Itacare

Itacare was the first city we were on our own. In the five cities beforehand, we had locals hosting us and taking us out to see the sights of Brasil. Our hosts held our hands as we leaned on them to order us food, buy our bus tickets, and usher us around their cities. But Itacare was bound to be different.. not only did we have to change buses and buy our OWN BUS TICKETS but we had to take a taxi, check into our hostel and take care of ourselves for the five days we were going to spend there.

Well, turns out that Itacare is such a huge tourist town that all the locals speak at least a little bit of English. We actually ended up speaking LESS portuguese than in any other city. Bummer.

After our overnight bus and 6AM bus switch in Ilheus, we arrived in Itacare at 830AM to overcast skies. While on our last bus, an Aussie asked us what hostel we were going to stay in. We made small talk and he told us about travelling all over south america with his friends who were a couple. Before we knew it we were in Itacare. Britt and I started walking to get a cab and the Aussie followed us.. "Um.. can I share a taxi with you girls? my friends wanna get a nice hotel room but I want to stay in the hostel with you guys." And that's how we adopted an Aussie.

When we arrived at the hostel, they had lost our reservations. "Not a problem", the woman said, "but it will be a few hours before we have beds for you girls. You are more than welcome to leave your stuff here though and head to the beach.. however, we have a bed available for your aussie friend." Dan, the aussie, immediately took her up on the offer and headed up to his room to shower and get some much needed rest.. and left Britt and I to fend off the weather and head to the beach. How rude! We went to the beach and quickly fell asleep to be woken up about an hour later by a rain storm. We raced back to the hostel before the sky opened up more. It poured and there was thunder and lightning for the rest of the day. We ended up in the same room as Dan.. who was just waking up from his beauty sleep nap when we finally got a bed.

That night, we headed out to the jungle bar with people from our hostel. In our 6 bedroom dorm room, there were people from Australia, New Zealand, Norway and England. At the bar, there was a live band playing forro music (our favorite!). We tried to show our new kiwi and aussie friends how to dance to it.. but they were absolutely hopeless.

The next day, we were on a mission to buy our bus tickets to Rio.. we had an idea of where the ticket office was but decided to explore the small town and visit the stores. Well.. we never found the ticket office but we did find a VOLLEYBALL. Finally, after being in Brasil for almost a month, we could play some beach volley. We went down to praia da concha in the late afternoon and peppered until our arms were bruised and red. The ball we bought was a crappy indoor ball.. so it is really light and super hard. Oh well, at least its round.

Later that day, we found a net with some local brasilian boys playing on it. We peppered around them for a few minutes before some boys who were off joined in. Combining our broken portugese with their broken english got us a game on the court. Although we didn't play poorly, we did lose (no excuses or anything but it was a guys net and we were playing against guys soooo.. haha). We enjoyed the hype though, as the town gathered around our court to watch the American girls take on the Brazillian guys!

The next day, we took our volleyball and bruised arms and cruised to the "first beach." Itacare has four beaches in a row that are little coves. After soaking up way too much sun and peppering with new friends, we decided to walk along the rocks back to praia da concha. What we thought would be a 15 minute walk turned into an hour and a half excursion through deserted cliffs, rocks, and coves. Twas beautiful and very cool. There were a bunch of tide pools along the way that boasted colorful fish, huge crabs, and who knows what else. When we finally made it back to our hostel, there was a capoeira circle happening in the park. We missed out on seeing capoeira in Salvador so we were definitely stoked. There was music being played and everyone was chanting along to their songs. The men who participated were super talented.. they could do flips and twists and crazy things with their "Rock hard..HOT" bodies. Capoeira originated during slavery times in Brasil. The African slaves created this dance/chant ritual which they called religion when actually they were training to revolt against their portuguese owners. The dance looks like martial arts with rhythm and there is no body contact. Check the video on my facebook page to get a better idea. Anyway.. so the men were very athletic but also young girls participated. They had to have been around 8 to 10 years old and the things they could do were amazing as well.

At the capoeira, we met two boys from Cali. Not only were these the first Americans we had come across, but Californians!! whoo.. haha. One was from San Diego and the other was from Sacramento. We had dinner with them that night and definitely felt at home using our cali english.

A little later that night, we realized something.. It was SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!! We walked up and down the street and finally found a small bar that was showing the game. Of'course, the only people in there were from the US.. actually, they were all part of a wedding party from Massachusetts! we befriended them but enjoyed cheering for the saints, much to their dismay. Drew Breezzzeeee! :)

On Monday, we went to the second beach. Life is hard.. so many beaches, soooo little time. That night was the last for our adopted aussie friend. He had to catch a bus the next morning at 7AM. When we got back to the hostel after dinner, Dan was brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed. Britt and I convinced him it was his going away party and he needed to hang out with us. Before we knew it, we were closing the yellow house bar at 5AM with our aussies, kiwis, cali boys, the wedding party and some locals we met. We all went to the beach to watch the sunrise over the ocean. Apparently, the morning is when the GIANT sand crabs come out of their holes because they were EVERYWHERE on the beach.. scary. I've had nightmares about it since.

Tuesday was our last day in Itacare before RIOOOOOOOOO for carnaval. We went to a big breakfast where I got eggs, coffee, juice, a roll, fruit plate and cake for 8.50 reais.. equivalent to about 4.25US.. stoked. We relaxed for most of the day because it was raining again and Rio was right around the corner. However, that night we met some new kiwis and ended up bringing up the sun again only to jump on our bus at 10AM sans sleep.. good thing our bus to Rio was 26 hours long.. probably slept for 24 of them. :) Next stop CARNAVAL!