Toads, Foot Massages and the Kindness of New Friends: Caraiva, Brazil

Our new accommodation at Pousada Lagoa is down the sand dune and closer to the village than Pousada Terra.  It also has more flora and fauna, inside and outside its simple but clean rooms. There is an electric shower, which doesn't run to anything more than lukewarm water, and a shower stall that was, when first inspected, occupied by a six inch toad, sitting on the soap shelf.  The toad didn't move, clearly believing that it was at home.

In the evening, we were joined by Julia, whom we met at our first pousada, which now seems light years away.  Julia arrived with another young woman and new friends from the village. She took one look at my eye, now practically glued shut and immediately took me off again to the pharmacy. By the time we got there, it was closed. No problem in a place like Caraiva.  You rattle the window shutters and shout out your needs. Presto, the pharmacy is open.  Julia's doing a PhD in Biology and is a practical sort.  After her ministrations with various pharmacy solutions, I looked, if not felt, a lot better.

We returned from the toad's bathroom to the bar, where one of the local men sitting next to me gave me a half hour foot massage--without asking, and just because he felt like it.  He certainly knew what he was doing, although he alternately claimed to be a dancer and a real estate agent! And that was after coming to my room to scare the toad up the wall and through the gap between the top of the wall and the roof.

It turned out later that my new friend's foot massage skills were somewhat better than his ability to frighten toads, since the resident toad was back lazing on the shelf when I left the bar for bed.  Luckily the manager had anticipated this eventuality and, accompanied by a different young man, came with me to my cottage.  The toad was well and truly removed this time and taken to the small lagoon in the middle of the property.

Caraiva is  a fascinating place, and to Alison, who talks to everyone, it's idyllic.  For people who don't speak Portuguese, or who want soap and hot showers without the company of toads and the occasional dead cockroach, it's a place to visit for a day with a good guide.