Darkness in Bahia

// February 21st, 2008 // My Personal Journey, Travel

Fade from black.

A vague awareness of sweat soaked fabric wrapping my body drifts into view. It must be sometime in the afternoon by now. I’m in Trancoso- no.. now it’s Arrial D’Ajuda. My body craves water. It must be three already. What time did we finish? Flashes of the hour long morning walk back along the beaches roll past, we arrived just in time for breakfast. Ah breakfast, hence the corn flakes I feel among the bedsheets. A momentary reflection upon my terribleness and then.. it was a wonderful party. A hundred people along the beach, with a huge moon filling the sky and the sea, the air thick with music, laughter and a sub-tropical humidity. I might just be able to open my eyes. Then shower. It would bring sweet relief from all this sweaty fabric. And thank God for this ceiling fan. The symphony of it’s ticking and whiring emerges, rhythms ever changing. Kept the mosquitos away too. Mosquitos! Tens of bites, old and new, compete for my attention. Itch. Itch. I roll onto my side, forget again and find relief. To do? What to do? To stay again or continue the northward journey? Days are slipping so quickly, they feel almost stolen. It’s already the full moon. Ah, the full moon. Maybe I should go back to Trancoso, for a celebration? Who told me? Which of these casual acquaintances upon the road was it? Too many voices, but I’m fairly sure. Hmm Trancoso again. Different to this place. Arrial is such a tourist village- even one day here is enough to read that. Big with the Israelis, menu’s in Hebrew! A smile. Then memories of a less than pleasant run in with some impolite Israelis guys flashes into view. Probably just out the freaking army. Poor bastards… The quiet of Trancoso takes over again, the sound of a silient summer night, high above the beach. An hour away and who knows if anyone is still there? A million other doubts arise. Then a stronger voice, Eleven Days Arthur. Eleven. I should go.

Five hours later. Half watching my reflection, half gazing into the night landscape of Bahia I stare into the window as this empty bus winds towards Trancoso. The shadows of palm trees on the open sky rush by. Suddenly I realise where I am on this planet. Somewhere in north-eastern Brazil an Australian man is bridging the darkness between two towns, no bags, nothing except a little cash, water, sunscreen and insect repellent. Solution to most problems here. Again the realisation of where I am, and deeper. And what for? Decisions I suppose- the only way is to keep making the narrative as I go. Wake up one morning or another with a gut feeling that it’s time to move, a hunger for another place that you never knew and another chapter is added to this story and strangely enough the themes seem to play out just right. So now Trancoso and now Brazil. And this time to think. The days become full of sun and music and food and people and reading and trying a little more language here and there, yet it seems like there’s no time, no really good time, to think. But here in the buses, in the darkness, it’s just me and the rushing of Bahia, and it all comes so easy. So free.

2 Responses to “Darkness in Bahia”

  1. bb says:
    February 27, 2008 at 2:38 am

    bro, keep up this stuff, i enjoyed the new style. :)
    get some teletype paper and forget punctuation and you got something that can help you not working for the rest of this century :)

  2. Arthur Josephson says:
    March 1, 2008 at 9:25 am

    Thanks mate. Have been thinking to maybe whip out a “Zen and the Art” style stream of consciousness piece briding the philisophical/travel thing… Is modern day teletype paper just removing page breaks in Word? Doesn’t seem quite as cool.

Leave a Reply