Lençois

Never before in Brazil had I heard the speech we were given before heading to Lençois. The gist of it: 1) it is required that everyone on the trip has a seguro ticket, meaning your life is insured on the trip, 2) nothing has happened before, and if God is with us, nothing should happen on this trip, and 3) there are five emergency exits, know which one is closest to you. After hearing about an overnight bus being robbed at gunpoint in the Northeast months before, we were all a little apprehensive of the trip. We chose seats in the middle of the bus, and I think each of us had a plan on what valuables we would be quick to hide (i.e. passports, phones, etc.). Luckily, the trip ended without incident, minus the fact we almost missed our stop. Apparently, Lençois was a stop on the way to another city around Chapada Diamantinha. Catherine thought she heard the driver say it was Lençois, but no one else heard him. She was right.

When we got off the bus, we were bombarded by people trying to get us to stay at their pousadas. It was a nightmare, especially at 5am. I had made a reservation, and we found the guy who was there with our Pousada. However, when we arrived, apparently, I had made the reservation for the night before, and we did not have a room. The owner was kind of a pain in the ass. He was trying to sell us day trips and get us to stay at his pousada at 6am. We ended up agreeing to stay at his mom’s pousada a little way up the road. We were offered breakfast there (which they charged us for as we were leaving the last day), and waited for our guide to come get us for our first day trip:

Stop 1: A waterfall. This is me getting ready to zipline into the water over the waterfall. 

 

Here is the waterfall I went over into the freezing cold water. 

The next place we went were a set of caves. 

Stop 3: There were snorkeling lessons that went into the cave, but we didn't go.

The other side of the cave above

Last stop: The mountains where we watched the sunset

Here is the sunset from onto of the mountains

After rowing down the river, we walked a little ways to this area.  

The second day we were not sure if we had a trip planned or not. We had talked to the owner of the hostel the day before about wanting to go to Mini Pontanal, but no one confirmed anything. The next morning he said it would be better if we went the next day instead, but we were set on going. We walked into a travel agency, and 30 minutes of phone calls later, we were on our way. It was crazy; our guide was a 20-year-old son of an actual guide. When we arrived, our driver could not find any actual guides to take us down the river and asked if he would do it, to which he agreed. To make up for our lost time, we helped him paddle the boat. We also bought lunch because we did not know if the restaurant would still be open when we arrived. The restaurant was open, but they did not have fish (which was supposed to be from the river we were rowing down), so we ate the lunch we packed. However, our guide seemed to be hungry and we told him to eat. We realized as we were eating that he was not going to eat at the restaurant. We think that he got a free meal if we ate there and nothing if we did not. We had not planned for that, but we were able to give him a sandwich and a banana (that was all we had brought: 2 bananas each and 2 sandwiches each, and we were already halfway done when we realized this). Overall, we were glad we did the day trip, freeing up the third day.

The rock formations were amazing as well.

 The third day was another crazy day. We changed our trip to go to Poço Encantado. However, the owner of the pousada could not take us there because he did not have a driver’s license (but he was driving us everywhere else). So, he had a friend take us. The problem was that the car was automatic and the guy only knew how to drive a manual. He kept shifting us from drive to park to neutral. All of us were trying to tell him how to drive and to not touch the stick. Then, he went around a corner and blew a tire. We were on the side of the road for a while; we could not find the required tools to change the tire in the car and had a bunch of people stop to help us. (The guide ended up finding it later under one of the seats, along with all of the seat belts, for which we were grateful.)

There were so many holes in this tire!

After that, we went to Poço Encantado, which I had come across on Pinterest and had wanted to see. But, the best part was the second place we stopped: Poço Azul.

Poço Encantado, or the Enchanted Well, was found by a hunter on accident. It is a pool/well within a cave with a ray of natural light hitting the water. For ten years, during the mid to late 1900’s, people were allowed to swim there. However, the water changes so slowly, that the dirt and body oils left a film on top of the water. For this reason, people are no longer allowed to swim in it.

Poço Azul is similar to Poço Encantado, but people are allowed to swim in it. Well, float in it. People must rinse off before descending into the cave, and there each person is given a life jacket and a snorkeling mask and snorkel. The history of it is crazy too. They have found the remains of giant prehistoric sloths and saber tooth tigers in the cave. There is a special about it available on youtube. The water is also extremely warm, especially for being in a cave. I think 22-24 degrees Celsius.

Overall, the trip was amazing and full of crazy stories, but the owner of the pousada was someone we are all glad we never have to deal with again. We do think we got better prices then going through an agency, but it was fairly sketchy. Anyway, once again we decided on an overnight bus to skip paying for a hostel another night, and headed back to Salvador. 

