Natal

I left Joao Pessoa to head over to Natal for a capoeira event. I arrived at the bus station and called my friend Capacete, who told me to take a taxi to a given address. Capacete is a guy from Natal that I met in London, and is probably the one who helped me to get speaking portuguese. He came to Europe last year to visit and couldn't speak a word of english, so I had to force myself to speak portuguese! Anyway, knowing he lived in Natal I decided to go over there to meet him and see him again in Natal. It turns out that at the same time there was a capoeira event going on too so it was a bargain! Horrivel was there too, and so we met up again for the last time. I got to stay in Capacete's girlfriend's house. It was quite a large house with 6 women living in it, and people constantly coming in and out. They were really lovely and looked after me really well, constantly trying to feed me more and more stuff and not understanding that I wasn't actually very hungry.

The capoeira event started on the Friday and was a bargain: R$40 for all three days, including lunch and dinner every day as well as a tshirt of the event. Nothing to do with our European events! It was also much more hardcore, with classes starting at 9 am and going on til about 10pm. Lots of intensive training in the heat. It was good as I got to meet a lot of new capoeiristas all from Natal, as well as meet more Contra-Mestres: Moleque, Vitor, Pula Pula, and Mestres too, the most important one being Mestre Irani of course. He is the "leader" as it were, of the Natal group. The event was good and I enjoyed taking part in another capoeira event in Brazil. Because of that though, I didn't really get to see much of Natal. It mainly consisted of the capoeira event, various capoeira classes in the evening with Capacete, and chilling in Kelly's house. On one day she did take me into the centre of the city for me to get to see it, and show me around. On another day one of her sisters also took me to the beach with her, and so I got to see the famous beach of Ponta Negra. It was nice for a city beach, the water being crystal clear again, but we were unlucky because we got there when the tide was coming in and so we didn't actually successfully get to sit on the beach and chill out as we had to keep moving spots in order to not get wet, and eventually at one point the sea did get our stuff! Also, another disappointing thing was the litter. This is a major problem all over Brazil, but when the tide comes in it is really unpleasant as it just drags all the trash into the sea, and gets washed in and out and it's reall dirty. This is the main problem in Brazil:there are loads of really beautiful places but they are spoilt by trash. People here really don't care and will just throw their litter anywhere. They also leave the bins out in the street, even though they should be put in the special holders that are made for them to keep them off the street, but they don't and so the bags just get ripped open and the stuff spilt everywhere. It's quite sad really.

On one day we were looking to do a buggy ride, as in Natal they are meant to be really good due to the sand dunes. The only problem was the price: R$80 per person, way too expensive!!! So sadly we decided against it, but we rented a car instead and went for a drive around the southern coast of Natal. It was actually really nice as we reached some more removed beaches that were really calm and absolutely beautiful. We also found a natural lake, which was just a bit more inland than the sea. That was amazing as it was clear, natural water as opposed to salty water, and it was really nice and refreshing. It wasn't too busy either as we went out on a week day and therefore there were fewer people around. All in all, it was quite a successful day. Kelly drove all the way and I'm glad she did as driving in Brazil is absolutely mad. In the evening we made the most of still having the car and went to the shopping mall. I drove us there and was completely freaking out at the idea of having to drive in Brazil in a city, but it was ok. The boys were really annoying though as they were sat at the back giving orders and shouting "watch out" and "be careful" and "go into second gear" and stuff like that. This drives me insane, particularly since Capacete doesn't even know how to drive, and I have no idea how Kelly managed to put up with it at all! After that we went to Mestre Irani's house for a chat which just ended up going on for EVER and I thought we would never leave! No offense intended, it was great to be able to just turn up at his house and have a chat about capoeira, execept that then these things just tend to drag on, and we were exhausted from the day we had just had. After that, the boys insisted we go to Ponta Negra and the salsa street in order to have a drink, so we drove ourselves over even though we were too tired to enjoy it. It was alright, though nothing too exciting going on as once again it was mid week.

The day after that the boys came and picked me up in order for us to go to lunch with M. Ataulfo. I had also met him in London as he had come travelling with his wife last year and so we had met there. I had found them both to be really love people so it was nice to see them again. We went for lunch in a really posh Churrascaria, and I was mortified as I had turned up in shorts and flip flops. The boys being boys, had only notified me of the price, but not that the place would be fancy, so when I turned up I felt awful for not looking nicer. And to make matters worse, his wife turned up looking really fancy! Eeek! Still, the food was good, and it was most definitely worth the rather more expensive price. The day after that, M. Ataulfo offered to give me a lift down to Pipa, which is where I am now. Horrivel had thought of renting a car again, but instead M. Ataulfo offered to drive us all down so that I could get a lift and they could spend the day there. That was nice as it saved me the hassle of the bus ride, and then we all spent the day together on the beach. I think that is all that there is to be said about Natal as I am now in Pipa and will write more about that later. It was great to see Capacete again and train with his group, and get to know the people from Natal. It was also great to get to know Kelly, who was so nice to me and took great care of me. I will really miss the people from Natal. Other than that, carnival is coming up and I am well excited!! I will definitely write posts about that, if I am not too exhausted to do so.