Good friends, Great people. Cave diving, And painful combat! :)

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SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY, EXPECT 2 MORE LARGE ENTRIES SOON, AND I WILL TRY TO POST MORE OFTEN!! BEIJOS AMIGOS!!


So i sat in the waiting room for my plane in Campo Grade, heading to Recifi. Oje vou embora (portuguese for i~m leaving today) I sat with a tight squeeze in my heart, a sadness and a longing. I wanted so much to stay and spend more time with everyone I had grown to love.

I had arrived in Campo Grande earlier that day by bus and Ada, Adilson's mom was already there to meet, a truly lovely, lovely, lovely, wonderful, warm, and loving women. I didn't see her at first, and my thought as I got off the bus to grab my pack back was -ok, where am I? Where can I go to get a phone card to call his mom, to find out where I am, where I'm going, and before I knew it, to my great delight I heard, Viviane?? Sim!! A tiny strong, and energetic women grabbed my bag, and with a big smile exclaimed in Portuguese, Adilson had me waiting here since 11:00!! It was past 11:30. I replied that Adilson knew I was arriving at 11:30!! He is always early!, she exclaimed, and we laughed. She took me in a taxi to her house, where she had prepared a delicious lunch, complete with vegetable soup, manjoca, stewed meet, rice, and salad, and for desert we had cheese with caramilk (doce de leite, a south american staple), and guaiba jelly, followed by coffee. It was fantastic! I was so happy to be there and his mother was so inviting, I instantly regretted that I had not been able to spend more time there. I really wished I could stay, and my mind started racing with combinations, how could I return, when, maybe I could also see my friends in Bonito again... Adilson was supposed to be coming in a week to Campo Grade to visit, and I missed him. Maybe I could come back?? Oh the difficulty of a traveler’s life... It would cost money to come back and cut out of my trip... but my heart!!! How I had grown to love my dear friends in Bonito. The beautiful but boring little town of Bonito, whose heart are its people.

Adilson's mom was an angel. After lunch we took some pictures and Ada took me to her beauty salon next door to do a hair treatment for me. It was very kind of her, and I enjoyed the moment of pampering. She was so terrific!! She had actually taken the day off from work just to pick me up from the bus station (not letting me pay for the taxi), to prepare me a magnificent lunch, do a hair treatment, and then accompany me to the airport to catch my flight. I really enjoyed chatting with her. I told her about my dear friends in Bonito, Will and Carolina, and showed her pictures, and the letters they had written for me, as well as the mandala Carol's mom had made for me. So much had happened in Bonito. So what happened in Bonito...

Well, I was suppose to leave maybe over a week ago, but since I had completed my dive course, how could I miss the opportunity to dive in Abhismo Ahumas? A legendary, picturesque cave, that could only be accessed only by rappelling 170 m. Sure it was expensive, really expensive, but when would I be in Bonito again? When would I have this opportunity? And you know me, rappelling 170 m and then diving 18 m into a cave with giant towers and spikes!! Of course!! I was all over it!! There was no choice. I had to go!!
So here goes the rest of the story in Bonito.

So I had to undergo a ridiculous training the day prior to rappelling down into the cave -as if I didn't know how to rappel!! lol. But whatever, it was good cause by going to the training, I met a nice family that offered to drive me to the cave the next day since there was no public transportation. (Gotta love Brazilians!! Beautiful inside out!). So I arrived at the rappel site, it was a narrow cavern about a meter wide for the first 20 meters or so, before it opened up into a mystical icicle covered gray chasm expanding over a large dark blue pool, in which you could see giant magnificent coral like towers; like an underwater castle.

The view was astonishing as I rappelled down 170 m onto a wooden dock that had been installed for docking and diving. The only thing that spoiled the adventure was the almost total lack of adventure. The tour operators were so overly concerned with safety that they stifled the natural awe of the expedition with a thousand carabineers. I was fastened in a full harness up to my shoulders so tight I could hardly breath, and to top it off I was also fastened to another tourist!! We had to rappel down together interlocking our feet!! That was kind of shitty. I had rappled numerous times during all my experience climbing, and last year I rappelled down an 180 m waterfall (also in Brazil) but in a much more dangerous fashion. Well anyways the point is not how cocky I was, or am, but rather that the safety measures they took were just over the top to the point of ridiculous - whoever said you can never be too safe didn't know how to have fun, nor did they know Derek (my dear friend who spits in the face of safety). All jokes aside, all in all I was still grateful for the experience even though I was in shackles.

