Surf and the City

Rio de Janeiro, July 2021

Guggi tricked me this morning when she asked me to accompany her to the beach for a surf session. She presented me to the local surf instructor at Arpoador who immediately grabbed and convinced me to get into the water with him. I had mentally not been at all prepared for that and just wanted to stay by the shore to watch my sister catching waves, but all of a sudden I found myself paddeling into the waters beside the instructor, who would help to catch waves. And it felt so good! Damn. I had not been on a board since a year and had totally lost faith in my ability, due to my latest physical deterioration. Fear had become a new compagnion in my life. Fear of tripping and falling, loosing stability far too easily, dropping items from my left crippled hand. Fear of not reacting appropiate in necessary situations, ‘ cause the information sent from my brain is not arriving as fast as it should - or not at all - to my stiff extremities. My strong limping causes pain and discomfort in my hip, buttocks and lower back. The osteopath sessions have to balance out the longterm damages on the Achilles tendon, the arthritis on the foot joints, the shortening of my left leg. But there I was, standing up on the board and feeling good in the warm waters, only wearing a bikini. Guggi had talked to the instructor a day before, for him to persuade me and insist as much as possible - after she had spoken about my special conditions and fears - to play around in the ocean. And I was happy she did because it was so much fun! Hopefully to be repeated if weather and wave conditions are soft enough for me.

It’s winter in Rio and quite a bit colder and rougher than usual. Rainy days are actually good for working, despite the fact that I need to wake up at 4.45 am to keep up with european time zone and participate in regular morning conference calls with my newspaper colleagues in Berlin. But I am not the only early bird over here. Guggi gets up at 5 am aswell, to prepare her boys with enough time ahead before their pick up by the school bus at 6.30 am. The 4 year old twins are very slow and sleepy in the morning. Therefore we all usually go to bed around 8 or 9 pm the latest.

I enjoy so much playing and communicating with my nephews, although they never respond in german. What a difference to 14 month ago, when I spend with them 2 month during the first lockdown and they were not able to talk yet, beside shouting out loud „Fora Bolsonaro“ from the balcony, together with all the neighbours. Theo and Noah understand everything in german but keep continuously talking in portuguese only. I guess that is normal amongst kids. My sisters and I reacted the same way in our childhood when moving to other countries with different languages.

City life is more or less back to normal, beside the obligatory masks on everybodys faces in the streets. Most of the citizens are already vaccinated. No international but a few brazilian tourist to be noticed here and there, as out of season and a strong concern on the virus variation. I usually go to the gym or for lunch, participate in yoga classes or take a nap on a sunny day after work at my favourite little beach called praia do diabo, the devil’s beach. There I see the same elderly and sporty people as every year, playing beach ball or hanging around for chats in their chairs under umbrellas next to portable fridges containing ice cold beers. It feels very familiar and comfortable to daze away next to them, on the sandy small beach stretch between the military fortness and the big rock of Arpoador.

Again, I must admit to really enjoy the city of Rio de Janeiro, the so called ‘cidade maravilhosa’. Still got the whole month of july ahead to stay. Absolutely marvellous.