Morro de Sao Paulo

Uma ilha de paraiso!

This weekend I spent 4 days in Morro de Sao Paulo with a bunch of kids from my program. Morro is a island off the coast of Salvador and is absolutely beautiful. At times the white sands and palm trees made me feel like I was on the set of Pirates of the Carribean. Other times (more inland) it felt like rural northern Nicaragua due to the lush green tropical landscape, rolling hills, muddy streets, and small houses.

Morro is a small island designed for vacationers (mostly other Brazilians, Argentinians and Israelis--there was more hebrew writing there than I have seen outside of Israel). Since it has just turned spring here (low season), the island was very tranquilo and not bustling (I can imagine that in the summer it would feel very touristy). There are no cars and the streets are all sand. Everything is done on foot or via wheel barrows. Everywhere artisans sell their wares--beautiful jewelery, hand crafted mobiles, art, dresses, or homemade cakes.

The main attraction to Morro is the beaches which are exquisite. Unfortunately Thursday and Friday were rainy (so far all rain that has fallen in Brazil has only lasted for about an hour. However, this rainy drizzle lasted two days!). So we did a lot of exploring of the island or relaxing in hammocks under roofs. On Thursday night they had this great festa on the beach. They played music (everything from samba, forro, techno, hip hop, michael jackson, etc) and we all danced in the rain. On Saturday I took a boat tour that stopped at a bunch of different locations on the island. We saw dolphins playing in the water (the dolphins are super cute and only about 2-3 feet long). We also went to this amazing mud place. From afar it looked like a cliff of purple and yellow rock, but the rock was softer than clay and we lathered ourselves in the mud (which looked kinda like orange/strawberry sherbet or chocolate milkshake). It definitely brought out the little kid in you as you got to climb through mud, jump into it from higher up, lather it everywhere and throw it at each other. Then you would let it dry and rinse it off. It made your skin feel phenomenally soft.

I am finding it very difficult to put to words the feeling of the island (which ran on island time--meaning there were absolutely no clocks and you were NEVER in a rush...sometimes things went very slowly). Anyways I took a lot of GREAT pictures

These are the ruins from the fort. From here I looked out and could almost see the Black Pearl approaching...

This is me and my friend Daryn at the ruins. (When the sun finally came out on Sunday it was scorching hot).
Here is sunset on Saturday. Saturday was mostly cloudy but occasionally the sun poked its golden rays through illuminating everything with a warm glow. We stayed basically right on the beach.

Friday morning we took a long walk down the coast and then cut inland across the island. This wet greenery and sandy streets brought me right back to Nicaragua. I felt like I was revisiting a long lost home...
Here is the mud. I have other pictures to do the color of the rock more justice, but it is still hard to capture the vibrancy on camera. We climbed up to this sort of vat/pool of mud nestled into this cliff face. You had to crawl up because if you tried to walk you would sink too deep.
Here are Daisy, Jessica, Arilene, and Ysenina with the mostly dry mud all over their bodies.