Dia 140 - Thursday April 28, 2011: Vitoria, Espirito Santo to Trancoso, Bahia

The rain was heavy all night and continued into the morning so golf was out. The air conditioner in the room Steve & I shared was out so the sliding door was left open to the delight of the many bugs that feasted on us all night. I did not sleep well and we were anxious to get to on the road. This was the beginning of the rainy season, yet there was flooding in several Vitoria downtown streets. The rain lightened gradually so that we had intermittent afternoon sunshine. The rural countryside of cleared jungle and many large nature preserves was lovely. The elevation was mostly 30’-70’, although the full range was 0’-630’.

The maps showed poor road conditions for the first 120KM of BR101 of south of Bahia going north. The potholes rivaled the worst of El Salvador and Costa Rica. Anisa says that some are bigger and badder than the big one on her street in LA. Anisa spelled me for the afternoon drive. In passing a truck, the driver swerved to avoid a truck eating pothole, forcing her to swerve into an equally bad pothole throwing the Cayenne’s wheel alignment off. We will look for realignment in Salvador or just take care of it in the US. This is one more omen that it is time to go home. (Yesterday, I had to swerve to avoid a car that cut in front of me while I was passing, but I only took out 2 plastic road cones, no damage, just embarrassment. They often pass very slowly here.)

We arrived at the Relaix & Chateau on the beach at Trancoso just after dark. Note that the entire Mercasur from Brazil to Argentina is on the same time zone. It gets dark here by 5:30 even though it is summer. At home, it wouldn’t get dark till 7:30-8:00 at this stage of summer so my inner clock is off by about 2+ hours. Anisa booked our rooms by Internet. Once again, the receiving end failed though we had a reservation number and confirmation. It is off-season so there were many available rooms. We all had different & delicious fish dishes for dinner. My Moqueca version was the tastiest. The beds are surrounded by mosquito netting here so I know that I will sleep well.