It was heartbreaking stuff saying good bye to Kilombo but with my visa running out it was inevitable that I had to leave. So I jumped on the bus to Salvador where I enjoyed my last night in Bahia. It was celebrated in style with a street roda in Rio Vermelho which went on in spite of the rain; obligatory acai and some beers... I didn't quite manage to wake up for an early morning swim in the sea before catching my flight to Recife but, after all, my journey was taking me to some amazing beaches.
I don't like taking flights. You almost feeling like being torn out of one place and dropped into another. Bus or boat journey makes the transition much slower, allows for the process of saying goodbye to one place and getting excited about arriving onto the next. But time was not on my side and the flight came at the same cost as the bus. And so within the two hours I was in Recife.
Its a nice enough place. I stayed in Boa Viagem which has a decent beach and some restaurants and is generally more affluent than the centre of the city. For me the experience was slightly tainted by the fact that I was quite upset about leaving Bahia and so only managed to get to the beach in the afternoon and wonder around the neighbourhood.
I didn't go for a swim as was quite freaked out by all of the shark warnings and the lack of any locals entering the sea.
The next day, with a bit more energy, I spent the day with girls from the hostel in Olinda which is truly beautiful. We wondered the streets taking in the views and soaking up the atmosphere of this colonial town. Predictably I was talking a lot about my experience of Kilombo, in fact, I was talking so much that the girls ended up changing their travel plans and heading there after Recife.
Even though both Recife and Olinda are charming and there is plenty to occupy you for few days I decided that the city vibe was not what I needed at this moment and that the beach and some more nature is what I was after.
And so the next day I headed for the bus station to make my connection to Pipa. After few hours of sitting on yet another bus I started to feel like I have had enough now of all this travelling and could quite happily head back to London. It really felt like I was doing the same old thing again. In Goianinha I changed for a van and got off the main road. It was such a charming journey through the countryside that I immediately remembered why I am travelling. We passed through tiny villages with everyone chatting on the road, it all felt like a real community. I got to Pipa late (my own fault of course as I didnt manage to get up on time for the earlier bus) and it was already dark. It was also the day when whole town lost electricity. I have quickly abandoned the idea of trying to find my hostel by wondering the streets in the dark and enlisted the help of locals who walked me to my destination.
I stayed in a hostel run by an amazingly friendly Argentinian, I was greeted with the bad news regarding the electricity and even worse news that since there is no electricity there is also no water. Consolation came with a chilled beer and spot in the hammock. And so the Argentinians played guitar, we drunk beer and waited for the water to return.
Pipa was just what I needed. The beaches there are amazing. At the Baia de Golfinhos you can swim with the dolphins and they do come really close. There is nothing like having a dolphin jump the waves with you.
Hostel also turned out to be the perfect choice. After the first night I became the only guest there and really bonded with the boys. It was like having 3 great brothers and we spent 24 hours a day together. Also after running into some people from Natal I have decided that it was actually not worth going there to spend a night and instead I decided to head straight to Jericoacoara.
