Chapter III - Homecoming

Arraial D'Ajuda - Porto Seguro - Belo Horizonte - Araxá - Uberaba - Araxá

Home is a curious place. You can spend long periods away from there and still, when you return, everything feels right. You are welcomed back and greeted with love by your family and friends, by the familiar smell of the house, by the walls and windowpanes.

My home away from home is this house in Araxá. I lived here the first six months of my exchange six years ago. This family taught me how to speak Portuguese and helped me to get along with a new culture. I can barely describe the feeling I have here: after these first, fairly difficult weeks of travelling this place, city and people offer me the brazilian way of life I grew to know back in the days. When we crossed the non-existing border between Bahia and Minas Gerais and drove between the green hills and mountains, I had the same feeling I get every time I visit my home town in Finland and I knew we had arrived home.

We were planning to stay here only for a few days and were sure that a four-day visit would be enough. Luckily we didn't do the same mistake as in Belo Horizonte (where we bought bus tickets in advance and came to regret it when we got to know how many cool places we could have gone to with our new friends from the hostel), and were able to extend our stay here. Even Anneli felt good energy in the house from the beginning so she didn't mind staying longer in one place.

We haven't done anything special (as Anneli put it), just met my friends and family, relaxed, gotten to know the city and practically lived a fairly normal life for a while. We've eaten tons of pão de queijo (from which Anneli has heard a lot), açai (equally as much talking) and drank a lot of juice made of fresh fruits. We even tried to surprise my host mum by making some ourselves using the surprisingly complex juicer, but she didn't appreciate it as much as we thought. Can't blame her, though, orange seeds don't taste too good.

It's been wonderful to be able to connect with people with whom I haven't kept in touch (shame on me). Meetings with the gang of my dearest friends have been delightful - I can't believe it was six years ago when we last trocamos idéias (exchanged thoughts). Meeting with families and relatives has been a lot of fun too, I'm surprised that they still recognise me! The hospitality and way of politeness here differs a lot from those we got to know in Bahia.

Anneli has been really brave, I must tell you. It's not uncommon that I forget to translate most of the conversations to her but thankfully a couple of my (and now hers too) friends do their best to help her understand.

Concerning another homecoming, we have something to tell you. After loads of thinking, discussing and compromising we have come to the conclusion that we'll shorten our trip. Our plan is to travel through all the countries we were going to, just in a shorter period of time. Flight back home is re-booked and we'll arrive in Finland on March 29th. That means we have still two and half months ahead of us and we'll enjoy them to the fullest.

We shall take a bus to Rio in a couple of hours and after spending a few days in the area, we'll head towards south. I don't think I'm speaking only for myself when I say that I can't wait to leave the beaches behind for a while and have adventures in places neither of us have visited.

We're sorry for the lack of pictures, once we have the chance we'll show you the best moments, including e.g. waterfalls, live music and food, of our stay here.