We leave Brazil in three days, and as much as this country is an absolute BURN money-wise, I'm going to miss it so much; I've loved it so much more than Argentina and Uruguay. I've said it before but I really wish they spoke spanish here because I want to be an Anglo-Brazilian and live here!! And since I already speak un poco de espanol it would make life a lot easier.
So, last time I blogged, I was despairing about the poverty in Rio, and how it seems to be pointedly ignored by anyone who isnt suffering from it. Well, I'm not going to take back my words because I was very moved, and not in a good way, by the troubles in the otherwise amazing city, but I am going to add to my thoughts: I am by no means denying that there is a HUGE distinction between rich and poor in Brazil (because its no different anywhere else in this country - there is an enormous gap) but maybe I was unfortunate to see some very bad situations that made me react in a way that maybe others would be shocked to hear of about Rio. Seeing the police attack those children is a terrible part of life there, but I think things arent quite as bad as they first appeared. People are poor everywhere, that's the hard truth, and in retrospect I think I reacted very emotionally to a problem that is not as bad as it seemed at the time. Having said that, if I could do something to help anyone who is even half as worse off as some of those we encountered, I would. Poverty comes to a whole new level in South America to anything I've encountered anywhere else in the world.
Moving on, we just spent the past week in Bahia, a state in the north-ish part of Brazil. We came to Salvador first; an awesome city with an incredible afro-brazilian culture. It was the biggest slave port in the Americas at one point, hence the lasting African culture, and its been really interesting for Josh, with his family being from Ghana, to see the similarities in lifestyle. It rained a lot here our first few days so we didn't get to leave our hostel for very long, but we managed to catch an awesome live music festival with samba bands, and dancing in the streets. Every Tuesday night there is a big street party right by our hostel, and we saw a live reggae band (incredible) and a huge room filled with people samba dancing, drinking cocktails made at little stalls in the street, and eating kebabs barbecued off little braziers on the pavement. It was so much fun!
On Wednesday, we went to an island near Salvador called Boipeba. I say 'near' but to get there we had to take a bus, a ferry, another bus and another boat! Worth it though, because I've actually seen a glimpse of paradise now. It was gorgeous! White beaches, turquoise water, hammocks swaying in the breeze... you get the idea. We stayed in a tiny little pousada, which is basically a b&b, and we had fresh mangoes and papaya for breakfast everyday, it was amazing. When the tide went out in the middle of the day, you could swim across to another uninhabited island, and sunbathe there for a while, but the tides change very quickly so you have to keep an eye out or you could end up marooned! The island had no cars, and so few lights on at night that we lay on the beach and could see more stars than I ever knew were visible to the naked eye; you could actually see the Milky Way!
We came back to Salvador yesterday to collect our bags that we had been lucky enough to leave at our hostel while we were in Boipeba. Tomorrow we fly to Iguaçu Falls, huge waterfalls that straddle the border of Brazil and Argentina. Its supposed to be beautiful, so that's taking the sting out of leaving Brazil a bit. Cant believe its been two months already, time is flying by! Bring on the next three I say...
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