Day Three!

I am now a day behind on account of lack of internet access out here in the Brazilian wild of Chapada Diamantina National Park, but maybe that’s for the best. These blogs take a long time! It’s really worth it though, to have this record of our time spent here.

I thought that today, mostly being  counted in my head as a ‘travel day,’ would not be much to report, but I was wrong about that. Today was an unexpected delight. We made ourselves wake up early-ish (before 9, which hey, is before 5 California time!) so that we could beat jet lag for good, eat the hotel breakfast, and also so we would have time to visit the extremely gilded church of Sao Francisco. It was ornate. It was gold. There were many semi-frightening carved figures. This is a case where a picture says a thousand words etc. so here you go…feast your eyes upon this awesome/creepy Catholicness!

Creepy!

Awesome!

Adieus, Salvador!

Then it was back to the hotel and pack up to be in a taxi on our way to the airport by 11:30. We were heading to Chapada Diamantina - Lencois, and flights are only twice a week, so missing the plane would be disastrous. Our taxi driver reported back to headquarters via com that we did not speak Portuguese. I think the most novel thing about this trip is how very surprised people seem to see Americans. There really are not a lot here, people don’t speak much English, and it’s not Europe or Mexico where they see white people in sneakers and assume ‘Americans’.  We have heard many guesses (German? Argentinian?) and experienced all kinds of delighted reactions when folks find out we are from the USA.

Hotel pool, I hardly knew you.

“Oh, it is my dream to go to USA! I teach myself English because of, you know, I grew up with American media here,” an enthusiastic young man informed us as he rang up our souvenirs. “But oh, man, I would love to really go to America! To California, no?!” (It’s kind of nice not to be sneered at for once simply by virtue—or perceived lack thereof—of being born American.)

Anyway, our non-English speaking driver seemed to get the go-ahead to drive us two non-Portuguese speakers to the airport. We were a little nervous because we got a late start, but the worry turned out to be unwarranted. In addition to another fine example of go-or-die Brazilian driving (a language of horn-honking seems to be a natural extension of Portuguese; short taps and long leans communicate a la morse code)—the airport? As behind schedule as Brazil itself. Our flight was 10, 20, 30, 40 minutes late, the “ultima chamada” (last call) was on the screen before anyone had boarded at all, and chaos ensued. We were entertained by an adorable 3-year old boy who was delighted when a stranger provided him with a toy Lego knight.

Bom, ola la! Estalagem Alcino!

After an uneventful flight we were escorted to Estalagem Alcino, our guest house, by a rugged outdoorsy guy whom I was not surprised to learn works for one of the many tour companies here in Chapada Diamantina. He spoke English and told us about the adventures he’d had living for several months on the west coast of America, and mapped out our three days in Chapada for us, all within the space of the 25 minutes or so it took to get from the airport to Estalagem Alcino.

However, upon arrival, we met yet another guide who apparently works closely with Alcino, our host, and were told to ignore the other guide and go with him. We were like ‘whatever, man,’ because obviously competition around here is stiff so we will go with whomever our resident proprietor endorses. It also seemed like our driver worked for a company that does adventure tours that we may not be quite fit enough to comfortably complete, especially with my bad knees, so we are all set for an easy hiking and swimming day tomorrow, Chapada Diamantina for beginners, kind of.

Catching our breath in room #2 of the trip

Anyway, we were installed in our room by 4 o’clock and eager to check out the town of Lencois in this laid back free evening on our hands. We strolled hand-in-hand like a pair of honeymooners down a serene village street (a relief after the pedestrian warfare on the streets of Salvador), across a stone bridge over the creek and into the most charming neighborhood I have encountered since my days in Sevilla (where I favored the laid-back Triana barrio). More uneven stone roads, adorable restaurants, and open-front shops: gifts, groceries, produce, bakeries, bars (one tiny bar was dimly lit save an electric disco ball which flashed over the red plastic chairs), internet cafes. Here is one gorgeous storefront:

Downtown Lencois

We were starving, so before we explored all of this we had dinner at a lovely place with brags (in English) of its ‘slow food’ menu, which was indeed filled with surprisingly delightful choices. After Salvador’s underwhelming cuisine we are excited that this area, heavily influenced by ecotourism and environmentalists, has a better understanding of the existence of vegetarians. The waitress knowingly reassured us that she could make our pad thai without prawns. What the pad thai DID come with, though, were these mysterious nuts that looked and tasted just like tiny coconuts—they must have been some kind of palm fruit, but I ate them all so it was hard to ask and get a clear answer. We also had sweet potato gnocchi with pesto; both dishes were sublime. We left the plates completely clean. (By the way, who should approach to share our meal with us, but yet another friendly small black cat.)

MORE different cat!!

There is a village main market area, which is covered and had a few gift booths, but was mostly cleared and contained the local youth capoeira dance school students, putting on a show for the tourists.

At this point I pretty much died of cuteness and it’s inexplicable how I’m even writing this now. Again, this defies my powers of description. We took a video of the tiniest student showing off his skills, which really should not be missed. Look up some real capoeira on YouTube for maximum enjoyment, and then click here for our video. 

After that heart-melting display, we took another turn around the neighborhood, venturing out a little further. We ended up circling around back towards the center right where the capoeira kids, dashing back to their studio, were crossing the street, yelling and laughing and shoving each other all the way. A teenage girl was also kissing her boyfriend goodnight in front of her house.  “This is so quaint I’m going to die,” I said. Instead, I got a snack and we enjoyed the cozy crowd ambiance at the most popular pizza and crepe spot in town. (They had arugula salad! We have never been more excited to taste arugula, and I’m sorry if that makes me sound as elitist as Barack Obama circa 2008.)

At 'Cozinha Aberta,' gourmet slow food.

A note: every single table we have sat at in Brazil has been crooked. I mean, like, not the table, but the surface it has been upon. It’s bad enough that we have to put effort into keeping things from rolling off the table. Granted, we have eaten outside for every meal but one, but all tables have been on rocky, wacky road hills.

Enjoying the rainbow hammock before bed

Then we were tired and I wanted to write this before bed, so here we are back in our cozy room where I am prepared to very much enjoy my night’s sleep before tomorrow’s adventures. And with that, though you won’t be reading this until tomorrow at the earliest, boa noite. (Bo-a noy-chee. Told you Portuguese isn’t just Spanish. These nutty people.)