I know I'm home, but I thought I'd do a couple more posts to fill in what I missed in my last two weeks.
So my second to last weekend my three friends and I decided to take a trip to a beach that is a couple hours north of Salvador. The beach town is very touristy and is known for its outdoor activities (ATVs, horseback riding, snorkeling, etc.) and its turtle reserve. I had been dying to visit since the beginning of my trip. Saturday morning we said good bye to some volunteers then grabbed the bus and headed north. When we arrived it began raining. Just the first of many unfortunate incidents to come. We decided to get lunch and coffee and wait out the rain a bit. Moods were low and tempers were short, so we decided to go to our hostel and situate ourselves, maybe take a nap.
(Now, I must mention that this weekend was a holiday weekend [the festival of Sao Jao, a holiday celebrated in Bahia as much as Christmas] so the few hostels that were located inside the main town were all filled up. I took the liberty of booking us at a hostel located just outside the town, the Saiparinga Forest Hostel.) We approach a taxi stand and the taxi man, Tom, told us that the taxi ride to our hostel would be R$40 (expensive for a taxi ride). Reluctantly we agree, seeing no other option. He beckons our taxi, a little three wheeled truck/scooter with a glorified covered wagon on the back for us to sit in. We all laugh and, with mixed emotions, hop in the back and hold on for dear life as he totes us down a paved road then onto a dirt road. He continues down this road, further and further into a forest. My confidence in this hostel and our driver begins to wane.
We come to a little shack where they communicate to us that there is a tax to enter this forest, R$5 each. I reiterate that we are going to the Saiparinga Forest Hostel and "yes, yes, hostel," we must pay. We figure it's a one time fee and we will not have to pay as we go to and from the hostel later. We go further, deeper into the forest where our buggy driver stops at a sign and points down a path. We all pile out, confused and slightly terrified. We hesitantly walk down the path and behind us I hear our buggy driver start laughing and pull away. Great sign.
At the end of the path, we come to a sort of educational center for the forest with all of 0 people in sight. We look for a sign for the Saiparinga Forest Hostel and see none. Finally a man comes out of the depths of the center and speaks to us in Portuguese. "Saiparinga Forest Hostel?" I say. A face of confusion appears on the gentleman's face. I get out my handy iPad and show him my reservation, "Saiparinga Forest Hostel?" I say again. "No. No hostel," our friend says. After some terrified glances at my friends and several seconds of confused, alarmed, panicked silence, "Um... ok. Taxi?" I manage. The man beckons us to some rooms within the center where I assume he plans on calling a taxi for us "OH, obrigada!" we all exclaim!
He leads us into a typical forest/park educational room chock full of books and taxidermy sloths. We follow him over to a bookshelf and I slowly realize he's not calling us a taxi when he picks up a jar with a large, dead snake floating in some liquid. He begins babbling in Portuguese and the only things I understand are: the word "Anaconda," and his finger shaking in warning. Then he picks up another jar with another, smaller snake, babbles in Portuguese and indicates with his two fingers as fangs that these are bite-y snakes. Again he shakes his fingers in warning. "Um... Taxi?... Taxi?!" I just about shriek at the friendly park worker. He babbles a little more then does the universal sign for walking and says 2 hours. At this point my friends and I are on the point of hysteria. "TWO HOUR WALK? FOR A TAXI? YOU JUST TOLD US ABOUT SNAKES THAT CAN KILL US! WE JUST WANT A TAXI!" I calmly tell him in English. Somehow in his next babble session his 2 hour walk turns to 15 minutes up the road. We decide to take this and begin walking, unsure of what else to do.
5 minutes into our slow walk where we are acutely aware of our surroundings and on the look out for an anaconda who might attack us at any point, our little man runs up to us and tells us to wait as he runs into a different shack with a sign "Bar" over the door, the forest bar apparently. He comes out with another man and tells us that this man can take us back into town for another R$40. After some feeble and unsuccessful negotiation attempts from us and assurance that the man has not been drinking from our friend, we agree to go with him. We are stopped again at the entrance fee shack where they refuse to give us our money back and another man tries to scam us into going on a guided tour of the forest with him for R$80. That man storms off and the Not Drunk Forest Bar Taxi Man takes us back to the town.
We immediately search out Tom the taxi man and tell us he ripped us off and did not take us to the right place. We want to be taken to our hostel and will not pay. He is very upset and after some arguing agrees to take us himself. We pile into his car as he takes us back to the same place. We tell him this is not right, we end up calling the hostel on his phone and he gets the correct directions. 2 hours after our initial taxi ride we arrive at our hostel, which had its name changed and had not had it updated on hostelbookers.com.
The hostel ended up being very lovely, mostly because of the owners, an older couple from Portugal. The wife spoke English and 4 other languages, and the husband spoke no English, but did speak French so we communicated through my broken French. He grew fond of us and after he picked us up later that evening from the town he shared some port, a bottle of his favorite wine, and his wife's homemade chicken with us.
Although we were not able to do any outdoor activities because of the terrible weather (we ran through the turtle reservation in about 15 minutes, in the rain), we had quite the experience in a Brazilian forest and we made some friends. Hopefully that jarred, dead snake will be the closest I will ever be to an actual anaconda.
