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Published: October 5th 2007
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At my arrival in Belem I had quite a special welcome party. Walking in the city I was surprised by the amount of little clothing people wore and most worryingly coming from the male gender. When I started seeing more and more transvestites and drama queens running loose at each corner street, I thought to myself “where on earth am I??” I asked some guy, with make up overzealously spread out on his face, the reason why he was wearing pink fishnet pants, a thong and some feathers stuck to his bum. His answer was: “It’s the gay parade my love!!”
With an Argentinean couple that I met on the boat, we decided to tag along the parade. It was Sunday and everything was closed, another good excuse to party.
After that very special event and a couple of days visiting the city, I went off to meet my brother in Sao Luis. It was great to see his face again, finally enjoying that brotherly love and argue over nothing.
Sao Luis has an unpretentious colonial charm and a rich folkloric tradition coming from a diverse mixture of French, Dutch, Portuguese and African backgrounds. Each square was vibrating with live
music and definitely up to its status as the capital of Brazilian reggae. On our first night, we went to a samba street party. We danced away to the locals’ entertainment as our closest moves to samba looked more like breakdancing or having a broomstick stuck up our derriere. After two nights there, we left our broomsticks behind and went to the beautiful Lençois National Park translated as “the bed sheets” National Park. The name refers to the gigantesque dunes that look like some bed sheets strewn over the landscape.
We then went onto a two day mission to reach our next destination, Jericocoara. Because of its isolation, our most direct way was taking a 4x4 pick up, sitting on wooden benches in between locals and bean sacks. It felt like a real adventure going through continuous dunes, bushes, improvised sand roads and witnessing outstanding sceneries.
Jericocoara is a fairly secluded village built on sand and ensnared in between dunes and the sea. It has totally exploded in tourism those past years because of its international reputation of a wind and kite surfing haven. During our stay, we got very lazy as none of us had the finances to
do any of these extreme sports. We just baked in the sun and taught the Brazilians how to kick a ball.
From Jerico, we moved south stopping at another similar beach resort for the weekend. We then reached Natal to meet one of Tam’s Jiu-jitsu mates called Pezao or “Bigfeet”. We were warmly welcome by his family. During my stay, I also bought a surf board to avoid becoming a beach bum while I go down the coast. I went off to a beach town called Pipa just south of Natal renown for the surfing and to meet up with the same Argentinean couple from the gay parade. It was in Pipa, after a weekend of drunkenness and celebration of Brazil’s national day that my brother and I each went our own way. I wanted to keep on traveling south and Tam was in his Jiu-jitsu frame of mind. Jiu-jitsu for those who don’t know is a Brazilian martial art focusing on grappling, ground fighting and forcing an opponent to submit. It was very interesting to watch but not my cup of tea. His decision was to stay the week he had left with Pezao. Something understandable as it is
not every day you get to train with a black belt who has won various international and national competitions.
We said our goodbyes and I went on traveling with the Argies. The great thing was getting to travel with them in their 1983 VW Kombi, bought in Buenos Aires and transformed into their home for the past year.
I traveled with them for three weeks and it felt like a blast in the past. We had our surf boards on the roof top, the three of us sitting at the front listening to Bob, the Beach Boys and drying our eyes with the van’s unbearable speed of 60km/h. The poor Kombi sometimes struggled and we had to pay more than a visit to the mechanic. Not once did I see us overtake someone and we were in no real rush. We did a total of around a 1000km, only traveling by day. When we weren’t stopping and camping in one surf spot, we would stop in some petrol station on the way to another beach. Unfortunately in those places I had no where to put a tent up and would sleep in a hammock tied from the van to the
post. At least we were safely parked in between lorries and no one would dare come and cause trouble where there are truck drivers. We also stopped and visited other cities similar to Sao Luis with their old colonial architecture that have become UNESCO sites. There was Olinda, sitting on a hilltop with its great views overlooking its big sister city Recife and the Atlantic Ocean. Another city was Salvador of Bahia, home of the African soul of Brazil. It used to be the doors of the Portuguese Empire for the market of slaves in the country coming from Angola. Very rich in culture, we saw endless shows of Capoeira dancing and batucatas (drumbeats) playing in the street. There was also great local food to be eaten and sold by big black woman walking around in their extravagant white Bahian dress.
My last stop with the Argies was Itacare south of Salvador, a real surfing paradise. We camped right on the beach between palm trees, avoiding getting knocked out by coconuts. After a few days my Argentineans mates hat to hit the road again to reach Rio. I decided to stay a week more in the water, continuing paddling
like a madman and slowly getting the hang of how to surf a wave. Nothing easy I can tell you!
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dominique Ridley
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Beijos e abracos de Sauverny
Te desejo muita felicidade hoje para teu aniversario ... estou aqui com a tua mae e vamos festejar o dia tao imprtante. Temos muita saudade, sobre tudo eu quando vejo as tuas maravilhosas fotos do Brasil. Ate breve e que tua festa seja muita bacana. Beijos e abracos tambem de tua mae e para Diego tambem!!! Dominique