Let’s go to the beach...

I have been 24 hours in Recife and I’m already set. Even though the city has the reputation of being dangerous and it doesn’t match the Rio de Janeiro atmosphere, Brazil always has its magic, a special touch which makes it distinct from any other Latin American country. I spent one day at the beach and if I had a camera which me, I would have made more than 50 photos and I am not a big fun of photography…. They say that 1 picture is like 1000 words, but there must be life in the landscape to make it count for so many words, and this is exactly what we are talking about… Pure life!

We start with the Boa Viagem beach and the waves breaking on submerged reef, before arriving sweetly on the very gently sloping beach… And then you put different people doing whatever they really feel like. And that can be:

-          A bunch of guys fishing, while smoking and drinking any kinds of booze (or vise versa)…

-          kids playing anyway, anyhow, including bumping or throwing sand to people, which stoically keep talking to their friends, or lie on the beach..

-          people doing all kinds of sports, beach volley, foot volley, beach tennis, running, whatever… Also every now and then they fight and make noise about the score, or if the ball was in or out, using the entire range of the ‘special’ vocabulary in Portuguese…

-          Hundreds of others, sitting, laughing, drinking and smoking on the beach.

And the most important part, which deserves a section of its own…. The ‘commercial’ activities! The kings are the owners of the barracas, improvised ‘bars’, which consist of a trolley with ice containing the ‘raw material’ (drinks, coco, lime, glasses, straws, etc…) and some beach chairs and umbrellas. And then the small sellers which sell anything, and when I say anything… you name it! Shrimps, oysters, grilled fish, different soups, grilled cheese, dried nuts, drinks, ice-cream, bikinis, towels, all kinds of t-shirts, artisanal things, paintings, are some of them.

So surrounded by this surrealistic environment it is impossible to get bored, even if you just stepped your foot and you have nobody to talk to. You close your eyes for seconds or for a small nap and you think you woke up in the stage of the most absurd theatrical play. An Arabic bazaar in a tropical beach with all kinds of Brazilians all over the place…

A dog is running like crazy and all alone from one side of the 8 km Boa Viagem beach to the other…  The fishermen are looking and laughing…  We start to talk… After 1 hour and 3 beers I start moving again… The day is almost over and people are cleaning and there are piles of empty coconut fruits everywhere…  That reminds me that I should have my third coco for today…

I love Brazil!