BLOG 9: OUR DAY

So as we told you yesterday, our days have been somewhat standardized, although every day brings us new inspiration and more text on the page. So today we decided to photograph our walk to the beach as well as our typical day there.

The walk begins with our first glimpse of the sea, which we see from the crosswalk, which is conveniently located just outside our hostel...


We then have a nice wide sidewalk that leads down towards the sea...



Down, and down, and down....



But when you reach the bottom, there is a great boardwalk that runs the length of the beach to the sand dune. This is a view looking down to the beach from the boardwalk...




At the base of the hill and the start of the boardwalk is Cafe Guaraná. This is where we come every morning after our yoga for our ritual breakfast...


They serve a huge helping of Acai, which for those of you who have been wondering, looks like this!



It's a fruit. Served in a frozen sorbet style, with some bananas and granola... YUMMO!!!!


As you can see, we are happy here.

Its not such a bad view from the breakfast table, either...








After breakfast, we walk down to the beach, and rent two chairs, and purchase copious amounts of coconuts (green, to drink the agua da coco) from these fabulous men- father and son, in the middle and right, who humor our pathetic portuguese with a smile...




After awhile of reading and writing, we go for a long walk up to the sand dune on the far end of the beach, sporting our stunner shades...



we pass lots of vendors (see blog 8) as well as mobile DJ's- pushing carts full of CD's and tricked out with huge subwoofers to blast music along the beach (sorry, no photo yet!).

At the far end of the beach, the locals pull out their boats for repairs. The boats are all really colorful, and sometimes the owners seem to coordinate their attire...



On our walk back to the chairs, there is a fantastic view of the Ponta Negra skyline...



Because it is winter here, the sun sets low on the horizon by early afternoon- so by 3:30 we are off back to the hotel to shower, change, and begin writing. Dinner is normally then consumed at Taiyo Japanese restaurant, just across the street.

We love it here, because they have tofu, and yummy miso soup. We have been almost every night. The one night we decided to try the only other veggie option, the italian place down the road, we bumped into the Taiyo waitress, on our way home. She gave us big hugs in the street and asked where we had been. We felt like traitors, but explained, we needed to swap out the sake for some wine for a night. She understood. We went to Taiyo that next night.

The italian restaurant, Pizza y pasta, has little pineapple plants growing in the window box...nice and some great Chilean wine... but we only have a picture of the pineapples...


So, that's our day really. After dinner, its back to the hammocks for some serious writing sessions until the wee hours. Not a bad ending to a not so shabby day.
Hope you've enjoyed the tour. We'll write again soon with more fabulous photos of this fabulous place, cuz we have decided to stay until Friday... can you blame us?

lots of love, laughter, and may you too one day share in the delights of Acai for breakfast!!!!
OM

BLOG 8: THE VENDOR EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Hello everyone. We're sorry its been awhile since we last posted. It has been a busy week for us, though not alot of action-related events to post! As some of you know, we are here in Brazil working on our screenplay, which is about two years in the making now. So that it won't be three years, we have decided to buckle down and get our writing done. We have found a great daily routine, which we will be depicting in the next blog. For now, we thought we would focus on the highlights of Ponta Negra Beach, in Natal, Brazil, and its fabulous vendors...

See, when you're on the beach, and obviously a tourist, all the sudden, there are hundreds of things that you "must need and must have". Just to list a few of them, we snapped some photos the other day of those that approached us within a half hour period...

First, we have the sunglass man. Not really all that unexpected, and it makes sense to have somebody selling sunnies on the beach. however, he continues to push glasses on your everyday, even the cloudy ones, until you finally give in. Then he starts pushing alternative colors... He is quite persistent (yes, we bought two pairs today...sigh.)

Next we have the jewelery vendors. Definitely not as intrusive as the sunnies man, but still a regular. There are several of them, actually, one being a beautiful older rasta woman. The other is a young hippy guy, who's sweet smile easily convinced us that we "needed" to buy two anklets for ourselves, from him. Sigh.





But just in case you are starting to think we are weak, we have so far resisted the temptations of not only the sarong man,



and the hat man...



and the sandalwood man...



but also the boat man...


Of course, these material items are much more easily declined then those of a food vendor. Please note, that Chicken HEART seems to be a favorite. gross.
At first, we were not very tempted because we only saw people eating meat of various varieties on sticks. These evidently delicious skewers were often munched by folks sitting in the surf zone. We think perhaps the salty spray may enhance the flavor.


Of course, these were washed down with a selection of beverages supplied by the local, mobile bar- our favorite: Hula Hula.



We were of course THRILLED when we discovered that not all meat vendors are created equal. And some chose to offer the most fabulous culinary art of the Pria:...QUEIJO!!



This is cheese on a stick, bar-b-qued to perfection. It looks like a toasted marshmellow but tastes like heaven...Legao!

We now no longer have to feel ostracized from the world of tasty snacks on sticks. Isn't life grand???
Another vegetarian option we have not yet had the chance to partake in, is the Fruit man. But we hope to soon...





Our favorite vendor we have yet to photograph- he is the coconut man. It is actually a coconut family, really, and they will be protrayed in the next blog with the utmost respect...

So, we hope you have enjoyed a tour of the vendors of Pria Ponta Negra . We sure have enjoyed their company over the week. Amusing, tasty, and very very persistent.

May your summer bring you time at the beach, and perhaps, if you are lucky, some tasty goodness on a stick. We promise to write more often and post the next blog before the week is out!

Lots of love.
Bon Noiche,
OM

NEWSFLASH

Hello everyone!

