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14/2 Valentines day
We caught the bus from Barra to Praia do Forte after a long walk and confusing local busses. Along the way there were amazing views of sand beaches with tiny shacks nestled in the palms. Where we were headed, Praia do Forte was a small beachside town in a similar location. It also had alot we could do including snorkelling, old ruins, a sea turtle conservation program and a whale museum. We arrive in the afternoon and head to the HI to drop everything off. Valentines day dinner of tapioca, three each and being a romantic I bought Sarah a few pairs of her favourite Havaianas. It really is nice and relaxed here, especially after Carnivale.
15/2
In the morning we hit the beach with a guided snorkel. Its totally amazing, the Brazilians snorkel like they drive. We were swam over pushed aside, kicked, almost like we were not there. It's very much a 'Me' society in some aspects of life. The slowest and most inconsiderate walkers, the fastest and craziest drivers (and snorkelers we found out). One of the guides pulled a few of us aside since we were being destroyed and found some interesting things. We held a sea urchin, a lobster/prawn thing, an eel, and numerous others and saw an octopus and starfish. Great time.
In the afternoon we hit this whale place, I'm sure it had good intentions and the young guy on the door was really nice, but this place was tiny. Without the video it was 10 minutes. The other real highlight was the feijoada we had for lunch. It's a black bean stew with tender beef, chorizo, and other meats. It is a fantastic Brazilian dish. Dinner was interesting, a small place with live music and people, in between dishes getting up and sexy dancing with each other..... Strangers. Sure made for a different form of entertainment since they were all women. I think the caipirinas helped, haha.
16/2 Turtles and caipirinas
The turtle project was great. There were adult turtles of the 5 species found in the area including the two I worked with in Costa Rica, the green sea turtle and the ridgeback. We did the usual, thing at all these places, patted stingrays and saw sharks. The best parts were the baby turtles swimming and the mass feeding they did when we arrived. If we had of known we would have headed down the night before to see them release the baby's hatched from the controlled nests.
On the way back to the bus we looked in the shops and Sarah bought her first Brazilian bikini, it is more revealing on the bottom half than she is use to.
The bus from Praia do Forte to Salvador was in a crazy mini bus. Sarah always gets a little shut eye on the bus trips and this is one I wish I did. A few (and only a few) of the crazy things on Brazilian roads we did included going around traffic lights so we wouldn't have to stop (don't worry about the market shoppers there), merging into the next lane (if someone is there they will move) and multiple lanes merge at once to allow people on. These were often started by busses pulling on or back onto the road and everyonr moving over. At times there were 5 lanes of traffic on a 3 lane road. All this is done at 100km/h.... Totally insain. Also a red light may mean stop but its more of a recomendation than a rule. We picked up 26 pao de queijo for lunch (cheese bread that's gluten free) and head back to Barra for our bags and to the Pelirinho. We could not have arrive at a better time; the free caipirina hour!!
It's not just free drinks that was so good, it's the fact that everyone in the hostel loves free drinks and we meet many travellers all at once. Most people are still recovering from Carnivale.
Dinner was a really welcome change of chilli con carne and meatballs. Ahhh spices again.
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