Christmas Vacation

The last time I saw Igor was when Ohafa, Daniel and I dropped him and Thiago off at the airport. It was an emotional day, especially for the guys who had spent the last 14 months together, supporting one another like a family during their adventure abroad.

Little did any of us know on that day that 3 years later I would be living in Brazil and Igor would be getting married to his girlfriend of 6 years, and Ohafa, Daniel, Thiago and I would be flying to the north of Brazil to be reunited again, at the wedding.

First, we gathered in Sao Paulo, at my place. Thiago came a day early and we spent it touring around in Sao Paulo. It was a bizarre feeling, showing my native Brazilian friend around the city but it was fun nonetheless.

I wish you flowers on your journey

The rest of the gang arrived Thursday night and we finished packing/planning. My flat has plenty of space in the living room, etc. for people to sleep comfortably, but, not wanting to separate we had a super mega slumber party.

We started the travel day the only way I know how, with a little bit of dancing, and then some tapioca. It’s hard to even explain what tapioca is here versus in the states but its basically God’s gift to this planet and we don’t even take advantage of it in America.

Travel went smoothly, and before we knew it we were in Natal (natal means Christmas in English, the city was founded on Christmas, so, creatively, they named it after that…. $5 for the information). The car took longer than expected to get from the rental place but we preserved. Ohafa and I were really pumped about taking the coastal drive to our AirBnB because it was only 2 minutes longer of a drive. Turns out, it was also through some really bad roads. At one point we were stuck behind a horse and buggy on a cobblestoned village street.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut once we made it to coast line, everyone admitted that we were right, and it was worth it. We crested this mega bridge, seriously it was so steep that when we were about to descend you couldn’t even see the decline of the way down, like when you’re on a crazy rollercoaster and you reach the top after painstakingly clicking your way up there and you pause for a second before plummeting down into the adventure. It was like that, only less dramatic. It did have an incredible view of the city though, I wasn’t expecting Natal to have a skyline at all – it is supposed to be one of the most dangerous cities in Brazil. I know I had a really privileged experience during my time here, but I found the whole place to be enchanting and beautiful.

We eventually arrived safely to the flat. The doormen at our AirBnB flat were really nice, and they helped us as they could. The apartment was cozy, and had A/C, because even during fall, the temperatures are high in Natal.

We had some problems with the car on the first day, but fortunately, it all work out well.

Once we got it working again, we took advantage of it and went to the super market. We didn’t know what to buy so everyone had 3 minutes to find something they thought we absolutely needed and bring it back to the cart.

the Brazilian flag made out of potato chip bags

It didn’t work out so well, but it was fun at least. We were supposed to cooking at home to save money, but shopping took longer than expected because we just wandered around till we decided we had enough stuff, and we started to get Hangry so we stopped at Habib’s instead (a fast food pizza place that has a special place in my heart and is also a black hole for my things). We came home, binged on food network and went to bed, once again preferring to all stay in one room and have a little less space, than be separated.

Ohafa took over writing for a little bit because I was getting bored of typing, so here is him writing as if he was me:

During the morning of the second day, we could explore more the building, that included a pool. If I had to describe it, I would say only one word “perfect.” The water temperature was refreshing in the already hot first hours of the day, it wasn`t so deep that you couldn`t touch the floor but big enough to swim around like a fish that I am.

Water gun Stitch made the journey and man was it worth it

Me pretending to be a salmon which is apparently my spirit animal 

There was a path from the pool leading to the beach. I could appreciate all the cool characteristics from the beach but from the safety of my little pool. The water wasn’t salty, there wasn’t sand everywhere, people weren’t trying to sell me stuff.

We spent a lot of time there, taking lots of pictures. Throwing the football, getting yelled at for throwing the football, cannon balling, you know, pool stuff.

I was content to stay there all morning, but Thiago wanted to enter into the wild, sand and salt filled public world to get a coconut.

We went back to the flat to keep on our itinerary made by our tour guide, Thiago. We went to a first, the first and oldest building in Natal, and on our way they, walking through the least travelled road, some of us slipped and fell on the mud. No one got hurt, just a little bit dirty.

