Scrolling
back in time: Bahia seems a while ago and all feels different after swopping places, friends and
lifestyle. I’m still in Brazil, which is not weird at all, considering that the
country is bigger than Europe. I'm not ready to leave at all. Time – as always – is way ahead of me and runs faster than my daily acaï goes down.
Acaï love
Acaï* is my favourite new addiction, especially after an attempt to surf, it becomes my favourite moment of the day. Everything is just better with acaï. Said to be ‘good for you’, because of the anti-oxidants that the acaï berry originally contains, but almost all of them are sugar bombs in disguise. Even if you wouldn't overload it with all the candies and syrups in the self-service bars; a McFlurry might be healthier.
I could go on about acaï forever and tell you how good it is in its standard set-up with granola and banana, but also about the wonderful combination with coconut, paçoca*, mango, chia and cacao. But let’s not, because carnival is also a Very Important subject. Duh. In Recife and Olinda we were promised to have a more local celebration, following Brazilians resources. And even though there must have been more gringas then just us, we indeed felt like the only ones for most of the time.
Carnival kisses & trash
Olinda’s street
parties had a young and intimate crowd. The carnival kiss is a common thing and
one should not worry about asking silly questions such as ‘Where are you from?’ or ‘What’s your name?’ beforehand.
Approach, smile and if you’re a decent cara
(meaning ‘dude’ mais ou menos), you can try asking for one first. Or if you’re
badass, get closer (if you can get any, being in the middle of a
one way moving pile of people) and go for it.
In case you're the one that's almost being kissed
and it's undesired; duck (or) dive. They will say 'But it's carnival!!!!' and that you're missing out on getting to know the Brazilian culture, but at least you won’t end up
with the after carnival flu. Or a baby in this year November’s baby boom.
Carioca,
samba, maracatu and frevo: me being a complete idiot when it comes to dance, I still wouldn’t know what is what, but it
was fun either way. I adore the seemingly never-ending party mode/ mood and people dancing, drinking, laughing everywhere you look and sharing that energy with
everyone.
It's almost the same as a week long Kingsday*** with a heat stroke.
Sad to see
though, that like in most other places I’ve been, these cities also struggle
with processing all the garbage. I’m not too sure about how much the government is to blame here, but I still believe there are things that people can do differently themselves. But I
guess that as long as moms with kids keep throwing empty water bottles and
cans of Coke and crisp bags out of the window of a driving bus, it will take time to make today's people and the following generation aware (and give a shit).
City – beach – city – beach
It's a
wonderful rhythm to me. So after carnival craze came Maracaipe, a small beach town
next to another beach town, Porto de Galinhas****. The latter again very much
promoted by Brazilians. We couldn’t see the glory of it, as we couldn’t look
past the amount of parasols, which made walking on this beach almost
impossible. The advertised natural pools were overflowing by groups of people
in UV protection shirts, wading through them and following a guide, like a
group of elephants following the leader of the hurd through a puddle in the desert, which
I personally am not a great fan of. But Maracaipe itself had pretty beaches and
great sunsets to enjoy. The hostel had strong Wi-Fi so I could actually get
some work done AND it has a place selling acaï that ended up in my personal top
5. So everything was still just perfect.
BH90210
Back to Boa
Viagem, the uptown part of Recife, for a bit of Beverly Hills 90210 living
before moving further north. Perhaps a little less shiny than The States, but
it seems like a quite wealthy area with condominiums and private parking lots, massive 24/7 supermarkets, hipster
coffee bars and healthy salad bars around.
I enjoyed having a dip in the roof top pool or doing morning yoga right next to it, overlooking the ocean’s shades of
blue. No dips or water sports in this one though, as this is shark territory. Instead
I had evening runs and workouts on the boulevard. The palm trees I looked up to
while running, have a fake-ish moonlit wet-look; as if they had just returned from a
quick shower.
After
parting ways with my longest travel friend so far, this time not knowing when we will see each
other again, Recife was the perfect place to ease into being on my own again.
Luckily it turned out that I'm still pretty damn good at it! Like now, living probably my favourite way of living in Pipa-Paradise. Touristy yes, but it's easy to get away from the crowd and enjoy all of this gem's beauty in relative peace. And… when dolphins pop up right next to you when you're in the ocean every day, you kind of forget about anything that doesn't fit in your magical place.
More on Pipa's magic & more next time.
* A frozen,
sorbet ice cream-ish fruit puree of the acaï berry that originates from the
Amazonian region and is very big in Brazil.
** Peanut
butter candy
*** My
favourite national holiday in Holanda
**** When new slaves were brought into 'Chicken port' together with actual birds, slave traffickers would secretly spread the news by saying 'there are new chickens in the port'. This explains the city's name. To me it doesn't explain why you would still proudly want to sell chicken souvenirs everywhere...
