Date Written: Feb. 25, 2002
Subject: A Man and his Angels

Friday February 22, 2002
The next day, I woke up just before 10, grabbed some breakfast, and we decided to head for the beach right away. It was a beautiful sunny day!!! We were in the centro so we had to take a bus out to the beach. That was much easier said than done. We were myself, P-Swissy, Phil/Germany, the 2 casino chics, and a new arrival, Bob from Ireland who was staying in my room in the hostel. It took us about an hour to find the right bus and then the bus ride was another hour. Of course, the bus had no AC so it was a bit brutal. I didn't mind though because the drive was beautiful.

Florianopolis is on this island called Santa Catarina, which is a bit mountainous. The bus drove up through the mountains to get to the beach on the other side. The views were absolutely breathtaking. We finally made it to Lagoa beach, and what a beach it was. The waves were the biggest I have ever seen. The book was right when it said some of the best surfing in the world is there. The water was so damn blue, I could barely tell where the ocean stopped and the horizon began. And man was it a strong sea. Strongest I've been in. The undertow was so powerful you could barely stand. Fifteen minutes is about as long as you could swim in the water because you would be exhausted, and when you got out you were a half mile down the beach from where you got in.

Anyway, I spent a lot of the day talking to Luis, who is an amazing guy. He is from Mexico and got this amazing break from a family from Iowa who came to his town on a service mission several years back. Somehow, he got to know them and they basically took him under their wing. They let him come live with them in their home in Iowa and got him started in college. I'll never forget the way he told the story. He said meeting that family made him believe in angels. This guy had this quality like my friend Felipe who I worked with at the Olive Garden back in South Bend...a heart so big you could actually see it. You could tell how grateful he was for such a great opportunity and you could see that he saw that meeting that family and what they did for him set off a chain of events that put him in the amazing spot of being able to graduate college and spend a semester in Brazil. You see, for most people where he comes from, these things are just beyond their wildest dreams. He came from so little and made so much of himself. You could just see that he never really thought it was possible that it would happen to him. Man does he deserve it. Way to go Luis. I remember that just after he told me his story, he said something that was perfect and I could totally relate because I say it to myself too. In a way, I could see so much of myself in him, even though we were two guys from such different places. We were sitting there on this beautiful beach in the south of Brazil...looking out into the vast ocean. There was an island in the distance on the left and mountains off to the right. The breeze was warm and the day was hot and the strong, unmistakable smell of the ocean was in the air. There was nothing else TO say except the words that escaped his mouth almost under his breath but just loud enough for me to hear:

"...and look at me now."

So there you have it. A man who appreciates what he's living and
experiencing, probably even more than me. As far as I'm concerned, he
deserves it. It was a great thing to see and it made me proud to be a
part of what he was living. He was a truly amazing guy and like I said, I
could almost see his heart, right there on his sleeve.

After awhile, Luis and I took a walk down the beach...stopped for a beer and an Empanada do Frango. It was good. There were some rocks at the end of the beach similar to those we had seen at Ipanema. We climbed up on them and there was a spectactular view of the beach. On the left side, the waves were crashing into the rocks, sending giant white spider webs of water into the air. Amazing. We just sat taking it all in for about 20 min. I remember thinking while I was sitting there that if everyone I know could have traded places with me for just five minutes, right then, they might have understood a little bit about why it is so important to me to get out and see the world. Just absolutely gorgeous. Sadly, except for my friends who are Brazilian, nobody I know will probably ever see it. One of the most beautiful spots in the world...at least of what I have seen.

Right about then, it started to rain so we had to take off. It was cool though because we had been there for a good 4 hours anyway. We got back to the hostel...I tried to sleep but couldn't. It was then that I pretty much decided to head back to SP the next day and then just figure out what to do from there. I didn't feel so good about that though. Anyway, I showered up and tried to call home again...but alas, the Brazilian phone system defeated me in yet another battle. Then I walked up to a corner store and bought some ham, cheese, and bread to make dinner. I saw a pretty interesting sight on my way back from the store. I guess that day was garbage day so there was a huge garbage truck driving down the street with about 6 guys moving behind it collecting trash that people had set out on the street and tossing it in. Now, nothing about the fact that they were collecting garbage was necessarily interesting...it was more the manner in which they were doing it. That truck must have been moving at a solid 15 or 20 mph and these guys had no trouble keeping up. They were literally sprinting along grabbing garbage and tossing it in the back of the truck. They must have been the hardest working garbage men on the face of the planet. They probably finished the whole city in about 25 minutes!!!

When I got back to the hostel there was a new player in the game. This American girl, Jessica, who is from Raliegh. I had mixed feelings about her but later on she said something interesting so that's why I bring her up. Bob won some serious cool points by making up some caipirinhas for everyone. We all sat drinking and talking for a few hours and it was great. We hung out outside on the deck of the hostel. It was a gorgeous night. We probably should have stayed in the hostel that night but it was all good in the end...we still enjoyed ourselves. We were a huge group with people from everywhere. The US, Germany, Italy, England, Argentina, Switzerland, and a few others. The problem with going out that night was that there was this HUGE concert somewhere on the island so almost no one was in the centro. We tried to find a few clubs but failed. We ended up stopping for a couple beers at this one little bar that was open. Somewhere in the midst of all that walking, I was talking to Jessica about what I was gonna do. Most of what she said was dumb but she pointed out something interesting which I am sure is true. She commented on how there are different stages to traveling. I was in the "honeymoon" stage, which I am aware of. I am sure that there is a time a couple months in where you are just dying for friends, family, your own bed, shit like that. I think I could get through it though. I seriously feel sometimes like I could stay on the road forever...but let's not get into that right now. So that night, there was no real good action. I stopped and talked to a really cute local girl who was really nice and she said nothing was going on in the city because everyone was at the concert.

Eventually, we ended up back at back at the free side of Cafe Cancun. We had a few beers but this time I kept my shirt on. Around 3 or so, we called it a night . I decided that if it was rainy the next morning and the beach was out of the question, I would head back to SP for what looked like was going to be my last night on the trip.

AC