A boat trip from Salvador, nowhere near Sao Paolo, which really confused the kids! We decided to unwind for 6 nights and had a lovely time despite poor weather most of the time. We did have enough sunny days for a nice suntan fortunately!

Luckily the place we stayed was really well set-up for kids.

We were on the 4th beach (out of 5), which was lovely and quiet, away from town. It was quite a distance between beaches, but Amber loved taking the rather expensive horse and cart rides from one to the next!

There were lots of activities and staff were great with the kids.

Making roses out of palm leaves.

Amazing watching this guy paint the scene with his finger and a cloth in about 5 minutes - very talented!

A romantic evening for...

4!

A nice massage in the airport had everyone relaxed again!

What should have been a 2-hour catamaran ride wasn't quite that simple because of the stormy weather - speedboat, bus and ferry!

We had heard that the old town was very beautiful, but a lot of people had also said Salvador was dangerous, so we weren't sure what we'd be able to do there. We stayed in the Sheraton right between the old town and the beach area we wanted to visit, but not in a nice area - every time we asked if we could walk somewhere the staff told us to take a taxi, so we took their advice! The hotel was shabby, "an outpost that Starwood forgot about," as Robb called it! But the pool was nice and food was generally OK. It was so different from Sao Paolo, much more Carribean-feeling and obvious poverty. Really interesting to visit.

We took an elevator up to Pelhourinho (where Michael Jackson filmed the video for 'They don't care about us'), a lovely area with coloured houses and touristy shops and cafes.

Looking down from Pelhourinho - gorgeous buildings, but in such a dilapidated state - very sad.

Absolutely beautiful Sao Francisco church, sooo much gold! Cherubs are for you Dad 🙂

The beaches of Porto and Farol were in the Barra region south of our hotel with a lighthouse in between.

Playing in the rockpools which were full of little fish - we spent quite sometime saving the stranded ones as the tide went out!

Such beautiful beaches with fish swimming all around you

Xavi and Daddy watching the fishermen come in and then eating delicious fresh fish stew (moqueca) on the beach