Cleaning off in this beautiful little lake

The fort was in really good shape, even after almost 500 years and one invasion. The best part was how they take advantage of the structure there to adapt to the tourists: the old prison was the snack shop/prison. The storage was the bathroom/storage etc.

With many other places to go, we kept going on our adventure. The next stop was the “artist’s beach.” It is known for its artisanal shops. When we stopped, there was a surfing competition happening and we found the best açai ever. Açai is a fruit, that usually is eaten like ice cream. People add different toppings and sometimes fruits. This guy let you pick any topping and add as much as you wanted of it. The result was delicious enough to wonder if it was real. As we looked for him in the next days and didn`t find him anymore, it became even more suspicious if the delicious açai was real. We wandered the beach for a while before heading back for lunch and started getting ready for the wedding.

The guys refused to let me see their outfits until we entered the church, as is wedding tradition. They didn’t seem to care that it was only the bride and groom that couldn’t see each other. In the end, due to ride complications, they had to compromise and just let us see at the last minute before we left the flat. We were a well-coordinated group in blue and black. Little did we know that Igor’s colors were also blue so we fit right in. (not sure if it’s all Brazilian weddings or just his but those standing up for the bride and those with the groom wore different colors).

The ceremony was beautiful and afterwards we headed to a churrascaria which is basically an all you can eat buffet but better and we stuffed ourselves way past the point of uncomfortableness. There was no dancing, much to my dismay, but there was great conversation, beautiful speeches, way more pictures than the groom wanted to take, a fight over the bouquet, a fake cake, and homemade desserts.

Only the bottom layer is real!

Grabbed a rose from the destroyed bouquet 

All the desserts were homemade by the bride, groom and their family

D.I.R.T!

On the next day, I had another lazy morning by the pool. It seriously was perfect. Usually I love waking up and lounging in bed before facing the world, but here, I excitedly rose out of bed so I could lounge by the pool instead. Thiago and Ohafa had already embarked on a morning walk and Isabella and Daniel were still asleep. I was perfectly content just to enjoy the second day of beautiful sun.

OHAFA CAME IN THE POOL

Hugging the place because I love it so much

Once everyone was back and/or awake, we followed Thiago’s daily plan for Sunday, heading to another series of touristy locations. I really appreciated Thiago’s effort because I have grown accustomed to planning nothing and going with the flow. However, I would have missed out on some really cool experiences if we had done it my way.

Our first stop was the furthest out, which was a Dolphin look out point. Ohafa got the best picture of the place.

Ohafa captured the only dolphin of the trip

Next, we went to the world’s largest cashew tree. I was a little confused about the experience because at first, I thought we were going to a huge waterfall (the words are really similar in Portuguese) and then I learned we were visiting a tree and I thought it was a tree farm, and it wasn’t until I was there, walking around unimpressed inside the park that I learned that it was all one giant tree. It was almost 100,000 feet squared. The tree had a genetic mutation that meant that the branches didn’t stop growing. I was literally astonishing to be in this forest of green and know that it all stems from the same trunk.

The trunk

It is 70 times the size of a normal tree and produces over 60,000 fruits a year.

After that we stopped at barreira do inferno which had some old aero tech outside and the museum itself was closed.

We dined at the fine restaurant Rapaduro which was a cute hamburger joint. A rapadura e doce mais não e mole não literally means that rapadura is sweet but it’s not soft. It’s an expression used when something is good but not easy.

We ended the night in our beloved pool.

The next day we went for a full day tour that took us to snorkel in Maracauju. I had to take motion sickness medicine which left me sleepier than I expected. Before snorkeling, we went to this “lagoon” by buggy. I spent the whole time there in a sleepy stupor while everyone else explored.

On the way back, the buggy ran out of gas and we just had to wait “two little minutes” which turned into about 20.

