Dia 145 - Tuesday May 3rd, 2011: African Experience in Bahia

Our tour guide, Marco, is a “Baba”, “father”. He is a priest of one of the 3 major African groups that were brought to Brazil. He organized the Afro/BR experience through religious practices, particularly synchronicity. We started at the AfroBR museum. It tied up the differences and similarities of the Ghana & Benin spiritual practices – sometimes different names, substantially similar ideas. The idols are not the 27 gods themselves, but rather vehicles to help reach their Spirits. Voodoo is one of the names given to one of these practices. Healing & spirituality are their objectives, not evil, except in the eyes of the Catholic Church & Hollywood. The sun spirit represented women and the moon and men. The Catholic Church forced a reversal and the African religions to go behind the Christian symbols. We went to a spiritual house as well as a synchronicity church. We went through AfroBR parts of this great city, the Afro markets and the high rent district. Apparently, the richer you are the whiter you become.

The shirt I wore today smelled like mildew. It never fully dried since the Country Inn after Rio. Anisa tried to be upwind. Never mind that I didn’t like the smell either. Once outside the tranquility of the hotel, like other poor parts of the third world, vendors and beggars accosted us. The Sao Francisco Church across the street has over 600lbs of gold. It is surrealistic and all about wealth. There is a big religious festival in our area this evening. We dined at a local fejouada restaurant that is run by a Brazilian national treasure (Alaide do Feijao). It was the tastiest we have had so far. We attended a festival with a live band at Pelourinho Square after dinner.

There is no scholarship system in Brazil for the underprivileged. Silvio, the concierge and all around guy at the hotel has tremendous drive and intelligence. We are looking into arranging a tuition scholarship for him to complete the last 2 years of university. It looks like all the car arrangements will be finalized tomorrow and hopefully we fly out of Salvador Thursday morning arriving in LAX at 9PM. We are looking forward to playing golf in LA this weekend!

Dia 144 - Monday May 2, 2011: Itacare to Salvador, Bahia

We drove through a deluge for 2 hours this morning and then it rained on and off. Naturally, the countryside was scenic. The potholes were terrible. Traffic was light. The little towns did not inspire us to stop. We were the last car on the 1:00 ferry to Salvador. It was a pleasant 30-minute voyage by sea with easy on, easy off. However, it took us 1-½ hours to cover 2.5KM to get from the harbor to the old part of town. In fact it took us ½ hr. when we were within 4 blocks of the hotel. The one-way streets and narrow alley like roads made it hard to find the way. We are staying in a pleasant 17 room historical hotel. Dinner was delicious. Steve and I took a short walk around the old neighborhood that is being revived.

We are taking an academic 4 hr. tour of Salvador from the African Diaspora’s perspective rather than the European perspective. At 2:00 we meet with prospective agents for shipping the car to LA. We hope that we can get the job done in a couple of hours. If so, dinner will be a celebration and we will play golf the next day.

Dia 143 - Sunday May 1, 2011: Itacare Beach Resort

The resort is in an Atlantic rain forest. The water yoga teacher was not available today so swimming in the Atlantic in an idyllic cove and lolling around were our best bets. Steve & I swam out into the waves. The cove funneled the waves so they crashed in a V. We were warned that there were sharks patrolling past the wave line. We stayed safely within the surf line. We had a hearty threesome visit. Later we had a pleasant dinner at the resort.

Our plan for Monday is to take the new road and ferry to Salvador for about a 5-hour driving day. We will try to find a shipping agent that handles everything after we just pay, sign papers and turn over the car key. If we can accomplish this on Tuesday, maybe even by Wednesday afternoon, we will be on our way home on Thursday having spent 3 nights in Salvador. Anisa came to bring me home, but after throwing herself to the bugs, I have to save her by taking her home. That must have been “Tina of the Amazon’s” strategy all along. She is tricky with golf matches too.

Brazil observations: Brazilians are as nice as the people of the rest of LatAm. Excellent food and accommodations are available. The setting is generally attractive, particularly Rio and the Atlantic coast. However, some of the industrial and poor areas lack charm. Seeing where the layers of society live is a big benefit of a road trip. There are plenty of gas stations and all have flush toilets. We never felt unsafe. The bugs and humidity are the worst aspects of the visit, followed by the poor road conditions. Marco & Claudia of Sao say they don’t drive much out of Sao because of the poor and dangerous road conditions. Everything costs about twice as much as I feel appropriate. Tourism generally and golf tourism in particular are underdeveloped.

Carol asked me if I would leave the car here for a month, then take the TransAmazonia Hwy to Cusco to re-do the Andes in more detail. She also wants a redo of Mundo Maya. She must have enjoyed herself.

