Porto Seguro: 20th - 23rd February 2026
20th February – Friday
I am exhausted and my back is beginning to ache from 8 hours on the bus. The chairs reclined which was nice but there was no lumbar support unless they were upright, which is why my back is feeling it. I am so glad I kept my red blanket as it has come in handy for every bus journey, not to mention using it as a proper blanket at night – so cosy.
The journey was beautiful, the first part was spent following the coast line, I was sitting the wrong side, so I hoped into an empty chair and enjoyed the stunning rugged views. We stopped briefly in lheus, which is where I had contemplated staying, but decided it was too close to Itacare. It was a bit naughty of me but I took a photo of a white guy with dreadlocks, he was filthy, his bare feet were black and he was carrying a carpet – FFS – the look on the locals faces as they passed him, he was a right mess, so disrespectful, and the type of person that gives travellers such a bad name / reputation. I hope he was on his way back to his country, wherever that may be. Shortly after Ilheus we turned inland and upward and yet again that did not disappoint. We went through some very ‘scenic’ towns and villages, but I did as one does on these long bus rides and fell asleep. I woke just as we pulled into a buffet restaurant for food, I ate a good meal and downed a beer before we headed off again. The sunset in the mountains was beautiful and I managed to get a couple of nice photos.
Talking of beautiful, my Uber driver was a dish and a half and he had reasonable English as well. LoL. I could have stayed in the back of his car all night, but after some hunting and asking around we managed to find my accommodation and departed company. Uhm, this apartment is not really an apartment, it is a room in some ones apartment with a shared kitchen. And the bed is awful, it is a sofa bed with a gap running down the middle, I am a little concerned about how I will sleep tonight. If it is too uncomfortable I will move to the single bed, which is the other side of the room, tomorrow night. However, saying all of that, the family are absolutely lovely and the location couldn’t be better. I am literally less than a minutes walk from the beach, bars and restaurants, but it is a residential street so there is no nightclub opposite. And I only paid £62 for 4 nights, so no complaints really.
21st February – Saturday
I checked this morning, it is not clear but this place is actually advertised as a homestay, which explains almost everything, except the sofa bed and hairdressers chair in the corner of the room. I didn’t sleep any better or worse than I normally do and it is only for another 3 nights – I know I can manage.
This afternoon I took a long walk, via a beer and breakfast stop, to the historical centre. The coast line is lovely here, with a breaker not that far out creating a distinct dark green and turquoise difference in the sea colour, and the colour of the sky and clouds is so picturesque. I feel like I have died and gone to heaven just looking at it. I did some research as to why the clouds are so different here to the UK, and it is all to do with latitude which drives the variation in heating, humidity and atmospheric height. The troposphere, which is where the clouds form, is about 13 miles thick here in Latin America (the equator) but only 5 miles thick at the poles, which is the UK zone. There are also others reasons why the clouds are so different, but it’s all a lot of science that I cannot be bothered to write about.
The walk to the historic centre was up a whole heap of stairs, I got quite concerned about my knees but the actual steps were shallow so the pressure on them was not excessive and I made it to the top pain free. Unlike most historic centres that I have visited this was really quite small and more like a museum than a live centre. It is actually where the Portuguese explorers first landed in 1500 and so marks the birthplace of Brazil. However, this is ‘white man’s’ history. Brazil existed long before the Portuguese discovered it, just like the rest of Latin America. A country and people do not suddenly come into existence just because western white people have ‘discovered’ it. Anyway the historic centre features many very beautiful and colourful 16th and 17th century colonial buildings, a light house and a church and has stunning views of the beach and coastline. It was lovely to walk around, I even bought a rather expensive beer and sat and contemplated life for a while. Karma was with me when I bought the beer. The lady didn’t have change and while she went looking for it the wind blew all of her dressed mannequins onto the floor – I smiled on the inside.
After my afternoon excursion I came back and had a cat nap. I have now just returned from another little exploration, this time of the night market. It is very long and goes down to where I had my breakfast and beer this morning. What can I say, it has a lot of stalls selling touristy stuff, lots of hippy style dresses and swim wear, as well as several food and alcoholic beverages stalls. It is quite different in that the food and beverages bars have rows of chairs extending from them and people sit in these rows drinking and eating. I was not tempted but if I had company then I may well had been. I found a little shop that does really nice hand made leather sandals, the ones I liked were only £8, I’ll go back tomorrow and buy them, I did buy a very cheap beach bag, £3, for my blanket as the bag I was using has now disintegrate and I had to tie the handles together to use it last time. I also bought an acaraje, which I first had in the Amazon and didn’t like very much. This one was much nicer, the pastes were a lot more firmer and the prawns not so salty. And that was about it really. Not being a shopping type of person I did not hang around long, but it was a nice exploration and some of the stalls sold some lovely hand made bits and bobs.
