From our apartment I looked out over the beach, the mouth of the lagoon and the ocean. During the morning hours it had been quiet. A fisherman returned with his catch and somebody had been going for a stroll along the shore.
Around 11 am, the tranquility transformed into hustle and bustle.
As if a silent alarm had gone off.
I have a choice, I realized as I was swinging in midair.
Either I freak out or I let go and enjoy.
“If you turn around you will see the entire row of pyramids,” Alice said. I pulled lightly on the reins and Esthela immediately reacted, at which I quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Truth be said, I was not so sure that she would listen to me.
From the bridge I could see them for the first time: the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. This was the site that had been on my one-day-must-see list since childhood and finally I was going there.
I was so excited!
For a moment I am caught off guard and almost fall overboard. Something is sharply tugging at the chunk of fat I had fastened on the hook. Pablo, my host, guide and friend helps me pull in my line until the feisty creature plops on the bottom of the boat in fluttering spasms.
I just caught a piranha!
A teenager holds a baby caiman in her hands, a young boy feels its rough skin. There is nothing to fear as the reptile’s jaws have been tied for the occasion. We admire sweet water turtles, decipher dilapidated gravestones and buy dried shrimp.
The boat trip couldn’t be more varied.
I feel as if I’m swimming in my grandmother’s tropical fish aquarium; the fish have the same bright colors, the same vertical shapes. All around me are yellow-purple-striped king angelfish, ivory-colored barber fish, and black stripe and deep-blue surgeonfish.
I can’t remember ever having seen one before. No matter how I turn the bottle, this water creature keeps its head turned from me. Later the opposite happens with another one and I figure that maybe they prefer facing` towards the sun.
In wonder I am staring at a gray-colored seahorse.
In the early morning we sailed through the Baia de Guaraqueçaba in an open motorboat: a world of sapphire-colored water surrounded by blue-grey mountain ranges outlined against a cobalt, slightly clouded sky. With dolphins accompanying us in the distance, the scenery couldn’t have been more peaceful.
We were on our way to the Ecological Sebuí Reserve in southern Brazil.