It’s backrollday!!! Meaning I’m practicing 360 degree backward jumps with my new young loverboy: A short & fast neon-colored Liquid Force board (standing stoutly to the right of the photo. On the left, meet my older but oh so handsome “good-karma-board”). <3
Farewell to you Ilha do Guaijiru. Hello Jericoacoara!
Here are some pictures from our morningwalk in Paracuru. Another little village with plenty of kiters (brilliant oceanspot especially at low tide) and laidback fishermen. We were here last week, but I was just slow with posting these photos…
Last night we went to Circus Fantastico in Itarema, the nearest village of Ilha do Guajiru (where we’re at now). Introduced by the classical deep MC-voice, through the haze of popcorn and dust, flames and colored lights; an obese female midget danced sexydance, a midget kid flipped around doing little M.Jackson-ish dancemoves and a male midget danced with an older man. There were also trapese artists, a clown, a young boy dressed as a tranvestite and a dachs doing trix. It was all pretty odd… Jens (the hitchhiker), Jamie (a Bob Marley-look-alike from Colombia), Scott (from USA), Maggie and I, were seated frontrow. And besides us, the audience were all the kids in the village and liquor-drinking adults, shifting between laughing-out-loud and being in awe. After the show the circus-artists themselves were selling popcorn and beer in the stalls outside the tent. So the whole bunch of us were outside when Maggie says she was feeling dizzy.
A fraction of a second later, she disappears in the arms of Bob Marley and myself. She’s out, fainting. We get her in a chair and she awakes a moment later surrounded by; (besides us), the obese sexydancing midget, the male- and the kid-midget, the trapese artists, the transvestite, the clown and the dachs, all staring at her.
She was surely the star of the final act. Surreal!!! But no worries mates… Maggie was only dehydrated and some water-downing later, she was all good.
Right now: Waiting for high-tide in Ilha do Guajiru, Scott and Maggie are kiterepairing and the white rabbit is suntanning.
… And so much more.
The world’s fifth largest country (population 201 million), with an array of natural and cultural wonders, rainforrest, buzzing cities, sanddunes, islands surrounded by reefs and rich aquatic life, big surf, windy kitesurf, thundering waterfalls, dazzling and deserted beaches. Enchanting carnevalrythmic nightlife, lazy daylife, amazing wildlife and a culturally diversed; rich/ poor, favela/ middleclass, indigenous/ big-city, Catholic/ Evangelistic, capoeirapracticing/ footballplaying/ sambadancing -Brazilian life.
With so much going for them, it is not so strange that the Brazilians say “Deus e Brasileiro” (God is Brazilian)…
And allthough the poverty, social ills and violence looms, the country is booming. With less unemployment, record numbers of new jobs, rising economy, and former president Lula’s antipoverty programs that are helping a large number of the worst-offs. I would love to understand everything about this positive, energetic place, but it will take a lifetime to travel all around “the great land of the future”. I guess I don’t have that much time…
But, as a start, and for the next few weeks, Maggie and I are gonna roadtrip through the 800km+ stretch of the beautiful Ceara-coastline. Starting the engines and taking off now, we’ll keep you posted on our pitstop-stories. So long, and broooom!
In the hammock again, in the sunrise… Listening to my goodstuff-playlist naturally remixed with the sound of waves. When facing the sublime immensity of the ocean it gets me thinking of the tiny unimportant space I occupy on this planet. And how little I know of the rest of the spaces, and how little these spaces knows of me. And why do I carry this particular space and not another? Or why now, and not then?
Being so little here compare to the grand sea kinda makes me feel the need for believing in a greater force that also minime can be a part of. An infinite pool of energy for all of us to float in. So that we’re not just single creatures who eat shxx and die after 80/90-some years…
For some reason this urge to believe in something, hardly ever crosses my mind in the city. As if I somehow feel more “on-top-of-it” in the trivialities at home. Maybe it’s because we can understand better the manmade world, as oppose to the unsolved mysteries of nature. But here with the ocean as inspiration #10 I am feeling a combo of humiliation and awe…
So, Ms Ocean/ Mr.Nature/ Mrs.GF (Greater Force) you are one cool dude, black woman, Asian kid or whatever you are. I hope I can be part of you when I grow up.
Btw, this is the only picture I have of me (after one month travelling). And this is Henriette’s photo. I have to take more pics of people. I see that…
I have gotten a passion for a sport that I began flirting with only a few years ago. But I’m wondering what it is about kitesurfing that makes me wanna chase the wind and be directed by tide for much of this trip. Well, trying to put words on to it… I am fascinated by the fact that the sport depends fully on the elements. After rain, light wind follows. During times of full moon and high tide, nice flat-water conditions rise in the tidal-lagoons. And strips of coastal reefs, creates (shallow) pools at low-tide… You need wind, and preferably not off-shore, not too strong nor light, and not too gusty -wind. Pluss water, not choppy or too wavy -water. And a spacious non-rocky spot for launching. In one way all of this fuzz could be regarded as cons rather than pros. But I think it’s sweet (most of the time) that the elements dictate, and you patiently stick around. And when conditions are good, like often here in Ceara, North-East Brazil, you can jump in it and interact with the playground of nature. It is a pretty amazing feeling moving fast, fast, fast forward on the ocean-surface solely moved by Mr. Windguru. I am definately still a beginner in this sport, and that’s maybe why I like it so much (allthough I’m really frustrated at times). I feel that childish joy by trying something new. By falling, falling again, being bruised, hating and retrying. And then master it -allthough with babysteps. It also feels meaningful to be travelling for something sporty and healthy for body and mind, that I can combine with culture. Rather than just culture. Sporty destinations also tends to attract good crowds. Drunk, pale tourists won’t necessarily stick around… So still soul- and wind-searching, with hardly no drunken non-sporty tourist around. My bruise is ducktaped and I’m trying again. Today’s lesson: Jumping!
