January is for family

Ah my, but time does fly! Yes, I realize it has been ages since my last post. But as they say, it is better late than never right? And now you get to hear about our amazing adventures.

So starting off the year of 2011, my parents finally sent me my Christmas present: my brother (bearing gifts of peanut butter and bagels)! And not far behind him in arriving came another wonderful surprise, my cousin Jeffery. With these two mulekes in my house, you can imagine the craziness. Well it wasn't enough, so we added a few more.

Next in arrival was, from Grandpapa's side, yet another cousin, Frank Branscombe (yes, it is a family name). In our first reunion, the chemistry sparked. It seemed to us that

Frank had always been there in our lives. With his playful sense of humor, love for adventure, and quirky Spanish/French accent- we could not help but feel a blood connection.

Not to be left out, Felipe (our Brazilian cousin) came up to add his part to the frenzy. So there we were: Americans, Brazilians and a little Peruvian. This completed our family reunion, representing the various parts of the world into which our family has spread (and yes, we cooked some amazing food).

Frank, myself and Jeff at Ipanema Beach!

Our coming together marked a new era for our family- but sadly, as new things come, we had to say goodbye to some things passed. Specifically, our charming little Island home.
Many, many years ago, my grandparents set about building a small house on a little fishing community's island- Ilha Jaguanum (or Black Panther). According to my dearest Grandpa's stories, our house was the first to use materials other than just bamboo and thatch (somehow I doubt this). Despite the happy and wonderful memories, the time had come to pass on the joy to another family.

So it was up to us to make the move and enjoy our island one last time.Our adventure started immediately on the car drive down to the coast- being the only girl in the group with 5 boys, you can imagine the kind of car games we played... When we finally arrived at the coast, we were just ahead of a huge rain cloud. We rushed to hire a boat taxi, but it was too late. We sputtered along in an uncovered boat taxi for 40 minutes while bullets of tropical rain pelted down on us and the ocean waves. Our clothes and bags were completely soaked... So we did all that we could do- raised our beer cans and made a toast to life and unexpected surprises. Just as we landed on our beach, the rains stopped and we quickly unpacked and hung out our sopping things. Walking through the old house brought my lazy memory ten years and more. I remembered walking on the sandy tiles, the

romantic kerosene lamps and watching my Dad pump water in the court yard. Other things like avoiding coconut trees (and falling coconuts) in the front yard were unchanged as well. Island living came extremely easy to our group and we quickly split up according to our priorities: Frank and I jumped into the water, Mitch and Jeff went exploring, and Felipe and Steve (our German/Bahian friend- also nick-named Bacon) went to the bar next door to set up a beer tab. It took no time at all before we had set up our first barbecue and were eating fresh fish and shrimp off the grill.

Our first island sunset was nothing short of spectacular...

In the horizon, a familiar and long forgotten image appeared: a distant mountain range in the shape of a sleeping man, one my father had pointed out to me years ago as "The Giant." When I was young, I used to imagine that one day he would wake up and rise and walk away into the sea.


The "Sleeping Giant" in the distance.

The next few days seemed to be lost in time and space. We floated in and out of sleeping, swimming, sailing, hiking and cooking. Nights were spent around kerosene lamps drinking wine and sharing stories, catching up on all the lost time in our lives. Frank and I found a common passion for the wind and the waves- sailing! We also found a common knack for getting stuck in wind shadows... We got tons of exercise swimming our sailboat out of the dead zones. The boys surprised me by making me take them speedo shopping before we got to the island. I humored them and helped them pick out a pair- but I never thought they would actually wear them! How wrong I was. It was like watching a liberation: every day, all day was speedo time. Jeff had his own little adventure when he decided to spend some time under the stars on the dock. Instead he fell asleep under the full moon and woke up in the early morning to find himself- stranded. Yes, the dock is only accessable by climbing up a rope and some rocks, but in high tide, the only way back is to swim... Luckily the fishermen get up before sunrise, so they came to his rescue. None of us even noticed that Jeff had spent the whole night outside until after breakfast later that morning when he nonchalantly said "So I got stuck on the dock last night." Siigghhh- that child!

One of the amazing thing about the island was its people. I realized quickly that island people have a long long memory. On my first day people were coming up to my brother and I and exclaiming "Tidi's children!" (Tidi is my Dad's nickname in Brazil) Mitchell was often called Tidi Boy and I was told I looked like my aunt Patsy many times. Other people told me stories of their memories of me when I was little. Then I finally met one very old (and semi-toothless) fisherman. Together we sat under the shade of the old Eucalyptus tree in our yard and he told me the story of how he helped my Grandpa build this old house. Apparently Grandpa was a very odd thinker, as the fisherman pointed out, and he wanted to build the courtyard out of "natural stones" instead of pre-cut ones. Grandpa also used things like whale bones for decorations, and old wooden machinery parts for window frames. These people were so proud of the house, like it was their own- a history they shared with our family.

Breakfast for the birds- fish cleaning time!

Frank and I were in charge of dinners- here we are cooking by kerosene light.

The little sailboat that we managed to make a 2 person boat.

Bacon, Mitch and Felipe making a churrasco on the beach! Never let men grocery shop for a trip- all we had was meat and bread.

Sailing and climbing on rocks

One memory that my family cherishes was from Mitch and My's first trip to the island (I was six and he was five). One night we were playing in the sand, when suddenly- the sand began to sparkle with little green lights. We dug and played and finally went screaming to Mom and Dad. Well, unfortunately- we found it it wasn't magic. But, as the biologist inside me was growing, I was excited to find out that it was biolum inescent plankton, a natural phenomenon that causes plankton to glow when agitated- or "excited". Mitch and I have been holding on to this magical memory for years, and were incredibly excited and hopeful to experience it again revisiting our beach. So of course we were slightly disappointing when Felipe realistically told us that we probably wouldn't see it since it was very rare. But then finally, on the last night, we were sitting around the fire when Felipe decided to go for a late night swim. Suddenly he came running back yelling- tonight there WAS bioluminescence! Without a word we all got up and ran to the water- diving in and watching as our wake sparkled green. Our hands and feet became flaming torches in the water. And yes of course, I did the only thing I could do in such a moment- I yelled out "Lumos!!" several times before diving in and watching the lights glow around my fingertips. It was truly indescribable and miraculous. We were all giddy children again with wild and boundless imagination- screaming and laughing at the starry sky. The next day we would have to say goodbye to this magical place forever, to our second home and own small paradise; but for now, we were all part of the light- the lightening over the coastal mountains, the distant stars and glittering sea.