Travel Diary: Brazil Northeast Coast (July 2022)

Having renewed our visas, (last month’s blog) and with effectively 4 months available to us to continue exploring Brazil we were exited to continue our northwards trek along the coastline towards the fabled state of Bahia.  When speaking of beautiful beaches almost all Brazilians have recommended Bahia to us.  All that lay between us and Bahia was the state of Espírito Santo and a mere 900km, we have mentioned it before but Brazil is HUGE.  Approximately half way across the state lies the city of Vitoria and so our plan was to break the journey with a stop there to carry out the usual monthly “admin” tasks such as laundry and paying for our internet data.

Unfortunately, at the same time, both of us started to not feel well, although thankfully not bad enough that we couldn’t spend many hours behind the wheel as we slowly worked our way northwards.   It still took us two days to reach Vitoria as the roads in this part of the world despite being main thoroughfares are usually single lane and busy with many trucks, who when an overtaking opportunity presents are just sufficiently slower than Mr Jones to be difficult to pass but when the road winds through long sections of hilly terrain then their speed drops to 30km/h or less and therefore so did ours!    Having traversed the city and its spectacular bridge which crosses the main bay and harbor, we were sitting in the queue at a very busy toll plaza when we had another classic “welcome to Brazil” moment – a random stranger paid our toll fees for us which we only discovered when we got to the toll booth !

Two days of travelling had done nothing to make us feel better and in fact, we were feeling worse with flu-like aches and pains and very scratchy throats, fearing that we may have Covid we did our best to limit contact with other campers and stayed put for 5 days until we were over the worst of it (or so we thought).  We suspect our excursion to watch the World Surf League competition in Saquerema and the crowded beach was the likely source of our woes.

Once we started to feel better and because based on elapsed time we should no longer be infectious (assuming it was Covid) we left the campground to carry out the “admin” tasks mentioned above. In hindsight we probably should have rested a few more days as undertaking a 10 hour day which includes doing multiple loads of laundry at a self-service outlet, shopping and then driving for 5 hours to sleep at a truck stop is probably not the wisest thing to do when still feeling a bit weak.   Admittedly the day was made longer by a lovely encounter we had with a fellow called Clecio who drove into the parking lot of the shops just as we were about to leave.   He is a Brazilian living in Chicago who was home for a holiday and most importantly is a Landy fanatic. Earlier in the morning some of his friends had told him that they had spotted a foreign plated Land Rover driving into town so he had come out in search of us, hoping to say Hello.  After what had been a frustrating morning, it was so lovely to have a chat in English while admiring each other’s vehicles – hopefully if we make it to the states one day we will meet-up again..

As with the other previous nights we have spent in a truck stop, we slept surprisingly well and woke in the morning feeling quite refreshed and ready to continue the journey northwards into Bahia. That feeling disappeared quite quickly when the first 150km took 3 hours to complete thanks to the many trucks and winding roads, sometimes we would be doing only 10km/h and other times desperately trying to seize an overtaking opportunity at 90km/h which is rapidly approaching Mr J’s top speed.  This pace continued throughout the morning so when we pulled off for lunch at the ubiquitous carvery style restaurants that can be found all along Brazil’s main arterial roads it was a quick decision to not try and squeeze an afternoon of driving from ourselves and rather seek out a place to rest up for a few days.  This sadly was not without its pain either, when Mr J had a temporary moment of refusing to start, only adding to our grouchy mood. At this point we were in southern Bahia but it was not living up to expectations: the beaches were very narrow; the sea was brown and it was windy.  We did however get to enjoy some dolphins playing in the water just in front of camp and spotted some whales far offshore.

After a day’s rest and feeling refreshed we decided to move on in search of the fabled beaches and blue water,  based on various sources it appeared that the little village of Transcosco would offer that with some highly rated beaches and a hippy/eco village vibe to the town.  Upon arrival it didn’t take long to turn us off when firstly the beaches all seemed difficult to reach, secondly when we did find a parking we got hassled by a drunk car guard wanting to charge upfront for parking in a public road and thirdly there was a lack of suitable camping options which didn’t require a likely 30minutes plus walk to get to the beaches. So without even looking at the beaches we made a bolt out of town in search of greener pastures (aka some blue water).  Along the way we did make a detour down a small dirt road to a beach which was in fact quite attractive although again the water was dirty but at least this time we could see the likely cause, a river/lagoon was pushing hard out to sea.  We drove away wondering if perhaps flooding rivers was the cause of all the brown water we had seen so far but as South Africans this didn’t make us anymore inclined to swim or surf,  as we are conditioned to be wary of sharks in “dirty” water, Brazilians however don’t seem to have the same concerns.

