I haven't really said much about anything except the windsurfing and eating really. Santa Maria is a very chilled place, from our point of view, I'm sure there's lots of suffering and stress here, but not for us. Coming back into town to meet the others one evening, having nipped back to the apartment to rescue something, I saw a middle-aged guy helping a elderly lady, very bent over with a stick, through a doorway into an on-street apartment. I peeked over their shoulders - a single room, looked cosy but obviously a single dwelling in a room, a part set aside with a lacy curtain. Quite striking the difference between my expectations and their realities.
The consumption of caipirinhas has been, well, not quite heroic, but it could be if we could only stop falling asleep! A big jug before going out in the evening sets you up, delicious flavour and contrasting sweetness and sharpness, with the grogue adding an edge. And lots of ice. Chilled. In the fridge!!
Today was a bit low key for us, we got to the station fairly late, nobody very decisive about going out. The wind was lower, lots of discussion about whether to wait or go - I eventually went out on a 114l Creola (woof!!) and 5.7m. Very gusty, got out and back no problem with the shorebreak, so not so bad today. Roger was off-duty, having had a bad case of the runs, so went up to the point to take some pictures with Juan, and who should be there, doing some spectacular riding but our mates Kauli and Riccardo! Wow. He took a couple of nice shots - it's the vertical top turns and timing that are so cool, especially as getting caught on the inside means "Hello rocks"! Apparently Kauli has already wrecked kit there - Josh's comment was "No problem, guys, just leave your credit card at the register".
So I did maybe an hour and a half of quite genteel riding around, timing all to pot, making sure there was no chance of getting involved with any of the occasional big swells that were coming in to amuse the hot guys on the point. At least Dunc agreed with me that the Creola was a dog - he couldn't get it to release and plane easily either. Phew. And I thought it was just me.
Just the couples went out for dinner to the Cafe Criola, we all had some kind of fish arrangement, very tasty but we were feeling extremely neglected. People were getting their dishes long before us, we didn't get any bread, and it was lukewarm when it arrived. My fish stew was delicious, but it was cooling rapidly - big chunks of whole fish, had to eat them with a knife and fork! The fluid was good too, no chance of dehydration, stew or soup seems like a good plan to me. We were all completely knackered by the time we came back, so retired. Snore… strange night of mixed reality, thoughts and dreams… lots of snuffling from my draining sinuses too. Bleuch.
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