Thanks for all the feedback and enthusiastic responses to the blog. Keep ´em coming! We just wanted to let you all know that we are safe and sound, hundreds of miles north of sao paulo where the recent airplane crash took place. Some of you were concerned for our safety- which we really appreciate- so we just wanted to let you all know that we are okay. Hope everyone is well- Please see all the pictures and excitement from Ossi's Buggy Boogie Birthday Below in Blog #7!!!!!!
loads of love to you all,
Ossi and Marah (OM!)

BLOG 7: OSSI'S BUGGY BOOGIE BIRTHDAY

As the clock hit 8am Ossi, the birthday girl, awoke to Confetti raining down, and the instructions: "make a wish...it's your birthday." Three intentions were set for this auspicious day: 1. Be in the every moment, all day. 2. find a calm maddness and 3. boogie all day long.
So, with that we headed down to breakfast and soon met our Buggy guide Mai Tai. He was to drive us along the coast and bring us to see sand dunes, beaches and lagoons. We headed out with him and proceeded to squwoosh ourselves into the buggy with our tour buddies Alex and Marianna. The top came off the music was turned up and we were on our way. First stop...Ferry.
Following the Ferry ride, we proceeded North to many beaches: Redinha, Genipabu, Pitangui, Jacumã, and Muriú. Here are some general photos of what we saw during our excursion north- details of particularly eventful moments follow...





After a few hours of riding around in the hot sunshine, we were delighted to find ourselves parked near an inland freshwater lagoon equipped with Brazil's version of a zip-line crossed witha rope swing. We were at first hesitant, but after watching others who were of much stouter proprotions, we decided the equipment would support us.
So, strapped in, off we went. Afterall, it was Ossi's birthday, and of course one must try new things on one's birthday...


While the "flight" down was a blast, the scariest part was actually riding the "chair lift" back to the top. This is the chair lift. Who knew the Brazilians were so damn literal.

Don't be fooled by this guy's casual pose- it is a rickety-ass bench at a >60 degree angle and it moves at an alarmingly rapid and jerky pace...

After a few more beach stops (one which included a one-hour disappearance of our driver and buggy, -neither we nor the fellow portueguese speaking Brazilians with us understood where the hell he had gone off to- we entered the Dunas national Park.





Don't be fooled by the peaceful, grand sweeping landscape- this experience was like a ride on the world's oldest rollercoaster (think circa 1955) with plunging downhills, spinning out turns, and riding rims of cliffs of sand that desccended into pits below. Our first experience was captured on film as follows. We rapidly approach a clearing between to large dunes..


**DISCLOSURE- MOTHERS, OTHER FRIENDS/RELATIVES WHO TEND TO WORRY, AND THOSE WHO HAVE JUST EATEN A LARGE BREAKFAST, YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP THIS NEXT PART...***


As we came around the corner, the view straight ahead disappeared- we were sure that we would soon turn, but no, we went straight. Up and over the edge, at an angle so steep, we were almost standing up while sitting down. If you look at this photo, notice the roll bar in the center of the buggy compared to the top of the windsheild at the front of the buggy. They are quite close together- this angle says it all.

Looking back, it does not do it justice, but here's a vague impression nonetheless




After surviving the freefall of dune driving, our driver notified us that it was time for a photo shoot. HE took many bizarre pictures, putting us in all sorts of poses. This is the best of the bunch:

This has not been photoshopped. This guy clearly has spent too much time playing in the sand dunes. We told you he was mad...but it is kinda cool...
All of the sudden, he lept into the buggy and took off to the top of the next dune, smiling and waving at us. We were at first alarmed because our bag was still in the buggy. But he stopped and parked the buggy up there, and gave us a wave.
Once again, we were confused, but so were our portuguese speaking friends. So, we decided to walk toward the buggy.



When we finally got there, Mai tai had vanished. we searched high and low, but no sign of him, and with the strong wind, his tracks were already covered. This was the second time we had been abandoned on the trip, and we were starting to feel a bit uneasy with the chap.
After about half and hour he returned, toilet paper in hand, smiling. He simply said: I had to use the bathroom. Shall we...?"

So, we got into the buggy. The next stop was the "waterfall". We were told we could swim and have a "natural massage" from its force. But, the expectations were a bit too high, and unfortunately, as you can see from our smiles, we weren't all that impressed.


Eight hours after having started this journey, it was time to head home. We passed a few more beaches which were equally beautiful to the earlier ones- this one especially caught our attention.





Then we had to cross a different river on a smaller ferry, that used "tecnologia do ponta negra"- aka, a man paddling a small piece of driftwood that barely fit the buggy using a large pole, like something out of Huckleberry Finn.


But we made it- over the river and through the woods back to the hostel we go!
Now, you may think we were tired after such an adventure. But it was Ossi's birthday and the fun and new experiences had to keep on coming. So, after a quick shower and change we met with the local Capoeira master for our first authentic lesson in this awesome martial art/dance/sport. It was difficult, and two days later we are still sore from all the damn kicks. We assure you, it is harder than it looks! But loads of fun and we will be doing it again soon.




You can only imagine how hungry we were by this point. So, off we went to the Japanese restaurant that has now become our favorite local eatery. We dined on miso soup, cucumber rolls, veggie rolls, and vegetable tempura. YUM! And some saki of course.

We returned to the hostel for the most creative chocolate cake and candle celebration Marah could muster in this town. It may LOOK meager, but those are BARBIE SUPER SPARKLY candles, and the chocolate bar was divine...


So we hope you've enjoyed this ride as much as we have. If we can maintain this level of adventure and excitement for the next year of life, we're pretty sure it will be a good one.