After I reached the platform I was informed that we would be diving (just me and the instructor were diving in that freezing 18 degree cave!!). I hadn't been nervous about the rappel, but I sure as hell was nervous about the dive, stalling every possible minute before finally unavoidably entering the water. It was ice cold, and dark! Sure I could see but it was eerie. I had a flashlight that I didn't need to use all the time, and which caused more trouble than good, as it bumped my head every time I tried to equalize my ears. What I hadn't really realized before I went diving was that I was indeed sick and my sinuses were congested. (Puta que pariu!!). Not fully, but enough to pose a problem. So as I descended, my ears gave me ample trouble in trying to equalize them. (Yes I know, never dive under these conditions, but I didn't know my diving self well enough yet, and I didn't know I was congested- now I know the difference!). The dive master was really rushing to descend and so he pushed me a little more than I should have let him, and so I had some ear pain, but I kept signaling him to slow down, and that I had problems, until finally I just did my own thing, which was good. It took a while but finally I descended to my deepest depth of 9 meters but I couldn't make the full 18. I suspect because it was not just my ears but maybe my sinuses also that were fucked, and so my head felt too squishy to go down, so I didn't.

Diving in this dark cold abyss, was something wonderful, something cool, and something strange. It was cold and silent, with only the sound of my bubbles. The cave was more interesting underwater than above, with giant cones everywhere. It was almost difficult to maneuver around them, but to my surprise my buoyancy control was not bad, and I managed. It was such a physical and personal challenge for me to go that deep. It was so cold, and my head was squished, and not in a painful way but in a disorienting way. It’s not uncommon but I get some vertigo when I dive. So between being cold, dizzy, and awkwardly laden with heavy equipment, struggling not to sink deeper or rise quickly (which is really easy), in an environment where you need to keep your wits about you just to breath life-sustaining air, I felt the innocent helplessness of a child. I could have been terrified because of my lack of experience, but instead I choose to let go. Let go and put my life in the hands of the instructor. Trust that if there was a problem, more than my training, his experience would save me. It was the only way I could relax. And so I did. I let my body go and melt into the cold. I floated through the soft darkness looking at the ancient formations that this earth had created thousands of years ago. I thought about how they had formed and been here so long, so wondrous, with nobody to see them, just existing here in this cold, seldom lit, magical underwater world of silence. Oh how lucky was I to have benefited from the years dangerous pioneering, not in discovering these places of beauty, but in developing the technology to access them in conditions so unnatural to us. What a wonder to become a fish in a place without fish. What a wonder...
I also left the dive experience knowing more about myself as a diver. Surfacing I experienced pain in equalizing confirming my congestion. It was the same feeling I had experienced the first I ever dove in my mom's pool way back when with Carlos. I thought I had problems with equalization, but really I was congested and unaware of it. But now I was lucky to know what my body was like healthy as a diver, and when to avoid diving. It helped me also to gain confidence to dive deeper when I am healthy again, and to top it off, I got to dive in a rare and beautiful place that most divers just dream about. Pretty cool.
Back to life in Bonito.

So diving was Monday. I was suppose to leave Bonito the following Wednesday, but I just didn't. I ended up booking my flight for Saturday determined to leave. The problem was I developing friends. Will and I were already like two peas in a pod when I started visiting Carol, his schoolmate. Very quickly Carol and I became the best of friends. She had such a delightful personality and the cutest laugh ever. She was very generous in every way, and a really good person to talk to. I began to visit her during the days and talk and sit with her, and then do yoga in her yard. You see Carol had a large house with a pool all to herself, and she sat at home alone during the day and went to school by night. She came from Rio only to study tourism in this tiny little town. Very quickly Carol invited me to come stay with her, as we got along famously. It was the perfect solution when Will's parents made a surprise visit from their home town on Wednesday night. So I moved in!! And I was beginning to build a life. Carol's mother had come to visit from Rio for a few months, and it was awesome entering into their family. She prepared delicious lunches every day, and practiced some type of spiritual thing with drawing mandelas and reading my energy, etc. She was generous enough to give me a reading, or check up. I'm not sure what you call it. She also drew a special madala for me and wrote out what each colour meant, and told me about my personality, etc. Surprisingly she was right on the money. Perceptive, warm, and good natured women.

