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Sorry for the long silence (rare for me I know) but I have a good excuse. Or a few good excuses actually. He he, Brasil has been fun.
Some might recall that I was off to Rio to go sailing on a tall ship (wooden ship) for a week and travel south from Rio to Paraty. Well, I did. And then I was asked to stay and work on the ship. And I did, for another 3 weeks in fact! So in this past month that you haven´t heard from me, I´ve been sailing off the coast of Brasil to some of the most beautiful islands and beaches in the world, on what basically looks like a pirate ship, and this was considered working. I know, you must all feel bad for me. In that time I have experienced so many wonderful things, met so many wonderful people, and learned enough about sailing to know that I want to do it again. Watch out Pacific, I´ll be there soon.
So, I know that you will all be angry with me, but I didn´t keep a jounal while at sea. Don´t ask me why, because I don´t know. I
didn´t even take that many photos (but luckily other guests will email me some). I was living the adventure the whole time, and photos and journals seemed to get in the way. Besides you wouldn´t want to read the damn thing anyway, so here are just some of the highlights:
In the past month I sailed on the Tocorime, Brasil´s only tall ship, that is 120 feet long. That´s really big if you don´t know boats. The capitan, a Danish-Canadian who has lived in Brasil for 13 years, built the ship by hand with three other friends. No Shit! Besides climbing the mast, which I made a frequent activity, pulling ropes, etc. I made caiprinhas (Brasilian coctails) and cuba libres for the guests (and captain- had to make sure Canoa was happy!). My liver is going through recovery now-- wait, no not yet, but soon hopefully. It´s a good thing that I am getting kicked out of the country. But that´s a story for later.
I´ve gotten to see everything from dolphins dancing and playing at the front of the boat as we sailed, to monkeys in the jungle, and phosphorescent algae that lit up like the constellations
when you swam with them. I´ve been to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (ranked by the Travel/Discovery Channel which makes it legit of course), drank coconut milk out of the actual coconut to remedy a hangover (or many hangovers) at various beach bars, raised sails on the Tocorime, and had a water balloon/flour fight with pirates from the Celtic Spirit, a $3 mil sailing yacht (we made friends with the crew).
And if that wasn´t enough... After I finished with Toco, I jumped ship to the Celtic Spirit, where I helped strip varnish and sand wood in return for a place to stay near a certain Sweedish sailor (name to remain anonymous for security puposes). Realizing that we would both have to move on eventually, I left the Spirit and my romance in Rio to spend some time with a friend, Monica, in Paraty (whom I worked with on Toco). After being in Paraty for a day, I found myself in a vacation home looking out over Saco de Mamangua, a lagoon largely untouched by tourism. This modern house was designed by a female architect (my kinda place of course) who happend to be excellent
Lopes Mendes Beach
One of the top ten beaches in the worldfriends with Monica, and we spent the night in this electricless luxury wooden home. (Electricless = candles = beautiful!). Ah, Brasil!
But now my time in Brasil has come to an end, partly due to the fact that I forgot to extend my visa during all this time of adventure. I spent two days in the Policia Federal paying fines and getting fingerprinted, etc. trying to sort it all out, and have to leave by May 12th. Which is ok considering I am on my way to Easter Island then. So don´t feel too sorry for me. I will make a short stopover in Buenos Aires first, so keep checkin´in for the news from the south!
Overandout.
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Bob Palladino
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WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!