Ipojuca

We wake early again as we have to pack, and through the night i have been eaten alive by mosquitos, my back my arm even my fingers and toes. We grab breakfast and our alternitivo (kind of illegitamate taxi) arrives right on time. We gave to go back to joao pessoa to get another alternitivo from there to Recife. We arrive in Joao Pessoa and the guy pulls up some side street ushering us to "his brother" who stands us in a line with numerous other people all waiting to go to various places. We wait for approx 15 minutes before asking when we will be leaving. There are 5 people now waiting to go to Recife and this obviously causes a problem as only 4 can go in the car, its decided that they will take us seperately so we are ushered to our drivers car. As we are loading the bags in there is a guy next to us randomly chopping up chickens and we all comment how we wouldnt want to eat them . The next part of the journey runs pretty smoothly and we arrive in Recife bus station only to find that there is no direct bus for us and Ursinas bus doesnt leave till 4. After a lot of confusion i buy our ticket for the first bus and eventually find where we need to leave from. We say goodbye to Ursina and as we step onto the platform we are greeted by a lovely lady who sees that i am a little lost she speaks with me and asks if im American i explain were from England and she says she speaks a small amount, but she literally speaks as much English as Mark speaks Portuguese we board the bus and after an hour we get off on the side of a motorway. Luckily there is a shelter so we sit inside and wait for our connection which is an hour and a half later. The guy inside plays a video on his phone of NFL and when i say were English he plays a video of Freddy Mercury . He asks which city and i say Liverpool and he plays a video of Liverpool football club followed by the national anthem its comical. A big guy pulls up with a bike and a polystyrene cool box attached to the front selling fresh juice and sandwiches. I purchase a juice and shortly after our bus arrives. We manage to put our rucksacks underneath and when we board the bus there is no seating space so we stand for the whole journey in a fist clench position holding on for dear life. The journey takes an hour and a half and i am so glad when we arrive. We jump of the bus and Lthough the hostel is only ten minutes we jump a cab. When we arrive there are a group of people sat outside as this is the only place we can smoke we dump our bags and head outside. Thet are from Argentina and Brazil , and so friendly Alexandro speaks perfect English and Bruna also speaks really well, but i am keen to improve my Spanish/Portugese. After sharing a few beers we head into town for a bite to eat and end up eating tapioca. I havent tryed it since being back in Brasil but its a really common dish her, it brings back memories of when i was a kid and served frogsborne in a bowl (sorry mum) . Its really good, cheap and filling. We then head down to the street and there are all stalls here selling artisan products with a small fayre going on. They also have different booths where you can dress up and take photos. We make our way down to the beach and sit in one of the bars drinking a few Caipirinhas with the rest of the group and make the short walk back. I end up getting locked up for the night !!!Read more