Justin-Klein.com – Life of a Traveling Programmer – Page 100

Long Walk Down a Longer Road

Feb 212008

Peder and I left our pousada in Trancoso and started out for our day’s 30 km walk at around 11am. The plan was to follow the coast all the way to Arraial d’Ajuda, a neighboring town where “stone roads wind beneath large, shady trees atop a bluff overlooking the dreamlike beaches.”

It also contains Brazil’s largest waterpark which sounded pretty cool.

We barely made it ten blocks from our front door before the upper-class tourist restaurants quickly started to deteriorate into rotting bulidings and then mud huts. The cobblestones grew more and more unmaintained, and the town quickly started to feel overwhealmingly rural. Soon we reached the main road and turned right towards Arraial d’Ajuda.
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One Wild Ride

Brazil, Public 4 Responses »

Feb 172008

The morning after our last beach party in Morro de Sao Paolo I woke up feeling absolutely horrible. All those nights of sleeping only two hours had finally caught up with me. I had a fever, runny nose, zero energy, and to make it worse, a HORRIBLE case of traveler’s diarrhea.

I spent the first half of the day in bed while Peder went to a travel agent to sort out our bus tickets South. The plan was to take an eleven-hour overnight bus to Porto Seguro that night, then transfer to a local bus to Trancoso, our next destination. The bus was scheduled to leave at 9pm. Continue reading »

Morro de Sao Paolo

Brazil, Public 2 Responses »

Feb 162008

When Peder and I proposed a stop in Morro de Sao Paolo on our way down South towards Rio, the idea was to spend one day here at most. It’s now been five. And I still don’t think any of us can bear to leave.

It’s impossible to describe just how amazing of a place this is. Brazil has been wonderful, but Morro de Sao Paolo is totally different. It’s got everything I could ever want: safety, friendly locals, lots of cool travelers, beach parties every night of the week, swimming-pool quality ocean water, jungle hikes, and nothing but flawless weather. Everywhere you look it’s like something you’d see in a postcard. Or better.
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Welcome to Paradise

Brazil, Public 5 Responses »

Feb 132008

Usually before taking a big international trip I like to read the entire Lonely Planet cover-to-cover, taking notes and underlining interesting sections so I’m prepared to utilize every minute possible. Peder’s exactly the same. But because of the short interim after returning from Japan, neither of us had close to enough time to fully prepare. The result has been a great deal of scheduling difficulty.

One such difficulty arose on the 8th, the day before we had to leave our Salvador apartment, because we still had no idea where we’d go the following day. We both had a list of places we wanted to visit, but due to Carnaval most airline tickets were ludicrously overpriced. It looked like we’d be limited to bus, and to a more immediate area. Remember, Brazil is an ENORMOUS country. Continue reading »

The Pelourinho

Brazil, Public 2 Responses »

Feb 132008

These special synthetic travel clothes I picked up for this trip are just spectacular – I can’t believe I’ve been traveling so long without them. In a hot, tropical environment like Brazil, cotton starts smelling unbearable after about an hour outdoors. But even after a full day of running around in the humidity this stuff is just fine. Plus I can wash it in the shower and it’s dry by the next time I go out. I packed enough clothes for a week, but find myself rotating the same 2 outfits over and over – because those are the things that always stay the cleanest.

Carnaval in Salvador officially ended at noon Wednesday. Peder and I were out on the streets until 8am Wednesday. The plan was go to back home at 8, shower, sleep 45 minutes, and head out one last time. To go out with a bang.

But for the first time since I can remember I slept right through my alarm. We woke up at exactly 12, too late to catch the last bloco of the year.

Did this prevent us from donning our Sparta costumes anyway?

Hell no! Continue reading »