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I came to Porto Seguro about 10 days ago. My good friend Bruno owns a house there, by the "Mangue" (Mangrove in French, in English ?), near the fishermen's market. His sister - Claudie, 72 years old - lives here all year long when Bruno only comes for a week or two, a couple of times a year.
I have mixed feelings about this area. Last time I was here, seven years ago, my feelings were not mixed at all : I hated it. You see, it was already my third trip to Brazil and I had seen quite a bit of the Bahia coast, spent a lot of time in Salvador de Bahia, but also on the road, stopping in small villages and driving up the coast to Pernambuco. I knew then, already, but only theoretically, that the "Nordeste" (north east) was much poorer than the south and that life was completely different than the one in the south. However, since I did not know the south at all, I couldn't really compare. But what I had lived in 2002, 2004 and the beginning of my 2006 trip to Bahia was a totally different experience than that I lived in Porto Seguro.
To cut a long story short, Porto Seguro was, for me, the opposite of Brazilian authenticity. It was a postcard made to please westerners coming to Brazil for their vacation. So, you name it : typical little fishermen's market, old houses Bahia style (Portuguese colonial style, a bit like Angola), life in slow motion, sensuality, heat, caïpirinhas and beer, marijuana and cocaine, dancing, flirting, f***ing, resting on the beach with a natural papaya fruit juice in your hand…
Or make that a Coco Verde.
Women in short skirts, bikinis that don't hide much, curly brown hair dancing in the sun, smiles and body contact. Eye contact only is so last century.
Drunk taking a nap in a hammock. School kids on the "balsa" (boat carrying people, cars and bikes across the river) in their uniforms. Palm trees and coconut trees. Let's stop for a beer, it's hot. Granny selling "cocadas" (very very sweet pastries) or "acarajés" (very fat deep fried stuff, filled with stuff. They love it.). Street vendors having everything you might think of before you think about them "cold water ! Coca cola ! Guarana ! Coco Verde !"… "Peanuts !"… "Picolé !" (fruit sorbet on a stick)… "Queijo !" (cheese, grilled on a portable barbecue… yummy stuff)…
Dolce vita for the gringo. And the gringa I still am. You feel far away from home, which is good. You will get warm, even too hot, enjoy cold showers, write your blog on your laptop either on the wifi equipped beach bar or in your bed, safely under your mosquito net while the ceiling fan is keeping you cool.
So what's wrong with that place really ?
Well, I don't know if I nailed it. I still don't know if what I'm going to say here is the reason why it gives me so many mixed feelings. But it's certainly a part of it.
Porto Seguro is a very Brazilian town, with an international airport, plenty of shopping streets, typical restaurants and stuff. It apparently has around 100 000 people living here. But, don't look for a library, a cinema, a museum, you won't find them. Apart from shopping, going to the beach and partying, there's not much more to do here. That's one thing but it's not really a big deal, apart from, maybe people who live here permanently and who get bored eventually…
On the other side of the river, taking that "Balsa" to get there, is Arraial de Ajuda. Downtown Arraial is probably exactly what a tourist can wish for : good looking restaurants (costing at least three to five times as much as a local restaurant in Porto Seguro), lounge bars, boutique hotels, cute little shops, arts and craft, animations, guys singing bossanova, playing their guitar while you devour your crayfish and swallow your third caïpirinha. This is NOT the Brazil I know and definitely not the one I like. But I must admit that most tourists will love it.
Add to this some foreigners who have decided to live here. Either all year long or at least some months every year. Those people (almost exclusively men) remind me - with some exceptions, thank God, of expats in Angola. And not in a good way.
I see how those guys talk to me. You see, I am their mirror of shame in a sense. I am a western girl, sharing their culture and often their language, educated, adult and somehow, they want to justify themselves. But then I see them act. The way they treat women. The way they talk about them. What they look for and at in them. This is a big flesh market my friends. "That girl ? Oh no, she's over 30, way too many logged hours… This one over there is much fresher. Check that ass."
Those guys, mostly, are retired or in their fifties. They're the baby boomer generation. They're filled with cash but still whine when a girl they're going to take home asks for a drink too many. As if this was really expensive. After all, they're already going to pay for the night with her. But she wants drinks too ! Damn !
"We're not heroes Nadege", they say. "Flesh is weak". Yeah right. And what prevents you from dating a girl your age or maybe younger than you, that is still acceptable, but maybe not fifteen, guys. You know. Oh, yeah : temptation.
"They don't care about you, those girls, you know Nadege, they're just after your money". Oh. Really ? Why on earth would a 20-year old, beautiful as the sunrise, be interested in anything else than your money, you stupid old and ugly fart ? She's certainly not impressed by the way you talk to her or others "her kind" (understand "w****s"). She's certainly not impressed either by your slimy touch and perverse look while putting on that ugly smile which says "I have the money, you're mine b****".
So you get the picture. I have never ever been against prostitution. I believe it serves its purpose. But don't those women deserve some respect too ?
The other style of person hanging out around here is - like my friend Bruno puts it - the "end of the road" guy. There's quite a bit of them. They end up here, their brain melts like ice cream in the sun, thanks to a pretty easy life - still quite affordable if you know where to go - thanks to a very slow motion life too, due to the heat mainly. They first come here to visit, they stay a bit longer than expected and then they stay. Period. It is very similar to what we used to say about those long term expats in Angola : they had been "angolanized", i.e. slowed down, knew all the tricks around town, including some fishy business, always living with an Angolan woman, sometimes having Angolan kids and here to stay. You would always see those guys around, in bars at night, at all expat events, but something about them was different. It's the same here, the money aside. Those "end of the road" guys usually don't have much money anymore. They live to Bahianese standards, in small and damaged houses, do some small jobs here and there, making enough money to pay the rent and buy booze and drugs. They change girlfriends regularly, they know all the latest gossips and lurk at your beer to check if they can take the last sip from you.
Life here is good if you come for a week. Or two. You can decide to close your eyes on what you don't like. There is a lot to see that pleases the eyes. And there are definitely some people worth knowing. I know a few around here already. I will come back to see them. But I will take my pink sunglasses with me, to try and just see "La Vie en Rose" around here and ignore the rest. Because, regardless of what I do and think, this won't change. Porto Seguro is not Brazil, I know that. I just don't hate it anymore, I guess I just got older.
- comments
mom tes commentaires m ont estomaqués , tu es d une lucidité ahurissante ! mais comme tu le dis si bien , que tu penses ou non certaines choses , rien ne changera .La nature humaine est si différente que rien ne changera dans les millénaires à venir . Il faut juste le savoir !! Avec mes regrets de laisser ce monde à mes petits enfants.
supet-toutounet I would be happy to have a debate with you about what objectives prostitution serves.