Day 18

Got to bed at 6ish last night so we didn`t get up till late today, and as a result only had a half a day out and about in Sao Luis.

Rob`s fallen to a mystery sickness/parasite thing, which seems pretty debilitating. He couldn`t keep down a pretty minor breakfast and when we went for a beer in the evening he left straight off. Inbetween we again failed to find a laundry (it being Sunday) or go to the beach. Nothing of note occurred until 9.30ish when we met some people Renaud knew; an Englishman called Alex, and American girl called Catarina, and two Brazilians called Raphael and Jo. Raphael buzzed us over to a huge, almost empty beach where we shared a few beers and stories, and then back to town where we did the same.

Everyone was up for making more of the night but its hard to go out on a Sunday evening in festival time in Sao Luis. Even so we still all had a good few hours bevying and cahtting away. Alex and Catarina are interesting people. He has taken the last few months of university, Performance Art at Brighton, to develop some kind of art/performance project/film for his course. He is doing this with Raphael, but I only really spoke to Alex about it. He seemed pretty into it and committed, so I hope they pull it off. He also seems to have something to say and a talent to fulfil, so why not go for it. Catarina is travelling through South America alone, which I would have thought was daunting for a girl. However within half an hour it was easy to see how she managed, she has the Renaud-esque ability to talk to anyone, anywhere and in a few different languages.

So the night melted away obscurely and we were delivered home at 1ish, but the people we met were characters, and I think we`ll definitely see them some more on the road.