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Published: June 30th 2008
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Fernando from the air
The photos got published to the wrong blog. So shoot me. Here´s some arrival photos from the plane... What a great couple of days I´ve had! Started meeting people finally that spoke a little english, which was quite a relief after a week of portospanofrancosign language. Oh to speak engloportospanofrancosign language again! So if Friday´s events were fun, Saturday´s were even more fascinating.
Andre and Julio and I hit three more festas on Saturday, with me finally getting back to the pousada at 4:30 am all danced out! They had taken me to the local favella parties, the places that gringo´s don´t go unaccompanied, but with Julio and Andre I was given a ´free´ pass.
What incredible scenes! I don´t mean my atrocious, though amusing, attempts to dance in the forro style. I must have snapped a few people´s toes in my clumsy eforts to blend. I´m meeting everyone at the parties, including Fernando the local area ´´boss´´ who is a great guy they say, but, ´a little bit mafia´. At three am the party was still in full swing with live music and dancing. Children barely old enough to walk, older people in their eighties, and everyone inbetween, scantily clad, outdoors, and all having a great time. Totally tranquillo. Interesting to ponder though that without Andre and Julio
these very same friendly, welcoming people would be treating me radically differently.
Infact, on Sunday night I strolled up to the big party at the top of the hill where once again the streets were pulsing with music, food, and people out strolling. This time I was on my own. People kept coming up to me who had seen me dancing around at the favela parties over the last two days, most of them laughing and commenting along the lines of, ´muito cerveja´ then laughing, or ´muito chicas´ then laughing, but, after a while some other more cockroach like creatures started to circle with hungrier expressions, and I beat a hasty retreat back to the pousada!
It´s funny, but without Andre and Julio and our very funny portospanofrancosign language the party wasn´t as much fun.
Yesterday I met the Morocan guy who runs the pousada who speaks about 15 languages all excellently. He was very helpful at providing some perspective on the town and the people. I went to the airport and bought a ticket to fly to the island of Fernando de Noronha leaving today at 2:00pm. Who knows what I´ll find there except it will be expensive! There
is a daily eco-tax for tourists of 30 dollars, never mind anything else! Hopefully, you´ll pardon me if I don´t blog for a couple of days while I settle in - I´m going to be there for the next two weeks or so.
I also met French Francis who is here to study forro, and Belgian Zoe who is going to live here for two years working for an NGO. We all watched Spain win Euro 08 at the pousadda - I won one bet - Torres to score, lost the other bet - Germany didn´t win in the end - but I was glad to cough up the cervejas because I thought Spain were the best team in the tournament - sometimes the best, most exciting teams do win in the end!
No pictures from the parties Í´m afraid - I didn´t think taking snapshots was a good idea at the time.
I wished I made movies though, I´ve got to say. I had a great idea for a movie called ´´festa ´´. In my journal I´ve written down a few of the little stories I saw unfold at the party - many not really appropriate for this forum,
but they would have made a great swirling movie all set at the party. Maybe there would be a walk on part for a stumbling oaf who laughed a lot and broke a few toes.
So it´s all change today; from the endless parties to the supposed quiet and peace of the islands.
I´ll let you know more when I know more!
See you on the flypaper.
mike
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Lucille
non-member comment
Way to Go
Hi, Well sounds like you are having a grand old time. Forget safety and security right!! Have you become the new dance man? What is going on with you. Glad to hear that you are having a great time and staying safe. Sure the island will be a different scene but a beautiful and worthwhile one too. Every place has its own different kind of beauty, serenity, etc. Will keep checking in on your ventures and photos. Enjoy and stay safe....... Lucille