Worldwide Recognition

Well if this isnt just the blog that keeps on giving. Here is a story. I was in Fortaleza last week and I was excited because it is big beach city and I thought there would be pleanty to do there. Wrong. Fortaleza blows goats. There is supposed to be 2 million people there but I was walking around wondering where they all where. I planned to spend 4/5 days there but ended up breaking out after 2. Some funny shit did happen while I was there though.....

The thing I was most looking forward to in Fortaleza was going to Pria de Futuro. Thats right folks - that translates to Beach of the Future. So I got my arse on the bus, rode through some favelas, arrived at Pria de Futuro and it was nice. Real nice. One of the best beaches I have been to. Nice waves, nice sand, heaps of people - all that good stuff, so I decided to have a beer and think about life. As I sat there various people came up and tried to sell me shit whic is what happens at every beach in Brazil so I wasnt surprised - towels, jewellery, sunglasses, cigarettes, henna tattoos, crayfish, crabs, watches, chains, prawns - one guy even wanted to sell me fruit salad. No thanks. So I just sat there drinking my beer chilling and shit when the fruit salad guy (lets call him FSG) came up, sat down and started talking to me. Nothing suss right? It was about 4 in the afternoon, 30 degrees and I figure that this poor guy has been walking up and down the beach all day trying to slang fruit salad to tourists so fuck it lets talk. Wetalked about the usual stuff - first time in Fortaliza? Yeah. You like Brazil? Yeah. What country are you from? Australia. Which girls are better Australian or Brazilian? Brazilian. Do you want some coke? What? Do you want some coke? Shit yes I do but Im not going to but that shit of the guy that just tried to sell me a fruit salad. He kept saying he would give me a good price, how good it was, I would have no problems with police or anything, everyone was doing it etc. I tried to be polite and say as much as I could to just get the guy to go away. I said I didnt have much money but that wasnt a problem because he would give me a good price. I said I didnt want problems with the cops he said that wasnt an issue. I said maybe tomorrow and he said where are you staying I will bring it to you. He just didnt stop. So I said screw this, finished my beer and said I had to go. So as Im walking away along the beach he runs up to me and says something along the lines of ``thank god, I just finished work for the day`` and goes to shake my hand so I do the polite thing and shake it. Too bad he´s holding half a gram though. I mean what could I do? So here I am now holding half a G of YaeYo standing on the beach talking to FSG. He just wouldnt let up. He only wanted $20 but I wasnt buying. Now I know what a lot of you guys may be thinking - Walshy you are a dick. Perhaps. And maybe I would have if THE EXACT SAME THING DIDNT HAPPEN THE DAY BEFORE AT A DIFFERENT BEACH. The story´s and the speil were almost identical. In the end I told the guy I would just give him $5 to go away. He said yes so I gave him back his Yae, gave him $5 then went and caught the bus back to the hostel. What more would you expect from Pria de Futuro?

Today I am Jericoacoara which is a little town on the coast with about 3000 people and has sand streets and people selling drinks on the beach after dark. I was only going to stay for 4/5 days but have ended up staying for a week because this place is cool and we have an awesome group of people. Tomorrow I will spend another 20 or so hours on a bus to Sao Luis (buses are for poofs). I will be home in a month. I hope your all prepared.

This is Nina Simone with ``Feeling good``. Classic.