Snippets of my big adventure in Brazil
A big adventure should always be planned way ahead… So, this was precisely how it all started. Booking hotels and flights, taking vaccines, and – of course – purchasing all the items necessary for the trip. And then we were off… off to South America!
What was the purpose of my journey? What was calling me to this new continent? I was craving to get there in a way that was very unfamiliar to me. One month around Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. What would I find there different from everything I had seen until then?
As I am about to cross into Argentina, I’m trying to gather the elements I have felt, lived, and loved in Brazil and to preserve them inside a special drawer of my heart. With my Brazilian friend by my side, who keeps on looking at the pictures we took, I start to remember…
The first time I cried when seeing capybaras in Belo Horizonte…
The trip to the incredible botanical garden/contemporary arts museum of Inhotim…
The moment I almost drowned in Serra do Cipó while trying to teach my new Mongolian friend how to swim…
The second time I saw capybaras swimming at ease while canoeing on Cipó River (just hope to see some more in Argentina and get to hug at least one)…
Taking part in ‘Baile da Saudade’, an extraordinary party in Venda Nova, playing Black Music from the 70s…
Meeting A LOT of beautiful and smart kids from poor areas of Belo Horizonte in Parque das Mangabeiras, trying to tell them stories about Romania and its people and even giving autographs!...
Getting sunstroke twice, having one flight cancelled and two of them moved, seeing the most beautiful beach of my life (Copacabana), with the amazing foamy waves included, and then nearly losing my flight to Salvador because of some traffic jams in Rio…
Surviving one very scary flight and two ‘bumpy’ boat trips (from/to Ilha de Itaparica), which reassured me that I’d never be sea sick in my life…
And then… when I got sad for not uttering one single wow during my time in Brazil, I FELL IN LOVE. Salvador captured my heart through its Black rhythms, colours, smells… I felt AT HOME. NO DANGER, NO THREATS. I even got to love the garbage in the streets and to accept the reality in the streets, although it was hard at a point to see so many homeless children without any perspectives, apart from continuing to use drugs. This is how you should love a city – in its entirety.
I had lots of expectations and the adjacent disappointments, but I will take with me the warmth and kindness of the people I met in Brazil and I will especially miss the coconut juices (côco gelado), which will be impossible to find in Romania, unfortunately.
I was told that this trip was going to change my life, and maybe it did… I will be aware of this later on, as I go on with my life and understand the way in which this adventure prepared me for all the adventures to come.
You're an incredible storyteller, Petra!
ReplyDeleteYour words had the power to take me back to all these nice moments of our great south american trip! Next time, Inhotim will receive for 8 hours at least against the hardly granted 15 minutes and the rafting on Iguazú too! :)
:) So nice to know that I did that, Vitor! There weren't 15 minutes at Inhotim, there were at least 50. :D But I'd definitely go back there.
ReplyDelete