Um...YEAH. There are. Yes there are. I spent the last few days recovering from Carnaval in another amazing utopic beach town that is amazing by Jericoacoara standards. This place is called
Morro de São Paulo - it is on the island of Tinharé, about 20 minutes off the coast of Salvador by plane. However, instead of flying, we took the four hour long bus-boat-bus-boat route on Ash Wednesday beginning at 7AM after not sleeping a wink - still drunk from the last night of Carnaval - and in fact Carnaval was still going strong when we wearily dragged our bodies and our bags into the filthy street in the midst of the last thumping beats of axe and samba. It took a few hours for the hangover, or ressaca, to even rear its ugly head..."still drunk" more properly described my state of Carnaval-bliss mixed with the fact that my brain was still marinating in vodka. Yuck. But that´s why you go to a place like Morro to have the best four day ressaca of your life.
Morro is an adorable hilly village with sand streets and no cars. The only way to get your bags from the port to where you´re staying is to hire a wheelbarrow taxi! The streets are lined with restaurants, bikini shops, local art galleries, and pousadas. At night, lots and lots of vendors set up tables where they sell handmade jewelry, fresh juice and assorted cocktails, baked goods...you name it. I think that the village is pretty quiet during most of the year...but after Carnaval in Salvador it is the premier destination to enjoy your ressaca. So, you end up with a gathering of the most gorgeous party people you have ever seen. Seriously. The beaches on the island are uniquely numbered 1,2,3, and 4...and after checking into a pousada in town we quickly realized that beach 2 was the place to be. It´s like an all day party followed by an all night party...you just drink and dance and prance around on the beach 24 hours a day. So, needless to say, we changed pousadas and stayed right on beach 2.
I was traveling with Nelsinho and Betânea, and other friends of ours were staying in various locations around beach 2 as well. Nelsinho and Betânea are hilarious - the BEST people to travel with. Nelsinho and I can communicate really really well when you consider the fact that we each speak about 20 words in the others´ language. We like teaching words to each other. We totally suck at pronunciation. I can´t get the "ão" nasal sound that they have in Portuguese, and he can´t get hard consonants like "er". The most fun is trying to get Nelsinho to say "air conditioner." "Nelsinho - say er." "Oh." "No - er." "Oh." "ER." "OH." Hilarious.
Betânea is one of the most cheerful life-loving people on this planet - she also speaks English well, and so she has been the key translator for me - I am so indebted. We had a moment the other night when we realized that we knew some of the same English songs by heart, and we could sing together. Let me set the stage - first of all, the power on this island went off three times during our four day stay because the grid is not accustomed to having so many people here at once. I got made fun of but was totally appreciated as the prepared American traveler who had a flashlight. When the power goes out, everyone just kind of shrugs their shoulders and starts drinking. The entire beach, with all of the pousadas, restaurants, and bars, is lit by candlelight anyway. However, town is a little dark. Also, because stereos don´t work without electricity, the streets are not ringing with Carnaval music. You have an occasional singer with an acoustic guitar strumming out some Carlinhos Brown, but there are some quiet moments. So - we decided to make our own music as we skipped through the dark streets on our way back from dinner. Some key favorites - "Man - I feel like a woman!" by Shania Twain and "Torn" by Natalie Imbrulia. It is the most adorable thing ever to scream "Man shirts, short skirts!!" into the night with your new Brazilian best friend - and meanwhile you are looking at THE most perfect sky with a trillion stars, and you feel so far from home because half of the stars you´ve rarely seen before...and yet you are singing Shania karaoke.
I have been having so many crazy moments that are so new and so familiar at the same time. The stars in all of their glory keep me grounded - they remind me of my place in this universe, that I am so small in relation to the powers that be...and yet I am powerful enough to have put myself in this spectacular place. It is empowering and energizing to feel that I can have complete control over my own happiness, even though I am so small, and this world is so big. Or maybe it´s because I am so small, and this world is so big...like "hey world, don´t mind me as I go about my business having an incredibly fun and fulfilling life!"
Some of the best moments that I had in Morro were when I went on my sunset jogs up the beaches to beach 4, which is the farthest away and the most remote. When you are jogging you get so many waves and smiles from locals and foreigners alike. Because the tide was high on Friday evening, I was jumping onto the porches of a lot of the restaurants and pousadas on beach 3 to avoid getting wet - I was in my sneakers and had my ipod shuffle. I was sort of playing a game with the ocean to see how far I could go before having to turn around. At one point these local workers saw me and started laughing and egging me on. I saw this amazing crab that literally looked like it was the miniature model for the monsters in War of the Worlds, and it was having a great time getting bounced around by the waves. All of the people walking back from beach four were letting the warm water lap up their legs. And so I reached the tipping point and said screw it - my sneakers will dry - and I began to run and splash in the water, and it was such a release. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. It´s ok to get wet and sandy and dirty and roll around in the waves. The best part about this moment is that as soon as I went beyond this palm tree that was half submerged, I found two friends who I had made on the beach earlier in the day - Ana and Clarissa. I tied my ipod to the palm tree and went for a swim, and it was so fulfilling. I am having so much fun figuring out ways to be playful with my life. It is completely unbelievable that I have only been gone for three weeks - I have lived every day so fully and with so much intent that it seems as though I have been gone for months. On my way back to the pousada, the same local guys saw that I had gotten wet, and they laughed and cheered. One started playing capoeira with me - the best! So much fun!
My Brazilian friends have been joking that I attract all of the most handsome Latin men - and yes I mean drop dead gorgeous - because I am "new meat - white meat!" Yes, sadly I have not been passing for Brazilian as often here - several people have come up to me and just said "Hi" and not "Ola", etc. But nevermind. It´s good to be a foreigner sometimes. So - I´m the new white meat. After the phrase was coined, my Brazilian friends start making fun of me, squawking like chickens. This has a fun double meaning because a "chicken" in Brazil is someone who kisses a lot. Go figure. So, I´m their little white American girl chicken mascot. There are worse problems to be had, don´t ya think?
I will try to post again tomorrow to get all of you caught up on Belo Horizonte and Ouro Preto. Love you all! Bjs Bjs Bjs! ~Katie
