Monthly Archives: November 2011

Bruises and Brazilazies

Right now I’m so freakin bruised that I’ve forced myself to take a few days out of the water, so that the wounds can hopefully heal. But Taiba is a place where nothing’s going on except from watersports… No Eiffel tour, NIKE-stores or Michelain-starred restaurants. And no authoritative guidebooks telling you what “you have to see”…. Well, this is Taiba for ya: People sitting in the streets or layin’ in their hammocks, chatting up doing nothing, fishermen waiting for high tide, kiters waiting for wind, surfers waiting for waves. And people waiting for (slow)food. It takes forever to get served here. But the waiting is not waiting in the sense where you go crazy cause the till-line infront of you isn’t moving. No it’s more like chillin.

I’m inspired (#6) by these “Brazilazies”. I guess you won’t need to be in the buzz of Tokyo or NYC for inspiration refill… On the contrary you can get headroom for creativity to flourish when bored. I’m kinda enjoying it, and wanna remind myself of doing more of nothing also when at home. Meaning nothing as in no TV, no books, no nothing. And when starting to get bored, I’ll be doing that (nothing) for just a little bit longer…

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And so came Stefan & Anne

My last sentence in an earlier post: Stefan & Anne, let’s meet up again!! And so we did. They came to Taiba from Jericoacoara last night and the first one they bump into in a remote crosstreet: Moi. We had dinner together and catched up since that planeride two weeks ago. They had met this swedish boy in Jeri, who told’em he’s gonna celebrate x-mas in Taiba with someone whos grandmother has a house there. It turns out he knows my couisins. How super random. And cool. The more the merrier!

Hohoho, and sweet to “meet” you Jonas. Let’s celebrate a very merry jolly x-mas together. Are we prehaps gonna have a meatball-eating Santa with a swedish accent this year?

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Dinner for two +

In fact, dinner for 23. At mine, last night. Planned, shopped and cooked in 4 hours and thereby the recordholder. The menu: garlicbread grilled with coriander and cheese, chicken curry, rice, roasted cashews and mango-salad. The people: Norwegians in one end rose-wining and nocarb-dining. Americans on the other end shotgunning (beer-downing college-style), and the frenchies and englishmen right there in the middle. It was good times, and even better times when the mingling started.

Ma it wasn’t another party -just dinner, so don’t worry.

Oh, and I don’t have any pics of the dinner, so here’s one of two locals who came by today -Renato and Pedro.

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Roadtripping

This weekend: Roadtripping with Katie, a girl who owns and runs the kiteschool and “Pousada Revolution”, the most chilled hangout in Taiba. It has that special welcoming feel to it, and so has she. A really fun(ky), laidback chick from the UK who seems to be taking care of everyone that passes her way. And she’s definately drawing up her own trails, with good genes. Her father was the bassplayer of the Animals and a musicproducer.

Get this one: He was the one who discovered Jimmy Hendrix and made him a star. How supercool is that! Cool cat, with a cool dad.

The two of us filled up her boogie with kitegear and drove south to a larger buzzier Taiba, Cumbuco. It was a big kitesurf competition there with lots of smily windaddicts hanging around. We kited ourselves, watched the pros and joined the party. Skinnydipping, pool bathing and dancing all night long. It turned out to be a pretty damn good legendary party this one. Jeeez.

Katy, has for allmost 6 years now, created a place with so much charm and good vibes that I would say it’s the heart and soul of Taiba. And she is only 29. Inspirational (#5) this one… I give her a big fat “like”.

Oh, and by the way -all good roadtrips gets at least one flat tire, no?

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Avatar pole-dancing and worldy pro’s

Alone-time finished, for now. Henriette aka Henry, Brus, Brusen, Basse, Brusebass, arrived and will stay for the next few weeks. How sweet is it to have an old friend in my Taiba! Also I’ve gotten to know a group of kitesurfers that rents at Matthiew’s. They are all very independent; One, an Indian liverspecialist in Toronto, one American having a shoe factory in Italy and another being a healthcare-investor circulating between three homes in NYC, Tahoe and Switzerland. We figured she knows my friends J.C in Verbier and Mikkel Bang (the snowboarder)! What a teeny boppy tiny world we live in, which never ceases to amaze me. Matthiew, a frenchman who owns for the 15th year, the biggest kiteschool in Europe, Tarifa Spain, hence being the Godfather himself. Then there is a group of pro kiters, riding for the international teams of BEST and Liquid Force. They call themselves the NA-blends, as they’re mainly North Americans. They travel around the world but are staying in Taiba for a few months filming “The moustache rides”. Two days ago all of us were at a Halloween-party at the Pousada Revolution, dressed up. An avatar turned out to be a poledancer and gave a full-on demonstration, while Salvador Dali spinned the music. I tried to take over the DJ’ing for a while, but got totally dismissed. It came to be a late night. But we were all invited for dinner at Matthiews last night, and lobsters and fresh fish was sizzling on the grill. Yummy… For the tummy. Pluss I won a bet with one of the pro’s, appearantly one of the worlds best, Brendan Scheid. Therefore, today he’s giving me some pointers. Hiiihaaaa!!! So going for that now. But before I “hang up” -purple thought and a new inspiration (#4): My new friends seems to share the identification of being “men/women of the world”, rather then to the limited geografics of a land inside a scattered line on the map. We’re all, by the wind or the stork or whatever, set by birth into a country, a city, a hospital, a street. But in adulthood we’re all granted with the freedom of choosing the place in which we are most alligned. I definately believe one part of me belongs to a place close to the ocean, somewhere warm (but also in the mountains). I get soooo much positive energy from being here! Loving it <3

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Being purple

There will be plenty of people, so this past week here, I’ve tried to be much alone… I’ve had time to sleep, read, walk my morning-walks, kitesurf, meditate, drink agua di coco (coconut-water). And think. Yeah I’ve definately had time to think. And I’ve asked myself why do I and so many others wish to travel? Everyone dreams of being somewhere else, somewhere warmer, somewhere tropical distant from home. Where the palmtrees stretches in unequal positions on the white beach, to get a better angle of the sun. Like here in Taiba… But what is the motive? The climate? That noone knows you? The escape from home? Or the not escape, but rather the following of ones needs? Everyone says “I wish I was there…”. But what about “I wish I was here…?” It doesn’t matter if you’re somewhere tropical if your mind is not present, if your mind is allready wandering off to some new destination. And if you’re mood is down you won’t enjoy any aesthetics. You’ll rather be insulted by the external perfection of the Tropicana. I guess we somewhat expect happiness to come naturally in perfect surroundings, but it is still only to be found inward. I haven’t found the answer of my own motives for travelling but I am going to work on and remember (#3) staying present in the presence. And therefore this blog is more for me than for anyone else. But by having an “appointment” with this, of putting what’s-going-on into words, it is more likely to be done. And I need that push since I haven’t written anything except from shopping-lists and work-stuff over the past 10 years. And I enjoy finally writing again. It might be a bit purple and eat-pray-love-ish, or in my situation kitesurf-morningwalk-meditation-ish. But why the hell not? :)

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