiness of our wallets) we decided to get on any bus that headed North… about 4 hours later we found ourselves on a bus to Aracuja and leaving the beautiful city of Salvador behind.
Arriving in Aracuja around midnight we realized that the bus that we were not able to get on from Salvador to Maceiò would be making a stop and unloading a few passengers allowing us to hop on board (we were going to get where we wanted to go after all, someone just wanted to make it more difficult for us than it needed to be!). We caught a few winks in the bus station while we waited for the bus to arrive and then managed to get a few hours on the trip to Maceiò which pulled into town at 8am. Taking a taxi to a hostel mentioned in our trusty guidebook we arrived to find a hot shower and an vacant bed, which we passed out in for the entire rest of the morning. Clean and slightly more rested we woke up and decided to take advantage of the beach and the atmosphere that resembled to us the exact opposite of Carnaval. Soaking up the sun on a beach with a few thousand less people than in Salvador, we relaxed with some good books and a couple beers (seriously, you can`t just cut yourself off cold turkey!).
Maceiò is well-known for it`s Tapioca, which they cook up into something resembling a tortilla and fill with all sorts of wonderful goodness. While we realized everything was still incredibly expensive as compared to other countries, atleast it was cheaper the second we left the big city lights and street food became a good way to get our money`s worth yet again. That evenings meal consisted of Tapioca filled with random combinations of chocolate, coconut, banana, and dulce de leche. Walking back to our hostel we were attacked by a couple of tour guides offering a trip to see three local beaches the following day… we caved in and got on board.We were picked up the next morning at 8:30, which was still quite the stretch considering our recovery phase was far from complete.We stopped at the first two beaches for about 15 minutes each, to take a few pictures and say we`d been… to be quite honest they weren`t all that impressive. However, our final destination was Praia do Gunga where we passed the rest of the day - and for very good reasons.There were a number of beachside eateries and restaurants with plenty of tables and chairs and where most of the Brazilians seemed to congregate (it had been quite some time since we had seen any other foreigners and my blonde hair was more noticable than ever). The beach seemed to go on for miles, so along with a few other stragglers we decided to see where it went. The further we walked the fewer people there seemed to be, most of them giving up and turning around to head back to the comforts of civilization.There always seemed to be just one more point in the beach that you couldn`t quite see around, and due to my need to know what lay around the next bend we continued walking until there wasn`t a single person or footprint in sight.We must have walked about 3km when we finally rounded the last point, beyond which all you could see for another 20km was white sandy beaches, blue water, and red cliffs. It was definitely an excursion worth making and upon reaching this point I was finally satisfied in turning around and meandering back along the beach from where we came.The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and soaking up the sun until finally it became time to wet our whistles. We found ourselves sitting at one of the plastic tables ordering a huge plate of fresh fish with a couple Caipirinha`s in hand. When I saw the table beside us drinking some concoction from a whole pineapple with a straw, I knew what must be ordered next. Vodka pineapples were next, and this is how our tour guide found us when he came to round everyone up and head back to town.
Our motto became `Keep on Truckin´ and we did just that the next day when we headed to the bus station yet again in the hopes of making it to Recife, another city along the coast and halfway to our final destination.Waiting for our bus we had a quick bite to eat, and it will be no suprise to anyone that it consisted of cheeseburgers - you can`t go wrong when they are the cheapest thing on the menu by about $5!!! I would later find out apparently you can go wrong with cheeseburgers… very, very wrong.Our bus to Recife arrived at about 9pm and we took the metro into the city to find a cheap hostel. It would be a quick layover in Recife as we were only passing through and boarding another bus early the next morning. Checked into a cheap hostel close to the metro station, we wandered out for something to eat. By this point I wasn`t feeling too hot, but paid little attention to the growing pain in my stomach. There wasn`t much open at this point considering it was about 11 at night. In light of this, we had to wander a little further than we would have liked, finding ourselves in a pretty shady neighbourhood with some interesting looking people and some even more interesting smells. We eventually found a place with live music and a menu with about 5 items, Pat decided to order the greasiest thing on the menu which turned out to be some disturbing looking chicken wings and I sat there trying to keep my cool as my stomach really started to rear it`s ugly head. The heat and the smell became just a little too much, so Pat kicked his eating into high-gear so we could get out of there before things took a turn for the worse. We left the restaurant and had made it about two doors down when all hell broke loose and I was frantically looking for a place slightly more appropriate than the middle of the road to throw-up. No such place was found and pretty soon I found myself doubled over in the gutter and getting rid of that damned cheeseburger from earlier in the afternoon, which would forever be associated with the night to come. Even better, I looked up to see two police officers sitting guard directly across the street and watching the whole event unfold, clearly thinking I`d had a little too much to drink as Pat was standing beside me with a huge bottle of beer in his hand. It was truly my shining moment.
Without elaborating too much on the remainder of the evening, let me say one thing - I have never experienced pain in such a way as I did for the 8 solid hours that followed. We passed less than 12 hours in the city of Recife, yet it tops my list of most despised places/things in the world - second only to cheeseburgers. We had a bus to catch the next morning, so we were up and moving early (one of us never having actually been to sleep… *ahem*). We were on our way to Natal, another beach city famous for its blue water and amazing sand dunes.Early arrivals after a lack of sleep are not really our thing and we often find it difficult to function, even more difficult to make rational decisions. Due to this, we found ourselves in the first cab we saw which happened to be operated by a sweet man older than God himself; he drove with more concern for getting us to our hostel for the same price he quoted us, than with regard for our safety. The hostel was booked solid and we were stuck looking for another place, and at this point we weren`t caring too much about location or how much we paid. Our driver knew just the place he said, so next thing we knew were checked into a hotel for about $40 a night with a beachfront view, air conditioning, and an english TV channel. It need not be said that we spent the entire rest of the day relaxing and soaking up every single ounce of the ammenities we were paying for. I finally pulled myself together enough to venture out in search of food for Pat, as I was still far from capable of eating or drinking anything but water at this point.We went next door (it was a struggle to get that far!) and Pat could hardly contain himself - all you can eat pizza or all you can eat shrimp for about $10.He opted for the pizza (as I could barely look at the 14 different flavours of shrimp passing our table without turning green). They made a huge variety of different pizzas and bring them around as they are cooked, letting you choose which kind you want and how much - it`s a great system, and Pat proceeded to get his money`s worth for the next hour.Slowly recovering and feeling more rested, we were able to get up at a reasonable hour the next day and spend a few hours on the beach which was conveniently located 10 steps in front of our hotel. We wandered up and down the beach, which felt a little more like Mexico with all the vendors selling CD`s and sunglasses.We had managed to lazily pass another day and by that evening, after two days of fasting, I had decided it might be time to attempt some solid food. We went to a restaurant, paid far too much for a bowl of carrot-like soup and a plate of spaghetti, and left feeling more unsatisfied than when we ventured in… a mistake we have made more than once and will hopefully learn from one of these days.
We were leaving town the next day so we took an hour in the morning to enjoy one more episode of CSI before we had to check out. Leaving our packs in the hotel we had a couple of hours to kill wandering in the shops, doing errands on the internet, and stocking up on cheap Havaianas (the most amazing flip-flops ever which cost about $45 in Canada but you can get here for about $6!). The next leg of our adventure was about to begin as we were about to board one last bus to Fortaleza. We arrived just before midnight after a long bus ride, but our flight wasn`t until 7am the next morning. Once again we found ourselves sprawled out on the airport floor, looking and smelling better than ever, and awaiting our flight that would take us to Manaus and into the heart of the Amazon jungle!
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