Lencois

This past weekend we endured the six to seven hour overnight bus ride to a small diamond mining town in the interior of Bahia called Lencois. It is located in the Chapada Diamantina National Park. We left late Thursday night and arrived early Friday morning, dropped our stuff off at our pousada and then left on one of the tours at 8:30. The tour took us hiking to waterfalls, swimming, mountain climbing with amazing 360' spectacularly breathtaking views of the green grasslands-esque landscape, and spelunking through caves containing massive stalagtites and stalagmites - all over rocky, bumpy, awful roads in a van packed full of people.
It was beautiful and the views were spectacular and our bodies felt great (once you get over the soreness).

The next day we skipped out on the tour and walked around the town, then hiked to rock slides and swam around. Most water there is brownish red. The locals call it Coca Cola water because the water filters through the decomposing debris in the mountains. The decomposition process releases the tannins in the plants (tannins are what make coffee and tea brown and what stains the teeth of those who drink it a lot, but it is known to be good for your hair and skin). The water runs through and picks up the dyes so it ends up looking like diluted Coke. They say you can drink it because it is pullutant-free, but I was thinking there can still be "natural" bacteria and other discomfort causing organisms (Thanks microbiology).

Anyway, the third day we opted out of a tour involving any more off roading to spare our backs the torturous trek. We took a walking tour to more waterfalls, more swimming, and I tried Rock Climbing for the first time and I love it. It's like a dance against gravity with constant battles to maintain balance and distribution of weight strategically over just a few square inches of available ledge. I went up the beginner rock twice. The second time I scaled it much quicker than the first. Scott had tried it a few times before at OSU so he went pretty quick the first time and then took a different route the second time. I was pleased with myself for the two well done tries I had completed, so I decided to end my first rock climbing experience on a good note and be done. Our guide found an intermediate level route for Scott to try with one spot that was a little more advanced (negative, meaning you are actually climbing upside down or against gravity. There is positive, where your front faces the earth more than it does the sky; vertical, which is just straight up; and negative where your front faces the sky more than the earth). Scott was excited and enthusiastic and did amazingly until he got to the negative part which was more than halfway up. This was also where the holds in the rock got remarkably sharper so not only was the angle harder but the holds were more painful if you didn't distribute your limbs and weight appropriately. This spot took a lot more time to get past and exhausted him. He barely had the strength to finish it, but he did complete it, although with a little cheating in the process. He managed to get past the hardest couple parts by just climbing the rope and walking up the rock with his legs. After rock climbing, we hiked to a couple water falls that you can stand underneath to get a "hydromassage". We ended the hike around sunset up on this hill that overlooked the city and the surrounding landscape with little pools in the rocks that Scott swam in to cool his bulging, achy, rock climbing muscles :) and I sat and read. The tour ended with the quick, five minute hike back to town, where we changed and relaxed before another six hour bus ride back to Salvador. We took a taxi back to the house and showered and got ready for our double shift day of volunteering in the morning and in the afternoon. We were tired...

Cachoeira

Saturday we went to Cachoeira (which is about 60 miles inland of Salvador) with Ashia and Danny. We left around 8:45 am and took a taxi to the bus station and bought our tickets on the second level of the station. The bus was at 10:10 so we looked around the shops that they had on the ground floor. There was a havianas store and a bookstore that we went in as well as a lingerie store which we thought was odd.

It was a two hour ride there. We were dropped off in their saturday market thing, which was interesting, but we left because we were hungry for lunch. We walked around for a while aimlessly, but just before it got annoying we stumbled across one of the museums that was recommended to us. Then across the street was another church/museum thing for the Sisterhood of the Good Death, which apparently is a cross between Candomble and Catholicism.

Next, we walked around a bit more and found the river, took some pictures, admired the many beautiful churches, then got serious about finding a place to eat again.
A local man asked us if we wanted a tour and Scott replied by asking where we should eat lunch. He immediately said to go to the convent, then took us there. There is an old convent that has been converted into a pousada and restaurant. We looked around for a few minutes, admiring the innate peacefulness of the place, then finally sat down to lunch around 2 pm. We each ordered something, but apparently each order serves two people so it was a lot of food. We ate as much as we could and left the rest. I contemplated dessert but there was no way.

