Wednesday 30th April at 4am was our flight to Bahia! André's parents Arleide and Cirilo had paid for our tickets as a wedding present and we were extremely grateful to them as we ended up not finding any cheap tickets and we couldn't really afford it! Bahia is amazing and we had the best time!
Arleide´s brother Eduardo (dudu) was there to pick André, Leandro and myself up from the Salvador airport at about 7am. I had a massive earache after the landing so I was a little out of it but the drive was beautiful (and relatively short), exiting the airport you drive down a road that is sheltered by many clusters of massive bamboo. When we got to Edivaldo's massive house in Jauá, Camaçari, I went straight to our bed and slept untill lunchtime! Before I crashed I met Valeriá, Edivaldo's beautiful and very friendly wife, who gave me some eardrops for pain and cleasing which helped lots! Edivaldo wasn't there yet has he had recently been in São Paulo visiting us and finishing some business (he used to live there before he got shot, which made him want to move, of course!). He had missed his flight back to Bahia so decided to drive his buggy all the way! So he was in Rio at the time we arrived in Bahia and Valeriá was very happy to have some company!
When I woke up, André, Leandro, Eduardo and I went walking to the beach. It only takes about 10 minutes, Edivaldo and Valeriá live in a secure complex one street away from the beach. Inside the complex the houses are huge, on big blocks of land, totally different to the housing I had seen in São Paulo. And the prices are incredibly cheap as well! We could buy about 6 houses in Jauá for the price of one crappy unit in Perth! And this is paradise! The beach was really beautiful, it had some waves but we made our way down a bit towards the barracá's (little beach bars) and boats where there is a wall of rocks and reefs about 100m out from the shore that breaks the waves to made a nice smooth spot for swimming!
We had some beer and coconut and relaxed in the warm but not-too-warm water before strolling to the river within the housing complex. In part of the river, the owners of the complex had tiled it to make a kind of natural swimming pool. It is hard to describe but they use a big net and wall to catch all the big fish and other things flowing into this 'pool' and emptied and cleaned it once a week. That didn't stop it from looking comletely black though... I was really confused, and I couldn't tell how deep it was. But I got in anyway (it was only half a metre deep) to wash all the salt and sand off, perfect! I am still not sure why the water was black but it didn't seem dirty...there were lots of little fish swimming round that liked to bite exposed nipples, so the guys didn't like that much and didn't stay too long!
That night we spent some time with Eduardo and Edinilma (his wife) and waited for a call from Edi (he was supposed to have arrived the night before). Valeriá was getting really worried as she hadn't heard from him since the night before and I was feeling really sorry for her! We waited as long as we could before crashing in bed.
The next morning I went with Valeriá to the bakery to buy some fresh bread for breakfast (still no Edi...). It is so nice in Brasil that there is always a bakery in walking distance no matter where you are! They always have fresh soft bread for breakfast! And Valeriá goes all out with her breakfast spread, every day it got bigger I think. Fresh breads of multiple types, fresh fruit, juice, cafézinho, biscuits, ham, cheese, couscous with butter the list goes on... She also made a cooked lunch and dinner every day! And wouldn't let me help clean up at all until I forced my way to the sink!
Afterwards we went to a nearby sandboarding hill with Du and Di. André and Leandro were naturals, but I was a little hopeless - I got in a few good pictures that made it seem like I made an effort tho! Afterwards, hot, sweaty and sandy (especially Leandro who had tried to make a little ramp with a piece of wood in the sand, and somewhat failing - we have video evidence hehe) we went to the beach and little river pool thing again. Here we found out Leandro has a death grip with his toes and kept surprising people by grabbing their finger or toes with his big toe and second toe (remember how the river was black? we couldn't see him coming!). His toes are massive aswell! So after a little bit of nipple biting from the fish and being grabbed by toes the guys decided to get out!
Edivaldo arrived sometime while we were sandboarding thank goodness! Everyone was worried because it was hard for him to drive long distances as he didn't have full movement back in his arms. He had been shot almost a year ago, one in each arm and leg and one in his hip, five in total. He is very lucky to be alive! But he arrived safely much to everyone's relief. The buggy was still in one piece so Andre drove me down the street in it but we started to get worried when we couln't put in in reverse and had do a bit of a circle.
Moses (another of Arleide's brothers) had arrived and a second cousin of André's, Gislene. We chatted and took lots of family photos, rested in hammocks, picked some cajú fruit from the front yard(yes the fruit that comes with cashew nuts) and that night André called some bats for me because I didn't beleive they had bats in Brasil, I was wrong, they have lots. He took a huge 2.5m wooden stick and waved it fast in the air to made that sonic vibration type sound and the bats started flying into it...strange hey. But we stopped before hitting any of them. Then I thought we should take a torch and search for some in the tree's (that would be a lot kinder, right?) but we didn't find any and Leandro had crept up behind us with the stick and banged on the tree above us! I pooed my pants (not literally, I just didn't want to swear) and apparently I accidently hit André in the face!
The next morning dark clouds had covered the hot and sunny Baiana sky. André and I decided to walk to beach again that morning, but a monsoon opened up on us and we had to run back to the house! The rain brings out heaps of massive bull frogs... I didn't really need to have a shower that morning... The downpour didn't last too long and we went with Edivaldo and Eduardo searching for a house nearby that my friends could rent out. My friends Rachel and Mark were meeting up with us whilst travelling around South America on a 7 month holiday (jealous? we are!). We finally found one after running around in the rain a bit and headed off to the internet cafe to check their flight times.
Soon after we picked Rachel and Mark up at the airport. It was still rainy and cloudy - not a very good first day for them to see Bahia! But it got a bit better during the day and we walked along the beach with them and the rest of André's family to a nearby restaurant to taste a famous local dish, Moqueca de peixe (fish stew). The restaurant was so small, we tried a few different arrangements with the chairs and tables and eventually we managed to fit everybody inside! We ate fish cakes and fish soup and the stew with farofa, feijão, rice and a thick sauce. It was really nice but I think my stomach did not agree the next day!
Afterwards we slowly (very slowly) walked back to the house, going past the house we found for Rachel and Mark. It was ok but Edivaldo and Valeriá suggested they stay with them so it worked out well! They have a massive house, but it was a bit of a struggle finding enough mosquito nets but we made do! I got so many bites when I was there I lost count! (the only bad part about living there I think). Rachel and Mark cosied up on a single bunk and Leandro slept in the living room (he needed more length than the single bunk could offer). Me and André were in a little room separate to the house that had its own bathroom. The shower was cold, but that was what we wanted in that heat! It also rained again that night and our mattress was beginning to feel damp...
