Salvador

Despite the fact that we were promised internet when we got to Salvador, the connection was an unsecured one left open by one of the neighbours. It was just about enough to change my status on facebook, but little more. Shame really, because I could have had some mega rants whilst I was there.

The house wasn't bad (despite the lack of any hot water) and it was nice to have a pool (zoom right in and find the pool just about the marker - that's us!).

We managed to visit a couple of beaches, and once we'd finally dragged him to the beach, TB loved it.

The wedding was a monstrosity, and the bride somewhat resembled a beached whale. No-one bothered to tell either her or her mother that they shouldn't bend over in their dresses!

As we're making a habit of it, we didn't make the start of the wedding. Yuri, Y and I went off to get Yuri a suit. Although many people knew that we needed to get the suit, they didn't feel the need to provide us with a car to go shopping until the day of the wedding. Then, despite being ready to leave by 10:30, the people driving the two different cars fart-arsed around all day only bringing them back after 3:30. The wedding was due to start at 5, we needed to get the suit, go to the salon for hair (and nails and make up in my case) and get back to the wedding. It was a good half hour's drive to the mall, and although the salon was nearby, none of us actually knew where it was (in true Brasilian fashion). Yuri managed to buy a suit in record time, although the only one they had in his size was striped, necessitating a new shirt. We managed to find him an amazing bright orange one which looked fabulous on him and were soon on our way.

We eventually found the salon where I received a manicure and pedicure that I could've done better at home, had my hair scraped back and fiddled with and my make up done. It was safe to say, when the make up was done, that I bore an extremely strong resemblance to a drag queen. Take one blond, fair-skinned person, add one Brasilian middle aged woman and you get a blond, fair-skinned person covered in foundation at least five shades too dark and black eyes that even a panda couldn't pull off. So that face was removed and I did it myself at home.

Although the wedding had been moved to six, we rushed home, amazed to find that it still hadn't started (and it was well past six by then). The three of us rushed around like headless chickens getting ready, only to hear the start of the ceremony from the house. If they'd have waited five more minutes, we could've been there too.

Not that it mattered for me. A combination of the foul hairspray that covered my hair and the smell of cooking from out back sent my stomach turning, and by 10 I'd given up and gone to bed. It took another three days for me to be fully right and it wasn't just me. Yuri wasn't entirely right, nor his dad or N. We blame it on the place we'd eaten the night before.

After the wedding we went here:

The three nights we spent there were in an extremely small three bedroomed flat, where the water only functioned intermittently. It may not have been too bad if there were only a few of us there, but at it's most crowded, the flat housed 21 of us. On the last night, when four more people arrived, some of us went off to the pousada across the road. It wasn't pleasant, but at least it had space. In contrast to the crowded, dirty beaches of Lauro de Freitas and Salvador, Itaparica was gorgeous (even if the inland didn't have a great deal to offer). We were walking distance to the beach (although TB would've had you fooled) and had a great time there. The only downside was the hideous sunburn we all got. I felt slightly better seeing that some of the Brasilians got burned too!