Life

I have determined that 48 hours without sleep makes for an interesting Rylee…just ask my sisters.

Saturday, I woke up like any other day with nothing to do: at 1pm. Catherine and I had decided to visit the ETA’s in Pelotas the next day, so we headed downtown to buy tickets. Along the way, we discovered o mercado público was completely closed at this time, there is nowhere to eat lunch downtown, bauru is a dinner food, and the saying here translates to, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a cow”. (Because, who eats horses?)

Although Catherine and I are living comfortably on campus now, we are looking at moving into a house/apartment off campus. (Sharing a kitchen with everyone in the building is hard.) So, next we headed towards Cassino to visit a potential home. Google Maps failed us. We walked at least a mile past the house, before turning around, because that is where it was located on Google Maps. Catherine and I had been hoping that this house would work out and we wouldn’t need to do anything else. Let’s just say, the house did not live up to anyone’s expectations. The structure was small, with a giant yard, and a single room with nothing else out back. But watching Catherine and the lady speak French to communicate was fun. It really is interesting how much Catherine and I use our Romance languages to communicate when our Portuguese is lacking here.

Basking in our disappointment we headed back to campus because a group of friends were making dinner and hanging out. Catherine and I actually made it through a game of charades, Imagem e Açao, in Portuguese. The games lasted until well past 4am. By the time we got home and ready for bed, it was 6:30am.

Catherine passed out in Pelotas.

At 8am the next morning, my door flies open and Catherine yells, “we are not going to make the bus!” The craziness that ensued was well worth the lack of sleep. Within 15 minutes I was ready to go. I go into Catherine’s room as she is stepping out of the shower. Her only response, “I still have to pack.” So, we decided to part ways and I headed to the bus stop. For whatever reason, I thought the busses would take a while and I ended up walking all the way to the bus stop, which is over a 4km walk. I somehow made it with 10 minutes to spare. By the time I made it to Pelotas, I had slept for a total of 2.5 hours since the day before.

I hopped in a taxi and the taxi drivers discussed the address for a few minutes, before the driver followed. But, I got to the ETA’s house safe and sound. Shane’s greeting was great: “I saw you sent a message at 4am. How much did you sleep?” Then I was offered breakfast. Shane and Lisa were both so great about everything! Finally, at 11 something, Catherine arrived. Life ensued, and we decided to get our hands on some of the famous Doces de Pelotas.

The ETAs and their doces.

Later, we met the third ETA and everyone headed to the mall for some much needed food. While at the mall, I found something I just had to have before heading home.

My new dessert book. 100% in Portuguese!

In the taxi on the way to the rodoviária, the taxi driver and I had a great conversation, completely in Portuguese. The fact that a month ago, when I arrived in Brasil, I knew less than five phrases, means I am actually learning the language! The strangest part was when I was asked if I was from São Paulo. As I was trying to say no, I completely butchered the sentence. I guess proving I wasn’t Brasilian. 

By the time I made it home, I was wide awake. Somehow, I didn’t go to bed till after 2am. I might have been pushing delirious by that point…

This is one for the Books!

I don´t know what life would be like here if we didn´t have the friends that we have. Imagine going to bed at 2:30 in the morning and having to be up at 5:15 that same day. It isn’t a pretty sight. Well, that is exactly what happened. My husband is arriving in Brazil today, so we had to take the 5 hour long bus to meet him at the airport. Since he arrives at 2:45pm, the only available bus this morning was at 7am.

Last night at our friends’ house, we realized there really weren’t a lot of options in terms of getting to the bus terminal downtown. Luan had his computer up and was looking up the schedule as 10 other people were “discussing” what busses went in the morning and what schedule it was on because it is a holiday weekend, etc. Finally, it was determined that we had to catch the bus that left Cassino at 6am and went downtown. (We live on campus in the back. You have to walk to the front of campus to get student housing, which is in front of campus. Then you have to walk to the end of the road to get to the bus stop that takes you to nearby areas/cities. To walk this length takes about 25-30 minutes.) And, Wesley volunteered to take us to the bus terminal downtown. Why? I have no clue.

So at 5:45am, Catherine and I headed out to the bus stop. Once we were near the front of campus, Wesley and Luan met us to take us downtown. We were informed that they had gone to bed at 4am. How they were up two hours later is beyond me! But, they were so great about everything, even carrying our bags! I don’t think paying their bus fare downtown shows enough gratitude. 

Wesley, Me, Catherine and Luan
We are waiting for the 7am bus downtown