Now to try to get some sleep on this rickety sofa bed – wish me luck.
22nd February – Sunday
Snorkelling today was awesome. I booked and paid the deposit last night directly with the operator rather than a tour site as it was far cheaper. I got to Pier Municipal de Porto Seguro nice and early and was really surprised to see so many people, but then thinking about it, it is Sunday and Latin American’s love their weekend activities. I collected my tickets from Luis who, as I had been informed, was waiting at his car collecting payments. I then collected my equipment; some crocs and snorkelling gear, and went and sat with everyone. Nearly everyone had been given a wrist band so I decided that they were on a different trip to me. How wrong was I. As most people started boarding I ask an official looking guy if I should board too. He kept asking if a I had a wrist band and I just kept waving my plastic ticket at him. LoL. He ran off and came back with a wrist band for me and ushered me onto the ship with all the others. There were actually so many of us they used two ships and I was one of the last to get on the first, everyone behind me had to climb across the first to get into the second, which was not as packed and looked nicer – but then the grass is always greener on the other side.
I sat next to a black lady and her daughter and they were so lovely and adopted me. It’s a language thing, it really does help if you can find some natives to take you under their wing and direct you. They didn’t have much English but that is never a problem. The journey out to Parque Marinho do Recife de Fora took about 40 minutes, if that. It was a lovely, very smooth and beautiful. The waters around Marinho do Recife were shallow and a deep turquoise blue, so stunning, just like in the movies.
Some people jumped from the boat into the water but my new family and I waited for one of the dingy boats and we were rowed to a sand bank in style. Here we were given 3 talks about the marine life and conservation projects that are in progress, we were also given safety talks, but I understood absolutely non of it. Eventually we were let free to stumble across the rocks in shallow waters to the permitting snorkelling zone.
OMG, I am so glad I remembered to bring my contact lens’. It was so beautiful, to think all the times I have been diving or tried to do this and not seen much. I could see everything, stunning blue fish, sandy coloured fish, some with a black dot and others with pale yellow stripes. At one point out of the corner of my eye I saw a group of 5 needle fish, with long bright blue spiky noses, swim past. It was just so incredible. There were shawls of starry toad fish and hundreds of five banded damsel fish. It was so much more nicer than the snorkelling in Cancún as the water was clearer and everyone was more spread out. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see a turtle, which was the highlight of Cancún.
At one point I went and to have a video made with my handsome guide, when I found him I was
suddenly surrounded by fish, mainly the damsel ones and they kept pecking at my stomach, which was very tickly but also quite nice. We were swamped with fish as we made the video and I couldn’t work out why the fish were so attracted to him. So when we had finished I asked him, he pulled out a bag of fish food from up his sleeve – lol.
As you can image the day left me feeling starving so in the evening I went out for dinner and due to the rain settled on a pizza parlour. The lady next to me, her pizza looked so delicious that I ordered the same, a Portuguesa, with egg, olives, peas, onions, meat and some other bits and bobs, so delicious and I have a couple of slices left for breakfast. Due to the rain I didn’t go looking for my sandals, instead I returned to my room where I am now, drinking beer and re-watching the 2 two videos of me snorkelling. What a wonderful day.
23rd February – Monday
I didn’t do much today. Last night I decided to get the ferry to Arraial D’Ajuda but at the last minute changed my mind. It is actually a really long way to the cliffs, admittedly along the beach, but I just couldn’t be bothered. Instead I went the other way into town and sat at a bar overlooking the sea drinking beer and had a humongous portion of chips.
This evening I went out and walked the main parade, but first in the opposite direction than I went before. There are lots of restaurants this end and I sat outside one and had even more beer. After that I took a stroll along the parade and was delighted to see the store with the leather sandals opens and I am delighted with my new purchase.
Other than booking my accommodation in Arraial do Cabo, that was my day. Nice and simple and in many ways very productive. All I have to do now is stay awake so that I do not miss my 3:30am flight. I have an Uber booked for 12:15 am and my alarm set for 11 pm. I did have a good 2 hour hour cat nap this afternoon, so hopefully that will keep me going.