{maique}

😊 We found Henry, at last! He’s the one of the few that we haven’t met yet, the man spends his days at his workshop and comes out at night only. Working on his plastic recycling experiences, outside the city. Last night, while walking in a dark street, on our way to an omelette dinner, I mentioned to movieStar that he was still missing. Not a second later we heard a call, “Mr Miguel!”! Henry. How in heaven’s name did he know it was me? The way I walk! While I think it’s a pretty normal way (one feet in front of the other one, and repeat), he knew it was me, even though he couldn’t make out my face, or anything else. It’s just too dark.

🍔 One morning was spent trying to keep tinyMovieStar entertained with mom, always a tricky task, and then Don showed up. She’s still in love with him, so that helped. He’s also a very talented man with crayons, quickly drawing a bird that proved to be a hit with the little one. We then moved to the dining room, and fries were made, especially for him. We had, of course, a burger.

🎩 The Search for the President. The President of the island has changed since we were last here, and we hadn’t met the new one yet. The old one was an old acquaintance, we were on the island for many months, over the years, during his presidency. Visiting journalists would often seek a interview, so we’d meet for professional reasons, as well as in the street, while out and about. And movieStar had been looking for the new one, as an interview had been requested. How do you find the President? You go out to dinner. He enters the restaurant. That was it.

🐠 5AM pick-up time, that I managed to push back to 6AM. Elias, the fisherman, tried to pick me up 2 meters from my house, on the river that runs next to it. We were going fishing. It was low tide, so he couldn’t quite make it. I walked to his place, on the other bank, and got in. Tiny boat. We motored our way to the hotel down the coast, to pick up Don. An hour later we were there, and another hour thirty to get us to the spot where we’d spend a big part of the day, trying to persuade some fish to jump in. I didn’t, and I’m quite happy it turned out that way for me. The look on the ones that weren’t so lucky, struggling to breathe out of the water, is just heartbreaking. Don caught a couple, and the fisherman was doing it non-stop. The good part about it, and there was of course one, was spending so much time in a place I think it’s the best looking one on the island: the Bay of Needles.

🚗 One of these days we went to dinner at one one the new places, but they had nothing we wanted at the time. So we moved to the one next door, also a new spot. As soon as we got it, movieStar spotted a couple of old friends, from high school. We spent the rest of the evening talking to them, helping the get money (the no ATM on the island is still a thing, and setting up a plan for the following morning. They were only staying for a day, and told us they were hiring a guide to drive them around. They had the car already. movieStar offered my services, I would be their designated guide, along with my lovely assistant, tinyMovieStar. We left early in the morning, drove up to THE viewpoint, down to Banana Beach. Spent a long time there, and then up to the pool at Belo Monte, just in time for a snack. The day was done with a drive to Roça Sundy, where they met our friends, and we picked up movieStar. Back to the city. They were happy. We as well.

🏖️ A beach tour was scheduled for the next morning. We were all going this time, along with a French journalist, another one from New York, and a nice retired couple from the UK, living in Portugal. It’s a wonderful thing, where you ride a boat and stop at a couple of beaches, before getting to the last one, my favorite. A lovely grilled fish meal is served there, with plenty of other treats too. The whole thing takes about 6 hours. tinyMovieStar, first time on a small boat for so long, loved it, after the initial 10 minutes of “why the hell is this rocking?”

😢 Don left. We have met some really nice people here, both local and visiting. But this one will be hard to top. We were both sorry to see them go.

✈️ Our days on the island are coming to an end, and we’re still not sure if the airline strike is happening. That’s the big question now.