Correspondances carte blanche swimming with his girlfriend in a natural All over the place clusters of people are Day 11. Pipa pool we were at that very morning. Crazy. chatting in front of their homes in the Last evening here. Sacha tries to break dark, appearing out of nowhere in his juggling record of 78 and Simon Day 7. Fernando de Noronha the glare of our headlights. We take our walks around in the water talking to Big day today: we’re going to see turtles bags out of the trunk and I wonder if the himself. He looks like Giacometti’s underwater. My mask leaks into the nose driver’s going to drive the two hours Walking Man. and I choke, several times. It’s ridiculous back to his wife and his own bed. and annoys the guide.He keeps Day 12. Pipa–São Luís repeating “Barba bigoudi,” meaning Day 9. Pipa Virginie explains the meaning of the I should’ve shaved before coming so A French guy talking with Virginie: word “dilapidated” to the boys as we the mask would adhere better. Plus he “Everyone must keep telling you arrive in the district where our hotel is has a hard time finding the turtles and that your husband looks like Vincent located. The taxi drives like crazy among sells us a rock lobster, which you’d get a Delerm.” the other cars driving like crazy; that’s better view of in a tank at a fish shop, how it is here, apparently. A town left as if it were the find of the century, Day 10. Pipa to its own devices, cinder blocks filling thumbs up again and again. I don’t think Seeing dolphins really close up just three the windows of former colonial villas. I’m cut out for scuba diving. meters to your left, before they disappear Young people brandishing placards for and reappear ten meters away in a flash. a local candidate, in silence, expression- Day 8. Fernando de Noronha–Recife– Hearing them breathe. Then walking less. São Luís seems a sad place. Natal–Pipa along the beach, eating grilled food at Natal airport. A line of taxis. Our driver Garagem, still covered in sand, watching Day 13. São Luís–Atins doesn’t seem thrilled at the idea of taking 20 minutes of Vasco vs. Fluminense Wake early, impossible to go back to sleep. us to Praia da Pipa, a two-hour drive on a screen, heading off to another There’s a driver who doesn’t say a word. away. It’s dark, he’s elderly, he looks at beach, listening to Brazilian pop rock in There’s a boat just for the four of us, like in his phone while he’s driving to tell his the car, losing a necklace, insisting on an adventure movie, down a river among wife. He yawns and rubs his eyes. After photographing an inflatable flamingo, trees. There are wind turbines, the first a while I start humming a tune to be sure watching the sunset while sipping dunes. When the boat docks, there’s a van, he stays awake. We turn off the main suco de abacaxi (pineapple), finding and then there’s La Ferme de Georges, a road, driving through villages in the black the necklace, playing beach volleyball in kind of paradise at the end of the road. of night, no streetlights, no electricity. the dark, heading back to Pipa, to sleep. There are the two dalmatians, Ipa and 160