informage

In one sense it was indeed paradise. There's a particular glee induced by awakening just before sunrise to watch the glowing blood-orange of the sun ascend over a warm and clear sea, and refreshing oneself with a quick dip before returning to the dusty pousada for breakfast. We travelled there stretched out on the tarp of a languidly yawing nondescript boat, backpacks clutched near, slowly toasting in the sun.

Surely this is as close as I'll get to The Beach without a trip to Thailand and a temporal backflip to sometime before Garland precipated the saturation of an already rapidly expanding tourist scene. Tomas and Catherina - the Hamburgers on the trip - had their own Thai tales to tell, which only heightened my sense of fantasy. Diego, the gratuitously sunburnt Argentinian, recounted a long hot walk to Praia Lopes Mendes (pictured above) capped by the "surrealistic" experience of encountering a lone pair of women ardently playing tennis. You'll have to imagine his batball sound effects and swivelling eyes.

I couldn't help but notice however that my comfortable and mundane upbringing has left me ill-prepared for the rigours of the remote island life. The overbearing heat of our baking bedroom, unpunctuated by the reassuring oscillations of a "ventilador", together with the stealth mosquitoes, rendered the short duration of our stay also somewhat welcome. Now I don't wish you to think me a whining old westerner, but I guess I'm observing my decreasing tolerance for material discomfort as I rapidly approach 30. I can still do it, and I still loved it, but don't be surprised if next time I opt for the adjoining beach with an all-night generator and fans in the roof.

As to the title we were in fact considerably more sensible than the wide assortment of prawnish gringos and gringas we encountered, includingly the aforementioned Diego. One presumed Australian had to be physically kicked into life before his back spontaneously erupted in flames, much as one hopes the burning tyres on the beach were ignited without human intervention. A hope in vain I might add. As Santos our ex-military misanthropic pousadarista lamented, the whole beach went to pot when an electric light shed it's presumptuous first ray.