Sunday, 9 September 2012

Waterfalls, Beautiful Beaches and horrible Jungle treks



So while on this Paradise Island we thought we would get involved. Check out the nice beaches, trek one hour to a waterfall and relax. Well, let us tell you that we have not relaxed since getting here…..bar today

Friday
The morning started off a rocky one. As we had no cash and the island doesn't have a cash point Andrew headed off to the main land. After 2 hours he came back needing a stiff drink. When he arrived on the main land there was some sort of political voting parade. He had to jump over a railway line, zig zaged through a parade just to cross the road. When arriving at the cash point he had to try 3 different ones as for some reason the cards didn't work. Panic set in as he didnt have enough cash to get back to the island. When he finally got cash and headed back to the boat and back to the island.

At about 12 we overheard our German roomy Thomas say that the waterfall was nice, you can get there yourself and that it’s only an hours trek with some steep hills!!! WELL this was not the case. We set off at 12:20 and headed into the jungle alone. There was a path to follow and signs to show what direction to go. Along the way we were passed by other walkers so we knew we weren’t alone and on the right track. About an hour in we came across a pool. So we stopped for a few minutes thinking we had reached our destination. But this was not it!!! We then carried on walking for another hour and a half along little narrow jungle pathways which were steeper than we had ever seen in our lives. We were pretty much dying with exhaustion, lack of oxygen to the brain and our clothing was soaked with sweat! We had 2 small bottles of water that we tried to maintain for as long as possible and we didn’t want to stop because it would only be worse. Pretty much the whole trek was up and down so even coming back we knew would be the same struggle. We finally arrived at the waterfall at 2:50pm sat on the rocks, stuffed our face with a bag of crisps (ate these like savages) and drunk some water. Took a few photos and then had to head back. This was so we were back before it got dark. So at 3pm we headed off again. Our legs where tired, Louise had a headache, a sore Achilles on her left foot and a bad knee on her right and would not stop moaning. Andrew had bad toes which where hurting him in his trainers. All in all we felt like we couldn’t go on… But we did and at 5:10pm we finally made it back to the main beach where we started. We stopped off for an ice cream as we felt we had deserved it. We got back to our hostel at about 5:30pm. Louise went for a little knap at 6pm…she woke up at 9am the next day. Andrew had to go out and find his own food; he ate a sausage on a stick and a hot dog. He then had a wander and went to bed.

Saturday Morning
So after breakfast this morning we went down to the pier to buy our tickets to the beach Lopes Mendes. This beach is on the same island but if you wanted to walk here it is another 3 hour trek, so we thought we would pay to get the boat. After a 45 minute boat journey we got off the boat to a beach that didn’t look that spectacular. We were told that this is not the beach and you have to trek 20 minutes through the jungle to get there! Well as you can imagine Andrew laughed and Louise could of nearly cried. Especially because we had to walk through in our flip flops. The hills here were bad but not as bad as the others. After 20 minutes we finally arrived and it was a dream.  The sand was white and so soft that when you walked on it, it crunched just like snow does when you first walk on it. The sea was a tropical blue and the waves where quite high. We spent 4 hours of bliss on what looked like a completely different island. We hired a body board for an hour too which was great fun, we were pro’s at trying to catch a wave J
At 4.30pm we headed back. Got dressed and went to the hostel kitchen. We made a tomato pasta sauce with onions, green peppers, garlic and frankfurter. We had this with pasta and parmesan cheese. It was bloody lovely. After dinner we sat at the bar with our roomies. Had a few beers and then headed down to the beach where there was a bonfire and a ring of people singing which could easily have been cum ba ya in Portuguese. We spent about 10 minutes there and called it a night at 2am.

Sunday
This morning we didn’t do much. We decided we didn’t want any trekking so we decided to stay at the beach and relax.

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