Salvador in the state of Bahia is very different from much of Brazil, even within Brazil's great diversity. As it was Brazil's main slave trading port there is a big African influence in the culture.
Several times while visiting big cities, like Mexico City, for the day we've wished we'd packed a bag and stayed in a hotel for the night in the centre. Salvador was the first place we've actually done it. The main historic centre is a maze of winding narrow streets up on a hill, overlooking the port. To make access more difficult the areas around it have a reputation for being rather dodgy, so driving the truck even partly in wasn't an option. We left the truck in the campsite in Stella Mares about 25 km along the coast and jumped on a bus into town with a couple of small backpacks. We'd booked a very lovely but very reasonable boutique hotel right in the centre of the historic Pelourinho area.
We spent a couple of days wandering the small cobbled streets admiring the colonial architecture and ornate churches.
In the late afternoon we heard the sounds of drumming from the open windows of music schools and saw capoeira dancers in the street amazing audiences with their athletic prowess. Capoeira is mixture of a martial art and dancing, evolved by the slaves for self defence. As fighting was outlawed by the slave masters, the slaves developed this mix between the two. It is so beautifully coordinated that even though it looks really close there is never any physical contact between the two dancers/combatants.
Salvador is also the centre of the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candombla. Worshiping African gods and goddesses was also outlawed during Portuguese slaving times, so believers mixed their gods with the Catholic saints to avoid detection. They mostly have ceremonies in terreiros (richly decorated halls) where worshipers dance themselves into a trance and summon the spirits of the gods and goddesses. However as there is a crossover with the Catholic Church, we also saw many Candombla followers at one of the most famous churches in the city, Igreja Nosso Senhor do Bomfim. Worshipers wear white and we saw several of their leaders outside giving blessings with leaves and water as it was Friday, their main religious day.
Beautiful wooden panels in the Afro-Brazilian museum depicting the different deities.
On our second night we went to a dance performance showing some of the unique cultural aspects of Bahia. With 6 drummers and a couple of ladies singing in Yoruba, an African language still used for Candombla rituals the sound was intense. The dancing, from those showing Candombla rituals to the jaw dropping graceful but athletic displays of capoeira, was impressive. I can see why the company often tours nationally and internationally.
We had a great couple of days in Salvador, as much as we love living in the truck it was also nice to have a break from it, especially as the hotel gave us a couple of rooms linked by a short corridor so we got a bit more space from each other, something we all enjoyed.
It was Halloween while we were in Salvador, the girls loved it in Mexico last year, so we carved a pumpkin and trick or treated round the truck when we got "home". Each time Steve or I would have to come up with a different persona to answer the door.
The state of Bahia doesn't change its clocks in sync with Rio, which is almost on the same longitude. So at this time of the year it gets light just before 5am but dark before 6, so Steve as an early bird gets his way with very early morning starts. Back on the road it was a whole day's drive to Barra Grande, a series of beautiful beaches on a small peninsula. The last 50km were on a red muddy road, giving the truck a new colour scheme.
Arriving at the small beach of Taipas de Fora we took a walk along the gorgeous beach to try and somewhere to park up for a few days. We had hoped to find a spot right on the beach but the parts that were accessible by road had small posadas or houses on them. There was even camping but everywhere had tiny entrances and the lanes were very narrow. In the growing dark we headed to the more touristy village of Barra Grande, but yet again our search was thwarted by the lack of access to the beach. We could have stayed in a small parking area on the beach but there was a beach party just starting. They had the usual South American arrangement of speakers taking up the whole boot of the car with bass thumping music being blasted out at full volume, so we moved on. In the end we bumped back along the terrible road in the pitch black to where we had started at Taipas de Fora, knowing at least that beach road was wide enough to park on for the night. The small beach bars and restaurants were closed and no one was around, so we had a quiet night listening to the sounds of the waves.
While the girls did school, Steve set out on foot to see what our options were. We'd been looking forward to a few days on the beach and didn't want to move on just because we couldn't find a good place to park up. Steve returned with a cheeky glint in his eye and the suggestion he'd found the perfect place for us to stay.....a hotel. I couldn't believe him, this is the same man who has parked us up in rubbish dumps up and down two continents and poo-pooed the idea when I suggested a month ago in the unbelievable heat that if it got too much that we should book into a place with aircon. Now, he was suggesting we give up the the overlanding life for a few nights of comfort. The girls jumped at the chance and after teasing him about how soft he was going, I agreed to go for a look.
Posada Taipa de Fora was certainly beautiful on a postcard perfect, palm fringed sandy beach, beautiful grounds and boutique hotel style rooms....mmm, I could get used to this. We booked in for 3 night, sod the overlanding lifestyle for a few nights, this was heaven. Heaven got even more impressive the second night when Steve encountered the owner in the bar where he'd gone for a quick beer. The owner swiftly offered us 2 more free nights just because he was impressed with what we were doing! Wow. It was such a kind offer which we gladly accepted as we were really enjoying our time taking it easy and relaxing. We spent the days swimming, walking along the beach, reading and catching up on things.
Just 5 minutes along the beach was a perfect blue pool fringed with coral at low tide, full of curious fish and great for snorkeling.
It was really nice to have a break and the Pousada was the perfect place for this. A beautiful spot on a wonderful beach with really friendly staff.
