Belem: bye bye Brazil

27 May 2010, Belem (Para, Brazil)

Belem is our last stop in Brazil. We choose it mainly because it offers the only flight north to Suriname. It has its pros and cons. The pros: a nicely restored fun harbour area full of restaurants; a lively market displaying every tropical fruit imaginable and numerous variety of fish; the mouth of the impressive Amazon river and boat trips to get a small taste of it; a charming colonial square with an old fort; some interesting city parks giving you a taste of the not so far Amazon rainforest. The cons: definitely the dirtiest and most rundown Brazilian (maybe even South American city) we have been to; apparently one of the more dangerous ones judging by the constant warnings we receive about walking around; horrible sidewalks full of holes and garbage; hot as hell (though this is compensated by fancy air-conditioned malls where you can hide during midday). All in all we amuse ourselves and also enjoye our little charming French run hotel, especially the lovely pool in the garden.

Sand dunes and aqua coloured lakes

23 May 2010, Atins (Maranhao, Brazil)

We head for another national park, Lencois Maranhenses: an extensive area of large sand dunes, bordered on one side by the Atlantic Ocean. During the rainy season, lakes of crystal clear water are created between the massive dunes, resulting in a spectacular landscape of bright white sand dunes and aqua blue lakes. We decide to skip the main tourist entry point (Barreirinhas) to this national park, and head for the much more remote small town of Atins which is at the Southern end of the park next to the ocean.

Getting there turns out to be quite an ordeal. It takes several exhausting and confusing skype calls to arrange a minibus to the main town where a private boat will await us to take us up the river to Atins. The minibus turns out to be a disaster. We get picked up at our hotel at 7am as agreed. However, the guy in charge decides to make a huge detour in the city to pick up some last minute customers, which extends the 3 hr journey into 5 hrs; to make matters worse he does not even have the decency to apologize. Gaudi at first refuses to pay the full fare but there is no reasoning with this man. We decide to save our sanity and move on.

The private boat trip down the river is beautiful; we make a lunch stop along the way exploring our first dune right along the river, and enjoying the fresh fish. A second stop allows us to climb up an old light house, and enjoy the view of the surrounding landscape. Three hours later we get dropped of on a large deserted beach at the confluence of the river and the ocean, and receive some vague instructions on how to reach our hotel. We walk for 15 min or so through sandy trails in a tiny deserted village . . . and we arrive at our hotel, very pleasantly set in a large garden right next to a little stream (which leads to the ocean and is dry during low tide). The rooms are separate little cabins with a patio and a hammock. Ah it is perfect, and the food is yummie.

The highlight of our stay is our walk through the dunes to a little "restaurant" in the middle of nowhere. It is spectacular walking over the sand dunes. It is tough as we have to go up and down all the time and there is no shade to protect us from the blazing sun but we get to cool off in the wonderful cool and clear lakes. Also we enjoy the fresh fish and shrimp, and relax in the hammock before walking back.

Natasha did get slightly traumatized by these crazy birds that kept launching themselves at dizzying speeds at us when we were crossing certain grassy plains. We tried to protect ourselves by waving our arms, hats and water bottles at them and running like hell for the dunes. Only later did we learn that these birds lay their eggs in these grassy fields and so were actually protecting their nests.

Another special excursion leads us back to the dunes, this time late at night. The full moon provides a lot of light though, giving this landscape an even more surreal air. Only when a cloud moves over the moon the white dunes disappear into darkness.

We thought getting to Atins was hard, well leaving proved even more difficult. After numerous confusing discussions with the hotel manager, we decide to take the public ferry back to Barreirinhas, spend the night there and then take a bus the next morning back to Sao Luis. The day of our departure, we do a morning group excursion with some other hotel guests, have a lovely lunch, and are ready to go by 2pm. The ferry should arrive between 2 and 2:30; the hotel manager tells us just to relax in the hotel she will take us to the ferry. Around 2:15 we get a bit nervous so ask the hotel manager to check when the ferry is arriving exactly . . . she makes a call . . . and informs us that actually there is no ferry today . . . she cant believe it (imagine how we feel); moreover the hotel is fully booked tonight . . .

All of a sudden she realizes we have one another option: we can take the public bus to Barreirinhas which leaves NOW. So we are rushed off to the "bus" which is actually an old Toyota 4 by 4 transformed to have several benches for passengers in the back. As the truck doesn't start by itself, the male passengers have to push it. There is no side but luckily there is a roof to protect us from the sun at least. There is actually NO ROAD so we embark on a hugely adventurous (read scary) 3 hr ride across the sand dunes and through small lakes to Barreirinhas. We are the only non locals in the vehicle. Gaudi is having a blast, taking pictures and videos while Natasha is holding on for dear life. The last part of the ride is done by loading the truck on a barge across the river.

We arrive in Barreirinhas safe and sound, spend the night in a pleasant hotel on the river, where we have a refreshing dip upon arrival. But the return journey saga continues because we soon learn that there are not that many options to return to Sao Luis the next morning or at least so we are told (one of the biggest challenges while travelling is always getting the right information).

