Midlife crysis ... or not ... smooth sailing across mid-point : FREEDOM and REALITY

It's really not the destination that counts, is it?

Now with mid point sailed across, full wind in my sails and with my dearest element in front of me, I can clearly say ... many things ... but before, let's see some stats.

2 full months have passed, budget is as planned (a little less than 2000$CAD per month including everything, even planes, new phone 300$, one week of Carnaval accommodation 500$, 3 tattoos for 125$). Stayed mainly in the North East coast of Brazil, chilling and discovering new beach beauties. Here are the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/braikoff/20140228_20140309_RecifeCarnaval_Brazil
http://picasaweb.google.com/braikoff/20140303_20140304_PuertoGalina_Brazil
http://picasaweb.google.com/braikoff/20140309_20140319_NatalPipa_Brazil
http://picasaweb.google.com/braikoff/20140319_20140323_Jericoacoara_Brazil
http://picasaweb.google.com/braikoff/20140324_20140327_SaoLuisLencoisMaranhese_Brazil
http://picasaweb.google.com/braikoff/20140328_20140411_NatalPipaMaracajou_Brazil

It wasn't easy to cover one week of travel time in a blog page, so 5 weeks are a monster. To continue on the last article, I left over just before my first Brazilian Carnaval experience, where my backup came and from where we made history in Northern Brazil. Carnaval was huge party with millions of people dancing and enjoying the sounds and colourful energetic people.
Here are the main parts, Carnaval in Recife, chilling in Natal, finally deceiving Jeri, Sao Luis, Lecois Maranhese and finally closing the loop in Natal around beautiful Pipa.

Also, to celebrate mid-points, I'll share my version of FREEDOM and REALITY.

Carnaval in Boa Viajem, Recife, Olinda:

Bathing in happyness

One of any traveler's main problems is to NOT BE ALONE, for many obvious reasons. So, the news of a Canadian friend coming to party here, was music to my ears, especially in such a chaotic event like the famously renowned Brazilian Carnaval.

What pink glasses?

The only down part of Carnaval was the expensive hostel price, but it was worth every single penny because that money served to create a beautiful family and friendships that will most likely last forever. It was an alcoholic's heaven partying non-stop in all parts of the cities, Olinda, Recife and Boa Viajem. Together with my brother in arms, we shared the craziest memories surrounded by magic and beauty.

 Sometimes chaos has this amazing beauty and grace surrounding it, creating possibilities. Since every one was there to party, the vibe was amazing. Only one way to find out and I wish you the best memories when you decide to witness Carnaval with your own eyes. Met plenty of cool people that would usually keep their social masks on, but decided to be free and enjoy themselves giving the best and purest gift to all others by being themselves. Did you had to put a mask on today?

Natal:

Lua Cheia Hostel in Natal

Aldo Recife was great, eventually all the members of our family left and the next destination included a place where sharks didn't infest my dearest element and forever passionate lover(the ocean). Natal sounded perfect, safer, cool beaches and filled with beautiful women(on tinder). Our first night was amazing in a hostel that not only look like a castle but really was one. This place was surrounded by "piranhas" which is the name given to prostitutes here. We even had the chance of seeing an over friendly ex-he who gladly showed us the result of how well a sex-change operation can go. Of course the red light district is filled with Italian originated Brazilians.

El Dorado

Eventually the 2 Roman emperors ended up in marvelous Pipa which I highly recommend to all travelers that love beach and hippie places. It surpasses Jericoacoara by far ... in my humble opinion. Aldo I don't talk much about the people I meet, it's really them who make all these adventures memorable and worth while.

I love reading

Jericoacoara:

Magnificent sunset every single time

In a bus filled with 4 members of my new family, we covered the lovely distances separating my initial goal from the last city. After 2 cool friends told me about this mystical and hippie place, Jeri was supposed to be my home for 3 months, unfortunately the ocean was not bold enough for surfing purposes.

Taking a break from travel worries

Still enjoyed the buggee ride, the lagoons, the beach capoeira, the live concerts in the small city and most of all more great company.

Amazing art well performed every sunset

If you love kite-surf, this place is a MUST, since there's good winds ALL the time.

