Lencois to Natal

11 Apr Another quiet day here in Lencois, just hung around reading, chatting, eating and a few beers.

12 Apr Same as above but also went to waterfalls for a swim and was busy today as everybody is off work for Easter Sunday.

13 Apr I had a niggling toothache for the last few days and as it was Easter time etc, no dentists were open. So, down I went to the dentist this morning to see if he could sort it out. He was fuly booked for the day but Dan, my interpreter said I was in a lot of pain. He had a look that morning and said I desperately needed a crown but he could patch it up enough to get me home. I said that was fine and that afternoon I was on his chair again with me gob open. There was a receptionist on the front desk but he had no assistant, so I was holding the saliva sucker and passing him other things that were resting on my chest. He gave me an injection in the gum and 10 seconds later he asked me if my mouth was numb, I said no. Not being surprised as I reckoned the anesthetic would take a minute or two, and before I knew it he was putting another shot into me. I was numbed to hell for the rest of the day but the filling was in and the pain gone. Filling in Brazil: E13.50.
We booked our bus this evening and will be leaving Lencois tomorrow and working our way North to Recife.

14 Apr Caught our bus from Lencois and 4 hrs 30 mins later arrived at a bus station in a place called Feira de Santana where we needed to change buses. We had the usual problems trying to buy a bus ticket due to our lack of Portugese which is usually resolved with asking in Spanish and hoping they understand. Anyway, finally got our connecting bus a couple of hours later which was a total shit heap. For starters my seat was broken and was tilting downward ( so I kept sliding off the seat), I changed seats down toward the back of the bus near the toilet where that seat was broken too. The stink of piss from the toilet didnt help matters nor did the lad in front snorting and hocking his mucus. Then another lad who was not enjoying the snot chorus either decided to put his mp3 speaker phone on full blast to drown out the noise playing the most god awful brazilian shite. It was a 14hr bus journey and reckoned it was going to be a long night. I had two seats to myself and lay my head on the seat next to me and dreamt of how many smelly sweaty arses had been on this seat before my face. drool......

15 Apr After a long cold night (I was in my T shirt and the air con was on full blast) we arrived in Recife at about 11 am. Ater a train and another bus ride we arrived in our suburb, Olinda. We checked into our hostel, It had been 24 hours door to door and we were exhausted. It was a nice little suburb but we were there in off season and there was not a whole lot to do

16 Apr While we checking out this morning, the receptionist suggested that we travel with a Brazilian couple that were heading North too. They had a car and would be happy to give us a lift for a contribution towards petrol. They werent going as far north as us but agreed to drop us to the bus station in the town they were going to. We agreed and 4 adults with big bags squeezed into this Opel Corsa. They were nice people but didnt speak any English and we were the same so it was a journey of canned laughter and lots of waving and gestures. Along the way the driver stopped to ask a police man for directions, the cop asked why he was going there as it was not a particularly nice place to visit and suggested Pria De Pipa (where we were going. Go on the Guards!) so our trip half way turned out to be all the way to our hostel. It took 4 hours whereas the bus journey door to door takes 10. Pria del Pipa seems like a nice town, a bit on the touristy side but we dont mind that so much. With tourism comes comfort.

17 Apr We didnt do a great deal today. Pria del Pipa is quiet too, which is probably the way things are in North Brazil at the moment.

18 Apr We decided to continue North this morning to a place called Pointe Negro. We had to go to a city a couple hours North and then take a local bus to PN. Once in PN we checked into a hostel that was built as a mock castle with drawbridge and moate. Inside it was castle like, with slit windows and dark rooms. It was a nice idea but there were no common areas and socialising was done in the pub or your room. I was chatting (if you could call it that) to a Brazilian guy, with very little English, in our room and on hearing that I was Irish he says `Oh yes, like William Wallace in Braveheart´ I just agreed, not relishing a misunderstood explanation that indeed Mr Wallace was a Scotsman. We had a look around the area, booked a Dune buggy trip around the local sand dunes and ate the most amazing pizza I ever had.

19 Apr Up and out this morning for our Dune buggy trip at 9am. We were put with these 2 Brazilian girls as the buggys take 4 people plus the driver. It should be renamed the `Dune nothin´ trip as the 8 hour day trip had about 2 hours actual driving and about half of that on the sand. The rest of the trip involved stopping at views, an aquarium and swimming spots that were mobile shopping centres and all opportunities to squeeze more cash out of the tourist were employed. We finally stopped for a late lunch at a place that charged E10 for dinner, less than E5 was the norm. Of course there, the drivers are wined and dined for free. All that said the actual sand buggying was great craic but was a disapointing trip.

20 Apr We left Pointe Negro today having decided it was pointless going further North as the rains were getting heavier and more frequent and was definitely low season. We are going to work our way South again and we stopped in Pria de Pipa again for a few days.