Pousada Topo do Cipó

The vegan breakfast was outstanding, and the international volunteers from Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina and Belgium were lovely. We climbed with them nearly every day during our week there, and they kindly lent us some climbing gear. I also liked the ecological feel of the pousada: the shared areas had plenty of books, games and instruments, plus a slackline and yoga mats. Our room had a hammock and a freezer. It could have been a little cleaner, but we enjoyed the space. The room gets 5/5, breakfast 6/5, the volunteers 5/5, and Leandro, the manager, minus 5/5 for insulting us. That was the only downright bad experience in 10 months of cycling Abya Yala, after starting in Tierra del Fuego in February 2025 and riding through Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil. At the time of writing, we’d been cycling for 10 months. Leandro initially offered us a rate of 100R$/day. We assumed he was trying to help two budget-conscious cycling travelers who shared his sustainability values. The atmosphere with him felt tense from the beginning and got worse. After a few days, I tried to explain how it felt when he yelled at me. After that, he insulted us around four times in tirades lasting 15-20 minutes. He said we and our room stank, called us colonizers, and kept calling my female partner “baby” after she objected. During his last tirade, he brought up that we hadn’t paid the full amount yet, which was true. We asked him to apologize and offered to pay as soon as he did, but he kept shouting and insulting us. He said we were the kind of people who needed to be spoken to violently, threatened to bang on our door all night, and said he had a second key and could enter our room whenever he wanted. He then threatened to call the police. We agreed, thinking that was a good idea, but he backed away and didn’t call. Around 10 pm, feeling frightened and unsure whether the verbal aggression and threats could become physical, we called them ourselves. It was the second time I’d called the police in my life. The first was in Berlin in 2023, when I witnessed what appeared to be a pimp beating what appeared to be a prostitute. The officers arrived around 10:30 pm and mediated well. We each explained our side, then paid everything we owed with the police there, so we could call them if Leandro escalated. He stopped the insults and threats in front of them, spoke to us politely and professionally, and even joked with one of the two officers. We cleaned our room ourselves the next day so the volunteers, who work for him without pay, wouldn’t have to clean up our mess. The following morning Leandro started yelling again, this time asking for an extra payment for the previous breakfast. Leandro, please don’t insult people, whether they’re guests, volunteers or anyone else. It can happen once; we’re all human. When it does, we need to talk it through and apologize. In 8.5 months of cycling before this stay, he was the only person who had insulted and threatened us.