Btw; at sunrise before morningwalk and breakfast I started and finished the easily-read book Jonathan The Seagull. A tale of a seagull who learnt how to fly high and take his own route, hence being turned off by his flock.Thanks Hanne for the sweet and enriching book! I wanna continue to push myself (#9) and stick with this sport and other tasks that sometimes seems frustrating and unreachable. I don’t have to be good at whatever-it-is, but there is something really rewarding with staying with it and then finally progress.
Dear xxx,
It’s been a few days now since my last post. And there are still no major headlines from here. I must dissapoint you in not having any Machu Puchu-hikes or indigenous sleep-overs to write home about. Yet… Maybe that will come later. But until now, the days have been pretty routinal… Here are the local news from this week, in short. The most actionfilled event: I swallowed half the sea (fighting the board and the kite) on yesterdays “downwinder”, which means you are kiting downwind from one destination ending up somewhere else. The most heroic passbyer: A true survivor of a Great white shark attack. Half of his upperbody was scarred… With the visibel signs of large teeth and a dreadful bite. But he, seemingly fine after the accident, is happily back in the water. Then some (not so actionfilled but oh so cozy) family-news: My sweetest mum and grandparents arrived last week. Happytimes!!! And lastly, no news but a fact: Today I’m having office hours (from the hammock). I need to book my flights for early january when I’ll be leaving Brazil. I am thinking the following: To fly to Colombia and stay there a few weeks (that works for both kiting and culture), then do a mountain-treck somewhere, maybe Venezuela? And then prehaps some more stops on the way up Central America before heading to Hawaii. What to do folks? I should book a few flights now as the prices rockets. And I find it hard to choose which country to visit. I know it is not my only one chance to choose destinations from this candyshop of a planet, but I wanna do it right this time… So if anyone actually reads this and can give me some pointers, please shout. Any kind of tips and shares are greeted with mucho (air)hugs and love…
Yours truly xxx
Photography is an attempt of trying to posess the beauty in a moment. An attempt of actively and consciously capturing what it is in that excact time & place that moves us, and makes us wanna owe a squared piece of it for our albums. But photography can also be the alternate of paying attention to the surroundings, as the camera shoots them anyway. I have allways been crap at taking pics, but pretty good at seeing, smelling, feeling, tasting and posessing them for my inner-harddrive. But since these capturings have only been stored in my mind, I don’t know which of them has, or will fade… So I’m working on it (to take more photos) and I’ve gotten better. This morning Maggie and I assigned ourselves to shoot details in the beachwalk, and try to capture a bit of the totality.
By actively looking (#8) for details and visually describing them, we saw many new shades in the morning-routine, also in the neighboring “hood”.
A guy who has been around the bruised block quite a few times before, scared me off this morning by saying I’ll probably get a “man-scar” if I don’t get my wound more healed. I saw this as my sign to take yet another day out of the S.E.A. So instead: Reiki is a Japanese spiritual practice that uses a palm healing technique to transfer universal energy (reiki) that is meant to bring self-healing and a state of equilibrium. Hideoshi, a Japanese-Brazilian, offers surflessons, hot stone massage and Reiki. He comes around with aloe vera leaves (for my wounds) and fresh mint (for tea) from his garden, and does his third degree Reki-practice on me. I can feel the warmth of his hands long before he first touches my forehead, so it’s pretty Buddhalicious. But I’m not sure if it’s special reiki-power or if it’s purely the gentle touch of anyones hands that are making that healing feeling. For sure I believe that some simple energy-sharing and touch can do wonders, also in the non-spiritual citylife. Remember that girl (#7)! So thanks for your healing hands Hideoshi. And dearest, O thy Windguru, please give me a healed bruise and fun times in the waves tomorrow. Amen & Namaste!
Yesterday at about 11am on the 11th 2011 we picked up Maggie at the airport in Fortaleza. She’s staying for 5 weeks. Happiness!!! At around 11pm om the 11th 2011 we went to celebrate the fullmoon in the lagoon. People were kiting in the moonlit still-water. We watched. Today, another day out of the water. Hopefully the last… But another day of celebration.
Greetings and love is hereby sent with the Brazilian hot wind to you Martine (namesister and b-day kid), and also to you guys at the surprise 30th party tonight. How kind of you to organize this Kristin, Madde, Frida -and more. Speaking from the three of us (Maggie, Henry and I), we wish we could be with you now, not only in spirit. But hope you’ll get our “telegrams”? May you have a happy happy b-day. And in fact many other happy days. Caipi-cheers under the same moon Xxx
And to you Bruusebassen, now aka kitesurf-queen: I can’t believe you’re allready leaving tomorrow… Taiba baby and myself will miss you. Aloha to you my friend!!! Keep on cruizin.
