The first sight of Morro is unexpected and not coherent with its fame. Its reputation is of a Brazilian Ibiza, where people from all the world come to party hard. But the first view is of a fortress defending a tropical forest, a hill with a picturesque lighthouse and a long peer crowded with young boys pushing their wheel-barrows, the local form of taxis!
Slightly to the right, a couple of little beaches away, I finally spotted the lieux of my desires, the place I had been longing to reach... I am referring to the one and only, exquisite, dreamlike, beautiful, caring, sharing, paradisiac KILOMBO ONE LOVE. Once a restaurant, the Rastafarian house with a large deck over the sea has been for the last 6 years a vibrating community of travellers, a unique place to share passions, opinions, good vibes and lots of love. I have never seen anything like it before, this community owes its uniqueness to the fact that it is always in continuous movement, being reshaped and enriched by each traveller who drops by for any period of time, be it a week or a month. Enrico, an Italian capoeira teacher and a really remarkable man, lives upstairs and represents the only stable figure for the cultural and social centre. He is the one who has set out the few rules and who makes sure these are respected. I found these few commandments so wise and entertaining at once that I think it is worth sharing them here:
No peeing in the shower- the water from the hose wets some grass before falling in a waterfall onto the beach, where other people may want to recycle the water with their own salty skin.
No smoking anything under the roof
no organic matter in the sink
recycle and innovate
no touching the wall to avoid graffiti damage
no percussions after 10 PM
Everyone sleeps on the floor, on the deck or in hammocks. In the morning someone makes coffee for everyone and a general cleaning session starts to kick-off with freshness. I usually slipped away from this last task since I loved getting up and heading to the sea right down the ladder, to brush my teeth with clay and swim around the choral before meditating in front of the waves…
From my first day in One Love I already felt among long-life friends, as a member of a family which as any other has discussions and resolutions, birthdays parties and dinners…
We all talked for long in the afternoon to decide how to deal with a kid who had been causing distress among the girls for his abusive behaviour… Although the common desire was to help him and give him another chance, he was threatening the freedom of other people and causing a stressful environment… as he was told this, he decided to leave. We had a birthday celebration as costumed, with lots of cachaça and cake, dances, live music and early drunk bed(or better floor-hammock-tent)time. In fact we felt more like hippies living in a dream, like the community of The Beach -with a steep path to Babylon.
But some of us soon felt the need for a bigger adventure.
We set out with low tide to walk along the commercial beaches of Morro, until the final and more desolated Praia do Encanto. Enchantment Beach is a completely appropriate name of this spot where trees like to chill in the middle of the water, or lie on the beach making it a natural art exhibition. From behind a particularly trippy root where we took a group picture, we found the trail just before the night hid it away. Walking along coconut plantations for about an hour and crossing a river over a tree trunk we reached the beach of Garapuà. An old lady opened her minimarket so we could stock up on beer and munchies, she told us there would be no problem in sleeping on the beach. There definitely was not. We lay on the deck chairs and used the facilities on the beach bar, slept on the public hammock and in exchange we were offered coffee the next morning by the owner. As comprehensible, we already lost some members of the team to this little piece of peace.
Once across, we found ourselves in Boipeba beach. I went with the girls to check the town and find some orphan veggies. We loved the tidy and cosy village, glad to be back among local Brazilians… Boipeba is as beautiful and real as Bahia gets. I didn’t visit many places in the region, but this little island felt just right. And if it weren’t for its few rotten wasters, it would be.
We set camp up on the beach outside town, and I went with Sarah to find water and some nightlife. It took us very little effort to meet him, he was drinking beer and playing cards on the beach, and he didn’t let us leave until he finished his beer and could follow us to show around “his town”. He told us many lies to pump up his cocained ego, one could perceived his energy and reputation, just by observing people’s look as he passed by. That night Sarah woke me up as I was sleeping peacefully in my comfy hammock. She was desperate and scared. The idiot had shown up in the middle of the night with fresh fish, a few beers, drugs and a knife to share.
