Day 265 – Itubera to Indiaroba, Brazil

Day 265 – Itubera to Indiaroba, Brazil 05/13/11 Mileage: 252

It was going to be a short ride up the coast to catch the ferry to Salvador, so I lingered a bit to use the hotel wifi. Itubera ended up being a really nice little town….the kind you won’t find in any guide book and will only stumble upon by chance….and I’m glad I did! It’s like Frenchtown, NJ at home…..you won’t find it in any international guide book for the U.S., but a foreign tourist would love to stumble upon it.

Me and the Hotel Jerusalem where I spent the night…..shalom!   lol

Once packed and on the road it took about 2 hours to get to the ferry which departed a few minutes after I arrived….perfect timing!

The KLR strapped in for ferry ride number…..errrr….oh hell I have no idea….I lost count…

It started pouring half way across the bay but fortunately had stopped by the time the ferry arrived at the terminal in Salvador.

The Salvador skyline from the ferry….

The GPS was note able to route me to the historic town center, so I was doing a bit of dead reckoning to find my way. Well, I managed to dead reckon myself into what has to be the roughest part of Salvador as it would make the roughest neighborhoods of the Bronx back in the day look like Candyland. I didn’t stop for even a picture and just kept rolling until I found my way back to a main avenue…and did eventually find my way to the historic center.

 The main square was quite nice, but I was hounded as soon as I stopped by pushy fucks wanting me to stay at their hotels or take their tours. I had to wave them to move so I could get a picture of the square without them in it.

They continued to hound me so I just got back on the bike and left to go check out the waterfront and the nicer section of town.

When I stopped to take this picture on the waterfront….a guy ran from down the street to tell me about the hotels he was pushing….I said no thanks…but when he didn’t stop I just got back on the bike and rode away.

I pulled into a waterfront parking area lined with restaurants and again was hounded by people pushing me to eat at their place.

Maybe it’s just me but that turns me off, so turned the bike around and split.

This guy spoke english and we chatted for a minute at a traffic light…nice guy…he sais he had a bike and would love to do a trip like mine…

I continued along the waterfront but didn’t see anything compelling me to stay and I was starting to feel a little “big city’ed out” anyway, so I continued up the coast. Maybe Salvador will have to wait for next time.

Lane splitting is great for beating traffic…but dicey sometimes! I think it should be legal back home…(it is in California!)

There wasn’t much in the way of towns or services on this part of the BA 001, so I had to ride an hour or so in the dark before finding a room in a little pousada in Indiaroba. Tomorrow, it’s back on the road north…