The snorkeling was incredible. At first, I was feeling a little pretentious for not enjoying it that much because I have snorkeled before and the fish weren’t that colorful or exciting. Then, the guide came down with a bottle filled with bread and a small hole on the top. When you squeezed the bottle, a little bit of the food came out and the fish swarmed you. It was an amazing experience. I swam, while slowly letting out food and I was literally a part of the school of fish. They were so close and so dense that I could grab fish with my hands.

Once home, we tried making our cheesy popcorn, but it didn’t work. The only thing that worked was making our room smell like cheesy popcorn for the rest of the trip. Then we met Igor at a food truck court. It was nice to seem him in a chiller environment.

Daniel's turn for celebrity writing 

On our last day in Natal, we went to one of the most important sights of Natal: the Dunes of Geripabu. Most of the attractions there include spending money to go to rides on buggies, mounting dromedaries (one humped camels), and trying sandsurfing or sandbunda (butt sliding). We weren’t planning on doing any of these, we just wanted to walk around the famous dunes, take some pictures and enjoy nice views. We weren’t exactly sure of how to get there, but our GPS showed a smooth, 35 minutes ride. It didn’t go exactly like that, since part of the city was under construction and we had to find new way. On one of the first construction points, a random guy on the street dressed like an official from the environmental department signed at us, letting (forcing??) Thiago, our driver at the time, to stop the car worrying there would be some problem with our car or with the path we were taking. As soon as we stopped, this guy started giving us folders with lots of information about the dunes and trying to convince us to adhere to some of his exclusive offers. -This time of the year, when summer is over, the amount of tourists decreases harshly, changing the approach of locals to a more desperate attitude, which sometimes can be annoying or intimidating-. After a long effort to show him we didn’t want any of that, our trip continued and we laughed about how weird all of that was. We hadn’t even stopped laughing and we started seeing another guy with the same shirt on the road, who started yelling at us, similar to what had just happed. Thiago got worried again and decided to stop the car, innocently thinking that guy was trying to help us with some problem we could have been facing. As soon as the windows went down, folders started coming in again and he started pouring information on us, which once again was very hard to convince him we didn’t want any of that. Thiago drove away again, and the guy started literally chasing the car.

At this time, Daniel was getting mad because Thiago was stopping to talk to these guys, even knowing all they wanted was our money, not to help us. Not much longer after, when we were approaching of the many speed bumps there were on the way, there we saw again one more of these “environmental officials” were there. Daniel made it clear to Thiago not to stop again, but as soon as he reduced the speed to pass through the bumper and the guy started talking, Thiago couldn’t resist and OPENED THE FREAKING WINDOW again, so all the process restarted. “okay, I won’t stop…” he says, as he slowly lowers the window down to talk to yet another guy. Thiago was doing his best, it was overwhelming. Daniel was less than sympathetic as he tried to give Thiago a crash course in how to ignore the people.

Even before we convinced the guy we didn’t need it, Daniel closed the window and told Thiago to speed up, since we didn’t have time to waste listening to all those expensive services we didn’t want and didn’t need. The guy started running after our car, which made all the process even more wild. As you may be thinking, on the last part of the trip, about 10 minutes left, we faced many more of them, and unless we would talk it through Thiago very carefully neither to stop nor to open the widow, we would have to pass through it all again, with Thiago afraid we were doing something wrong and this supposed official was trying to help. On this trip, besides getting to know the beautiful dunes of Natal and one of its most important sights, we discovered Thiago’s biggest weakness: desperate tourist guides.

We got to the dunes and explored on our own for a few hours before we had to go.

Daniel and Ohafa thought it was a good idea to run up the dune but they were wrong

All too soon, we were heading to the airport. That is where this is written, as we wait 10 hours for our flight. We had to get to the airport so early to return the rental car. Our flight was at 2:30AM which meant we couldn’t catch an earlier flight because you can only change flights the same day as your flight………… Then our flight got delayed and after 13 hours, we finally flew out at 5:20 AM.


Luckily Ohafa had packed the most obvious airport snack - baked potatoes, and we had each other to keep ourselves entertained.

Finally we made it on the flight

We got home and parted ways until the next time <3