Pipa

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My Name is Andrew, and this is my story.
Well atleast this is a part of my story, that bridges the gap between my next story and the last.
It all started in a slow paced beach town in Northern Brazil called Jericoacoara...

I had decided to leave Jericoacoara at a rather odd moment, and after having made the decision to take flight things sort of happened quickly. I walked to the tourist office and got a ticket to leave at 2, but it was already 11, so I went back and packed all my tired gear back into my pack AGAIN, and paid up my bill at the pousada. As I counted the notes coming from my formerly full wallet, it began to become evident that 10 days of beach life had taken its toll on my pocket. By the time I had paid my pousada bill, paid my account at the local restaurant, and then paid for my ticket I was left with just 95 reals in my wallet.
95 reals was ofcourse ample dinero to reach Fortaleza, check into a hostel, and wander off to an HSBC ATM machine, so I was quite relaxed with the little emergency buffer that padded my back pocket.
It was now 1:30pm, and probably time to make a move toward the tourist office to intercept my bus, but at that moment it happened that an old man selling cashew nuts told Alvaro (whome I was sitting with) that his friend was catching the very same bus as I had just purchased a ticket on myself. Alvaro turned to me with emblazened eyes, and said ¨well Andrew it seems it is your lucky day¨.
It just so happened that this guy that was catching the very same bus as I was was headed to Praia de Pipa, and that he ran a pizzaria there. Alvaro suggested that I travel all the way with him to Pipa, so that he can point me in the right direction, once I get there.
¨Why not?¨, I said,
all the while assuming that my issue with adequate funds could be remodied in one of the bus stops along the way.
So I was introduced to Luca, a nice Italian guy that couldn´t speak a word of any language that I could understand, and together we set off in the bus to Pipa.
Our trip would consist of three different buses.
One bus from Jericoacoara to Fortaleza; a second bus from Fortaleza to Natal; and a final third bus from Natal to Pipa, that would arrive at 6 or 7am. It sounded ominous, but the many stops insured that I could withdraw money to spend in Pipa (or so I thought).

Stop 1. Fortaleza
We drew into the Fortaleza bus station at 8:15pm, after a journey from Jericoacoara which happened to include the film ¨Lake House¨ (I watched it, but no tears followed). Luca seemed eager to get his ticket for the next bus, so we literally ran from our bus to the ticket booths. There was ofcourse no cue, and seemingly no hurry to get there to buy tickets for a bus that wasn´t scheduled to leave for another hour. But we ran anyway.
Whilst I guarded the luggage Luca dashed off to withdraw money from the ATM, returning with a wad of fresh bills just moments later. I then took my turn to visit the ATM machine, only to discover that this particular machine was out of order, and the national machine that Luca had used didn´t except international cards... So no money was to be extracted from this bus station. Meanwhile I had to pay 81 reals for my connecting ticket to Natal.
¨Ok¨ said Luca, ¨you can get money in Natal¨ (or atleast that is what I think he said????).
So with 12 reals in my pocket we continued on our next bus, destined for Natal. (It would have been 14 reals, but for the donuts. can´t argue with my stomach!)

Stop 2. Natal
5am. Light starting to throw some powdery light between the high rise buildings. Then we pulled into another bus stop.
We were in Natal now, and somehow my pack seemed to be the last loaded off the bus.
After having got my pack from the dozey bus unloader I wandered over to Luca, whoms bag had been first off the bus (despite having been loaded on the bus at the same time as my own). Together we then proceeded to walk around to where the ATM machines were. A moment later, to my delight, I found an international machine illuminating the dull light of a bare corner.
I entered my Cirrus ATM card, and chose ¨english¨as my preferred language. The machine then displayed a ¨processing¨ screen for a minute, before telling me that this transaction was unable to be processed.
¨Well¨, I thought ¨If the machine can´t process english, then how will it count 500reals for me?¨.
So I tried again, but thise time choosing portuguese as my preferred language. This second effort led to the same result, and it seemed that I would be travelling now from Natal to Pipa with just 3 reals, after having paid for my ticket to Pipa... But Luca assured me there was an international ATM in Pipa, so I followed him onto yet another bus, with the future of my trip seemingly hanging from the assuring, foreign, and strange sounding words of Luca.

Final Stop. Pipa
Luca hoped off the bus 5 minutes before me, having asked the young bus attendent to drop me off outside the ATM machine in Pipa. The young attendent had nodded his head and given a reassuring thumbs-up to Luca at the time, and I had thanked Luca for his help geeting to where ever it was that we were.
5 minutes later, after having driven through the still sleepy streets of Pipa, the attendent turned to me with a puzzled look on his face and asked (I think) if I needed an ATM. I replied ¨Si¨, and he continued to look puzzled.
He then said that there was only ´Banco Do Brasil´ in town, and that I couldn´t withdraw money in Pipa, to which I replied ¨Oh¨.
What was I to do?
I had 3 reals, and couldn´t really communicate with these people, so I asked where is Banco Do Brasil, hopped off the bus, threw my pack on, and started to walk down the main street in the direction that the young attendents finger had unconvincingly indicated.
I was at this point in my adventure 'Proper F%$#@d', and I was finding it difficult to decide how it may be that I would magic my way out of this one. It was one of those moments when somebody who has no religious beliefs whatsoever looks up and says ¨come on big guy, help us out¨.
I walked down the empty main street, passing cafes, surf stores, and travel agencies, but never any sign of a bank or ATM machine. I was coming to what appeared to be the end of town, when I found a Cambio, or money exchange, that advertised their willingness to change argentinian pesos. I had (still in my back-pack) about 80 argentine pesos, that I thought I could atleast change to pay for a bus ticket back to Natal, should my quest for a solution come up short.
From the front of the exchange house on the main street, the street appeared to become somewhat more resedential, with only houses, and closed down stores continuing along. But given my lack of options for time passing activities at this point, I decided that I may aswell check the rest of the street to be sure.
7:53am 29 June 2007:
I found a working international ATM machine at the end of the main street in Pipa, in a random little arcade.
8:00am I was eating breakfast in a ocean view pousada on the beach in beautiful Pípa.
8:30am I was asleep, with the last dimples from a smile slowly fading from my face.