We checked in at the campsite with a view to booking a hotel and heading back into Rio the next day, leaving the truck safely outside the city. To our dismay when going on the Internet to try and book something nothing was available. We later learnt that the following day was a holiday and a long weekend. That might also have explained all the traffic leaving the city. Eventually we booked a small apartment between Copacabana and Ipanema beach.
The next day we headed back into the city. With the Olympics been in Rio in 2016 there is lots of development going on including a rapid bus transport system. Unfortunately this only went half way into the city so we had to jump on a normal bus for the remainder of the way.
On the way in one thing that concerned us with booking an apartment over the Internet was how did we get the keys. At least we had the telephone number of the owners so when we arrived we rang them. As you know our Portuguese is not up to much and the owner did not speak English. The bit I could understand though was that there was a problem and we needed to ring Booking.com. We rang them and they explained the apartment had been double booked. Oh no!! But to be fair Booking.com were great. They said they had another larger apartment for us right in the heart of Ipanema only 10 minutes walk away. So off we trooped and at last got settled.
The location was fantastic, right in the heart of Ipanema. As it was a holiday there was a nice buzz on the street with people chilling in bars and restaurants. We were close to the beach and many people were going to or from the beach. Things are very relaxed as even 3 roads back from the beach in the shopping district people were walking around just in their swim wear and flip flops.
We took a long walk along Ipanema Beach and then Copacabana Beach stopping for refreshment along the way to enjoy the view.
We then headed up Pao de Azucar for sunset. From there you can see just how beautiful the setting of the city is.
The next day we headed up to Christ the Redeemer, the large statue overlooking Rio that you can see from all over, including our apartment window. We had heard it was busy and when we got to the station at the bottom we were told the first train we would be able to get on was in 5 hours time. We were not too bothered as we had been up on the train before so instead jumped in a minibus for the ride to the top. When we got there though here was a massive queue to get into the piece of the park with the statue. We asked a guide how long he thought it would take to get in and he said 3 hours. As much as that would be standing in the midday sun and as we had been there before we decided we did not want to spend the whole day queuing. So instead we went for a walk in the National Park where we got some views of the back of the statue as well as great views over Rio. We also got to see a pair of toucans.
Rather than queuing we spent the afternoon like a true Carioca (Rio resident) on Ipanemea Beach with our deck chairs, sun shade and cold beer. It was a great atmosphere. The beach was packed with families and groups of people chatting and having fun and all sorts of vendors passing by selling drinks, food and various other things. We were surprised though that so few people were in the water until we ventured for a paddle and found it to be very cold.
One thing we had done 4 years ago when we were last in Rio was to have dinner at a Churrascaria. We remembered one place well as it had a play ground which had entertained the children all night allowing us to have a relaxing dinner. I was sure it was not far away in Ipanema and true enough it was just around the corner so we booked it for the night. Again the kids were happy in the playground and Gilly and I were able to have a more relaxing dinner with some Caiparinas The meat was fantastic although to be honest Alisha and Lucy were more impressed with the sushi on the side buffet.
On our last morning we hired a "bike" that we could all fit on to cycle the 8kms around the nearby lake. It was a great end to our trip to Rio. We got some good exercise. Although as there were a lot of joggers and walkers on the cycle track steering was almost as hard as driving the truck through the city. We had thoroughly enjoyed our short time in the city. The weather was great, Ipanema is a great place to base yourself and the city was buzzing and friendly. We are really glad we made the effort to see it again as we enjoyed it more the second time around.
On our way back to the campsite we broke our journey at a large shopping mall in Barra da Tijuca to do some Christmas shopping. This is the area of Rio that will host the Olympics and there is a lot of development going on. The area is been modernised with large shopping malls and residential areas right next to some great beaches. It feels very much like California.
The following day we headed out along the Costa Verde. The road twisted and turned along the coast through Atlantic rainforest that went right down to the sea. Every so often we would get peeks of small sandy beaches as well as wonderful views to small islands out at sea. We arrived in the small colonial port of Paraty where we found a campsite just across the road from a small beach. As it was the end of the holiday weekend it had quietened down but the great weather we had had in Rio had also gone and it was overcast with a little drizzle. Still we were able to enjoy a late afternoon drink while wriggling our toes in the sand.
Paraty was the port through which all the gold in Brazil was originally shipped. However it's heyday did not last long as a shorter route was found over the mountains to Rio at which point Paraty went into decline. In its short heyday though a beautiful small 17th century town was built which has been well restored and today is a charming place of whitewashed buildings set next to a small harbour and surrounded by white beaches and green rainforest tumbling down the hills.
We were not sure how much of Paraty we would see though as Lucy had gone to bed with a high temperature and the weather forecast was for heavy rain. Luckily Lucy woke up the next morning almost fully better and although it was a grey day the rain held off.
As Paraty is in easy reach of both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo it can get very busy. However we were there at the beginning of the week so things were pretty quiet. We first visited the fort for views along the bay. We then spent the rest of our time wandering the cobble stone, car free streets enjoying the lovely churches and buildings.
Next we are heading for the beach again but we may not be there for long as although it is still in the high 20s the forecast is for rain. Still I suppose you can not have everything. 
