A james bond exit

It was the day before Jus left and we were heading to Salvador for our last night.

I thought it would be good to end with a bit of drama, and a zip slide off a cliff seemed just the trick...

With 30 minutes before our boat I climbed the hill, strapped in, ran and jumped off a cliff - flying through the air and into the sea... fun... and getting me in the mood for hang gliding in rio!

horses and material assets

Don´t know if it is just me, but the thought of riding a horse doesn´t exactly inspire confidence in my future child producing department. On this occasion the elegant thought of galloping along the beach with the sun in my face took precedence.

Alex is an Argentinian who came to Morro de Sau Paulo 9 years ago and never went back. Having married a Bahian, who happened to live in Argentina for 15 years, he bought a wooden house tucked in jungle on the quieter side of the island and takes out visitors for tours of the island.

The first i knew of him was a question on the main strip of sand that they call the morro high st. ´Do you like to ride´, i shaked my head, but said that the lady next to me was probably a better bet for his sales pitch. And now looking out over the whole of the island and bay in the bleached out sunshine it felt all worth it.

We decended down sandy tracks that I´d find it tough to get a mountain bike down, rode along the beach and stopped for a beer at the supermarket. Then in the vein of my fantasy we galloped across the island and amazingly I didn´t turn into a unach...

And relax...

Had trouble keeping up with this blog up to this point of the holiday, but then we just took a well deserved chill.

Morro is just the place for it too. Some say its got too developed, but we reckoned it did exactly what it said on the tin. A fun place to enjoy the sea the 4 beaches, the nightime drinking and beach parties.

We checked into a bungalow in the grounds of the oldest building on the island and swam, ate superb food and drank from the countless fruit cocktail stalls.

In fact think I need to paint a picture for you. Its night, we´re on the beach, the music fills the air, and we´re surrounded by 31 stalls with huge displays of the widest variety of fruit you´ve ever seen. You head up to one, you point to some stuff and 2 minutes later you´ve got in your hand a cocktail from the gods... except if you pick a weird fruit by mistake!

A bus, a motel and two planes

We jumped on the bus late to get back to rio, arriving at the bus terminal at midnight.

We had decided to try out a motel in brazil, (to save the details - do a google search on motels in Brazil and you´ll get where i´m coming from...) Just let it be said.. a little seedy, but funny to boot.

Early the next morning we got a cab to the airport and after a bit of waiting flew off to salvador in the north.

Our destination was Morro De Sau Paulo at the tip of an island 100ks from Salvador. Originally set up as a fortification post to defend Portuguese interests Morro is now a haven for partying in the sun, by the sea.

We decided to arrive in true jet style with a air taxi, which cut the journey time for 3 hours to 20 minutes. After paying a quite reasonable fare we realised that it was just the two of us... a private charter none the less!

Sitting in the front seat grinning like a cheshire cat, the engine spluttered to the life and the smell reminded me of sitting in my old Triumph Spitfire. The captain was decked out in all the right gab even if his plane was a little behind the times. He kicked up the throttle and we picked up speed and skitted off the runway. It was totally exilerating... I´ve been desperate for some time to get the view out of the front of a plane... in fact I think i´m might be growing up into someone who will want to learn to fly... and here i was flight controls before me. I felt like being a kid in a sweet shop.

20 minutes later and the island appeared below us as we approached a dusty small stretch of runway which ended in the sea. If the take off was exciting, the landing was a joy, as your palms got sweaty with the idea that youy could go bouncing off into the sea, but no - 10 points to the pilot for his landing skills. We taxied up, opened the door to let a breeze into the airless cabin and stepped out to a cattle shed for a terminal...