A Riddle *UPDATED*

...What do you call a beach town without a beach? Bonito, apparently!

I am in Brazil now, in a town named pretty (in Portugese of course), which is a bit of an exaggeration; nothing against the place, but with a title like that you´re setting the sights pretty high!

Every 45 seconds or so I am checking the time to see if it is 5:30 yet (nope!), as another night bus is awaiting me and I would much rather get started, so that it would be over quicker. But time does not work this way. Actually, I am simplifying it somewhat to say "a night bus" when in fact it is 3 buses, one at 5:30, one at 11 and another at 7. We should arrive at our next stop about 9 AM tomorrow. I don´t mind. Movement is movement. Though I am in the minority who would prefer such journeys take place during the daytime, to improve the view (night, it seems, looks the same on every continent).

What can I say about Brazil, in brief? Perhaps nothing. You shall have to wait for the long(er) version, as there is much to say. It is much warmer than where I wrote from last. And that´s not even getting into the way things are "heating up" with this group! The human drama never ends, but at least it is mostly the good kind. I guess the change of temperature is doing us all good.

Expect actual stories to follow! Hope the day treats you well.

N.

Update! I am bored so checking in again. In the two and a half days I have been in Bonito I have been to this net cafe 7 times. The owner is very pleased to see me, but does not give me a discount, as has happened in some of my cyber/travel hideouts.

Actually, I first thought of updating this because I have had songs by Queen in my head all day, mostly alternating between Killer Queen and Bohemian Raphsody. Can anyone tell me WHY Queen? Here? What am I doing here?

The haze of today is punctuated --inside as well as out-- by a peculiar bursting wind, strong enough to knock over racks of t-shirts and inflatable rafts (again: beach town without a beach!) lining the "strip". A very old white VW bug has been driving in circles (figure eights? spiderwebs?) around the town all day; I relate to it on some psychic level.

My favourite thing about Brazil thusfar is the pay phones. Rather than booths or the standard South American land lines on every billable surface Brazil transforms the unit into a giant animal. Thusfar I have seen stands shaped like leapords, fish, parrots and alligators. I do not know how to explain this bertter. Just imagine going to make a phone call and having to step between a pouncing leapords paws to reach the receiver. These phones remind me very much of my mother. I have been photographing as my variations as I can find.

What else can I say about this gusty lazy day? Most of the group is hungover, after a rather lopsided party in which the Brighton girls did all in their power to turn the hotel´s breakfast room into a nightclub. This involved a lot of Michael Jackson, picture taking, appeasing the desk clerk for whom I felt very sorry, and a valiant fight to mix up Brazil´s national cocktail which ended up all over the floor. This may have something to do with today´s general lethargy: a lot of lying by the pool, and not much else. I sit in a very uncomfortable hammock (I have fallen in love with hammocks) for as long as patience will allow, then go back to wandering up and down the street, where every person I pass seems just as drowsy as the ones I´ve just left.

I find an incredible jewelery shop. I retrace my steps 3 times. I lead several of the other girls to the incredible jewlery shop and now they have incredible jewelery and no money, for which I am blamed. I buy the magnificent necklace, but not the magnificent ring. Isn´t it odd that even here, in Brazil, living out of a backpack with 4 tshirts, that one of my greatest joys in life is these shiney distinctive trifles?

I am ready for the nightbus(es).

N.