An Arraial D´Ajuda Affair
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
8
88
Trip End
Feb 01, 2005
Arraial D´Ajuda,
Brazil
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
After one night in the family and couple oriented Porto Seguro I decided to cross the river to Arraial DŽAjuda which my guidebook promised to be beach, party, beach, party, beach, party (maybe with some sleep in between). Deciding against going there with my new Chilean friends, I waited to go to the Hostelling International in Arraial with a very cute Israeli, Haim, leading the way.
As it turned out, this was one of my more interesting decisions, leading to a love affair in Arraial with my new boyfriend Haim, and meeting some Brazilians who I will always love for their vivaciousness and life.
01 Arraial D´Ajuda beaches
After kissing Haim the first night in Arraial I wasnŽt quite sure what was going on, but thought that I might stay 5 or 6 days, less if things went funny. Very soon I got cemented into the routine of waking for an excellent breakfast spread and then going with Haim to the internet cafe to collect our free half our of internet time and then holding hands we would wander back to the hostel and decide what to do with our day.
Out of 9 days, only 3 were spent at the beach. One day was at Arraial DŽAjuda, where we had to walk quite some distance along the beach before getting to the nicest part of the beach with red cliffs curving around the beach. Two days were spent at Trancoso which had by far the beach long white beaches with very few tourists and only one or two beach cafes. The second time we went to Trancoso it was by boat from Porto Seguro. It took 1 1/2 hours and to get there, 4 hours to spend as we wanted on the beach and then another hour and a half back to Porto Seguro. All for just 15 reais (AUD$7).
I can only suppose that I spent the rest of the time in the hammock by the pool at the hostel, or walking around the cobbled streets of Arraial with Haim, deciding on where to eat and marvelling at the sheer numbers of Israelis and how many signs were in Hebrew
02 Agua de coco
.I wasnŽt really feeling like going out, I suppose knowing that I had my sure thing with Haim I didnŽt feel the need to party. We went out in the evenings for dinner and then stopped to watch impromptu samba to axè (pronounced usha) music and sometimes I joined in the dancing. If thereŽs one thing that separates Brazilians from everyone else, it is their inability to keep still while samba music is being played.
While at the hostel we met some great people, and a lot of Brazilians. We were soon invited to have dinner with Flavio and his friends and he cooked up two brilliant meals at the hostel.
After going to the rodoviaria (bus station) to buy our onward tickets, we sealed the fate of our short but great relationship as Haim was heading to Rio and me north to Ilhèus.
The thing which made our parting a little less sad was the fact that I was going to be travelling with 6 of my new Brazilian and one Swiss friend to Ilhèus and then onwards to a place they knew called Itacarè (which didnŽt feature on any of my maps or in my guidebook)
Yeah Arraial DŽAjuda was fun, although I only went to one of the huge dance parties on an island with a live samba stage, dance music and other music (there was a massive party every night somewhere). It reminded me a bit of Koh Pha-Ngan in Thailand with the partying and backpackers everywhere, but it lacked the craziness of Hat Rin.
What I learned
* It is very easy to develop an intense holiday relationship and forget everything else.
* Chocolate cake for breakfast is a must have.
* I am an expert language butcher.
