Kiting and Brazilian Lobsters

Took a lesson from Nico Raffi at Tabuba lagoon today which was super and without incident. He corrected me on some things and I managed to sort myself out and now I can ride comfortably upwind on both sides! Wahoo! I can even use my beautiful new board with little trouble. Was quite the adventure getting there though. Took a public bus for 2 reals to the lagoon and then had to walk another 10 minutes barefoot with all our gear in the scorching sun/sand/thorny weeds to get to a good place to set up our kites. Kiting seriously requires more than just kite and board skills. One needs strength to carry the gear, athleticism to swim or run after kites, bush whacking abilities (helloo Winnie Chin), and amazing ability to endure pain from all the injuries sustained.

Anyhow....when we got there, Nico said, two safety things. Don't go too far into the lagoon because it's shallow and avoid dangerous woman. The dangerous woman was a kiter that has been trying for six years (according to her instructor) but hasn't been able to kite. Sad. I empathize. Anyway, I successfully avoided dangerous woman but got so enthusiastic going upwind that I kited into the shallow part of the lagoon. And when I overpowered on my kite, I did a face plant and dragged my knees on the bottom a little. I have battle scars from the kite lines, the fins on my board, trekking barefoot to the lagoon. It's all very sexy.

Other than that, we had a fabulous lobster meal cooked by the guys. "Of course we cook. We're French." It was delicious. The meal was paired with a coconut rice and tomato/onion garnishing. I'm going to dream of it tonight. One of the Nicolas' asked me, do you think we can get sick from eating too much lobster? I said, hmm, maybe. But the only issue is that this is crayfish, not lobster. Most of the table didn't want to believe it, I think. So we've just agreed to call them Brazilian lobsters.

We'll be heading out to Paracuru tomorrow in three sand buggies. That's one of the best parts about kiting in this area actually. haha. The sun wind and waves and the amazing scenery as the buggy cruises down the beach. I promise I'll take pictures. I haven't been good about them. I'm starting to enjoy myself so much that I'm wondering whether I should just change my ticket and stay here a little longer (and give Salvador a miss)...