A couple of days later we found ourselves just south of Ilheus at a spot called Tahiti surf camp, the water was still brown but there were loads of surfers in the water as it fronts onto “Backdoor” which is supposedly one of Brazil’s better point breaks. So after a day of observation Stuart plucked up the courage and headed into the water.  Being a point break with a relatively narrow bay and quite a lot of rocks makes for an intimidating surf which combined with it being rather popular meant much time was spent sitting on the board versus actually catching waves but this was partly made up for by the occasional sighting of a turtle as it popped it’s head out of the water.

The vibe at the campsite was really pleasant, with such a lovely owner who we would have loved to be able to chat with and which made our lack of Portuguese all the more frustrating, nonetheless we spent a lovely week there and as an added bonus got in some much-needed rest.  In the meantime, we had learnt that the brown sea water is a seasonal thing and come summer time it is generally always a lovely translucent blue colour.  By the time we drove away we were starting to feel ourselves again and quietly hopeful that the fatigue from being sick was now well and truly behind us.

A short hop to the northern side of Ilheus brought us to a campsite called Paraiso which with its many palm trees and long open beach instantly made us feel like we could be back in Mozambique.  By this point Stuart had either got used to the brown water or accepted it and enjoyed a few board meetings, even paddling out on his lonesome for one session.

Paraiso was nice but not quite paradise so after 4 days we continued northwards to Itacare, where we did find clean water but not great surfing conditions.  All was not lost however as while we were standing checking out the surf, Tania heard a man talking English to his child and chirped “you speak English!”. This started a conversation that led into being invited to join his family for lunch.  Although American by birth, Michael is equal part Brazilian, as he is married to a Brazilian and is fluent in Portuguese having lived here for 15 years.  It was almost dark when our extended lunch come to an end and we still needed to find somewhere to spend the night but weren’t too concerned as at worst we knew a number of people had spent the night exactly where Mr Jones was parked, the only issue being the lack of toilets so we first headed off in search of an alternative.  Itacare is a very funky town with narrow cobbled streets, colourful building’s and a convoluted one-way system which meant we ended up circling around quite a bit as we found possible places to be either closed or not suitable.  Eventually with it already dark and about to give up and head back to the beach parking, we found a small pousada (small hotel/hostel) that accepted car camping in its parking lot and where able to just squeeze Mr Jones in.  The benefit of this spot was it was close to all the restaurants and night life, so after opening Mr Jones roof we went for a walk to explore and perhaps find something to eat although we weren’t that hungry considering the late lunch we had had earlier.  Initially none of the eateries appealed in the main section but as we wandered down a quieter side street we come across a Mexican restaurant with a very friendly owner who easily managed to entice us to sit down.  Apart from the lovely food they served he was also very proud of the fact that only the best Cachaca (a distilled spirit from sugarcane) was used in his caipirinha’s, even pouring us a sample to drink neat.  He was not wrong about the cachaca, it was smooth and almost buttery to the taste much to our surprise.

We debated staying longer in Itacare and if the camping setup had been more suitable probably would have, so after a short stroll around in the morning during which we twice had to seek out shelter from the tropical downpours that at this time of the year are a regular (almost hourly) occurrence we once again pointed Mr J in a northerly direction towards the Marau peninsula. 

The above-mentioned tropical downpours had turned the 60km road leading onto the peninsula into a mud fest of note but on the positive side we did find blue water there, as a large reef runs along this section of coast and creates almost one huge tidal pool.  With tranquil and clear water, it is very popular to snorkel in.  Our departure from the peninsula was an even muddier affair than our arrival and right towards the end of the dirt road we come across a long traffic jam of trucks at the base of a small hill.  Under normal circumstances such a small incline would almost not be noticed but the combination of the slippery red clay and a heavy load meant a large truck had slid sideways into the embankment and was busy being hauled out by a caterpillar grader.  It gave us flashbacks to a very long day we had had in Western Tanzania, although that time Mr Jones needed the assistance of the caterpillar to get past one bad section. Video of our Tanzania muddy adventure

At this point we were very close to Salvador, which is way further north than we ever thought we would get on this visit to Brazil, all that lay between us was the island of Ilha de Itaparica.  It is Brazil largest island and any google search will show pictures of lovely white sand and crystal clear blue water.  On the surface our campsite, with lovely grass underfoot and surrounded by palm trees, together with the location directly on a beach should have been paradise and a spot we could spend plenty of time at but as has been our experience for much of this 3rd month it just didn’t live up to its potential and so after just 2 days we moved on and caught the hour long ferry ride across the bay to Salvador.

