Morro De Sao Paulo

I went on vacation in Morro De Sao Paulo; a small island off the coast of Salvador. There are no cars, only a handful of tourists, a few villages, and a few numbered beaches. The most famous beach for tourists is the second beach also known as “Seguna Praia”. As my friends were staying on the Island for almost 2 months, they vacationed at the pace of the island. This meant that they partied at night and did not have breakfast until 10-11 in the morning. As I was there for only 5 days or so, I decided to make the most of my vacation and wake up earlier to hit the beach!

On one of those days, there were only a few crazy people on the beach at that hour (the water is freezing at that time), I saw a beautiful girl walking towards me clearly frozen. I said in half italian- half some other Latin made up language, Muy Freddo…. which roughly translates to very cold (or what I thought it was). Clearly, she did not have her coffee yet or maybe the music from last night’s club made her not hear me very well as she assumed I was Italian. After a few bad attempts to understand on my part, we switched to English. It turned out that she was on a dance work/holiday where she learned the Brazilian funk and samba. In exchange, she taught modern dance to underprivileged children in Sao Paulo. As she had 2 weeks left, she decided to sightsee Salvador and head for the beach for about a week. Sounds awesome? Right?

Seguna Praia, Morro De Sao Paulo

Well not exactly. After a while, I learned that she just recently broke up with her boyfriend. They were both from Turin, in Northern Italy and after seeing her perform on stage, he decided to ask her out. After about dating for 2 months, she got the call about a very rare opportunity which she has been trying to get for the past few years and that she was to depart for Brazil in a weeks time. His response, was that she is abandoning him and how will he manage without her. The fact that he was 34 and only met her a few months ago did not disrupt his logic. Despite it all, she decided to follow her dreams and a good thing she did.

After a few attempts to Skype, he disappeared for a week. She got an email stating that they should talk. After staying up all night, he managed to tell her that he cheated on her as he could not deal with 2 weeks being apart and that it is for the best. Heartbroken is where I found her on that beach…

However, it was a blessing in disguise as she did not spend years with him only to find out that he is incapable of waiting. It was also for the best as a few months after returning from her once in a lifetime trip, she met the love of her life and had a pay increase due to the Brazilian program. The moral of the story is that after every heartbreaking story, there is usually a happy ending a few months or years later.