Morro de São Paulo

First up, I should clarify that Morro de São Paulo is a place in Bahia and has nothing to do with the city of São Paulo.

So moving right along, fortunately for me the good times with Luciane and Raquel weren't quite over yet. After leaving Chapada Diamantina they went to check out Morro de São Paulo (Hill of St Paul) and once again invited me to join them. I didn't see how I could as it was midweek, but it turned out that Thursday was a public holiday here in Brasil (YAY!) so I did a half day on Wed giving me time to catch the last catamaran over to Morro, and spend the whole of thursday there.

Lonely Planet had this to say "For some, the picturesque holiday village of Morro de São Paulo has exceeded acceptable limits of touristiness", and I think I would be one of those people. Very different from Chapada to say the least and kinda weird too - for the first time since arriving in Brasil, I was hearing english being spoken all around me!

Anyway, photos below!

Salvador from the water

A naval base (we think)

Farrol da Barra, one of the icons of Salvador

So in the 2 hour catamaran ride, this was pretty much the scenery. Not complaining though, another beautiful sunny day in Salvador, how better than to spend it on the water :)

Ahoy, Morro de São Paulo,

complete with it's own farrol (lighthouse)

We walked up the morro (hill) to enjoy the views...

...and another beautiful sunset

We were by no means the only people there and I was quite taken with these guys who were partaking in a "Farofa" which is portugese slang. Luciane could best describe it as an inappropriate situation... I thought it was hilarious though - these guys had condensed milk, cookies and plastic cups. Step 1. Break the cookies into the cup 2. pour in the condensed milk and

step 3 - enjoy!

An Igreja in the vila

Shot of the vila

THURSDAY
We decided to go to Boipeba which is a beach a little further away, in the hopes of it not being quite so busy... Was a bit of a mission though, a 45min bone crunching ride in a 'jeep', then a little cruise in a boat, and then a 30min walk. Worth it in the end though :)

Villa in the morning

The jeep, a truck with a couple of wooden benchs secured to the... (The seats had cushioning though so it wasn't all bad)

The boat we used

Raquel and me

ahhhh, nothing but beach!

enjoying a coco verde before embarking on our walk

Did I mention I didn't take my hair straightner to Brasil? ;)

Mmmm lunch! This was the first time I've ever had lobster - yummy!