Notes From A Sunny Island
After the usual hearty Brasilian hostel breakfast, I headed off to be a bit more active for the day, in the company of one of my breakfast companions, another Ana, this one from Buenos Aires. We had decided to do the Caminha do Costa, which runs along the western side of the Lagoa da Conceicao (literally "Lagoon of the Conception"), near which Tucano House sits, to the village of Costa da Lagoa - this is only accessible via this trail, or by the regular boats which run along the lagoon. Despite the assertions from Leleia, one of the lovely hostel owners, that it would only take an hour and a half or two hours, it was more like two and a half to three before we got there, but we did take quite a few photos along the way (Ana is a keen photographer as well as a med student and working for an IT company - busy girl...) and managed to miss the turning for the waterfall we were hoping to see. That said, it meant we carried on nearly to the end of the lake, taking in some views that we wouldn't have had otherwise.
The waterfall itself was nice without being spectacular - the pool at the bottom was a wee bit muddy, but it was really refreshing to sit under the edge for a bit and chill off under the spray. However, I was rather more careful coming down from the face of the falls after the Brasilian girl next to me slid off her perch, bounced down part of the falls, ping-ponged off a rock and landed in a lower pool - she assured everyone she was fine, but it looked a wee bit painful to me! After mucking about at the falls for a bit, we headed back down to a little restaurant at the lakeshore, where we settled down for a gorgeous dinner of grilled fish - as is customary in many restaurants in Brasil, the standard portion is for 2 people, and could probably feed 3 or 4 at a pinch. After the exertions of hiking along the lagoon, this bit of relaxation felt like proper chilled-out holiday time.
We caught the boat back to town, where both of us decided to decline the evening communal meal as we were still stuffed from our late lunch. Much of the evening was then spent chilling out with a couple of drinks while a guy called Justin played guitar and we had a bit of a sing-along. A lot of the guys from the hostel were then heading on to a local bar/club called the Confraria des Artes (Brotherhood of the Arts), but given that it was apparently going to largely feature hip-hop, and that it would follow the unfortunate Brasilian practice whereby girls get in free and guys can be charged anywhere from about 40 to maybe 120 Reais (that's about 12 up to maybe 35 or 40 quid just for entry!), I decided once again to give it a miss and just chill out a bit longer at the hostel, where I ended up chatting for a while with an English lass called Alicia, who's studying on an exchange year in Santiago, Chile, and is over here in Brasil on summer holidays.
The waterfall itself was nice without being spectacular - the pool at the bottom was a wee bit muddy, but it was really refreshing to sit under the edge for a bit and chill off under the spray. However, I was rather more careful coming down from the face of the falls after the Brasilian girl next to me slid off her perch, bounced down part of the falls, ping-ponged off a rock and landed in a lower pool - she assured everyone she was fine, but it looked a wee bit painful to me! After mucking about at the falls for a bit, we headed back down to a little restaurant at the lakeshore, where we settled down for a gorgeous dinner of grilled fish - as is customary in many restaurants in Brasil, the standard portion is for 2 people, and could probably feed 3 or 4 at a pinch. After the exertions of hiking along the lagoon, this bit of relaxation felt like proper chilled-out holiday time.
We caught the boat back to town, where both of us decided to decline the evening communal meal as we were still stuffed from our late lunch. Much of the evening was then spent chilling out with a couple of drinks while a guy called Justin played guitar and we had a bit of a sing-along. A lot of the guys from the hostel were then heading on to a local bar/club called the Confraria des Artes (Brotherhood of the Arts), but given that it was apparently going to largely feature hip-hop, and that it would follow the unfortunate Brasilian practice whereby girls get in free and guys can be charged anywhere from about 40 to maybe 120 Reais (that's about 12 up to maybe 35 or 40 quid just for entry!), I decided once again to give it a miss and just chill out a bit longer at the hostel, where I ended up chatting for a while with an English lass called Alicia, who's studying on an exchange year in Santiago, Chile, and is over here in Brasil on summer holidays.
posted by Pat at 12:00 pm
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