Two Roads …

14 months after leaving New York City, 3 months away from our destination in Rio for Carnival, Steve and I parted ways.

I made the decision in my mind that this is what we must do. Then I made the decision that I should suggest the exact opposite. Then we made the decision.

We had just crossed the Andes and sat in the sunny green pastures that led us to the warm and pristine waters of the Brazilian coastline.

We had so little to go.

We had been told of paved highways that would red carpet Betty to our destination.

It was time.

I headed straight to a booking office and sure enough there was a flight to Sao Paolo the morning of the next day.

I booked it, this was really going to happen.

Then I remembered two Brazilian surfers that I had met 8 months ago in Popoyo, Nicaragua. We got along instantly sharing my most memorable surf of the trip together. When the sky opens up, the wind dies off, and the waves roll in perfection. Mother Magic at her kindest.

I emailed both of them and received one back from Betao. It was early Friday morning, I was about to depart for the airport. He wrote in his email that he would be in Sao Paolo on Saturday visiting his girlfriend Ana.

Arriving in Sao Paolo my world was turned upside down. Spanish was now little more than a baby’s murmur. Language was again a barrier, like starting to walk, but still we have the language of the human body that is all so recognisable, doesn’t matter where you come from. Words are similar in the English, Spanish and Portuguese language so you get by with just a little more concentration and a little more patience. Its amazing how you must listen when trying to communicate in a foreign tongue. We must listen not only with our ears, but our eyes become more attentive to facial movements and hand gestures. You start to read the human body, something we take for granted talking in our native dialect.

So I found myself arriving at a dodgy sex hotel in a downtown city street of Sao Paolo. A reflection of my character or bodily gestures I’m not sure, I think it was really the use of the word ‘barato’, which means ‘cheap’ to the taxi driver.

After check in I set out in search of food. The guy at the front desk warned me to be careful and to not wander the streets after dusk.

Stepping outside the comfort of the hotel doors, the energy of the city flooded into my veins. I felt like I had been stung by a huge spider caught in its web. I was stunned, my heart began to pound, I wanted to turn around and catch my breath within the hotel doors. My legs they wanted more.

Traffic wizzed by, noise, so much noise, yelling, screaming, tooting, screaching. Mayhem. A far cry from the world that I had just been living in, high up in the mountains, fresh air, where you can hear the cry of a bird circling above.

Graffiti lined the walls, the colour and emotion of artistic minds spreading a message from the street.

My heart continued to race. The energy of the city vibrating my calm and collectedness gained from the mountains of trees and green. All I had to do was breathe. Find my rythym and breathe in sync with it.

It was after work on Friday. I walked past lines of bars, where the noise pumped out onto the street. Looking in, people drank and smoked and lesbians kissed. This was wild. Where was I?

I circled the block and headed towards home, stopping for a coffee to ease the stomach ache of not eating and settle the nerves. I was happy to see those hotel doors again, the comfort and safety all so pleasing. But I walked past and sat at a bar and ordered some food and a beer. The bar raged, people looked at me with curiosity but really didn’t give a shit. I was an alien in another world, but this was my local, this was my home for the night. I was in Brasil.

Interesting noises bounced off the hotel walls all night, but I got my rest and met with Betao in the morning.

Its amazing how you can become good friends with someone straight away even though you don’t know each other, well… this life anyway.

Upon our meeting he suggested I check out of the hotel, he wondered how I found myself in this part of town, and we drove to his girlfriends´ house just outside the city. The reason for his being in Sao Paolo for the weekend was to attend a wedding this night.

Soon enough I shaped up in another borrowed suit, was walking into a grand ballroom and began sampling the five different flavours of Caipirinha that was available at the bar.

Then the music began - this is Samba country. I lost my feet a few times and continued to do so. So I watched in awe at the way the 6 foot tall dancing girls in one foot heels, making them seven foot tall elegantly wiggled to the beat of the drums in nothing more than a colourful shiny top, Brazilian bottoms and of course, that Brazilian bottom.

Waking in the morning I took a look in the mirror and smiled. Even through the hazy reflection I saw a look of content. I was naked not only physically, but soulfully. My river of life was flowing and I was conscious of its direction and my being here. All I had to do was breath. Steve and I had made the decision. It was always the right decision, it just depends on which way you want to look at it in your own mind. He was there constantly in thought. I wandered of his journey, I thought of his safety, then a comforting thought arose. I knew we would meet again. He was there and I was here and we were both living, breathing.

After some discussion at the breakfast table, Betao was returning back to Salvador on Monday where he and Pedro both lived. He invited me there, so this is where I must go.

People and circumstances arise in our lives for a particular reason. We may never realise this reason at the time, but there is a reason. This is why we must be here at that particular time, be present and positive in its giving. Whatever the situation we can learn from it in some way or another. We must be truthful and raw in our intent to give and receive. The energy of the world works in a magical and spiritual way, we are all connected. So no matter how alien you feel at particluar times, how lonely life can be, we can find comfort in the smallest of things, a bird whistling as it flys above, the stability of a tree, a true connection to the earths interior.

Why we continue to cut the trees that produce the oxygen that enables us to breathe amazes me.

 I flew into Salvador on a hot summers day, the city seemed to have really welcomed me. Straight away I knew that this is where I would stay for a few months, get an apartment (space of my own) and slowly drift back into city life.

I lived with the bare necessities of human life, a bed on the floor, cold running water, and candles that lit the space at night. At the end of one month my electricity bill was R3.71, thats about AU$1.70.  Having no job meant that I had time to do all that I pleased. Wake when the sun rose, walk to the beach, swim, outdoor gym, yoga, acai and fresh fruit with granola. When the washing needed to be done I would do it by hand. The family next door ran a small restaurent so that was lunch sorted. I also helped Pedro with his photography during the week. Other than that, I didn’t need much else, I was just happy being there with nothing to do.

On the weekends we (Betao, Beto, Pedro, Mauro and occasionally Shangy and Bali - only on Sundays) would head up north and go surfing followed by carangeujo, lambreta and Skol’s, many a frosty Skol’s,  which would sometimes continue into the night at a bar called Sauza Bar in Praia do Forte. This part of the world is otherwise known as ‘Paraiso.’

On one particular night at Sauza’s, between learning to dance ‘Samba’, ‘Forro’, or ’Axe,’ I met a ‘gatinha’ called Maggie in which we would soon see each other when I visited on the weekends. One morning I woke and headed out early from her apartment to check the surf. Sunglasses on, skateboard in hand, I could be no happier man…