After our lightening quick trip up the coast of Bahia we headed to the island of Morro de São Paulo, which translates as São Paolo Hill. The quickest way is by speedboat although apparently you should be prepared to get wet. We got in the boat and chose a nice seat at the back only be to shunted closer and closer to the front as more people got on and the driver motioned for us to move up. Helen was practically doing a Titanic by the time we set off – by which time the boat was loaded so full of luggage and multipacks of water and toilet paper that it was leaning to the left and the engine wouldn’t start. A helpful passenger helped drop the anchor whilst the driver hotwired the engine and moved all the bags to the front to allow it to get going. We never picked up enough speed to get wet but it was easy to identify the few tourists on board by the nervous faces.

We made it across without breaking down, and were helped off the boat by the official Morro luggage men who carted my bag up the hill in a wheelbarrow… next time bring the backpack 🤦🏻‍♀️

We dropped our bags at the Pousada Aquarela, had a beer at their cute jungly bar and went for a wander around Morro, finding a nice cafe that we returned to the next morning to try the Capirinha Coffees. I’m not sure fresh lime and the local liquor really goes with expresso but I had to try it.

The only wildlife we saw on Morro was in our room – on returning after exploding our bags over the beds, we noticed those same beds were crawling with tiny tiny ant like creatures. Each time I wiped what looked like eggs off one corner of the sheet they would reappear. At least I had my mosquito net – although I was wary of my makeshift attachment method now (attaching plastic hooks to the wall with those “no damage” sticky labels – why does nowhere have hooks for nets?!) after I pulled off a chunk of purple paint from the last wall. I was slightly nervous as the owner went into the room to inspect it just as our taxi pulled up and we got away.

With only one full day on the island, we set off in the morning fuelled by the Capirinha Coffee for a walk to the lighthouse via beaches named “one” and “two”. This was a Helen Special walk as we had to wade through the sea for some of it. There was a man making elaborate and very strong looking drinks served in the cacao fruit but he took so long to make them I gave up waiting.

The beach was lovely and we hired a couple of sunbeds for the afternoon, although we weren’t altogether sure it was necessary to pay because nobody else seemed to. At least we got beer and chips brought out on demand. The beach was also very entertaining with the usual Footvolley games to watch and a group who started performing dance routines – including a man with bright pink hot pants and maybe the best hair I’ve ever seen. I especially liked it when everyone around applauded them at the end.

With the Pousada bar annoyingly closed for a private party, we ended up having a nice meal and bottle of wine and time for various holiday admin at a restaurant in town – we have generally been booking accommodation and buses a few days in advance which seems fine. We ran into The Dutch from The Pantanal (or rather one of them sneaked up on in the restaurant and scared the life out of us) and it was nice to hear what they had been up to.

The next day was My Birthday – I didn’t mind it being a bit of a travel day to Salvador as the journey was a “fun boat ride” to the mainland. After an early morning swim where I was the only person on the tiny beach just five minutes walk away, and my favourite breakfast of fried banana (not the Tapioca pancakes which are extremely glutinous and hard to eat with a filling of just tomato!), we made it down the hill without needing to hire a wheelbarrow and on to the Catamaran. The guidebook had mentioned the 2.5 hour crossing could be rough and it did suggest taking medication even if you don’t normally suffer from sea sickness but of course we ignored that. We got on and found a table, thinking we might play cards, write journals, read books or eat snacks. Then we noticed the Vomit Bin and the man coming around handing out clear plastic sick bags. I saw them take away someone’s black bag and replace it with clear ones – why?!

If you’ve ever been on one of the pirate ship rides at a theme park – that would give you an idea of the next two and a half hours, combined with side to side motion. We put out books away just as the first people started being sick into their bags – which did I mention were clear plastic? 🤢 I’m still trying to block out the memory of one man filling the bag up to the brim. The poor helper men with the blue T-shirts surely have one of the worst jobs in the world, going around helping people stagger out to the back of the boat mid vomit where presumably it was less rough. I would have gone outside too but a) I couldn’t stand up with the motion of the boat and b) all the sick people were out there. Instead I just sat there with headphones on to block out the noise (note to self – memories of Theme Hospital) and staring out the window, feeling extremely grateful that I don’t get sea sick! Poor Helen tried to sleep but was getting soaked the whole time as the window was open behind her.

We arrived in Salvador to yet more rain so took a taxi to our hostel up the hill. The city is split over two levels with an elevator connecting them for about 10p, but cars have to take the hairpin type bends. Hostel Galeria 13 was a very sociable place with a daily happy hour with up to 8 free Capirinhas as long as you show your empty glass (I managed two – apparently it used to be unlimited but some Dutch guys ruined it for everyone) and a blackboard of local evenings activities. Run by a man originally from Norfolk of all places so we had a chat about Alan Partridge. As soon as we arrived the staff showed us a map and told us to make sure we stay within the orange areas as “things can happen” if you stray outside. The other advice was don’t let people paint you – there are people going around covered in white paint who will try to paint you with designs then ask for a lot of money apparently.

Unfortunately they didn’t have a copy of the maps to give us so we had to try to remember it. I was happy to find a restaurant around the corner that did a vegan version of the local specialty Moqueca (bananas and vegetables in a coconut sauce served in a sizzling hot pan, accompanied by a type of stew and the Dust). A ridiculous amount of food arrived for two people and the lovely waiter explained each item in detail before taking a photo on his phone and sending to me via WhatsApp. It was the perfect birthday meal!

We followed the blackboard to some authentic live samba music off the main square which was completely free, with strong Caipiroska drinks costing about £1.50. We enjoyed watching some middle aged women dancing but it was pretty quiet and the square was deserted so we headed back and met our old friend from the Pantanal, Tom, who arrived at our hostel after about 72 hours on back to back buses surviving on bananas. We gave him our leftovers from dinner and were amazed to hear that after we had all left the Pantanal, Bill had called Tom to say that “The Girls didn’t pay their bar bill”. Tom told Bill that he believed we had paid but that it wasn’t really anything to do with him (we had, with the exception of maybe two beers that they didn’t ask us for) to which Bill said “but you are representing The Girls!” – I guess we should be glad he didn’t call us directly!

The next day we all went on a free walking tour and I learned I shared my birthday with Salvador, the capital city of Bahia, which is 474 years old. The city looked much nicer in the sunshine, all colourful buildings and I got my coconut water in the street for about 20p. Salvador has a much more Carribean feel to it and felt less scary in the daylight with Representative Tom as bodyguard. We had tropical fruit ice creams and sorbets (there is a flavour called Romeo and Juliet whatever that is) in the square after taking the elevator down, buying some tat at a market (Tom left us to it) and taking a look inside a rather gaudy church. See slightly scary looking cherub figures and bizarre art with Latin captions translated into English such as the below which I don’t agree with.

In the evening after making some more friends at happy hour we all went out to a live drumming event, as this is something local to Salvador and which we were all keen to see. It started off great with three men playing different kinds of drums. Then a man who introduced himself as The Professor (see the bright Afro below) came on and continued with a larger band. And then it got weird, as what we assumed were students of The Professor got up in turn and embarked on lengthy recitals – it was as if we were watching a music graduation. I’m sure musically they were very talented but there is only so long you can sit on stone steps watching someone play experimental drums to a backing track when everyone else seems to be part of the crowd. Eventually I caught the eye of fellow traveller Clint who was also desperate to leave and we made our escape to a local restaurant for a late night meal.

There was going to be lots of birthday Salvador celebrations that weekend and you could definitely spend a few days here – but we had to move on as we had booked our flights down to Rio….