'Tisn't the Season

Christmas season is moving into high gear – and we’re none the wiser! We’re slowly but surely moving down the perpetually tropical east coast of Brazil, sticking to the small, chilled-out surfing towns. Other than a lame-ass miniature fake Christmas tree I saw in the Japanese restaurant last night, Christmas is pretty much nowhere to be found out here – no Christmas music playing in all the stores, no commercial after commercial on TV, and, much to my chagrin, no eggnog! Nevertheless, the wind that was taken out of our sails in Peru is blowing strongly again, thanks in large part to a much-anticipated visit from a family member. My sister Vanessa, aka Sista G, aka Loch Nessy decided to take a long overdue three week vacation in Brazil. She met up with us in a small surf town called Itacare (where I’ve continued to develop my shred skills in some solid surf for the past six days). My sis’s arrival was like an early Christmas for us; she brought replacements all the way from Toronto for nearly every item we lost in Peru: new camera, new iPod, new netbook, new backpack, new long johns, new….the list goes on. With the remnants of Elise’s wounds all but faded away as her skin bronzes in the tropical sun, we can finally close the unsavoury chapter of this trip that is Peru.

In an attempt to show my sister the true meaning of ‘getting away from it all’ on her vacation, we ventured eight hours by bus, then took a ferry, then took another three hour bus, then a canoe to get a place called Caraiva. It’s supposed to be a sandy hamlet on a long, churning surf beach (Lonely Planet’s words) but what it really is is a beyond-off-the-beaten-path time warp to the age before cars and electricity. There are no motorized vehicles; the streets are paved with beach sand (this makes it extremely difficult to transport rolling luggage). Also, there are no street lights, which means we need to take flashlights out with us to find a restaurant for dinner! On top of it all the ocean is flat right now, so no surfing for me here. On the plus side there are no other tourists around, so we pretty much have the run of the land (which includes about 3 km of beach all to ourselves!)

Yeah yeah, I know what you're saying, another dull blog… – I know! Hey, at least I didn’t write about how we’re living it up in this tropical paradise, sipping cocktails on the beach and surfing all day long while the rest of you are scrambling at work and settling in for the cold Canadian winter. But seriously, we have a fancy new camera now so we’ll do our best to take more pictures of our pretty faces for you all to use as your desktop backgrounds during the Christmas season.

-G

I had to have at least one pic with my shirt off

Aprés-surf electrolytes

A frolicking Loch Nessy with a missed opportunity for me in the background

Vanessa on the Main Street in Caraiva