28 to 31st of August

Trancoso and Arraial D'ajuda really come from a fairy-tale! The cutest towns ever, with the colourful houses, white and simple churches overlooking the ocean; children playing football and magnificent beaches (like allllll Brazil!) I am so glad we are here on the off season! There are so many posadas and little fancy restaurants and bars. All is in wooden and fairy lights hanging from the copious trees that frame these places. It is very upmarket, just walking through the shops like a "vogue" experience.

1st Of September

"This is the life I always wanted!" I said to Hecti while floating on the ocean. Going from beach to beach, white and thin sand, perfect weather, palms, warm ocean....the coast from Porto Seguro is fantastic; it does have a feel similar to Bali or at least what I feel every time I go there: peace.

Young and yet very wise. Delicious as their home made mango jam... which they gave us some. Arrived very late at night, looking for a place to sleep across the ferry that it will take us to Caraivas. And once again, as many many times before our prejudice tricks us. Opening up and the world is different to what we initially thought. Like this young couple, very much in love, so generous and warm, who are building a sustainable vegies/fruit heaven. The taught us about capoeira principles,  aromatherapy oils, the 1000 ways to cook mandioca - absolutely loved their cocoanut pudding, and the secret of avocado growing. We talked until very late at night, sharing dinner. One night their turn, then ours.  They have so many plans and ideas. So exciting to see.  And yet, they also have times of isolation and difficulties...."I never realised that I needed money while I had a good job and money!" The balance of choices, the gain and looses

August 26

It took us 6 hours. But with the stops and lunch we ended up driving the whole day. The hardest part was the end, 40 km of dirt road with so many potholes that we thought our SalSolcito was going to finish inside one of them! She is a real trooper!

Pocket of paradise. This is Caraiva. On the same line than Pi Pi island or Bali without the testosterone. Plenty of posadas but still raw. A point, the place where the river and the sea cross; the numerous wooden chairs with colourful toldos. A very unassuming place even more so now that is off season. Lazy day on the beach, letting ourselves go downstream on the river, a siesta and a boat to cross back to "reality". Unique, beautiful, sand town.

A pharmacist, everybody favourite person, a person you can trust. He must known about wifi! Desperate again, in need of wifi to do my coaching session.... his generosity just blew us up. He gave us the password, lighted up the outside of the shop, came several times to cheek if we were OK... even offering us water! That night, in our home, we celebrated meeting him with a shared cheese omelette, a beer and chocolate biscuits. A young, gentle and friendly heart he invited us to stay in his parents "events-camping-agroturism" place...free of charge :)

He also called his friend, a well travelled guy, to join us and to give us tips of where to go.

"You are just about on the line to start knowing Brazil! You can't just turn around, must go to Bahia! It was just the impetus that we needed. Oh what a man! A true one man show, a story teller, an actor, a character. So many stories! It was then really funny. 11:30 am, on the pharmacy door, chatting away, sharing experiences, drinking mate. This is our real trip. Suerte amigo!

"Mate" on the beach (it has to be!), a great bike ride to her favourite beach, Praia do Carais and beautiful 3 course dinner meal we did... that was meeting her. Another Argentinean living the world, She has this adventure life to tell, living and working in so many countries; following freedom... or following the ocean... which for her and I is basically the same! Settled down now in Guarapari she carries a sense of contentment and calmness. Oh, so appealing!

August 24, Itaunas

Arrived here as always, following locals recommendations. We were buying fresh fish in Conceicao da Barra, where we spent the night, and the fisherman was disturbed as to why we haven't been to Itaunas or that we haven't even heard of this place!!

One hour later, we were driving on a dirt road to the beach to Dunas de Itaunas. A bit like Jericoacoara but very small and low market. The dunes? Well, there were dunes but we were more interested in bike riding along the "infinite beaches"...can't see the end, just the ocean and us.

Back to the town, we found very colourful locals (on People and their stories); who convinced us that even thought the weather forecast shown shower and shower we cannot not go to Bahia. So, after a few second we changed again and decided to keep going north!

