Christmas Barra Beach Style

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  Salvador, Brazil
Wednesday, December 26, 2007

We hugged and said our goodbyes to our good mates the Balmy Army lads from England who we had met previously in Costa Rica and Bocas. We had an awesome night with them and a South African guy the night before we flew down to Brazil, a kind of mini Christmas celebration. We all went shopping at the 24 hour supermarket to load up on supplies and had a rollicking old time there. We tried to buy a pine needle Xmas tree for the party.

The 7 hour flight to Salvador on Copa Airlines was pleasant. Nadine had been upgraded to business class the lucky duck however we swapped seats and took a whole row so we could sit together in comfort. We watched a Santa Claus movie, hooray and stuffed our faces with plastic wrapped, individually portioned, turkey and mashed potato with gravy airline dinners, Xmas dinner Copa airline style. I am going to miss mumīs trifle this year and i would kill for a kilo of prawns

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We arrived in Rio De Janeiro with little time to spare in catching our connecting flight to Salvador. We had to collect our baggage after being told it was going straight through then loaded it onto a trolley and did laps of the airport and rushed through customs only to find the Copa check in desk was deserted. Where was everyone? The flight had been moved onto another airline, GOL and delayed. None of the Federal Police would stamp our tourist card so we are winging it on their advice that it is unnecessary. The flight was then delayed until a 2:00am departure on Xmas morning. The pandemonium in the airport was crazy as more and more people saw the monitors flashing up the flightīs status and their hopes of getting home for Xmas were diminishing. The mob mentality was used by a big group of passengers who surrounded airline staff and complained. We looked everywhere to no avail to buy international calling cards, it was the perfect time to call Australia for Xmas. Bugger!


There were two interesting sights in the otherwise uninteresting airport. One was a mannequin wearing a surf life saving type bikini that looked like an exact replica of Hayley Bateup. We had our photo taken with it

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. Next was the smokerīs īpodī. The smokerīs area was a small, indoors, square shaped space that resembled an open air shade gazebo. Inside was four space age seats, one in each corner. There was music speakers playing elevator music. In the middle was a chrome pole, lights and fancy ashtrays. There was a huge air extraction fan that sucked the smoke into a vent in the ceiling. No smoke could be smelled outside the perimeter of the pod. We met some Israelis who were heading to the music festival.

The flight took an hour and 40 minutes to reach Salvador Airport in the middle of the night then we were stung for $50 for a taxi 30 kilometres away to reach the beach suburb of Barra. We had Santa gifts for each other. Kate was given some slow aged, 18 year old Flor De Cana Rum and Amarula Fruit, cashews, chocolates, a bubble kit and some rocket balloons and Nadine was given a lilo type inflatable bed for the party, a trashy written in English magazine and some modelling clay. We were exhausted. We checked in to an empty dorm room at the Albergue Do Porto Hostel and we woke up to a room filled with ladies in every bed. Busy place. We bought some yummy Christmas foods for a little dinner together and Nadine made cauliflower with cheese sauce when we could get the Israelis out of the kitchen.

Christmas day was spent on Barra Beach where there was fantastic people watching opportunity. The people here are of an African past and very dark skinned. Every inch of sand was filled with coloured umbrellas, makeshift bars, deck chairs, inflatable animals and couches and children. To think we only take a towel to the beach in Australia. There was funky music pulsating ands people dancing and diving from a rock wall into the sea. An active, laughing, merry making, vibrant sea of humanity

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. Vendors were hawking all kinds of goods including beer (Brahma and Skol the poison of choice) , spirits, jewellery, lobster and some people were cooking tasty food like tofu kebabs on little coal cookers. There were people using machetes to expertly slice open the popular green coconuts for drinking and also a guy with a generator crushing sugar cane into a drink. There was even a Brazilian muscle beach where beautiful boys were doing chin ups and lifting weights. We saw lots of the famous Brazilian butts in the cut bikinis. We tried a coconut and added rum to it for a refreshing drink.

The Christmas merriment did not really take off back at the hostel but we put some decorations up and had our own little party. Today we are loading up on water and supplies for the party which goes for 7 days and trying to navigate a way to get there. We have bought large beach umbrellas for shade.

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12	13	I´ve Got A Lovely bunch of Coconuts	Sand Sculptures
Umbrellas	Where Do You Lay Your Towel?	Xmas Crowds

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