A travel before adult life

by Veronica Isobe (Brazil)

A leap into the unknown Brazil

Excitement. It’s what you feel before travel, principally if you became an adult and will spend 3 days in new places. Well, I wasn’t like that. 6 am, São Paulo. Nathalia, Graziele, and I were standing in front of the bus. While I was fighting to keep my eyes open, Nathalia was talking about the travel. The only information I could absorb was "It’ll not be a long bus trip". The bus panel was marking about 12:30 and 40°C, when I finished an entire book and listened to my playlists for the 3rd time. When I was almost losing to the boredom while melting, someone yelled: "Look, Christ the Redeemer! " I looked through the window immediately. It seemed so tiny from the place we were. Moments later, we crossed a bridge that seemed like it would take forever to get to the other side, the Rio-Niteroi bridge. Those moments, even seemingly insignificant brought me what I was missing, excitement. And the most important, energy to survive more 6 hours on that bus. Day 1 Sands not cleaned at all, hundreds of boats for as far as your eyes can see, and people yelling “boat trip!”, “best price”. We were on our first stop, Praia dos Anjos, Arraial do Cabo. We sat near to the bow. A good idea, if we only consider the view, but not good at all if we think about the whole. Waves soaked us and almost made Graziele drown. When we were passing by other waves, my eyes shined. I had never seen that before, besides Disney movies. A turtle. But not a simple turtle, a wild turtle surfing through the waves. And ahead another one and another… I could have tried to take a picture of that incredible moment, but I knew I would lose it and a smartphone photo wouldn’t register that properly. We stopped near Praia do Farol. A preserved beach that not all the vessels can dock, like our boat couldn’t. The boat owner said we could swim if we wanted to, but it was about 5 meters deep. Nathalia was the only one that jumped on the water. She was so confident about her swimming skills that she did it without a floater, but moments later she regretted; “I knew it would happen”. -I thought while throwing a floater to her. Different from Nathalia, I took this time to appreciate the view, in special mountains on the horizon, that looked like two gigantic walls with a little passage in between. I wondered what it would be like to pass in the middle. The second stop was in gruta azul entrance. According to the boat owner, on sunset, the reflected sunrises on the water makes that cave interior turn into a blue color. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see it happening. Our last stop was in Pontal do Atalama. The water there was so light that I couldn’t think twice and jumped into it; immediately I felt like my whole body would freeze. It was so cold that none of us was able to be on the water for long. Day 2 Under a severe sun, street vendors tried to sell from water to sunscreen in Praia do Forte, Cabo Frio. But one in special draw our attention. Standing on a heart drawn on the sand, he was selling his wife’s candy. He talked about his wife and her work in such passionately way that seemed like he was selling pieces of love and not candies. We couldn’t do nothing but buy it. Before sunset we returned to the hostel, with new reindeer tattoos. While I was waiting for my turn to take a shower, I started to feel like it was Saturday night and I had a lot of fun but I know, after Sunday, the week will start again. Only one day after I have to face the adult life. Only one day until the responsibility hit me like a boxer. “I can’t remove this thing!” – Nathalia yelled from the bathroom. Her reindeer tattoo blurred and when she tried to remove from her skin, it got worse. I couldn’t stop laughing. “Just enjoy the moment for now.” – I thought.