Homeward bound (Final post)

29th April Up and out at 6.30am to catch the 7.30am bus from Lencois for the last time. 6 hours later we arrived in Salvador and went back to our Chinese kilo restaurant for a feed. We left for the airport with 2 ½ hours to spare before our flight but our bus to the airport was delayed and when it finally arrived it broke down in the middle of the motorway. With the sweat starting to appear a replacement finally arrived and we were on our way again. We finally arrived 45 mins before our flight and check in was supposed to be 2 hours prior. We walked straight up to the check in desk were ushered through and were on the plane before we knew it.
We arrived back into Rio that evening and decided to stay at Cobacabana this time around and stayed in the Mellow Yellow hostel . The place wasn’t great but if that werent bad enough, the bunch of English teenagers in our room drinking and shouting was too much. We quickly changed rooms.

30th April The Mellow Yellow hostel has now been renamed by me as the ‘Must have been Yellow’ hostel. All the mattresses and pillows were covered in a nursing home waterproof fabric which was most uncomfortable as ones back stuck to the mattress in the heat of the night. This morning, after wiping the drool from my face that would have otherwise been absorbed into the pillow, we decided to check out. Our friend Caroline (we had travelled with her through Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador) had arrived in Rio a few days prior and we decided to stay at her hostel a few blocks away. That afternoon we went on a ‘Favella’ tour. A Favella is a Brazilian shanty town, and it would be a lie to say there was no pre Favella nerves. We were picked up from the hostel by minibus and driven to the bottom of the Favella (built on a mountain side) and given a warning prep talk before we were whisked uphill by motorbike to the top of the town where we were to walk downhill through the slums. The streets are only 2-3 feet wide so other than the main road through it the only way to go is by foot. It is home to 200,000 people and is largely controlled by the drug barons. The houses are piled up on top of each other and built very shoddily with un-plastered red brick. The stench of raw sewage from the open sewers, the damp and disrepair of the place beggars belief. Surprisingly the kids seem happy and the residents appear quiet friendly. This may be natural friendliness but the tourist dollar has built and kept the school which is run by an Italian woman and is a slick operation with 3 school days in one (3 lots of school kids doing a 4 hour day). I’m sure this privately run school that’s free to the residents is something the locals value greatly. We were treated to a demonstration of the local kids drumming school (drumming is very important in Brazilian culture) but the one thing none of them had were drums. They used buckets and bits of broom handles and were taught rhythm and band discipline. They were fantastic and quiet musical. We saw a local art gallery and went in and out of shops, bakerys, cafes… all created in a squalid little corner and providing a living. One of the sad things in the Favella is that despite the improvement in education and the standard of living, a Favellan has a distinct accent and even if they could afford to move often don’t as they suffer discrimination from the main Rio population.

01st May Confirmed my flight home today to depart tomorrow. I decided to go shopping for gifts for myself and the nieces and nephews. The main out of town shopping mall area was 10 miles from the city so I got the bus. It was a nice place to eat but the shops could have been from any city in the world. Back to Rio empty handed.

02nd May Frog left for New York this morning and asked me to carry his Machete, a 18 inch knife. We felt that the successful smuggle of such a weapon would be easier for me as I’d be putting my bag through to Dublin would have more chance of success than Frog going into the States with it.
That afternoon I went out for a farewell lunch with Caroline before packing up and heading for the airport. I boarded BA248 for Heathrow at 10.20pm and off I went. Strange feeling being on the flight home, it was a turning point of travelling into the unknown and now to the known. In this trip I hadn’t travelled in return mode either and by continually heading east, a year had passed and brought me back to where I started. Knowing this fact in theory doesn’t prepare you for the strange feeling in reality.
The flight home was a night flight and the woman behind me in an attempt to get comfortable had her feet stuck in the pouch in front of her which unfortunately was the back of my seat. I had to content with her wriggling feet in my back and I regularly pushed her toes through the seat. That worked for a while. As it was a night flight I didn’t want to create a fuss and wake everybody around me.

03rd May The flight arrived in Heathrow at 2 pm local time after 11hrs from Rio, according to the captain the longest flight of BA over continuous water. My connecting flight to Dublin was cancelled and had to hang around another hour on top of my existing 2 hour wait.
Arriving in Dublin the first visible change was the new ‘Go-bus’ service to Galway taking the motorways only and no stops. 3 hrs 15 mins, and its only slightly quicker in a car, that was for me. Driving along in the front seat of the bus enjoying the familiar sights it was another strange sensation to hear my sister ‘DJ-Derv’ playing on the radio. I knew at that stage I was at home.
Eventually I got to Galway and negotiated a discount on my taxi fare to Bearna village (not sure if it was a skill I acquired while travelling through the 3rd world or the sign of the times in economically depressed Ireland) I was at home at 10.30pm, 29½ hours later Brazil to Bearna.
As I was at home early and unexpected I walked round the back of the house in the dark with big backpack on and peered through the window at my parents sitting in the living room. With a few light taps on the window and a wave, the lad was back and the enjoyment of a surprise return is always great.

04th May This morning I started shouting at my sister Dearbhla from one end of the hallway and hiding when she turned around. After the second time she realised who it was and following her hugs and yelps we went down to see Orna (eldest sister) and her 2 children (the youngest Cillian, whom Id never met) It was a bank holiday Monday and all had been invited over for coffee. I walked in anyway followed by Derv, recording it all for her youtube video. There was great excitement and Beabhin was shy, Cillian started crying but as kids do, forget quickly and climb over their uncle when conditions allow. Later on I went up to see Davitt at his new house and crept up behind him and made some by the by comment about the ceiling and as usual hiding any surprise, welcomed me back and shook my hand. On then to Davitts old house old to see Mairead and the kids ; Naoise and Saorise. They too were all new to me (Naoise had been born before I left but was too delicate to get acquainted with) and was great to finally meet them.

THE END