So the next morning we check out and decide to just walk to the main plaza to see what is going on there, and ask about shared taxis. As we arrive in the plaza we walk buy a minibus with lots of goods in it and some passengers and wonder where it is going . . . Gaudi takes a closer look, and at that moment the driver asks if we want to go to Sao Luis. They are leaving right now, charge a reasonable fare and can drop us in the historic centre. Some of the locals from yesterday's ride are also on the bus. It seems our luck just changed! Except for some scary speed-driving towards the last part of the journey, we arrive well in Sao Luis.

Historical Sao Luis

21 May 2010, Sao Luis (Maranhao, Brasil)

Sao Luis has a famous historical colonial centre, declared a UN World Heritage site. We decide to stay within the historical centre rather than in the more modern part of the city. Which means, very much like was the case in Salvador do Bahia, that we are in the middle of all the historical buildings but lacking all modern city comforts, like good convenience stores or good places to stay. We stay in a charming little hotel which is inside an old colonial building (we wonder if the a/c is also from colonial times as it hardly cools the room; it is 40 degrees outside and 90 percent humidity).

Despite the heat, we enjoy the charms of the colonial town, and join the locals for a refreshing drink at one of the many outdoor cafes.

Suprising Fortaleza

19 May 2010

We debate quite a while what our next stop should be as we move northwards from Salvador do Bahia. Normally we would just get on the bus and get off at the next best town after 6 hours or so but that is just not feasible in Brazil. The distances are tremendous with often not much in between, and most buses tend to be overnight, so we have resorted to taking flights, which actually feel more like buses as they are so often and go just about everywhere.



In the end we decide to go to Fortaleza as it made most sense in terms of ongoing flight connections. What we have read in our guidebooks about the city has been mixed and so our expectations are not too high. But we are pleasantly surprised!





A very modern city with its greatest asset being a wonderful beach promenade which stretches along the coast for several kilometres and is just teeming with life early in the morning (before 9am) and early evening (after 5 pm) i.e. the times when the temperature is bearable. Tons of people enjoy the promenade for jogging, walking, strolling, eating ice cream and various other street snacks.

There is also an interesting old town, which against all good sense, we decide to explore one day in the midday heat. Nevertheless, we enjoy strolling through the city and also come upon a lively plaza and shopping street.

Hiking in the Chapada Diamantina

10 May 2010, Chapada Diamantina (Bahia, Brasil)


Chapada Diamantina: Chapada means plateau, describing the many large hills. Diamantina refers to the fact that the area used to be an active diamond mining area until its abolishment in the 1990's for environmental reasons. Shutting down the mining industry led to an initial decline in colonial Lencois, but soon the town re-invented itself as a hikers' paradise. Today it is the entry gate into the beautiful Chapada Diamantina National Park, covering an area bigger than the Netherlands. There are lots of rivers, both with crystal clear water as well as black water (due to the foliage), waterfalls, caves and rock formations.

The trails in the area are not signed, so we need to hire a guide (it seems that for most tourist activities in Brazil one has to either contract a tourist agency, or a guide). We meet Marcelo, one of the few independent guides in the town - he's been hiking in the mountains for fifteen years and knows every trail in the park. Although he is considered one of the best guides in the area, he mentions that the people who know the region best are the old miners (the garimperos) that spent their whole life going to the most remote places looking for diamonds.

Marcelo convinces us to go for a three day hike, including two days of camping in the wild. Anything less would not get us far away from civilisation to enjoy the natural beauty of this place. So we set out, walking about 15km a day, not too difficult except for a few short steep stretches over rocks. The landscape is beautiful and varied. On our first day we cross a mountain range into a plane and get great views of the magnificent Morrao (large hill with plateau on top). We camp at a gorgeous spot known as Aguas Claras, a reference to the crystal clear waters in the river. There is no one else around. Only a few horses we crossed a few hours ago. Marcelo and Gaudi set up the tents and keep the fire going. We're lucky: Marcelo is not only an excellent guide, but also a good cook: after a day of hiking we get a delicious dinner for us containing a huge variety of vegetables. Natasha thinks not too bad so far but the sleeping part is not too comfy.

Waking up the next morning, the first thing Gaudi spots is a dark shadow sitting on the tent. It is black, about the size of a golf ball, and has eight long legs. Gaudi doesn't tell Natasha, so she can wake up peacefully. Only later, as we dismount the tent Marcelo identifies the hairy spider as a Tarantula (a small one, he says). He adds that it is not so dangerous, only small children and older people could die from its poisonous bite - but normally it would only lead to fever. It's another beautiful day and we continue our adventurous walk.

Setting up and breaking up camp is quite a process (part of the problem being that we don't have much of a clue). The other thing we have to get used to is carrying a load: Natasha has about 5/6 kg in her backpack, Gaudi about 8/9 kg and poor Marcelo carries all else must be at least 20kg!

The second day all was going too smoothly, Gaudi decided to introduce some drama: we were descending a very steep path down to a waterfall and suddenly right before reaching the river, Gaudi slides down the last few slippery rocks. Natasha gets such a shock she yells out and starts crying. But luckily Gaudi catches himself and is unharmed. Again Marcelo finds us a great camping spot by a nice river; we sleep a bit better but still Natasha is looking forward to the comfy bed and nice shower back in the pousada :-). However, nothing beats waking up in the pure nature, and taking a morning swim in the idyllic river, while the coffee brews over the fire.

The third day of hiking again is full of surprises, today we see a massive cave (entrance 50m high); we start out on top of the cave and hike down to its mouth, then along a beautiful river back to Lencois.