Beware of sharks!

8.3.10

Lencois is a small colonial town, 6 hours inland from Salvador. Its famous for being a diamond mining town and was once a very wealthy place. Now it has an exclusively tourist-driven economy, but is still quaint and charming. Surrounded by beautiful landscapes of caves, mountains and waterfalls, Lencois is filled with agencies organising tours and treks, and a few restaurants and shops.

Lencois

I arrived at 5am on Saturday morning by bus and was greeted by a young boy offering to help me find my hostel. Without a map or a taxi in sight, I had no option but to trust him. I later discovered that Lencois is a very safe town and most people here are genuinely helpful.

Due to my swollen and inlfamed insect bites, I decided to book myself a double room in a small Pousada and enjoy some rest. This has been good as I have slept very well and my bites are slowly going, but it has meant I haven`t met many other travellers during my stay here. Also with the peak season coming to an end, Lencois has been very quiet, and I have for the first time felt a touch lonley and bored. On Saturday night though they had a live Jazz concert in town which I enjoyed, and I happended to acquaint some fellow travellers there. We hung out for a few drinks and checked out a forro party @ one of the nearby hostels. I got to learn to dance the forro with one of the biggest sharks in town, apparently. Unfortuantely, the cool travellers were leaving the next day so our short friendship ended there.

The next day I did a tour to see some of the waterfalls and caves. The tour was good but very tousity, and it rained a few times throughout the day. The quiet and sometimes sour Israelian couple were difficult to get a word out of, but were luckily compensated by the young, chatty, dentally-braced guide, Roger, who ended up being quite good company. Due to the late night forro party, I was extremely tired all day and slept the entire way in the car. I realised on my way back that my sleepy brain had left behind 2 essential belongings, one being my bikini bottoms... a major bumma indeed. The evening was spend eating a banana and chocolate crepe, my nightly ritual here, and sharing a juice with No 1 Shark, who assured me it was to be ¬“just one juice”. Leaving shark at the doorstep, I headed for an early night, and 12 hours later woke very refreshed.

Lencois 2

One of the caves in Lencois

Today has been a bit non-descriptive, filled with chores and booking tickets. I did manage to fit in a quick walk though to one of the nearby waterfalls and have a dip in one of the fresh pools there. Along the way, I was offered the service of a local guide, called Phillip, a 12 year old capoeira, percussion and football fan, whose father is French and whose favourite subject is Maths. He was the best guide I could have found – he spoke slow simple Portuguese, asked for no money, knew every rock and tree in the forest, and didn-t try to pick me up at the end. The sweetest Brazillan boy I have come across by far.

Tonight I am heading back to Salvador for a day then flying to Rio and shortly after heading to Ilha Grande, where I plan to take it very easy on the beach, hopefully with some cool peeps and good, cheap caprihnias.