The next day we all had a go at innocent little Sarah, who at the age of 20 has been travelling the country alone for already two years and still hasn’t learned lesson number one of free camping: DON’T TELL WHERE YOU ARE SLEEPING!
We moved on to Praia da Cueira, a long, beautiful beach just outside Boipeba with no houses, just a few shacks and a restaurant: “Da Guido”. At the end other end of the beach from this seafood hotspot, we borrowed (without asking) a canoe to cross the river, since the high tidemade it was impossible to walk. It was a hilarious scene, Maira on the boat with all our backpacks while we pushed desperately, Marcos shouting “fast, fast, they will kill us if they see us stealing this canoe!” -to spice up the situation. Following the beautiful coastline, we reached the poetic village of Moreré, we walked along the hidden path following the water at that hour had covered the beach. We dropped in the shallow sea, then in the sand and finally in hunger. So yet another food expedition came for me, as I went to explore the village and hunt a bakery, only to return to find a very bad vibe on the beach. The boys had found a place to camp and had thought well of letting their intentions known to the drunk men playing cards on the beach. All but one where fine with the idea of us camping freely in their village. One bad vibe is enough to darken them all, so once our munchies were satisfied, we resulted in getting our gear back on our shoulders and returning on our steps.
This time the river was crossed on foot, as the tide only reached our knees. On the shores of Praia da Cueira we had the choice between two abandoned barracks. the first one was infested by sand flies, so we settled for the second smaller one. Little was I to know that this was going to be my home for the upcoming week.
A week and a half spent waking up to dawn explosion in front of me while I lay in my hammock and thanked the universe for giving me such a vision. Wood and dry coconut collection, fiddling and blowing the fire to stir and often burn the first meal of the day. I would meditate, do yoga, walk along the beach to massage tourists stopping at Guido’s Lobster house for lunch on their speedboat tour… For the first time on this beach I started experiencing and appreciating intensely God’s love and generosity. Of course, you may think, it is very easy to feel close to God on a semi-deserted beach on a tranquil island. He showed up in magical ways after the canoe crossing, we found a pan to cook food in, just as half on the team was leaving. We found friends to be our neighbours and hot local boys our lovers.
I won’t lie, it is not the type of life I am ready to lead right now, at least not long term. Tending the fire, cooking on sand, walking an hour (under the rain) to recycle vegetables, having random fishermen arrive in the middle of the night to smoke a joint; then spend the night sitting on the bench below you… I met this man’s sun at ENCA and told me his father has now retired into the jungle and doesn’t mingle with civilisation any more. So maybe we inspired him to live in pure nature. The next morning, he went fishing.
Maira and I walked back to Morerè via the natural pools… I swam the mile from the house in the water to the coral reef to find a great but delicate underwater archipelagos of colourful flowers and plants hiding in the sand and algae…
Another day, Sarah and I took the steep muddy road flattened with palm leaves, we met two local girls who showed us the way to the village of Monte Alegre, an authentic ancient kilombo, created by escaped slaves wishing to lead a peaceful life, hidden away in the hills of the island. Here I bought some family-home-made coconut oil, of course we met the village nutcase who was buying liquor and cigarettes at the local store and who invited us to play cards.
I could have stayed living in Boipeba for ages, camping on the different beaches and getting to know the locals’, eating fisherman’s offerings and exploring the wild corners of the island. That is pretty much what my friends Sarah and Maira ended up doing. I met them three months later in Ceara where they had travelled directly to after 3 months living on the island, falling in love with its relaxed atmosphere and capoeira boys.
I knew I had to continue my journey north, one night as a storm was approaching, I climbed up our weary ladder to fix the carp and fell to the floor, one hand on the fire…Not feeling completely strong and fit to keep myself warm and made me want to return to a slightly more structured life. At Guido’s I easily hitchhiked a ride on a speed boat for tourist trips to shoot me across the rivers all the (other) way around the islands right to the beach in front of One Love.
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