Struggles as a traveler

It is very difficult in Brazil not knowing any Portugese. Mike & I have never been in a situation where we couldnt find someone who knew a few words in English. they do not know any english here and we do not speak portugese.

I have learned a few token words: water, hotel, bus, beach, how much (but i really only know numbers under 10), beer, please, & thank you. i never understand any of the other words flying out of peoples mouthes. this is a huge problem and something we are working on learning better. mike has a pharse book and we both are constantally listening to everything around us with no comprehension, but at least trying. mike is faster to understand portugese. i hope that my HS spanish classes will not fail me when we leave brazil in 2 weeks. i hope i will become a wonder that speaks spanish fluently in no time at all....


traveling on the buses has been adventersome at this point. We wanted to leave Lençois to travel to porto seugro and read in lonley planet we'd have to switch buses along the way. we struggled buying the ticket from Lençois as the guy wanted to make us go back to Salvador, which we didnt want to do. Then we arrived in who knows where (but where the guy back in Lençois told us to get off) and tried to buy our ticket to Peurto Seguro. Only one of the bus companies would sell us anything and it was to another town but not all the way to PS. We thought that the bus layover was only an 1 and half hours but it turns out it was 4. we then boarded the next bus to who knows where and arrived after 4 am. When we got there, we were able to buy a ticket to PS our final destination. 22 hours after we stared, we arrived where we wanted to a sunny day. booking our ticket from here to Rio was easy, we have a ticket that takes us all the way there. perhaps on the same bus, perhaps not. we will have to wait and see what happens. i am paitent on these loooong bus rides and enjoy the tropical and beautiful scenery.

Porto Seguro (where I am right this minute but leaving soon) is another pretty beachy town. The beaches here are not as nice as Salvador, but still fantastic. We have enjoyed ourselves. This time we stayed in a guesthouse as the hostel was really expensive and not nice looking. I think its pronounced like Liz but spelled Lis. Its clean, quiets and for about $13 USD we get AC, a private room, a TV (with only portugese shows but hey we saw madonna, obama, and britney flash on the screen), and a breakfast buffet. The breakfast buffet is decent and so far they have always had fresh tropical fruits.

This internet cafe sucks, its high speed but the gal at the desk made it clear that we are not allowd to plug in USB cords and upload pictures. :-( i hope to do so in Rio.