Dia 142 - Saturday April 30, 2011: Trancoso to Itacare

We drove from Estrella d’Agua, a Relaix & Chateau, to Itacare Eco Resort. We had an interesting drive here highlighted by a highway blockage by local citizens. They were demonstrating for better education. They blocked BR101 with debris and burning tires. The Policia and Militar just looked on. The blockage in Chiapas and the Grand Taco in Vitoria came to mind. Anisa saw on her i phone that there was another way to Itacare. We hightailed it out fast by a quick U turn and aggressively driving over a log that was being rolled to block all the ways out. This was a Silverback Moment, as we did not want to arrive at the Eco Resort after dark. In general, the poor rural people living along our route were as poor as any we saw in Central America or Peru. They could just as easily protest the poor road conditions that hamper their economic development by isolating them. Lets keep in mind that the people here are very nice and helpful. They have problems with their circumstances. The pictures tell a lot.

We have learned a few words to get us by: Gasolina; Completa; credito; baneo; abrigado(a); ciao; ta; sim; nao & hola. Of course a lot of words as close to Spanish but pronounced & spelled differently, e.g., izquerda, derecha & adelante or directo. We understand the street signs and directions.

The digs here target the Brazil market and are nice. Very little English is spoken here. We all had fish with octopus sauce for the main dinner plate. We ate every bit of the starters, rice, fish and desert. I guess that we were hungry and liked the food.

Dia 141 - Friday April 29, 2011: Golf at Terravista & R&C Resort

Exploring Brazil resort opportunities agrees with our golfing threesome. The digs and food at the Relaix & Chateau are in a wild and scenic environment, yet quite civilized. This means that the food is great to this theree-some that travels on its stomach. The jungle ride to Terravista was 5KM on a pitted dirt road. The Terravista golf course is fantastic. We had the entire course to ourselves, as we were lucky to catch a break in the rain. The first 9 holes go through jungle and ravines with mountain backdrops. Then there are several holes right at the edge of dramatic beachside red cliffs. See pictures. We were so happy just to be in such a beautiful environment. Humidity and bugs be damned, our spirits are back up. We had late snacks & drinks on the beach back at the resort. We had an animated dinner with a lively couple in their 40s from Sao Paulo, Marcos & Claudia.

Julia has asked that we ship the Cayenne directly to LA/Long Beach Harbor rather than Miami. If I were the Cayenne, I would start dreaming about life back in West Los Angeles where life is good, even for cars. That also means that we should be back in LA in 10-14 days.

The golf mission part of the LatAm adventure continues. We have played 3 out of the 7 top rated courses in Brazil so far. We are likely to play 2 more of the great Brazil golf courses going NE: Costa do Sauipe and Iberostar Praia Doforte, just NE of Salvador. So far we feel that golf tourism is underdeveloped in Brazil. The climate is like that of our Gulf States, which are far more developed for golf tourism.

We will be staying in the historic center of Salvador. Number 1 job is to arrange for shipping the car to LA. Number 2 is checking out the golf scene. Food & accommodations should not be far behind. Culture & history will be soaked up from being there.

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.

Dia 139 - Wednesday April 26, 2011:Grand Taco into Vitoria

We had a pleasant start: 7AM coffee, breakfast with our hosts, collecting our laundry, etc. We were on our way by 11:15. Our mileage for the day was a little less than 300 miles. If we averaged 50mph, we would arrive around 5:30, before dark. Our revised estimate was for 6 hours of driving time, plus lunch. The scenic 65 mile waterside drive through a lot of seaside or lagoon side towns and many “topes” took 2 hours. Once on BR101, the going was faster with frequent passing of trucks & cars necessary. The landscape was very green and could have been a lot of other places. The natural reserves were beautiful semi-tropical jungle. We had lunch at a busy roadside restaurant that served fejouada (sp). It was solid home cooking. We continued on with only a minor delay for a semi truck catching telephone and power lines and blocking the roads. This is somewhat common here (see photo of topped truck)

5:30 & 18 miles from the destination, we encountered the first major traffic stoppage due flooding of the highway. (There was a deluge last night and it rained all afternoon.) This took ½ hour. Then minutes later, the “Grand Taco” of 3 ½ hours due to “obras” (works) on the main highway. Everyone, mostly truckers, was just resigned to it. It took 4 ½ hours to travel the last 18 miles. We dined at the hotel. It was fine.

We are not caring much for the rainy season itself, nor its effects on the infrastructure here. The insect situation and humidity make the outdoors very challenging. The beaches are nice, but we are not into hanging around on this Adventure. The car was not going to like the often muddy unpaved roads in the Guyanas. We are looking at the total signs: Stranding in Sao due to valet damage to the roof of the car, the stranding in Rio due to the failure of the fuel pump, a 4 ½ hour taco, being rained out of golf on Thursday, and the prospect of 14 rainy days out of the next 15, bad roads & bugs, bugs, bugs. In sum, we have decided to conclude the trip in Salvador, Bahia, where there is a large port and weekly container service to the US.