Itacaré

Itacaré is a super cool little surf town where we have been since Sunday. It has cobbled streets and loads of restaurants and bars much like Arrial d'Ajuda, the difference is that it feels less polished and touristy, which is down to the more hippy / surfery crowd that hang out there.

The beaches are lovely, though the bay closest to the town is a bit poluted and stinky, however a 10 minute walk brings you to fantastic waves and clean water. I spent the first two days playing on our board, which was frustrating at first but I had one or two quite good rides in the end. Some of the waves are really scarey - massive and steep and they form those tubes you see people riding through in surf videos and photos. The thing is, when you're lying on a board looking down one it all gets a bit hair raising - and if you dont stand up you get mashed; welcome to my world.

From Itacare

On the third day we got up early and took a bus a little way out of town with a Swiss girl called Ursula to find some other beach that had been recommended for snorkelling. The bus dropped us by a muddy track and we had a feeling that they had shot past the proper path to the beach. However, some helpful locals pointed us in the right direction so off we went and were soon following a path through an amazing jungle forest which we hoped would lead to the beach. After some interesting and rather painful encounters with ants, a few river crossings and a squelchy walk through a mangrove swamp we finally arrived at what was indeed a pretty nice beach. Not sure you'd write a book about it though. There was no snorkelling to be had since the sea was rough (out of season apparently) so we wiled away a nice day reading and throwing the occasional Frisbee.

Back in Itacaré that evening we went to watch a Capoiera demonstration, which was pretty cool. Not sure I understand it all that well yet but some of the dudes where obvisouly really good, even to my untrained eye. We actually prefered some of the stuff we've seen individuals do on beaches when they're just practicing since the sand allows them to do some amazing flips and stuff without too hard a landing.

I had hoped for one last day of surfing before we left but yesterday the sea was a right mess and the lifeguards were actually stopping people from going in. Nevermind, reading the Lonely Planet it seems as though there will be plenty more as we continue up the coast past Salvador and onto São Luis. We're currently sat in a bus station waiting for our bus to Salvador - we started at 6 this morning so we're both a bit bleary-eyed, only 8 hours to go though....