Trip to Angra

23 August 2012

I caught the 8AM bus to Angra which was dead on time.  As we moved through the town I carefully watched the passing scene to plan my exit from the bus on Sunday morning near the inter city bus station.  The key is to keep sight of the Hotel Acropolis and get off as close to it as I can.  I'll sit in he middle of the back row of the bus with my duffel bag I front of me and only a few steps from the rear exit.

The objective was the ATM of the HSBC bank and within ten minutes after alighting from the bus I was packing another $1,000 Reals in my wallet.    I then walked to a supermarket that had caught my eye on previous visits while marveling at the perfect weather and the gentle cool breeze. 

So far the Angra region had presented my kind of climate: day after day of clear bright skies, not particularly humid unless it had rained recently, and a little on the warm side during the middle of the day.  The mosquitoes have matched the culture by being the most laid back ones I had ever experienced.  They  are small, slow and laughably easy to swipe flat, buzz around the ears at night but never seem to bite. 

The supermarket exceeded my expectations.  The first thing that I liked was that they allowed me to go in with my backpack instead of forcing me to stow it in a locker.  Later I noticed why:  there were surveillance cameras on the ceiling.  The store carried everything that I might be interested in, including fresh and frozen meats, various cheeses and sliced meats, powdered milk, and a very big range of fresh fruit and vegetables.  I figured that I might as well back load some provisions on this trip so I purchased a 5 kg bag of rice (nothing smaller on offer), four packets of lentils, some spaghetti, and other items including fresh bananas.  I expect to depart from Bracui on 30 November very well provisioned, but will still stop at Florianopolis for a “top up” of perishables before setting sail for Cape Town.

After a 30 minute wait I boarded a bus for Frade and managed to get off just before Rio Bracui (with help from a girl who pulled the cord first).  Before I had a chance to cross the highway to begin the 3 km walk to the marina another bus came by and dropped off  Henrique.  We greeted each other with a handshake and he told me that he would drive me to the marina.  As many others do with their cars and bicycles, he had parked his car just inside the security gate and used buses.  This was my lucky day because he had saved me a long walk with 10 kilos on my back.

On the way in Henrique pointed out his house, which is on the canal.  Yes, he has a boat.  Yes, of course it is a sailboat because he hates power boats. 

On the way to the marina I told him that I would be leaving for Rio on Sunday morning, and would he be doing the hull job on my boat before I left or after I returned in November.  He told me that he has had trouble getting people to do the work.  I expressed surprise, given that this is he low season.  The people are there and available, but they just don't want to do the work.  They'd rather do very short jobs and get just enough money to get by on.  He suggested that he do the job while I am away.  I would have preferred to be here when the work was done, but I relented, figuring that I'd be able to make a careful assessment of the result after my return.  He doesn't mind waiting for payment until I get back.  If that job works out OK I'll ask him to do the hull cleaning below the waterline that we discussed earlier, but only if he can guarantee to do it within 2 weeks.

As we walked toward my jetty (“D” jetty, easy to remember because my pen in Fremantle is on “D” jetty) we walked by a group of guys talking at one of the tables of Phillipe's closed cafe and Henrique turned and told me “See?  All day they just sit around and talk.”  I replied that they talk too much even when they work.  I'll have a group of 3 doing maintenance (e.g. cleaning) on a nearby boat and all I hear is Yak Yak Yak, and I can't figure out what they could be talking about.  Henrique gave a knowing nod.   … I hope they can talk and polish at the same time.