Itacare

    Back to the mainland and a reggae vibe town called Itacare. There is one main street lined with hostels and restaurants, that no matter what time of day or night, is lined with people. A short walk to three main beaches is the call during the heat of the day. The second beach was my favorite with a skateboard bowl looking over the beach. Rasta's set up slack lines between the palm tree's and practice all day long. Once again, I could show up with a little pocket change and rent a chair and some shade and have fresh cold coconuts and food delivered as I enjoyed the tropical good life. A fresh water stream has been diverted to make a shower to wash the salt water off before the walk back to town. It's hard to be unhappy in a place like this.
    Toby is nearing the end of his trip, then I will have a little over a week to travel solo before Paul arrives for the rest of my journey. Tobes and I meet a group of Brazilian's from Victoria out on the town one night and they tell us about a secluded beach not far from the popular beaches. We get some directions that we will just have to hike through the jungle for 20 minutes to one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil. Toby is anxious to go, so I tell him I'll meet him there. I start my walk into the jungle and realize that I might get lost because there are a bunch of different trails without any signs. I have to trust my intuition. Only one wrong turn and a coconut water bought from a guy in the middle of the jungle later and I arrive at Prinha, truly the most beautiful beach I have ever visited. Palm tree's line the white sand beach which has rocky cliffs on either side. There are fewer people because it is not an easy walk and is kind of hard to find, so bodysurfing is much more enjoyable without tons of people and surfer's to watch out for. 
    The nightlife is the same every night. Two bars: Jungle Bar and Favela host both DJ's and live music. Jungle Bar had a couple good reggae and Folha (a type of popular Brazilian music) bands, while Favela mostly had DJ's playing a variety of music from reggae, RnB, Hip-Hop and Electronica. A local friend helped arrange a set for me, I spent the whole day trying to burn CD's for my set. I finally got a couple of CD's to burn and was pumped for a chance to DJ in Brazil. I show up early to check out the gear I am going to use and am excited to see CDJ's (a kind of universal DJ set up). I get help from the local DJ to set up the gear and I am live. I have a bunch of friends in the crowd and I am nervous like one of the first time's I got to DJ back home. It is going great and people are feeling the music and then it completely shuts off. There is nothing worse then having the music completely die and even though it wasn't my fault, I am embarrassed and bummed that people aren't happy. I get the beats going again and this happens twice more until I figure out that the connection for one of the CDJ's is fickle and there is nothing I can do about it. Out of frustration, I track down the local DJ and have him take over. He apologizes for the faulty gear and tells me we should try again tomorrow because he liked my tracks, I kindly deny his offer. All my friends tell me I did great (lies), and I tell them that I wish I had my gear so I could play a seamless set.
    It's time to say bye to Tobes, who takes back some extra gear of mine which helps to lighten my load. It's nice to be traveling solo again. I make my own schedule and eat where and whenever I want. If I want to hang out with people, there are plenty of cool peeps around the hostel or around town that I can adventure out with. I meet a cool crew from Canada that was about to start a yoga retreat for a month long teacher training course. This inspired me to get back on my stretching, push-up and sit-up program. I had a bunch of good meals with the Canadian crew, especially at this Vegetarian Arabian food restaurant that served up a much needed feast of veggies and hummus.
    The local scene in Itacare reminded me of Santa Cruz. There is a big surfer, musician and Capoeira scene. The best of the bunch are like rock-stars in town, showing up with an entourage calling the shots on which of the two bars is the happening place for the night. The Capoeira guys are all ripped and a couple of them seem to be quite crazy or on drugs or a combination of the two. I witnessed one guy dancing the whole night aggressively, sipping from a foul looking green concoction, and convulsing like he was having a seizure to the beat of the music. I watched this guy running around and dancing for the 5 hours that I was out that night. When I showed up to the beach the next day, there he was, dancing to the sounds of the ocean. I wish I had that much energy, then again, maybe I don't.