Last nights’ sleep was absolutely dreadful. Who knew a peaceful little paradise island could be so noisy?! The sound of barking dogs and Wednesday night party go-ers was enough to make one very tired in the morning. Tip for future travellers: pack ear plugs. All happiness was restored when we rolled out of bed and took a step onto our balcony to be greeted by the most beautiful view.
It looked stormy outside so we halted our beach plans, mooched around inside for a bit and made breakfast, but then to our surprise the sun peeped out. Naturally we panic- changed into our swimwear and made our way out – there was no way we were missing on an inch of sun.
The second beach, or praia secundo, was gorgeous. Palm trees tower over the rocks, the water was shallow and glistening, little fish swim around your feet. We instantly fell in love. We felt really safe here – there wasn’t much of the haggling for sales as there were on the beaches of Salvador. When we went in the sea I took my backpack because the sea was shallow enough to wade out a good distance in still. We left the rest of our things on the beach (clothes, towels, food). Nothing was touched.
After a couple of hours we wandered towards quarta praia (the fourth beach) for a change of scenery. The walk to this beach was quaint. We stopped to take lots of pictures along the way, and Jake was tempted by the aroma to buy a BBQ cheese skewer. He devoured the party crispy golden, partly gooey melted delight.
At quarta praia we tip-toed over the shallow reefs and rock pools towards some higher rocks where we could get a good 360 degree view of the beach. We decided we wanted to come back here, it was calm and scenic. We were ushered back home by the incoming storm. Luckily, it cleared as quickly as it came.
We headed home and I made my way straight to the best spot in the apartment – the hammock. Dreamy. My moment of peace was quickly disrupted by the sound of a distressed Jake yelping “OMG Kez you need to come here, I think there’s a giant spider.” As if I was any better with spiders than he is.
I rolled my eyes and braved it down the stairs, and was guided towards the bathroom. I peered into the toilet basin where, sure enough, something was shuffling around. I stood on the bathroom side (sorry air bnb owner) to get a better look. “That’s not a spider Jake, that’s a frog.” It was huge, and just not what you expect to see in your bathroom.
Can you imagine the carnage that followed? What do we scoop it out with? What if it’s poisonous? Do we call the owner? All I can tell you is, Jake was absolutely useless! He enclosed himself in the shower cubicle to get the best view of the unfolding mission. In his opinion he was doing a great job because he was in charge of looking out for the welfare of the fella. Using a mini silver bucket and sandy-bum cleaning hose type device, we removed the helpless amphibian.
The rest of the evening was much calmer. We ate our tasty risotto on the balcony, and stroked a neighbours potentially pregnant dog to sleep.
Alpaca Backpackers 