Anyways the following Friday was Valentine’s day in Bonito, and so since I didn’t have a date I decided to go to jujitsu class. It was totally fun. Over the weekend I tied up loose ends and spent time with Carol.
On Monday, I went to karate class, which was really fun and a story in itself, cause I didn’t have protective equipment and it was quasi full contact. Luckily the professor put me with the best fighters so I had some fun, but got a LOT of real HEAVY bruise. One to my chin was so bad I thought I was gonna cry, and I couldn’t walk the next day. To toot my own horn I was the best fighter there expect the instructor and one of the brown belt, GO WADO!! Thanks sensei alex!! And so I believe this may be why, embarissingly the instructor singled me out, making everyone sit down to watch me and him fight. It was a pretty cool seen, cause my hand were blocking kicks to the face faster they ever have before, and my kick were flying and punches were landing, even my back kicks were spinning (but in the correct way, if sempai riadh is reading this). It was really cool and sort of like a movie, I think the class though it was cool too, strange foreign chick coming to small town Bonito to duke it out with their sensei… hehehe. Anyways after him, I fought this really big and very strong brown belt. He kept wanting me to punch him harder and so I did. This is why I ended up with a swollen black left hand (seriously mega swollen) and black baby finger knuckle on my right hand. Please to say however my punches landed correctly and I didn’t really injure myself, it was just the sheer force and lack of protective equipment that bruised my hands- couldn’t be avoided- but I didn’t feel it till after (who would know it would take almost 4 weeks for the bruising to go away- it still hurts a little). So anyways on the way back to carol’s I picked up a bag of ice and some ziplock bags and when I got home I literally fasted a liter of ice to each leg and hand for about 2 hours- it REALLY helped.
Tuesday night was my last night in Bonito and so cute! Carol’s mom prepared me a special going away dinner at Carol’s house and Will came over too. They didn’t know but I had got each of them special personalized presents, and to show them just how much they had touched my heart and bettered my life I wrote them each a letter. They were so touched and felt bad for not writing me a letter that they made me leave the room to write me each a letter. It was totally cute and funny. But the letters they wrote me were so beautiful and touching that I carry them with me now on my trip. I will never forget them or Bonito and will be sure to return to their lives once more. Beijos!!

And now back to the plane going to Recife.

So here I am on the plane. As I said I was feeling sad leaving my friends but as I left the waiting room, and walked out onto that runway towards the plane, I felt the sun hit my face, the warmth of the afternoon embrace me. I looked into the distance, the beautiful green field of Matto Grosso do Sul, and wow I remembered why I travel. I’m a traveler!

I had the pain of leaving those I love in my heart, but at the same time I began to fill with the happiness and excitement of knowing I was going to dance with the clouds, view the sun at the top of the heavens, and rediscover the earth once again, and fall in love, so much love with everything once again. I knew at that moment that I am a traveler. I knew that no matter how hard or scary, or difficult it would be at times, I would need to keep going, to continue my journey. To travel, to learn, to laugh, to play, to sleep, to talk, to love, to run, to jump, to sing, to dance, the earth over again. Lifting off to fly across one of the world's largest countries felt pretty awesome. How lucky was I? To be able to step across the earth??... What an immense feeling. I was not afraid. I did not know exactly where I was going to stay or how I was going to get there when I arrived at Recife, cause I hadn't had the time to check my email, but it didn't bother me at that moment. I had confidence, confidence that I had found rare in most of my life. I now had true confidence in myself. I knew I could do anything, handle any situation, and so there was no point to worry now about anything, just to enjoy and take advantage of my time to sit back, relax, and watch heaven.

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