One more adventure -- Salvador / Morro de Sao Paolo

To break up the monotony of a month in Rio de Janeiro, I and a few others decided to head up to a popular sight in Northeastern Brazil -- Salvador. Salvador is Brazil´s third largest city behind Rio and Sao Paolo, and widely condsidered to be the northeast´s cultural gem. From here, we also took a vomit-inducing 2-hour catarmaran ride to a popular Brazilian get away -- Morro de Sao Paolo. Morro de Sao Paolo is a small village perched on the tip of of Ilha de Tinhare, a small island of about 10,000. This is probably the most remote, quiet set of beaches that I will ever see. The coast is also very unique in that there is about 300 yards of waveless, waist / chest deep water that extends for the entire stretch of beaches -- this makes for a very friendly swimming /wading ocean environment.

To culminate the adventure up north, we had quite an adventure getting back to Rio on Wednesday. Our flight left at 3 pm, and the only catamaran from Morro de Sao Paolo to Salvador did not leave until 11:30, which would put us into Salvador too late to catch our flight. We therefore set out on a public transportation escapade that can be best described as follows (I´ve tried to capture pictures for each of these sights and/or travel accomodations to put it all into perspective):

1) Leave Morro de Sao Paolo at 8:00am on a small boat to Gamboo, on the same island.
2) Leave Gamboo at 8:30 on the same boat for Bom Jardin, a small village on a different small island.
3) Catch a small (standing room for Americans only) bus to a bus stop, Eutroucamento de Guafu, in the middle of nowhere halfway up the island -- 30 minutes.
4) Somehow find a bus to Bom Despacho -- 1 hour.
5) Take a 1 hour ferry to Salvador.
6) Take a 1 hour public bus to the Salvador airport.
7) Fly to Rio -- 2.5 hours.
8) Meet our friendly cab driver, Aldiney, who you may remember from the Flamengo soccer game, at the airport for a final cab ride home through Rio rush hour -- 1.5 hours.
9) Arrive at 7:00 pm.

The fact that all went smootly is nothing short of a miracle. Our Portugese speaking friends were a huge help as they were able to ask intellgent questions all along the way. Not surprisingly, given the overly relaxed, non-chalant Brazilian attitude, we received different information all along the way. We´ll just add this to the list of annoyances.

One last weekend in Rio and I head home on Monday night. I arrive in Denver on Tuesday morning and head out for Chicago a week later to begin Kellogg business school orientation. Ironically, I head to Puerto Rico for a weeklong trip with a group of incoming NW students. This will probably be my last South American post, unless I feel the urge to share other inspiring words about my travels. I´ve thoroughly enjoyed writing the blog throughout my travels, and I hope that anybody still reading has gleamed some interesting perspectives / insights from my travels along the way. A blog is a rewarding experience, and incredibly easy for those who have not yet experienced it -- I´m sure I will do one again shortly.