I never did remember to thank the ´Big Guy´ actually, So Thanks (If you read TravelBlogs).

Since my epic journey from Jericoacoara to Pipa time has passed. Infact two weeks now have seemingly slipped between the cushions of a couch, only to be marvelled upon once uncovered by the site of a calender. It certainly doesn´t seem like a long time, but then I have not yet reflected on my time spent here, and now that I do... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Yeah! It has been a while.

My first three days here were a reasonably lonesome time, with fleeting interactions with others. I was fortunate to get special treatment every morning from Maria (A beautiful, and absurdly dutiful Pousada staff member) whom always stacked my plate full of fruit for breakfast, and revealed a peice of cake or a pastry at the end of the morning (which no other guests where fortunate enough to recieve). I think my appreciation of food is so obvious that she sensed it from my very first morning!
Other then breakfast with Maria I would also talk to the guys down at the surf school, where I had signed up for 4 hours of surf instruction and board rental. My time spent at Praia do Amor would always end with the family of surfers (literally four brothers and a sister, that all look the same) reminding me to be relaxed, saying...
¨Tranquilo¨...¨Tranquilo¨.
So I spent the afternoons relaxed, reading my book, and listening to music, before going out in search of a cheaper restaurant then I had found the night before. After I had eaten I could either watch portuguese television (painful soap operas, or football), or retire to my room with some chocolate milk and crackers to read more ¨Treasure Island¨. I read alot of Treasure Island and watched alot of Football that first week!
On my fourth day here Mo arrived. Mo had checked into my hostel that day, and spoke english, so instantly we teamed up to take on all the activities that Pipa had to throw at us!
So we went to beach and body surfed every day.
For a bit of a change up we went on a dune buggy tour, but afterwards we decided that we preferred scaling the rocks from our hostel to reach one of the many sandy beaches around Pipa. So after the dune buggy day we returned to our routine, and revisited the dolphins that would come into the bay and swim along side us. If the dolphins weren´t around, or the waves weren´t rolling in we could easily be distracted by the sight of Brasilieras on the beach in their brazilian bathing attire. All the while we were pretty content with our choice to come to Pipa.
It happened that Maria was not the only friendly local here in Pipa, and after Mo´s arrival we really got to know the locals. There is probably to many to name...
like...
Naldo
Tony
Dayane
Mauricio
Michele
Andre
Guy with a funny leg
French guy
Shifty craft selling guys
Fabio
Estiban (Crazy Spaniard)
Adriana...
(Maybe there wasn't too many).

Anyway with all these friends that we have made, and all the good nights we have spent with them here in Pipa, we will no doubt need to return one day, as some of the most Popular Visitors ever to Pipa! (self proclaimed greatness)

I must also mention that we did find a good cheap place to eat at night, and for just 7 reals we would load our own plates from a buffet. The first night that we ate at this particular 'locals hangout' we were not aware of the rule that you could only take two peices of each kind of meat, so we left rather unpopular after finishing our stacks of meat. On the second night the lady behind the buffet display was sure to inform us ¨dois¨..¨dois¨... so we took just two peices of each meat. We still were very unpopular as we left that night, and some of the regulars were really starting to give us some strange looks. We understood why on the third night.
On the third night the same lady as the night before demonstrated to us why. She didn't let us serve ourselves, and clearly showed us that the rule was that you could only have two peices of all the kinds of meat in total. We ate with our tails between our legs that night. And on the fourth night we had pizza. When we returned later, they were more welcoming, and now I think we have re-established our popularity in the ¨Cheap Local Restaurant Area¨ (or ¨CLRA¨ as nobody calls it).

I spent my last days in Pipa with Marias family, and my other friends at their house, playing with the adorably cute children, eating the local food and 'Pipoca' (popcorn), that I was always sure to buy at the local market on the way there. It was really a special few weeks in Pipa!

My connection between Rio De Janeiro and Pipa was broken by a two day stop in Salvador, where I relaxed with other Brazilian nomads, and caught up on a great deal of Western (english) television. Overall I had a very narrow view of Salvador, and really look forward to returning there one day in the future to uncover it's secrets.

The plan from here
In Rio Slow Step Stevie Rickards friend Dale will be showing me a good time, and generously allowing me to stay in their spare room. After some beers, some BBQ´s, and an unknown amount of time I shall complete my final leg of my journey to Buenos Aires.
I just need to spend these next few weeks enjoying the beaches, before arriving back to the winter chill of Wellington.

Peace to all the Kiwis,
Cassels

All the good photos for this entry are still in the hands of Mo, and I hope to add them sooner then I possibly can!
Enjoy your day, and always look someone in the eye and take a generous sip of your beverage after saying 'Cheers'.

Peace to the rest of you,
Cassels

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Photos

5
1

8
a

16
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Buried
with some new anatomy

Comments

[alex]

tony
Tony looks better in the drawing than he does in real life. If tony is on the mailing list and reads this comment I'd like to point out that the images on my computer are small and slightly unclear which may have led to an unfair impression.