Guarapari, August 21

And so after 2 weeks of overindulgence in TV Olympics we are back on the road, heading toward Bahia

It was a trade off. Missing staying in Rio for the games vs renting an apartment with a huge TV and cable to watch it. Not the same but comforting enough. We stayed at Guarapari. Small town, looking at the beach. Oh how easy we get comfy on the "luxuries"! An oven, gas that comes straight from the kitchen, a sink for washing our clothes and beautiful and pleasant showers! This town was not particularly great. It was quiet and easy but not exciting. It made me miss Fortaleza with all the night buzz. Back to our "normal life" we talked about getting in and out of this situations. The beauty of stopping for just a while to rest but the disruption it makes to our so called routine. We believe it is much easier to continue the journey than to stop and start. We are aware of what this means to our future; for me this knowledge brings more anxiety...

Chasing/hunting propane gas. That is our monthly task. Infuriating, frustrating, disheartening. How on earth can we achieve global peace if every single country has its own type of gas bottle valve connector!

On a Saturday morning, driving and looking... in the middle of a suburb only 30 km of Rio, madness, small streets, plenty of people and cars... chaos. He appeared as an angel! A quick chat, asking for directions. It finished with him driving around in his van, looking and asking for 1 hour, asking 10 different shops. He was so committed to help! At one point, I stopped and he took Hecti in his car to continue driving as SalSolcito was having difficulties fitting on some narrow places. At the end, he had no choice by letting us go, but not before driving another 15 km in his car in front of us to take us to the highway and pointed us to the right direction to the gas plant. We are getting so impressed by Brazilians!!!!

17 to 29 of July

I can't describe how it feels to be back on the beach, alive? My body aching after 15 days of just driving. It took us 3,200 km and 4 countries to go from the pacific Ocean to the Atlantic and now it feels like it was all worthy! We are thinking of staying in Brazil for 3 months... let's see how we go!

The coastal road, from Pruibe to Rio

As always we stay on the beach. This time Peruibe. A very quiet small town with a long and flat promenade, perfect for bicycle!

We took a small ferry to get to Guaruja, I can't really say that I love this place. All I can see is buildings in the very nice promenade. But apart from the "morros" that framed the landscape, you could think you are anywhere in the world. I know it used to be a nice and quiet beach-holidays place but it has now being transformed in a big city... shame. The thing we really liked around all this area is the fresh fish! Lots and lots of market stalls with the freshest of all prawns!

All along the road, on the coast, we see plenty of "condominios". Some of them exquisite, so rich...but most of them just nice houses enclosed in a big compound. We did a detour and entered a huge one. Well, the houses on the beach to die for... but we were on a walk across the stones in the shore and after the tide... well, we just couldn't find our way back.!

What really separates this coastal road in this country from all others in the greenery. The bushes are so lush. There are these exotic fruit plants everywhere and tall beautiful palms.  

We stayed 3 days in Paraty. A very different place. So cute! With the white old buildings, the colourful house doors and the big cobblestone. It was a Portuguese colony that has only been "open" to general people about 60 years ago when they built the road from Rio

We took the heavy hearten decision to skip Rio during the Olympics to continue north. Such a pity! We had plan and dream about participating for such a long time! But the increase instability in the world, the recommendations of not being around huge crowds can't be ignored. Security has always being a priority and we don't want to be in difficult or ugly situations. So, Rio...will see you in a few months!

8 July

We drove through Formosa, from one side to the other. As the landscape changed- from a very dry land to "esteros" -water everywhere with lots of vegetation; so did the social landscape. We saw small towns with very basic houses, no pavement, and a general sense of abandonment. As always the most interesting thing is to be with locals and we spent a magnificent BBQ day in a national park chatting away with 2 families






11 July

Going through Paraguay was real madness. We reached Asuncion via a "ferry" and we were hit by a huge and busy city. Still going from mechanic to mechanic; we got almost lost in traffic and after days of just travelling and sleeping on petrol stations, we got to our destiny: Brazil