We then walked back to the river and across the bridge to the cigar factory - the final place on our list of things to see. It began to pour as we made it to the factory, so we dried off a little and began to explore. The most interesting part was the showroom where about 20 women were making the cigars. A guide there explained each step to us in pretty good english, but with a very strong accent.
We watched them choose the tobacco leaves and stack them evenly, then place them in the foot-pedal-powered rolling machine. She would roll them a few times then pluck off anything sticking out the ends, they were then given to a woman who would roll them into the outer leaf to contain it. The entire cigar is made inside and out out of tobacco leaves, even the piece to seal the end. The glue they use to hold it all together is actually a natural glue from the root of some other plant, but still all natural tobacco that I guess the company now grows in green houses to keep the crop more uniform and less susceptible to insects and the elements. Apparently Brazil has some of the best tobacco in the world right here in the state of Bahia. When we finished at the cigar factory we went back to the bus station and made the two hour and 30 minute trek back to Salvador. We ate a little for dinner, went and got acai, then came back to the house to relax for the rest of the night.

Itaparica and Real Futbol

We went to the Island of Itaparica located in the bay and stayed in a pousada called Zimbo Tropical. When you first get to the island, you catch a taxi for probably 20-30 minutes along the south side of the island, where you get to an area where businesses are sparce and slow. Where it feels like only the locals would go. We then turned onto a dirt road with dense foliage on either side then we arrived at a tall concrete wall with a single black door embedded in it. The taxi stoped and we got out and hopped over muddy puddles to the door where we pulled a chain to ring the bell. The owner came to the door and opened it to reveal greenery and foliage you expect from the Amazon. The pathway is made of wooden planks and each room is a small cabin with a hammock in the front patio area. There is a "bar" which is the area where she served dinner that she cooked for us and where we ate breakfast in the morning. There is a parrot who lives just outside the owner's house, and a turtle in a little pond thing by the entry. In the morning we mentioned that we had read in a travel book that there were monkeys there, but we hadn't seen any. She lit up and said "Oh, you have to see them, come to the bar and I'll call them." She put a little plate out with some yogurt on it and whistled. They leapt down from the roof and out of the banana trees to the plate. They were the size of small cats, with long, striped tails and tufts of white hair coming out each side of their head. SOOOO Cute! The beach was a short walk away and we spent Saturday after lunch at the beach, which was virtually deserted. It was warm, but not too hot and we had a nice, relaxing time. We could see the cityscape of Salvador along the water on the horizon and yet we were hundreds of feet at least from the nearest person, what a difference!

We came back and then went to a soccer game here in Salvador. It was crazy and a little more unsanitary than in the states, but exciting whenever a goal was scored.

Ice cream, CAASAH, Drums and Hot Chocolate

We haven't updated in a while because we didn't go anywhere to exciting this past weekend. However I would like to take this opportunity to talk about what seems mundane to us.

Pretty much everyday I have gone to get ice cream, usually at McDonalds. It recently got a little out of hand, with as many as three trips in one day. It was at this low point that I realized the extent of my addiction and an intervention was convened. I now allow myself only one per day and try to do less than that. Just across the street is a place called Frio Gostoso which is a kind of fancy ice cream place, and then McDonalds is three or four blocks away and have ice cream cones for R$1.50($0.75) or two for R$2.00($1.00). I am such a sucker for bargains that at first I'd just get ice cream cones, but then my friend Kelsi here got me to try the Top Sundaes. They are a little more (R$4.10 or about $2.25) but soooo good. There's also a cake place with fancy desserts around the corner from the McDonalds, as well as an Acai place a couple blocks away. Acai is a berry from the amazon that is very dark purple and they blend it up into an icy frozen smoothie thing with other flavors added to it. We usually get banana because it's been on special since we got here. And it tastes really good. It counters the tartness of the berry with the sweet banana-ness.

I thought that only three hours at placement everyday wasn't very long, but when all the kids are kicking and screaming and spitting on each other and us, it doesn't go by fast enough. CAASAH has gotten much more challenging and exhausting and less rewarding. There are really only two kids there that are really good, the rest are street kids that steal everything we bring and will try and beat us up if we don't let them have their way. I'm having a hard time remembering why I wanted to go there. I believe I'll stay there because I'll feel guilty if I leave the good kids there with the punks.

Tuesday we went to watch the drum group Olodum, which is apparently famous worldwide. It was fun and our friend Rachel danced with the big group around them. That's what one of the videos is of. After that we went to this place we call "the chocolate bar" but that's not what it's really called. Anyway, they have hot chocolate there that is really good and is the consistency and appearance of like homemade hot chocolate pudding. REALLY GOOD.