Busca Vida (Look for Life)

Preface

After over a week without a blog entry, this is the email I received from my parents:

Subject: deadly things on coastal beaches including Rio
Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 1:14 AM

1. comb snail
found on the beaches. shell very very beautiful. if pick up, it inject poison. die very fast.
2. yellow scopion
found on sand in beaches where people are. it is found around rubblish that people gathered.
deadly. these we saw from Discovery Channel tonight.
do not walk in the sand bare footed. wear sneaker.
just a few more days you have to be careful.
we want to know where you are now, Dad said that you had not writen in your blog. worried.
mom

Awww... my mother is so sweet.  Mothers will always be mothers.  I can't help but chuckle because I've been getting these emails my whole life.

So yes, I'm still alive! I´m just busy trying to squeeze the life out of every waning second of my trip. 

Looking for Life

An Argentinian guy I met earlier in my trip said that Americans were cold.  After spending four months in South America, I see the truth in that. Margaret and I just got back from a wonderful week in the state of Bahia, in the north of Brazil.  We stayed with the parents of a Brazilian friend of ours who lives in Hawaii, Tiago, whom neither of us knows particularly well.  It completely took us by surprise how warm, generous, and loving his family and friends were to two girls they had never laid eyes on. 

There is something I can't quite put my finger on about Brazilians-- so open, passionate, fun loving.  Margaret and I danced around the living room with Tiago's sixty-three year old father, went out until 2:30 a.m. to a club with them, and shared so much good food and wine that I think I will not be hungry again for a good week. They drove us around, worried over us, and would hardly let us spend a cent.

On our second day there, Tiago's friends, Marcola and David took us to a beach called Busca Vida, just north of the city of Salvador.  "Buscar" means "to look for" in Portuguese and "vida" means "life".

The waves were too big for Margaret and I to surf, so Marcola hit the waves while the rest of us took a long walk on the beach.  Afterwards, we all decided it was time to get in the water.  The waves broke strong and fast.  I kept getting knocked over, so Marcola insisted that I learn to dive under them.  I hesitated.  Finally, he grabbed my hand and started marching me forward. 

"I´m scared..."  I said.  But it was too late.  The next big wave was already bearing down one me.  I knew that I would be battered if I didn't try to get under it.  So down I went.  And it just passed over me.  How crazy that I had never tried this before! 

The waves kept rolling in before I could readjust my bikini top to get ready for the next one.  After dunking myself under at least half a dozen, I dragged myself out.  As I snorted out the ocean through my nose, Marcola told me that I hadn't quite been doing it right, that I needed to dive more through the wave instead of just ducking them. 

It's funny, I've always struggled with that forward momentum that gets you through the rough parts. I've never been good at getting to the other side of something cleanly instead of just letting the wave crash on top of me first and then trying to right myself afterwards. 

So I'm out here in Brazil looking for life and learning to dive through the waves. 

Busca Vida.

Speaking of which, this morning I went hangliding.  Strangely enough to those of you who know me, I didn't scream at all. 

We stood at the top of the ramp. 

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"Run! Faster!" 

All of a sudden there was nothing below my feet. I didn't even make a noise or say a word. It was so quiet and peaceful.

Today, I became very jealous of birds.