Breathing

Breathe…for the fist time in at least 10 days I can really breathe. What an absolute colossal sequence of days. I didn’t know that it was possible to be on such an unbreakable emotional high for that many consecutive days. In a retrospective summary, I think I can say that I have just come out of the best week of my life so far.

The lat 10 days found me in the Brazilian state of Goias which is in the middle of the country. I was staying with a Brazilian friend who I met in Australia. I was so lucky to have met Patricia in Australia and built the amizade (friendship) that we have today. I didn’t realise that by welcoming her into my country she would receive me the way she did into her country and teach me so much more about myself and the people in Brazil.

Brazilians have an amazing ability to do a lot of activities in a short amount of time without getting tired or needing a rest. So, in traditional Brazilian style barely hours after arriving in Goiania we made a two hour car trip to a tiny city called Pirenopolis. Patricia introduced me to her friend Mari and I began to relearn all over again that the warmness and convivial sprit of the Brazilians is what made me return to this country. Over a bottle of wine and some really yummy food I was beginning to think that I had known these two all my life. To be able to truly appreciate company and atmosphere like that you cant do to many amazing experiences too close together. So after I had had an wonderful dinner in the company of two incredible friends, the village of Pirenopolis helped me to ensure that I really appreciated it and didn’t try to do too much in too shorter space of time by showing me her marvellous precipitation powers. The next 24 hours were a rotation of heavy rain, driving rain, solid downpour and unyielding bucketing down meaning that this time I missed out on seeing the 8 waterfalls that surround the village. The bright side, of course is that I’ll most definitely have to return and, that I really saw the value of that night.

Our return to Goiania was a great excuse to cram in more activities and I found myself dancing in a local samba bar most of Sunday night/Monday morning. I really felt like I was being a part of the purest form of Brazilian culture that night.

Without recapping them all, lets just say that my days were so packed full of activities and my nights buzzing with entertainment and excitement combined with my Australian blood (automatically programmed to feel exhausted at 8:30pm) that tonsillitis made its way back into my life and the next few days were doctors visits, antibiotics and embarrassed recuperation (of course no one else got sick!!!).

As the end of the week drew near Patricia and I decided to travel to the capital of the country, Brasilia…The home of Larissa and Dalton. Larissa and Dalton and their 3 kids were the catalyst from me meeting Patrica back on the Gold Coast in 2007 when their family moved for 6 months to Coolangatta and patricia with them. Me being in brasil this time automatically meant that they were an absolute priority to see and catch up with. I arrived at their place in the middle of a big party, just as the sun was setting over Brasilia.

From their veranda I could see the cityscape being bathed in a blue sunset and the dim lights that would soon illuminate the capital of brasil shimmered on the surface of their pool. When I heard Larissa’s scream upon seeing me I was filled with a delirious sense of surrealism. She hugged me and looked at me and kept saying ‘I cant believe it, I cant believe you’re here’. And I couldn’t either. In that moment after already 2 weeks it finally sunk in that I was in Brasil, and I must have been the happiest realisation of my life. I don’t often cry..and crying when your happy doesn’t really make sense but upon being there at that moment with those people around me I really couldn’t stop the tears rolling from my eyes.

After a moment like that, the rest of the night becomes a bit of a blur but I remember enough to know that in hindsight it seems strange to feel like a part of a family in a foreign country, in a city that I’ve never been to, in the company of people that, in reality, I don’t really know. But I don’t think I’ve ever had a moment of feeling more at home than that.

Once again the welcoming flame of the Brazilian people was beginning to burn my skin and I was whisked away by people I’d never met from the party on a night tour of the city. Brasilia is an absolutely amazing city. Its structure and design make it uniquely intriguing and captivatingly fascinating place to learn about. The architecture has been planned to the nth degree and the city’s formation (an aeroplane) left me laughing out loud at the sheer initiative it must have taken to build the nation’s capital.

Here’s the national congress buildings…a bridge between the two makes the building appear as the letter H representing Humanidade…Humanity. Every other building in Brasilia must be shorter then these to demonstrate the core value of the city. Most Brazilians don’t know that.

Patricia and I returned to Goiania on Sunday night and it was with mixed feelings that I returned to Campinas on Monday morning. Influenced by combination of sadness to be leaving mixed with an escalating sense of excitement about the months ahead and most importantly the feeling of belonging that I felt in Brasilia and Goiania I promised myself that I would be back soon. And I have no doubt that it won’t be long before I’m back there again.

So as I said…breath. Now I’m breathing deeply again.. the breath of a content traveller, exhausted by experiences and loaded with passion and power. Each breath inhaling a fraction the intense yet splendid brazilian air.