So my second to last weekend my three friends and I decided to take a trip to a beach that is a couple hours north of Salvador. The beach town is very touristy and is known for its outdoor activities (ATVs, horseback riding, snorkeling, etc.) and its turtle reserve. I had been dying to visit since the beginning of my trip. Saturday morning we said good bye to some volunteers then grabbed the bus and headed north. When we arrived it began raining. Just the first of many unfortunate incidents to come. We decided to get lunch and coffee and wait out the rain a bit. Moods were low and tempers were short, so we decided to go to our hostel and situate ourselves, maybe take a nap.
(Now, I must mention that this weekend was a holiday weekend [the festival of Sao Jao, a holiday celebrated in Bahia as much as Christmas] so the few hostels that were located inside the main town were all filled up. I took the liberty of booking us at a hostel located just outside the town, the Saiparinga Forest Hostel.) We approach a taxi stand and the taxi man, Tom, told us that the taxi ride to our hostel would be R$40 (expensive for a taxi ride). Reluctantly we agree, seeing no other option. He beckons our taxi, a little three wheeled truck/scooter with a glorified covered wagon on the back for us to sit in. We all laugh and, with mixed emotions, hop in the back and hold on for dear life as he totes us down a paved road then onto a dirt road. He continues down this road, further and further into a forest. My confidence in this hostel and our driver begins to wane.
We come to a little shack where they communicate to us that there is a tax to enter this forest, R$5 each. I reiterate that we are going to the Saiparinga Forest Hostel and "yes, yes, hostel," we must pay. We figure it's a one time fee and we will not have to pay as we go to and from the hostel later. We go further, deeper into the forest where our buggy driver stops at a sign and points down a path. We all pile out, confused and slightly terrified. We hesitantly walk down the path and behind us I hear our buggy driver start laughing and pull away. Great sign.
At the end of the path, we come to a sort of educational center for the forest with all of 0 people in sight. We look for a sign for the Saiparinga Forest Hostel and see none. Finally a man comes out of the depths of the center and speaks to us in Portuguese. "Saiparinga Forest Hostel?" I say. A face of confusion appears on the gentleman's face. I get out my handy iPad and show him my reservation, "Saiparinga Forest Hostel?" I say again. "No. No hostel," our friend says. After some terrified glances at my friends and several seconds of confused, alarmed, panicked silence, "Um... ok. Taxi?" I manage. The man beckons us to some rooms within the center where I assume he plans on calling a taxi for us "OH, obrigada!" we all exclaim!
He leads us into a typical forest/park educational room chock full of books and taxidermy sloths. We follow him over to a bookshelf and I slowly realize he's not calling us a taxi when he picks up a jar with a large, dead snake floating in some liquid. He begins babbling in Portuguese and the only things I understand are: the word "Anaconda," and his finger shaking in warning. Then he picks up another jar with another, smaller snake, babbles in Portuguese and indicates with his two fingers as fangs that these are bite-y snakes. Again he shakes his fingers in warning. "Um... Taxi?... Taxi?!" I just about shriek at the friendly park worker. He babbles a little more then does the universal sign for walking and says 2 hours. At this point my friends and I are on the point of hysteria. "TWO HOUR WALK? FOR A TAXI? YOU JUST TOLD US ABOUT SNAKES THAT CAN KILL US! WE JUST WANT A TAXI!" I calmly tell him in English. Somehow in his next babble session his 2 hour walk turns to 15 minutes up the road. We decide to take this and begin walking, unsure of what else to do.
5 minutes into our slow walk where we are acutely aware of our surroundings and on the look out for an anaconda who might attack us at any point, our little man runs up to us and tells us to wait as he runs into a different shack with a sign "Bar" over the door, the forest bar apparently. He comes out with another man and tells us that this man can take us back into town for another R$40. After some feeble and unsuccessful negotiation attempts from us and assurance that the man has not been drinking from our friend, we agree to go with him. We are stopped again at the entrance fee shack where they refuse to give us our money back and another man tries to scam us into going on a guided tour of the forest with him for R$80. That man storms off and the Not Drunk Forest Bar Taxi Man takes us back to the town.
We immediately search out Tom the taxi man and tell us he ripped us off and did not take us to the right place. We want to be taken to our hostel and will not pay. He is very upset and after some arguing agrees to take us himself. We pile into his car as he takes us back to the same place. We tell him this is not right, we end up calling the hostel on his phone and he gets the correct directions. 2 hours after our initial taxi ride we arrive at our hostel, which had its name changed and had not had it updated on hostelbookers.com.
The hostel ended up being very lovely, mostly because of the owners, an older couple from Portugal. The wife spoke English and 4 other languages, and the husband spoke no English, but did speak French so we communicated through my broken French. He grew fond of us and after he picked us up later that evening from the town he shared some port, a bottle of his favorite wine, and his wife's homemade chicken with us.
Although we were not able to do any outdoor activities because of the terrible weather (we ran through the turtle reservation in about 15 minutes, in the rain), we had quite the experience in a Brazilian forest and we made some friends. Hopefully that jarred, dead snake will be the closest I will ever be to an actual anaconda.
