ILHA DE COMMANDATUBA:
I remember we slept on really rectangular and hard pillows at Luiz's place. We despised them at first, but they later turned out good for our backs. Luiz's home was beautiful.As we entered Ilha de Commandatuba, I could see how pretty the house was going to be, as the entire surroundings conjured images and memoriesof lazy summer days, and looking from the window of the car we saw dark-skinned beauties with wide-tooth grins leaping from swinging tyres into glistening lakes. As werolled along the bumpy red-dirt road, past wooden shanty houses and simple grocery stores, past the blue and white church positioned in the centre of the town's quadrangle, we eventually stumbled upon Alberto's grandfathers home.
An italian-inspired house, it contrasted immensly from the homes and village we had seen moments before. The electronic gate opened before us, and yapping terriors came to greet us at our arrival. A commercialised pool beamed a deep blue at us, as we stepped out of the Fiat, and hammock perfectly positioned on the wide set balcony seemed to be calling my name. We met Ira, Luiz's partner, a beautiful young woman with richly tanned skin and a strong voice. She learnt of my sickness, and quickly ran inside to make me some herbal 'cha' (a hot tea that was quite possibly the most horrible tasting liquid that had passed my lips). Alberto's grandfather emerged from a mid-afternoon slumber to greet us in the living room.
Unable to interpret exactly what everyone was saying to each other, I used this moment of time to glance around the large room from where I was sitting. Unusual objects were positioned throughout, giant chessboards, large glass balls that changed colour every few seconds, decorative although quite ugly fish descending in size along the wall. After the catch-up we took a stroll through the rest of Luiz's home.
Luiz has once been a very successful banker in the region of Sao Paulo. Leading a highly stressful life, he accumulated all the wealth he could and used it in his retirement, building a home from scratch in a state known for its relaxation, Bahia. He used his large block of land to create a vegetable and fruit garden, where he grew a vast range of tropical foods, ranging from the typical sweet mangoes, pineapples and passionfruits to intricate and unusual fruits such as mangosteins, cacau and acai berries.
Beautiful mango trees stood on the green spikey grass, as we made our way through the garden until we reached his private pier, complete with two banana chairs at the end. It was a perfect picture of paradise. Overhead of the pier, hung a tangled web of green plants, shoots and branches. Luiz turned to Alberto and I and whispered: "Last week I found a Boa-constrictor around two metres long from these branches", and with that he turned and made his way back toward the house leaving us wide-eyed and slightly scared for our lives.
The mosquitoes were buzzing and the air was hot as day fell into dusk, and we drenched ourselves with insect repellent before we sat down to eat Luiz and Ira's homemade pizza, one of the best I've ever eaten, on his wrap-around porch. A brick pizza oven and homemade dough made the difference as we devoured strange yet wonderful combinations of kiwi-fruit and cheese pizza, banana and cinnamon and just simple cheese pizzas, with rocket leaves and olives. We laughed and talked throughout the night, with me trying to understand all the portuguese I could without going insane from confusion. I was a constant source of amusement, with me repeating words such as "'O que" (what?) or "eu nao entendi" (I don't understand) multiple times throughout the night.
Alberto and I retired to bed soon after, and as was mentioned earlier, discovered these strange rectangular pillows, and were not too excited about sleeping on them. We eventually fell asleep, our heads propped on a 45 degree angle, with sounds of Rene and Carol singing softly on CD in the background.
I remember we slept on really rectangular and hard pillows at Luiz's place. We despised them at first, but they later turned out good for our backs. Luiz's home was beautiful.As we entered Ilha de Commandatuba, I could see how pretty the house was going to be, as the entire surroundings conjured images and memoriesof lazy summer days, and looking from the window of the car we saw dark-skinned beauties with wide-tooth grins leaping from swinging tyres into glistening lakes. As werolled along the bumpy red-dirt road, past wooden shanty houses and simple grocery stores, past the blue and white church positioned in the centre of the town's quadrangle, we eventually stumbled upon Alberto's grandfathers home.
An italian-inspired house, it contrasted immensly from the homes and village we had seen moments before. The electronic gate opened before us, and yapping terriors came to greet us at our arrival. A commercialised pool beamed a deep blue at us, as we stepped out of the Fiat, and hammock perfectly positioned on the wide set balcony seemed to be calling my name. We met Ira, Luiz's partner, a beautiful young woman with richly tanned skin and a strong voice. She learnt of my sickness, and quickly ran inside to make me some herbal 'cha' (a hot tea that was quite possibly the most horrible tasting liquid that had passed my lips). Alberto's grandfather emerged from a mid-afternoon slumber to greet us in the living room.
Unable to interpret exactly what everyone was saying to each other, I used this moment of time to glance around the large room from where I was sitting. Unusual objects were positioned throughout, giant chessboards, large glass balls that changed colour every few seconds, decorative although quite ugly fish descending in size along the wall. After the catch-up we took a stroll through the rest of Luiz's home.
Luiz has once been a very successful banker in the region of Sao Paulo. Leading a highly stressful life, he accumulated all the wealth he could and used it in his retirement, building a home from scratch in a state known for its relaxation, Bahia. He used his large block of land to create a vegetable and fruit garden, where he grew a vast range of tropical foods, ranging from the typical sweet mangoes, pineapples and passionfruits to intricate and unusual fruits such as mangosteins, cacau and acai berries.
Beautiful mango trees stood on the green spikey grass, as we made our way through the garden until we reached his private pier, complete with two banana chairs at the end. It was a perfect picture of paradise. Overhead of the pier, hung a tangled web of green plants, shoots and branches. Luiz turned to Alberto and I and whispered: "Last week I found a Boa-constrictor around two metres long from these branches", and with that he turned and made his way back toward the house leaving us wide-eyed and slightly scared for our lives.
The mosquitoes were buzzing and the air was hot as day fell into dusk, and we drenched ourselves with insect repellent before we sat down to eat Luiz and Ira's homemade pizza, one of the best I've ever eaten, on his wrap-around porch. A brick pizza oven and homemade dough made the difference as we devoured strange yet wonderful combinations of kiwi-fruit and cheese pizza, banana and cinnamon and just simple cheese pizzas, with rocket leaves and olives. We laughed and talked throughout the night, with me trying to understand all the portuguese I could without going insane from confusion. I was a constant source of amusement, with me repeating words such as "'O que" (what?) or "eu nao entendi" (I don't understand) multiple times throughout the night.
Alberto and I retired to bed soon after, and as was mentioned earlier, discovered these strange rectangular pillows, and were not too excited about sleeping on them. We eventually fell asleep, our heads propped on a 45 degree angle, with sounds of Rene and Carol singing softly on CD in the background.
No comments:
Post a Comment