Wednesday Jan 6, 2010 Part one: Sun and Water

On Monday night while were walking in our neighborhood, the same night we watched the soccer game,  we stepped into the Radisson Hotel and discovered they had a full breakfast in the mornings. We decided to have breakfast there Wednesday morning. Wednesday dawned bright and clear with sunshine.

Before we had left for Brazil, my brother-in-law Mariano had given Ernani a few contacts he thought we would enjoy hanging out with and meeting. Mariano had gone to Maceio previously a number of times to teach and also organized and led class trips to Maceio as a teacher. He met Christiano on one of those trips. We called him and met him at the hotel for breakfast.

Christiano was wonderful. Like me, his scholarly interests were in contemporay American Literature. He was pursuing a doctorate in the subject and teaching at the University.We had a lot of common interests and as we discussed the job market, we discovered the differences between the market in American and the one in Brazil. He told us about his family and his girlfriend in London. His eyes shined when he talked about her. Christiano was a wonderful Brazilian connection. We enjoyed his company and invited him to go to the passina natural with us, but he could not go. We exchanged email information.

Flavio joined us while we were eating since the plan was to go to the passina natural after breakfast. Thais could not make it this morning. The breakfast consisted of a huge buffet and was the most expensive and luxurious breakfast I have ever had. It was worth it to spend that much every once in a while. They had pastries of every kind, empanadas, breads, sweet breads, fruit, eggs and even made to order if you so desired. It was lovely. And Brazilian coffee is the best coffee ever, so I treated myself to some strong, wonderful espresso.

We stayed there a couple hours enjoying the company and conversation until it was time to go. At the beautiful entrance to the Radisson in the bright and warm sun, we said goodbye to Christiano and then went back the apartment (only a block away) to change and put on sunscreen for the passina natural, which we knew was possible today.

The night before Luciana told us a story about one time she went to the reefs. She and a group of friends had been drinking and partying and they decided to go out there one night at about midnight. When they got there, the water was ankle deep. She was the only one sober and she admired the moon light on the water. She said it was beautiful and strange to be out there in the middle of the night. She had not been there at that time before. But, everyone was drinking more and more, including the boat drivers, and the water was rising and she was getting a bit worried. She said she started to encourage everyone to leave and she was getting scared because drunks are not good listeners and of course lack judgment. She managed to convince them and now has a story to tell about her night trip to the passina natural.

We were going in the day, finally. It was exciting. We took new pictures at the new boat. The jagandas  were wood boats powered by the wind. They had a large sail and advertisers would use that space and pay a nominal fee to do so. Our boatman worked for his Uncle who had owned a few boats and rented the beach space from the city to take tourists out to the passina natural.

I joke that I grew up on a lake. We lived next to the largest lake in Illinois, Carlyle Lake, and summers were mainly camping and boating on the lake with my parents’ friends and their kids. It was a good childhood and I love boating. I love the launch, preparing for it--waiting in the scorching sun until the boat is ready to be launched. Then, as we finally move into the water, waiting to get past the no wake area so we can go fast and the wind  refresh us.  Then, the anticipation of jumping in the water, hard at first, but easy once you were in the water.

 I loved putting on the skies—slipping the rubber over each foot and finding the perfect fit—snug, but not too tight so that if I needed to I could kick them safely away. Then, the moment when my heart races and I tell the driver I am ready to go and I hear the motor kick on and then the tug of the rope as the boat moves forward quickly. There is a moment right then that you have to think by feel. I always pay attention to my body, keep it tight and in a sitting position, let the boat pull me up out of the water, not pull against the rope. Then, when I am up, I am free. I get to move, adjust the life jacket, assess and admire the waves and scenery. Check out the wake and decide when to cross it.

This was what boating meant to me. Skiing is walking on water and riding in the boat, face to the wind and the sun, was the best place in the world to be. It is a definition of happiness for me. I miss it and so being out on the water again was instant joy. We had no motor either, which was exciting and new. Plus, we were on the ocean. Not a lake big enough to sail a sail boat on, but an ocean where cruise ships traveled. I had never been on the ocean before in a boat. I was happy.

As we got closer to the reefs, the masts of the boats out there showed up on the horizon and become more prominent. We passed many boats going out to the reefs and coming back from them and even a man pulling some kayaks. Flavio told me he knew someone whose Dad kayaked out to the reefs every morning. I could not imagine a better way to start a day. When we got to the reefs, the water was about chest level and went down as we stayed out there. The initial jump into the water, we wanted to jump into the deep part and swim over to the shallow, was as usual a mind over matter issue.

We were in the ocean, many feet away from the beach, and my feet found a rocky and sandy place where I could stand. It was amazing. Ernani borrowed some goggles and saw fish he said were awesome. I never got the hang of using them, so I missed those fish. If we looked out towards the open ocean, we could see the waves crashing on the shallow reefs. There were many boats all around and lots of people. It is a big tourist area and I could not help but wonder how that impacted these reefs.

Too soon, but about an hour and a half later, it was time to go back to the beach. On the way back, I paid attention to our boat. When we arrived, the boatman detached a large beam that I associated with the rudder. He put it aside and wrapped the sail around the mast. It was neat to watch the workings of this boat without a motor. He prepared the boat to go back and we were all smiles. The sun, the sand and the wind. Who could ask for anything more?