Just Around the Riverbend
Last Tuesday my second tourist visa ran out
The Friday before, 2 days after my parents left, I headed to the airport to rectify this. I had accumulated all the documents I would need, to study here for a possible six months albeit due to monetary reasons, more likely less.
Many people had advised me that Brazilian bureaucracy is a nightmare or that it depends on my confidence, or worse, who I will get, at what time and what mood they are in. Throughout the process however I had had 0 complaints, the first visa was a sinch and on the Thursday I went to get my last form that I'd almost left out for my second visa and the lady in the office went out of her way to help me, to get it printed in time.
So sure that I had everything, I washed and donned my best outfit, matching navy blue and light blue right down to my flip flops, and danced down to the airport with my files all organized in order in sleeves in the folder. I slapped it down with the aura of a man who was already accepted and then proceeded to take it out of the sleeves as they did not want it in that format but more of a pile.
After an hour or more of waiting, the lady came out but from the look on her face I knew something was wrong. One of my forms, the last one, didn't have my Mum's middle name on. Her middle name... Here they do attribute more importance to middle names but still, that's some bullshit. After going back and forth between another government office, they approved me for 30 days in order to get this form changed.
After a bit more back and forth, a lot more back and forth in truth actually I'm still not sorted and will have to go back next week again to try and get it done.
Many people throughout this process have gone out of their way to help me, speaking slowly to make sure that I understood and they have all been very warm and human. All apart from the bouncers at the metaphorical door to the country, that won't let me in.
In the meantime though I have still been enjoying myself, have begun more Portugues classes and attended my first bloco or street party at the weekend.
I had caught wind of a bloco starting Sunday lunchtime, near to my house, so I wandered over to the location, 2 hours after the supposed start time, of which there was no bloco occurring. Only a group of men dressed in an assortments of outfits, one of which I recognized from a previous stay at a hostel. This guy Alonso works in said hostel and is the epitome of party, he always seem to be where people are drinking and I don't think I've ever seen him without a drink in his hand or with his eyes fully open, but boy is he a good time. He features below dressed as Rocky. My Uncle has a theory that the party begins when the first glass is broken and I can confirm this happened at around 2pm, not 10 minutes after I had arrived and I'm sure it was either Alonso or his friend in a wig and bikini.
After another half hour or so we head east and stumbled upon the bloco nestled in a kids play area, of which there were also many adolescents drinking. There were other ages present, but in truth, to begin with at least, it did seem particularly young.
Fitting really that my first carnaval experience was parallel to my first partying experiences in England. Drinking cheap beers and vodka in a park surrounded by 15 year olds.
As the crowd grew and became older, I took myself away from the group to explore around and have a nose at what else was going on, the atmosphere was really bubbling. People in small groups drinking and becoming looser and looser with every passing minute. I took my camera with the original plan to take some pictures and head home to drop everything off before returning. That didn't happen. Always one more beer. In the future I won't be taking my camera. Probably. But I'm glad I did and people were more than happy to pose for me.
9 photos from this gallery weren’t in the backup.
The band was there the whole time, just letting time pass, not rushing (obviously) letting the atmosphere build until it rose to a good level. I was on that level after a good few street beers and found a couple of English girls with whom I chatted until the band begun. The band was filled with many people with a variety of drums and bells on sticks. The bellers shaking their stuff whilst the drummers were absolutely going off as they began to advance up the hill towards the favela. The conductors of the group really setting the rhythm and the energy.
It was really quite something, wandering up behind a samba band, with sun beams lighting up the colourful houses of the favela and lifting the spirits of the people. As well as people lifting up spirits.
Shout out to the beer sellers hauling carts up the steep hill to keep the vibe going. You da real MVP.
I ran into a couple of friends from football, one of which had his parents with them. Sorry I couldn't get you to one Mum, but his parents seemed to be having a great time and really getting into the spirit. I know you would have been the same.
Jose also found me thanks to my location sharing but at the time I was amazed how quickly he got to me, and also how quickly he left, although I think that the booze sped time up a bit, or maybe I was just having such a good time. In truth I can't really remember the music, but I do remember the atmosphere of it all, it just felt lifted, a real noticeable level above normal, it had the feel of a fully flowing house party.
When we got to the end and they entered the venue, I stayed for about 5 minutes before I decided to head home. The pre-drinks is always better than the night out, I'd done a few samba nights before and I was feeling a bit drunk already, so I made my way down, took it all in for just a bit longer before finally stumbling off to my bed.
Day drinking is one of my favourite pastimes and the whole day was a really positive start to the carnaval season for me. I can tell this is gunna be a fun month. Albeit a heavy one. I have decided to start drinking water in between beers to maintain myself but that's sober me talking, the remembering-self talking. Not the experiencing-self. We'll have to see.
Unfortunately that night I then slept from 8pm till about 10:30pm and awoke to enter my birthday with a hangover, which is a new one for me. I was unable to sleep for the rest of the night but things were vastly improved by watching my beloved Warriors distinguish the Miami Heat before watching Moana restore the coração of Tafiti.
The rest of my birthday was a relaxed affair but I really enjoyed it, just doing things that I wanted and a few beers. Thank you all for your messages, I appreciated them all. The rest of the is set to be a big month for me, with carnaval beginning, job hunting and big decisions to make. I have so many ideas swirling in my head but they are all positive. I'm almost brimming with ideas and cannot do them all, each day the next country changes, within 24 hours I had told Harry Argentina, Chile and Peru and in truth I still don't know. The matter of fact is that it is all depending on external factors and I'm ready to go whichever way the river takes me.
One of the teachings of the Tao is to be like water, in simple form 'to go with the flow'. I've always liked this branch of philosophy, the idea of just going with what happens but in truth the contradiction is thinking about this way of life and forcing yourself to implement it is in fact against the way of thinking, rather it needs to be within yourself to just accept the natural path that happens, the state of being.
I've probably tried too hard in truth and as a dear friend said, I get upset when it doesn't flow the way I want. In truth it's all going down a good path anyway so maybe it's due to this or maybe it's a change in me but I've definitely found more acceptance in myself and also the feelings I have. Allowing myself to be annoyed, lazy, sad, frustrated and dislike things has actually led to me feeling much happier and mellower overall rather than trying to stop it and letting it all out at once. It feels that rather than fighting things or swimming upstream that I have built a boat to be able to flow down the river and I am happy to go down whichever path it sends me and see what's just around the riverbend.
My mum and I have always loved this song from Pocahontas and she likes to play it when taking me on an adventure, she also likes to shout 'NOOO' when it says 'should I marry Kocoum?'. I remember when I was at uni, late at night if I was sad, drunk or just fancied a walk I would head to the sea and just look out for ages, way before Moana made it cool. I don't know why, I didn't have any plans, or any idea I would come this far but at the time it was pretty liberating.
Anyway the next step is unclear but I am moving forward and at the moment I'm not striving for an end goal but just enjoying the path, and am enjoying the idea of not knowing what this next year or what life has in store but I must say it feels pretty perfect right now.
Physically right now as I sit here with my basketball on the TV, Google playing some jammin' music, all being controlled by my phone. The connectivity is insane. I have a different drinks mat for each drink and baconzitos are on sale.
The weather has cooled down this week and the fan is on half speed. It's one of those moments when all senses are satisfied but now it seems to be maintaining longer.
I remember in an inebriated state one night in uni when I returned home and felt particularly good, the lights and music were a good level and it felt like 5 orbs aligned and joined in perfect harmony and it's beginning to feel like that again.
