9am
Seconds before leaving behind the room I spent the last two nights in. I booked this room (Albergue Backpackers) through hostelbookers.com, even though people who had stayed there and left a review for future visitors to read, made the rooms sound as if they hardly ever get cleaned up. On the other hand, everyone who had stayed there, had a good word to say for Gisele, the young woman who runs the place. As for cleanliness, well, let me put it this way: if you've backpacked in India, NO negative comment regarding a hostel's cleanliness (or lack of) makes you sweat... If you ask me, I'd stay here again, even though before going to sleep the first night, I had to kill a big spider hanging over the part of the bed where my head would be while sleeping. For your information, I spared the other spiders (a whole... family of them) that were occupying the rest of the ceiling corners. What harm could they be?... Gisele WAS sweet and helpful, and I made sure to let Lonely Planet know, once I made it back home (you send them your impressions from a trip during which you have used a guidebook of theirs, you "reward" a nice place you stayed at or "punish" a bad one, you get a 20% discount code for next time you shop online on their website, AND you get to see your name at the back of their next edition of the guidebook you've reported on. Talking about a win-win-win situation...).
10:30
I always take a picture just before getting on a bus/train/plane/boat, leaving behind a place I have spent time at, for the same reason, I guess, I always take pictures of hotel/pension/hostel rooms I've slept in. The way I see it, it's something like a "goodbye", one last look before you turn your back for good, move on, close a small chapter and get on the road to soon open another one. When I don't take a last minute picture of a room or a place, it is a sign that I will try to forget it as soon as I can, not because there was something wrong with the room/place itself, but because things happened there, things I would prefer to erase from my memory. Does it work? Of course not... A bad memory, let alone traumas, are always there... The healthy way to deal with them, is to accept them as parts of life. The immature and silly way to deal with them (in other words... MY way of dealing with them), is to pretend they never happened...
2pm
For two days in Fortaleza, every time someone would ask me where I'd go next, he/she would seem surprised and look at me with a face expression screaming out loud "what's wrong with you?!" That's because I told everyone I was going east to Canoa Quebrada, and not west, to Jericoacoara. Both places are described as little coastal paradises on earth, but... let me put it this way: if these two places where museums in Madrid, Jeri would be "El Prado", and Canoa Quebrada would be "Reina Sofía"... If they were Milan's football teams, Jeri would be AC Milan and Canoa would be Inter... If they were pop music singers, Jeri would be Madonna, and Canoa would be Britney Spears (I can't believe I just used Spears as an example in my blog...). See my point? "Reina Sofía", Inter and Britney are great in their... categories, but they are not "El Prado", AC Milan and Madonna. Still, for my own reasons, I chose Canoa, and I was highly rewarded, more than what I could have ever dreamed... This picture is from my room. It was love at first sight...
3pm
I arrived at Canoa without having made any reservation. Mid June, middle of the week, this is as low season as it gets in Canoa Quebrada, so, needless to say, I was the only tourist on the bus. Luckily, as I got off the bus, a woman in her 40s approached me and asked me in Portuguese if I needed some room. Same moment, she started showing me pictures of this super cool place with great rooms, a piscine(!) and everything, so I tried to tell her in my close to non existent Portuguese that it should be too expensive for me. "Vinte reais", she said(!!!). Twenty reais (mind you, one euro is about 2.6 reais). "Vinte?!" asked shocked Dimitris. "Vinte", she repeated. Too good to be true, but it was... God bless low seasons... I followed Alexandra to her "pensão", and we spent those five minutes walking, with me sounding all cocky about how she has a name that is Ancient Greek (poor woman... Middle of the day, damn hot, all she wanted was to find a client, and there she was, having to survive a history lesson...). An hour later, I am walking on the beach, having these cliffs on my right, one of Canoa's "trademarks".
3:10pm
As already mentioned, this is low-low-low season in Canoa Quebrada, and that's not all. It is also the middle of the week. If I was here to party, if this is why I had come to Canoa, I would be in deep sh...trouble. Early in the morning, you are running late for work, you walk to the place where you have parked your car, you approach it, try to find the keys, they are nowhere, you realize you may have lost them, and what's even more, you see that the driver's window is broken, someone has smashed it and stolen your brand new CD player. Now you have to call your insurance, squeeze your head to remember where the f...heck you have left the keys, AND prepare the little excuse speech you'll need to give your boss for running late. How worse can it get?... Luckily, I'm here just to... enjoy a quiet day walking on a cool sandy beach, so...
3:20
Ok, I just lied... This is not really why I am here. I am here because... gosh, I am almost ashamed to admit it... I am here, at this so advertised place, at this little piece of land which countless Brazilians and foreign tourists are dreaming of visiting one day, only because I wanted to break in two the bus journey from Fortaleza to Natal. There you go, I said it... If you think about it, it's nothing less than an insult... It's like your girlfriend gives you her favourite t-shirt as a gift, as a sign of love, and what you do with the t-shirt is use it to dust off your furniture... Shame... Well, I'd never do that with a piece of cloth someone would give me as a gift, but... shoot me, I'm not a fan of this kind of places, Canoa and Jericoacoara are not... my thing, I just want to get to Natal, but I detest (read my lips, D E T E S T I say), buses, so I need to break the journey in two. This is why I am here, and... Ok, up to 10%, maximum, for a second reason...
