August 15th 2019
Moods change like the weather -while touring, the weather and the moods are even more unpredictable it seems.
It’s getting warmer and that helps. We also took a little shortcut on a gentle dirt road in a most beautiful area.
https://vimeo.com/354116363
I had a “cranky outbreak” and it was good...but for now I want to share how we have managed to get into places that are officially closed. In fact, it’s becoming one of my favorites: Since we are not in season around here (it is winter, remember?) a lot of the campgrounds are closed. They all have a guard to protect the premises and since we are in Brazil, Portuguese is the spoken language and here in this country people do NOT want to (or can’t) speak Spanish or any other language. At least in the remote areas where we are tumbling around these days.
Portuguese is so new to me, I can’t understand a thing (I had been making good progress with my Spanish and now it’s all gone to hell in a hand basket)
One of the places we came to was a good ways downhill. We had stocked up on food and water and headed down to the lake where the campground was - but closed! Super closed! Gates and all...dogs barking again. I see a person, but she looks the other way - I can tell, she was hoping we would just go away. But we didn’t! We waved her to come over and we “talked” ....man, she talked ...no matter how many times I gave her blank looks - gesturing that I don’t understand ...we don’t understand! It’s pretty clear she is adamant: CLOSED!!! Go way! In many, many, many more Portuguese words.
I learned to understand the tipping point....when I can hook in with smiles and gestures ...a friendly pat, but this one was tough. Well, I wasn’t going back up that 14% hill again on my 140 pound bike that late in the day. There was so much room down there by that lake....- I explained our tent, our independence in Spanish, German, English...but it’s all in the eyes...I could see it, she started to soften after about 15 minutes of back and forth without a word either of us could understand. There were moments of long silence too, but neither of us moved. I love that moment when I can recognize an understanding in so many other ways than words and I think she did too. A few long minutes later she opened the gates.
We had a sweet place to set up tent and minutes later the whole family came by to say “hi”, make sure we had enough drinking water from the well and electricity to charge our devices and a light to cook our dinner. Next thing you know we shared hugs and chocolate and the waving good byes in the morning were truly heart felt, but she was and remained super shy...so, no pictures...