The ferry’s docking coincided with lunchtime and Tania had read of a very cool Middle Eastern restaurant in downtown Salvador, so with the prospect of some different tastes and flavors we eagerly set off to find it.  Unfortunately, the restaurant was no longer in business but by the time we discovered this we had already struggled to find (and paid for) parking so we decided to take a wander around the area.  Something that has baffled us at almost every beach we have visited in over 6000km of coastline is the lack of public toilets, in South Africa almost every beach has them but so far in Brazil we have only found them along Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro.  This busy boulevard and beach in Salvador was no different and as we were both in desperate need of a loo we decided to find a restaurant to eat at and therefore gain access to a toilet.  Being lunchtime on a Sunday meant most establishments were extremely busy and not fancying trying to struggle with the language in a noisy environment we sought out a quieter spot which we found down a little alley off the main boulevard.  With the help of google translate and a lot of patience from the waitress we selected two traditional Bahia dishes, in Stuart’s case google kindly told us it was “shrimp drool”.

Salvador is famous for its Afro-Brazilian culture, the old town and its many colorful buildings and it had been our intention to visit this when there but perhaps it is because we are jaded from travel or from having felt “let down” a few times from visiting the so-called must see tourist attractions and combined with the fact that we had read a few reports of being harassed by touts and con artists we ultimately decided not to visit this area.  Instead we made good use of a rare morning when no tropical storms were forecast to chill on the beach and read our books.  We also made good use of easy access to a self-service laundry facility to catchup on clothes and linen washing. Of course, murphy did show his hand as we were making our way back to Mr J with clean and DRY laundry when a tropical downpour quickly blew in and drenched us.

Salvador brought up the end of 3 months in Brazil and with a long way to go back South to exit the country and many things to see in the interior our thoughts had begun to think about when to turn and were to go inland but first we decided to have one or two more beach stops.  Praia do Forte is only 80km from Salvador and a very popular holiday town, it is also a fairly well-known surfing town and so hoping for one last hoorah in the water we headed there. Normally the more popular holiday spots don’t appeal to us but both Itacare and Praia do Forte ticked many boxes and interestingly in both cases we camped in the parking areas of a pousada, in the latter however we had more space and therefore were able to spend a few days.  Unfortunately, Tania also started to feel ill again and was desperately hoping it wasn’t a reoccurrence of whatever had afflicted us earlier in the month, in the meantime Stuart took his surfboard for a long walk across town to see if he could find the surf break and duly returned a few hours later only having got sand between his toes.  It turns out the spot was very technical with a difficult entry and exit across a sharp reef at low tide and so having watched a number of locals gingerly pick their way across this, any temptation to surf quickly dissipated.  All was not lost though, as later that afternoon at high tide he spotted some guys in the water at a different spot and decided to give it a bash, the waves were average but this was made up for by being surrounded by turtles in the water.  At one point he counted 6 heads pop up at once.

On iOverlander we had eyed out a wild camp spot just north of Praia do Forte which we decided could be good for one or two nights before we turn inland, suspecting that there would be no surf their Stuart rather sadly packed away his boards for the last time until we probably reach Chile in 2023.  As it turned out we found it impossible to reach the spot as despite trying a number of different approaches we either ran into fences or rivers, however every cloud has a silver lining and, in this case, we found Porto de Sauipe which has a lovely big open beach (a rare commodity in this part of the world) and some surfing.  A few days of no rain were forecast so the surfboards were unpacked one last time and we even had to haul out our beach sunshade –  a first for us in South America.  As everyone knows,  weather forecasting is one of the few professions in which it is accepted that you get it wrong a great deal of the time, so after a couple of days the weather turned and with it so did we – it was time to head inland and see a different part of Brazil.

A note of reflection – this post may have sounded a bit negative in respect to the places we have visited or a bit pessimistic in respect to our outlook and if so it probably reflects our mood for the month and perhaps shows that as in “normal” life, when travelling full time not all months are “palm trees and white sandy beaches”.  Certainly, what didn’t help was being sick and feeling fatigued for most of the month, and of course the brown seawater!  We are assured that in the summer Bahia enjoys lovely blue water and in places like Salvador and the Marau peninsula we did get glimpses that this could be true.

As always, below you can find links to additional items which complement this post: