Brazil - Trancoso

Trancoso was a last minute overnight stop after our flights were rearranged (yes, more flight changes!)
We flew into Porto Seguro in Bahia, around halfway between Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, heading for some much need relaxation and beach time!

On landing in Porto Seguro we took a very expensive (for the distance) cab ride down to the ferry dock in order to cross the river to Arraial d'Ajuda. From there we hopped aboard one of the minibuses heading to Trancoso which takes around an hour. The minibus driver very kindly phoned around to find out where our accommodation (Trancoso Tenis) was and then proceeded to drop us at the front door. I love Brazilians! Some of the friendliest and most helpful people you will meet.

We had splashed out on accommodation here having come from our room with no windows in Salvador and it being Valentines Day  and were happy to be shown to our extremely comfortable room with amazing big double bed and gorgeous private bathroom.

We wondered down to the beach and spent the afternoon relaxing on a beautiful white beach with turquoise water and waves! En route back we started investigating the bus to Caraiva the following day. We started to wonder if it actually existed after the tourist office wasn't sure if it was actually running. We decided to leave that problem for the next day.

Trancoso is beautiful at night. There is a grassy green square (more like a field) with a tiny white chapel at the top of the cliff before the beach. There are little restaurants scattered all around the field with open air seating arranged under the big trees which all have different colour lights hanging from them. Very pretty and very romantic.

We had a wonderful meal under one of the trees, only interrupted by the restaurant dog, a pug, which was not scared to come looking for food. You could hear her from a mile off sniffing away.

The next morning we continued our hunt for the bus to Caraiva, getting a different story from everyone. We were eventually directed to the shopping square where there was a shop/cafe called Philadelphia and there would be a timetable in the window, and you could get the bus from there. Off we set, reaching the square only to not find the cafe. A bit of asking around and we were directed to the cafe with no name, where there was no timetable visible. Again we asked about the bus to Caraiva. We were sent to the checkout man, who is apparently the walking talking human timetable and the only person in Trancoso who know the bus times to Caraiva. Luckily three a day were still running and we could make the midday one. (This was just post Carnaval and the end of the high season where bus service drops to one trip a day.)

After lazing around the pool for an hour we were back at the 'no name no timetable displayed' cafe Philadelphia to catch our midday bus. It arrived 45mins late but we were just so excited that the bus actually existed and we were finally on our way to Caraiva.