We left the island by a different boat this
time, slightly bigger and shaped different, but it was still somewhat rough,
loud and uncomfortable. Once back in Salvador, we followed directions given to
us from the hotel at our final destination. We thought we had gotten on the
right bus, but after an hour and a half we had reached the end of the line and
the driver didn’t know what to do with us… he didn’t speak English and we
didn’t know where we were…. Had to be a drama on our last in-transit mission of
the trip of course!! He took us back 20min to a spot where he directed us to
get another bus and we managed to get the right one to where we were originally
supposed to change buses in a tiny little town called Abrantes. Once there we
got our 3rd and final bus right to the door of our hotel.
We had selected a private bungalow in the tiny
beach town of Jaua up the coast from Salvador because we wanted the end of the
trip to be quiet and relaxing. Our bungalow was lovely with a thatched roof,
king sized bed, little lounge, fridge and bathroom with a hammock out the
front. The hotel also had a pool with sun loungers which were a plus!!! The
pool was smaller than expected and not as clean as we would have liked, but all
the same it made a great change from constantly being sandy at the beach and constantly
surrounded by people.
The grounds of the hotel needed a bit of a
touch up and the internet only worked in one spot behind one of the bungalows
but the palm trees and constant hot sunshine made it perfect nevertheless. Our
first day was absolute bliss, we had the whole place to ourselves and we
lounged around in our swimwear all day. The owner called in his cook especially
to make us a traditional Brazilian seafood stew cooked in coconut water and
still boiling when it was served to us for dinner. Yum!
Unfortunately the second day a lot of the other
bungalows was occupied. There were 2 couples who had their music blasting by
the pool and they were drinking and being loud…. I don’t have a problem with
people having a good time on their holiday, I’m sure we would have been doing
the same if we had had friends there, but we had gone there especially to get
away from that so we were a little disappointed that our perfect tranquility
was broken.
The mosquito situation there was ridiculous at
night! Our bed and the couch had nets over it and once dusk hit, the army of
blood suckers was out! Even getting out from under the net to go to the
bathroom had us going back to bed with at least 2 or 3 bites each time! We had
a tally of how many we could kill and reached over 100 in our 6 days there.
Our 3rd day we enjoyed the beach. One
end was deserted like a hidden island beach with crashing waves, and the other end
closer to the one street town was set up with umbrellas and chairs, yet it wasn’t
over run with people. That end was protected against the waves by rocks further
out in the ocean and the temperature was perfect – cool enough to be
refreshing, but warm enough that you didn’t flinch as you got in.
Our final days in Brazil were once again quiet.
There were others in other bungalows but it was a very relaxed atmosphere. By
this point I had given up sunbathing, I’m pretty dark already and by the sounds
of it, the weather in NZ isn’t going to give me much of a chance to show it off…
We relaxed by the pool or in the hammock and finished a few books – the perfect
way to finish almost 6 months of the nomadic lifestyle. NZ, see you soon!
Completed:
168 Days (24 weeks / 5.5 months)
10 Countries
51 Towns / Cities (Including 5 Islands)
56 Hostels (69 nights in a private room / 72 nights in a
dorm / 7 nights camping)
32 Buses - 136 hrs / 12 Overnight buses – 175.5
hrs (Total: 44 buses - 311.5 hrs)
10 Boats - 32 hours (18 of those hours was an
overnight one)
1 Train – 7 hrs
9 Flights - 33 hours (Not including back to NZ,
3 flights and 24 hours of being in transit)
PHEW!!!