3:30
This is my 10% (hardly that...) second reason. I read in my guidebook that you can find sand dunes in Canoa, and that's something I would like to see. Sand dunes are not that common in Greece, so... you know... whatever you are not that used to, attracts your attention, your interest, and if going to a place where you can enjoy it is piece of cake, then... why not? Here I am almost at the top of the sand dune, and trust me, it feels... special. You are at the top of a sand hill, you have the Atlantic Ocean on one side, a cute little village on another side, and an endless green sea of trees on yet another side, not to mention a glorious sky. On top of that, you are here all alone, something I consider a blessing and a curse, depending on the occasion. The way I see it, solitude is a blessing when YOU choose IT, and a curse when IT chooses YOU. Here, now, for me it's a blessing...
3:50
This pedestrian street is the very heart of the village. If it was high season, this place would be jam packed with people. If it was, at least, low season but weekend, it would still have lots of people. Now? Now it has a couple of locals, me, and shop keepers who (I bet) are ready to fall asleep, if it hasn't happened already... I'm on my way back to my room, and I have already made an unprecedented decision... I have a fantastic room, the Brazilian/Italian couple that runs the place have Italian CDs playing all the time (as the Italian guy told me), it's quiet, the beach is loooooooooooooong, the sand hill is impressive, I feel sooooooooo relaxed, so... what's keeping me from staying here an extra day? Nothing, actually. Who would have thought?... I came here to break my bus trip to Natal in two, and I fell for this place that much as to decide to spend an extra day(!). Who?! The one who cannot stand this kind of "coastal paradises". I guess there is a first time for everything, no?
4:40
The Italian guy is glad to hear that I want to stay an extra night. I am one of the two, only, people staying here (the other one is some Brazilian in his 40s), so my 20 reais for the extra night are very welcomed. The sun no longer hits the water of the pool, it's a little chilly, but who cares? I have a whole (Ok, a small one) pool for myself, the small yard is surrounded by palm trees which I LOVE, it feels "wow", so I'm not missing this chance. Coming to Brazil I didn't intend to swim in the sea, and most definitely I didn't think I would stay at some place with a pool, so I haven't even brought swimming shorts. Big deal... A pair of underwear will do the job... You CANNOT skip using the pool when you are staying at a place with one. This is... 1+1=2, and I am not that good in mathematics, but I'm good enough to know this...
5pm
Picture taken from the door of my room. It's "that" time of the day, the time that the sun has come that down as to make all colours seem warmer... I use to say this is my favourite time of the day, and especially when I'm traveling I catch myself thinking sometimes that I wish I had a button I could push to make time stop, freeze, so I could enjoy the colours as warm as now, for an indefinite period of time. Then again, maybe it's a good thing that dreamy situations don't last for too long, that there is no button we can push to make time freeze. Would we appreciate those occasional little magic moments if they were the rule and not only the exception to the rule?...
6:30pm
This pizza and a coke are going to cost me as much as a night's accommodation, but there is this pizza place I saw on my way from the bus stop to my room, and then again in the afternoon, and... well, the... sneaky people who run the place make sure to break your nose with the smell, so... I didn't think twice before surrendering to the inevitable. Needless to say, I am the only customer, which comes with all its pros and cons. Pros? I don't need to wait other people's pizzas to be prepared first. The pizza is brought to me by a cute young woman who seems to be running the place, and she puts it on my table with a smile on her face, while, I guess, if the place was full, she would be running from table to table, too busy to smile and wish customers to enjoy their pizza. Cons? I don't handle attention that well. I prefer going unnoticed, I prefer being "invisible". Once my order is prepared, the three women who are working here have nothing more to do, and every now and then I notice them looking at me, say something and giggle, not in an offensive way, but still... you know, I feel awkward. They look at me as if they are thinking "did he lose his path? What is he doing here THIS time of the year?" Luckily, another woman comes soon, she is with her daughter, an aaaaadorable little creature, and everyone's attention turns to the kiddo. Unfortunately, even the kiddo's attention is drawn by this weird looking guy who is sitting alone at some corner, so there we go again, another round of "aaaah, those silly tourists who don't know when is the right time to be here" giggles...
Late afternoon and early night are going to be spent with the Italian guy who is running the place I'm staying at. I am trying to resurrect from my memory my Italian, I do a lousy job, but somehow I make myself understood. I begin a sentence and the Italian chap somehow senses my thoughts and finishes up the sentences for me... He doesn't miss Italy that much, he loves spending his days in a hammock, loves the weather and the slow pace of life here. He's not after making a fortune, he says he leads a peaceful and carefree life, and looks genuinely content, as almost in a state of nirvana... He's not that young, he must be in his early 50s... I wonder, an Italian businessman who lives in Milan, has his driver driving him to work every day in his luxurious Alfa Romeo, works non stop to make his fortune grow and buy another summer house at Sorrento, another yacht, maybe a small castle in Scotland, having hardly any spare time to stand still for a moment, look out of his wall to wall office glass and enjoy the view from the 60th floor of his company's skyscraper, is he happier than this guy who spends his days wearing simple shorts, an old looking t-shirt, listening to music while lying in a hammock?...
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