After being deserted by our bearded companions, we headed further north, to the famous Bahía region of Brazil. We stayed one night in Rio, very kindly hosted by Cahe and Juliana again (king-size couch, yummy Thai curry and Christmas cakes and arty Taiwanese watermelon porn), and also met Humberto with them. We can't say thanks enough for their warm hospitality.
What followed, however, were 24 hours of crap. We went on the worst bus ride since the one to Uyuni, only this one happened to last about 4 times longer. The route between Rio and Porto Seguro, where we were going, is serviced by a single bus company that jacks up its prices while anything to do with service plunges into oblivion. And for some reason, most of our fellow bussers were strange, but a jovial bunch all the same, interviewing the whole bus with mobiles and cameras about our travels and playing guitar.
In Porto Seguro, we attached ourselves to an Argentinian couple - Paula and Lautaro - and haven't let go since, save for a 3-day stint in Trancoso while they continued to Salvador da Bahía. We only spent one night in Porto Seguro, and quickly moved on to Arraial d'Ajuda, a little beach town a ferry ride and a bit away. There, we shared a nice apartment for two nights before splitting up.
As I said, Nadja, Moni and I headed for Trancoso, another one of those little beach towns, and such a picturesque one. The main attraction is a big plaza which is completely covered with grass, and whose perimeter filled with colourful restaurants and huge trees with lanterns hanging from their branches and cozy couches below them. At the end of the plaza lies what we were told was Brazil's first church and beyond that the ground drops down toward palm trees and beach.
We did some good fat living there, admiring the plaza, listening to a forreggae band, as they called themselves (combining Brazilian forró with reggae) and hanging out at the beach. And our pousada! We lived in a wonderful little apartment amidst tropical flowers and leaves, with a hammock-equipped balcony and colours, colours, colours everywhere.
Christmas eve was an excellent one too; we spent most of it skyping to friends and relatives to wish them a merry Christmas, and I think I was grinning to myself for about 2 and a half hours straight. We decided to splurge a little bit for Christmas dinner too: sushi! We were very content despite missing our families, all happy from calling everybody and with our stomachs sushified.
