feliz natal

leaving parati we planned to go through rio and catch a bus to porto seguro, up the north east coast of brazil. things were not to turn out that way, since the bus leaving from rio was full that night, and so we were stuck in rio. luckily we still had the phone number of the sweet carlos, who had put us up for a night the last time we were there. we called, and he was actually glad to hear from us :). when we arrived his wife giuliana let us in, we went shopping together, and ended up being invited to an amazing vegan curry dish... mmmm. we proceded to spend the evening on their huge couch talking and watching strange malaysian watermelon musical-porn.

the next day was pretty lazy, hanging out in leblon and on their couch, and early evening we headed to the bus station. the following bus ride will be remembered for a long time... it was supposed to take about 19 hours, but we ended up in porto seguro 24 hours after the planned departure, having experienced the following: an almost crash on our part (the side mirror was taken by a passing truck), an accident on the road ahead of us delaying us by an hour, about seven hundred stops at the bus company´s bus terminals (meaning all the food money went to them, and we spent a LOT of time there), an interview session of all the bus inhabitants, started by an argentinian couple and a slightly crazy italian man. finally in porto seguro the argentinian couple (lautaro and paula) took a liking to us and we have spent the last while living in the same pousadas and hanging out together.

we stayed in porto seguro for one night and then headed to arrail d´ajuda, a cute little touristy beach town. we stayed there for a night, enjoying the beach (yes, we´ve been doing a lot of that... and lucas> i have so beat you in terms of stomach-tan!!), walking around the expensive center, and admiring hippy jewellery.

the next day we set off to trancoso. the start wasn´t great, as we were stalked by a `tour guide´ who would not let us in peace, but once we had found our colourful and beautiful family run pousada we felt a lot better about trancoso.



the first night we spent at a forro-reggae concert, watching all the young brasilians dancing (they ALL know how to dance!!) and being groupies of the band. christmas day we spent online, calling family and then heading to the beach for the afternoon. our christmas dinner: sushi :) mmmm... the planned beach rave party turned out not to be as great as advertised, and so we sat on the beach in the light of the full moon and talked to some more people we keep meeting from the epic bus ride.

that was trancoso. up next is salvador. yay for bahia! and check out photos... the internet has finally been fast enough for me to upload some... starting from perito moreno. enjoy :)