It was wet and overcast as we alighted the bus after another chilly overnight bus... We got high-jacked by touts and followed one in a daze and got set up in a hostel before we set off to find Olivia, the girl from Somerset that had made Lencois home for the best part of 15 years. She ran a hostel, Pousada Dos Duendes (House of Pixies) and quite rightly asked why we weren't staying there but after some nifty side stepping around the issue of wanting to stay in a cheaper establishment, we went for breakfast.

She really is quite a character, inviting us to her house for breakfast as we 'caught up' in a fashion far more becoming of old friends rather than new acquaintances once again. We went to a local school to eat dinner, the funds going towards helping the kids and then we set off to walk her dogs to a nearby rock formation, like a huge lava flow of kaleidoscopic water had frozen in place, where water then ran over it, in and out of black pools.

And Olivia, the original little Pixie, got into her swimming gear and jumped in. Now, I have jumped off the highest bungee platform in the world, done skydives and a whole manner of other stupid/intrepid things, but jumping into a black pool of water, 5ft deep, takes a mental leap that found me floundering for a while.

It was only when Olivia said I could slide into it that my male ego was pricked and I said, 'to hell with my dodgy ankles' and jumped in! As soon as I hit the bottom, I came up floundering but I soon got accustomed to the jet black water and enjoyed it immensely.

Lencois is a cute little town, again with the omnipresent cobblestones and we went out and had drinks and some dinner with some backpackers, a new experience really for us because with the exception of the two Richards, we hadn't met any new people in this corner of Brazil.

Next day, we got up early, had breakfast in the Pousada and were watching the morning TV when I think I witnessed the worst thing I have ever seen on the box. A police officer was trying to direct cars away from and around two wild horses that had got on to a major city highway when one car didn't take notice and ploughed into the horse, sending it up into the air contorted beyond recognition as the car, windscreen smashed in, careened across the highway and crashed into a pole.

Then it went back to the studio where the news presenter then said with an almost sympathetic smile, "and the 24 yr old driver died of his injuries." WHAT? Had I just dreamt this... We had just seen, over breakfast, the death of a young man, not to mention the excruciatingly painful end of a horse... Wait a minute, why was this being filmed in the first place? I looked around for sympathy in this moment of anguish but the rest of the table had gone back to cramming their faces with pancakes. I took an extra helping of coffee to calm the nerves and set off.

We were up early to take a trek to some waterfalls, caves and some lagoons but our first stop brought us to a secluded swimming area, jet black water again with a 80m swim to a fast flowing cascade. I dove into the water, eyes open by a primal fear of not knowing what I was diving and emerged... blind!

Both of my brand new contacts had washed away in the first dive. I blinked furiously in a forlorn attempt to find that they had merely got lost behind my eyelids but alas no, they were both gone. My strokes towards the waterfall were fuelled with disappointment as much as frustration because I knew that I was coming to one of the most beautiful spots in Brazil with limited vision.

It was pretty cool under the waterfall in terms of temperature and experience and then we went back and continued on. We took a tour of a famous cave, more like a massive cavern that I could imagine would have been any Underground DJ's fantasy venue. The stalactites/mites were incredibly impressive, almost as impressive as the guides attempts to attribute shapes and names to them.

The natural wonders kept coming, blue lagoons, silver lakes, hallucinatory plants (one massive inhalation cleared up my blocked sinuses but also made my head spin in equal measure) and finally we climbed a mountain and looked over the countryside as the sun set in the distance, casting orange light over the other mountains. It had been a beautiful day, one which would stretch the vocabulary of one far more talented than I.

The next day promised more tours to waterfalls but G not so subtlely suggested that we head back to the sun before we take a flight down to Salvador. We took a series of buses and eventually ended up in Praia de Forte, a seaside resort area which seemed to be exclusively sponsored by VISA.

It was incredible, all of the shops' signs had been hewn from wood but all of them had VISA on them. Directions had VISA on them. Store fronts advertised that VISA, needless to say, was accepted there. And you would need it because everything was impressively expensive.

This was highlighted on the bus there, when a passenger complained to the ticket seller on board that he needed his change immediately (he had given a large note and the conductor needed to get more change). I suspect that he thought the conductor would forget to give him his money and he said (G translated for me) that he needed the money now in case armed robbers boarded the bus and he didn't have anything to give them! Yes, everything here, even your civic duty to provide to the criminal element of society, revolved around having money. I wondered if the thieves would accept VISA too....

I got an uncomfortable feeling about the place, not accustomed to such blatant displays of wealth, not since I had been in Cancun, Mexico. We went to an impressive turtle sanctuary, which had sharks, groupers, moray eels, sting rays aswell as a variety of turtles but I wasn't sorry to see the back of the place, not ready quite yet to feel less like a backpacker and more like a honeymooner.

Before we boarded the plane, I had to take a bus into Salvador again to see my mate Russell but I got off the bus early, frustratingly seeing a SUBWAY sandwich shop out of the corner of my eye and mistaking it for the one beside his house. I walked for nearly a half an hour before I had to cut my losses and take a cab to his house, swearing at that point not to tell G because this had been my first venture away from her in over two months and I had screwed it up!

I only had 30 minutes with my mate because G had told me that we were leaving at 8pm and it was already 6pm.

"Mate, your never going to make it in a bus, you're going to have to catch a cab", he said and I groaned in agreement, knowing from prior experience how expensive they were but at least with their Formula One like zealousness, I was fairly confident I would make it on time...

That was assuming of course, I survived one of the most hair raising driving experiences of my soon to be extinguished life....