Porto Segura and Lencois

Porto Segura was the first place the Portuguese landed before they went on to colonise Brazil. The original buildings have been preserved and are now a living museum. It was the first place I came across the Brazilian tradition of tying ribbons onto railings usually near a church. The ribbons have religious significance. The ribbons you tie onto railings are to pray for your family and ancestors and then you tie a ribbon onto your wrist. You have to tie it with 3 knots and when the ribbon eventually falls off, your prayers will be answered.
Porto Segura was also the first place I came across capoeira. This is a martial art which disguises itself as a dance and acrobatics. It originated with the African slaves who incorporated dance and musical instruments to hide what they were doing. It is so impressive to watch with lots of high kicks and throwing yourself through the air.

Moving from Porto Segura on the coast, we went inland to the gorgeous town of Lencois. As we arrived, a festival was just beginning. This festival was due to last 5 days – after much conversation with the locals we worked out it had something to do with certain saints walking down to the river? Most locals knew less than we did. The participants all wore white and marched from the church waving brooms in the air. This could have had something to do with brushing away your past sins. The main stay of the festivities appeared to be a brass band which would appear in the tiny cobbled streets – the restaurants had to all pick up their chairs from the middle of the road, then when the band had marched past you could return your chair and table to its previous position. Fireworks were also let off frequently – most noisily at 5am. The third morning we were there, we were not awoken by the 5am fireworks – they must have run out – but by the incredibly loud speakers which were positioned outside the camp site and were blaring out music!

Despite the lack of sleep, I really enjoyed my time here. We spent a full day exploring the stunning countryside. We scrambled over rocks to get to waterfalls. I climbed one of the flat top mountains that are indicative to the region – the view from the top was breath taking. It was the cave system though that was staggering. It was called the smoking cave because the difference in temperature with the air in the cave compared to the air outside causes the smoking effect. It was a steep climb down but the stalactites and stalagmite formations made it worth it.