After spending nearly 2 weeks in the forest I decided that it was time to hit the beach. So I left Kilombo and headed for Valenca to get my bus to Porto Seguro.
There is not much at Valenca - it really is just a transport hub with some nice spots around the boats. Everyone I met there kept trying to convince me to head over to Morro with them... But I was determined and did not change my plans. Though it was close as when I got to the bus station there was only one place left on the bus... Being the very last spot I of course lucked out on the charming seat right next to the loo.
The overnight bus turned out to be a party affair with my part of the bus being the centre. Needless to say I did not get much sleep... Got to Porto Seguro by the morning, bleary eyed and in desperate need for resting on the beach...
There is a very lovely tourist information at the station that will spend long time trying to convince you that there are no local buses going to town. Most of tourists therefore, tired after the journey, opt for a taxi. There is, however, a very convenient bus that drops you off 100 meters from the boat to Arrial d'Ajuda - and costs a fraction of the taxi bill...
From there it's a 5min journey to the other side of the river, short bus journey and here comes Arrial.
It's a really charming place on top of the cliff with the beaches below. There are options to stay right on the beach but they were out of reach for my tiny budget so I chose the cliff view. The pousada Alto Mar is run by the sweetest family who immediately settled me into a dorm all to myself... It was kind of weird sleeping in a room alone after a month of sharing...Felt rather luxurious...
After some beauty sleep I run into fellow travellers in the hostel and the second Polish person I met in Brazil - Piotr... It was cool to hang out for a day and practise my Polish :)
The downside of Arrial is that you do need to walk to the beach and there are only two real options but these cover about 5km of white sand...
Unfortunately I picked the period in between the Xmas break and carnival so other than day trippers there weren't that many people in town. But it was a good place to unwind and get some laundry done!
After 2 days there I decided it was time to move on. I knew I will have some more time on the beach in the South and really wanted to spend some time in Ouro Preto.
What I did not account for was the fact that on the day I decided to leave and take another overnight bus to Belo Horizonte I will come down with fever...
It made the prospect of 14 hours in a freezing bus not that appealing. Things got worse when I got to the bus station to find out that my bus was sold out and I only had the option of going on the more expensive one. After some soul searching and looking for other options I decided to go ahead and make my way to Belo Horizonte. In the end it was good that I ended up on that bus - it came with blankets, snacks and hot drinks which actually made surviving the fever much easier.
The journey, although long, is incredibly beautiful. I also was lucky to have a neighbour who kept feeding me and making sure that I was comfortable.
Arrived at Belo Horizonte in the morning and must say that, although I didnt get to spend a proper day there, the city looked like one of the most pleasant big Brazilian cities I have been to. And has a very pretty location surrounded by the hills. But for me it was onwards to Ouro Preto.
Got there by mid day and got a bit of a surprise. The bus station has been moved to the other side of the city! I did not quite realised that at first being a bit sluggish with the fever and tired after journey so just started walking in the direction the guide book pointed me to. After walking for 5 minutes I realised that the short walk to the centre was not actually true and I was somewhere completely different. Luckily Ouro Preto isn't exactly very big.
Finally found the hostel I was looking for but, as in Arrial, it was empty so I decided to look for something else. After an hour of walking up and down the hills I finally found reasonably priced place (Sorriso de Lagarto) and settled in.
The first day I was pretty much alone in the hostel but I didn't mind as went straight to bed to recover a bit.
Ouro Preto is amazingly beautiful and perfect for just chilling, walking around and chatting to locals. I was really happy to spend 4 days there - getting rid of my fever and not really doing much apart from walking and enjoying the view. The nightlife conists of two main bars with a live samba band in either one of those. There are also some awesome cake shops :) and plenty of gold ornated churches.
It is a bit cold - in the morning the temperature is about 20 degrees and raises to 30 in the afternoon.
It was all around nice and relaxing but after 4 days it was time to hit the road and make the journey to Rio to meet with Annika.