Sao Luis:

Surrounded by beauty and grace, my new life goal

It was a short trip, mostly so my senses can re-feel one missed soul. The old city is unfortunately falling apart and filled with drugs addicts. The good side of the old city is that after the sundown, plenty of soon to become circus artists come to the main square to practice and it's a blessing for the eyes to see such determination and skill. Also there are plenty of schools and centers for those who'd love to improve their artistic expressions. It was a marvelous old city but it's slowly falling apart, now the new city takes over with it's long empty beaches.

Where clouds come to vent

Only 4 hours away, there's one huge tourist attraction with immense dunes and natural sweet water pools, but it's also the ONLY real thing to see almost making it unworthy to spend the night in Lecois Maranhese. One thing that I see often here is the price difference in restaurants. Like every respectable tourist place, there are bigger restaurants with a better ambiance, better view and higher prices. For example, a pizza would go for at least 50 reais and it seemed pretty slim, while the local food shop sold a immense portion (could feed at least 2 people) of fish, rice, vegetables and more for only 12 reais. These 2 places were about 50 meters away.

Natal:

Hello LOVE

Since Jeri and Sao Luis didn't stand a chance of impressing my senses after Pipa, my path made a sudden U-turn and decided to surround myself with the beauty and grace that I previous found in Natal.

Bolo do pao do queijo

FREEDOM and REALITY:

Sweet rebel

I've been a rebel for a long time, always trying to find new ways and "optimise" what's already in place. I guess my brain excels at understanding the surrounding system and finding flaws that I could exploit. In all math courses my marks were way above average and they remained even in engineering school, so thank you amazing genes from Romania where famous mathematicians and physicists were born.

Choosing a ship

When is the last time your focus stopped on a "how to have a better life" article in the news or on facebook? They seem to be everywhere surrounded by famous quotes about how to live a better life. Are you happier?

Don't forget to look behind

I remember coming out of polytechnique and after only one year of corporate work, I felt such a disconnection between what I imagined my adult life to be and reality. And that was only the first year. I really believe that I've achieved a better life quality for myself accomplishing almost all my dreams in the last 8 years.

In my case, it helped a lot understanding about freedom and reality.

First, there's this Amerindian legend about two wolfs, one white(good) and the other one black(evil). The legend says we have both of them fighting within us and the one who wins, is the one we care-for(feed, nurture, give attention) more.

Two options, help it or squash it ... so tempting, shut up blackie

Seconds, a new way of looking at this is to go back to the first human(no beliefs, no knowledge, no social standards). Imagine being a caveman, looking at yourself in a lake. In this case, REALITY  is that we're a complex machine that transports ourselves in the best way for all environments. This machine has 5 senses that make the bridge between REALITY and our brain.
Everything outside of the realm of these 5 senses isn't reality and it's AT BEST a very close story to reality. In our days, our brain is flooded with man made desires and fictitious needs that we assume being real part of us. How much of your processing power is used on REALITY?

Hello reality

Third, seeing REALITY for what it is, FREES us to make more enlighten choices, considering that life is only a suite of emotional states as a side effects of our machine's pre-programming. FREEDOM means that you understand the true boundaries of REALITY.

Fourth, and getting back to the wolves story, we can figure out which emotional states are on the side of the white wolf and then find what makes him happy(in my case if to be surrounded by beauty and grace). This mainly means that you have power over the emotional states that you go through. It means that at any point in time, you can feed the white or black wolf setting a precedent for a future resembled action. This means that if you've been having a long term affair with the black wolf in obscure emotional states, you can start befriending again the white one by shifting your focus. This also means that you can increase the time you pass in a white wolf emotional state ... as one of my friends would say "choose your own drug".

My favorite drug H2O

Fifth, you can't control ALL emotional states, but you can know that at worst, all emotional states are temporary(especially LOVE), so breath in and let time move you into the next realm of possibilities. Also, even if society or anybody tries to push false boundaries on you, know that it's not REALITY, it only exists because you choose to accept it as a reality(money value, territory borders, politics, religion, social status, normal sexual life, etc).

Because it's easier when your wolfs merge

Enjoy the FREEDOM OF REALITY ... NOW, go feed the white wolf!