time to chill

........unfortunately for us, the rains also decided to head north to the beach. We took a 22 hour bus trip (scheduled to take 16hrs) to Arraial D´Ajuda, a beautiful, albeit extremely touristy, beach resort in Bahia. The major highlight with the weather as it was, was a day spent in the biggest water park in South America. This place had a crazy cool collection of slides, pools, eateries, and bars. To top of the day they had a stage erected on the edge of the main pool and we had a huge dance party in the pool to a famous Bahian band called Olodum. These guys are wicked.

After Rio and D´Ajuda, and with the upcoming monstrosity of Carnaval looming in the near future, some balance was required. To the west of Salvador is a National Park called the Chapada Diamantina, with a cool little town called Lencois in the middle of it. Here we chilled out with a one day hike up a river to a water fall and another day checking out two sets of caves (one a huge walk thru calcified staligtite/staligmite styles, and the other submerged snorkeling styles, as well as some cool rivers and stuff). We could have seriously spent some more time here if time allowed, and they could seriously have spent some more money on the road and the bus that took us there. We never thought a bus ride could feel like a rollercoaster.

PS Click here to see photos from Lencois