Our dream volunteer!

This post is dedicated to our workaway experience.

During the whole month of November Anna was traveling and I had to get myself some help at the pousada. This time we decided to invite a volunteer from the workaway project (http://www.workaway.info). We posted and announcement on our profile but still haven’t got any acceptable candidates, so I started browsing and sending out invitations. I am quite lazy, especially when it comes to making research and choosing. Mostly, I rely on my intuition and luck and go for one of the first options I have. And, was I lucky this time!
One of the profiles that I checked attracted my attention by a strange smudged photo. I thought: “Bad profile picture? This girl doesn’t care too much about looking pretty, she must be a serious (nerdy?) girl. That’s exactly what I need!”

It was a French girl from Paris named Cécile. First I had some doubts. How will she adapt to our simple village lifestyle? I couldn’t get rid of the stereotypes. It was difficult for me to picture a “French Mademoiselle” watering our palm trees with a bucket in C+35 heat, washing dishes and sleeping in our “escape room” equipped with nothing more than a fan, a bed and a cold shower. However, Cécile was eager to take the job, and miraculously even ready to arrive with a short notice on the 1^st of November.
When Cécile just got off the truck in front of our gate I thought: “OMG she’s so pretty!” Later on I discovered also that she is extremely shy and IMHO beauty + shyness = double charm. 

Eating little and working lots, to my impression always much more than needed, Cécile turned out to be a dream volunteer! Sometimes I even had a guilty feeling looking at her going around our garden with a water hose many times a day (after many months of drought our 5 meter water well got dry and we had to water our garden in patches), collecting dry leaves from the ground, learning how to make cake or getting stressed in the kitchen while trying to cook something for lunch that our cranky maid Dadi might approve. Dadi, by the way, gave some hard time to Cécile and her French cuisine. Statistically only one of 3 dishes cooked by Cécile received a dry “está bom” compliment. However, in the end they made friends and Cécile even got invited to visit Dadi’s house in Mangue Seco – an honor which neither me nor Anna were never granted.
The best thing about having Cécile at Atlantis was the fact that I gained a great new friend. I never imagined one can order those by clicking volunteer ads on workaway.org ;-) ! 

After spending almost the whole day together at the pousada and going out at night often for our classic drinks&forró fun we became very close. Cécile turned out to be a very fun person to hang out with and now when I am looking back at the time we spent – we had so much fun! Hiking, surfing, and (even!) stand-up paddling together, watching sunsets, getting drunk, dancing, gossiping, making fun of each other, and (not to forget) having a lot of meaningful conversations, which is a rare thing to happen between people in Jeri.

So, yeah, until now each time I water the garden or eat water-melon, I remember her and how much fun we had and I really hope to see Cécile somewhere around the planet again!

And, by the way, the workaway project is off at Atlantis for now, to a certain point maybe because Cécile was too good to surpassed by any other volunteers that might appear after ;-)

check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

2013 start update! [by Anna]

It's been reeeeally long now since we posted anything! Obviously, it is not because nothing has been happening. It is because there has been happening a lot :-)

First of all, in 2012 we have finally finished all the paper work! It included picking up our permanent residence permit in Moscow and changing the type of company, which downgraded our taxation scheme and now we will pay less taxes! All this was of course a very long and painful process with delays and time and money wasted - both in Russia and in Brazil. At least that these two countries have in common - their love for bureaucracy!

Also in October we went through a construction process - we built a new, seventh room. The decision to do so was a bit spontaneous and was taken one Friday night in front of Na Casa Della restaurant and immediately cheered for with beer cans we had in our hands at the moment.

The construction process was smooth, delayed only by one month exactly as we had expected (100% of the time predicted by the foreman) and 50% more expensive than predicted by the foreman, also exactly as we had planned, so no surprises there. It was not SO smart of us to have the construction in the middle of high season, but since we had started, it was important to have it ready by the New Year's eve, and it was. So we are now well on the way in making the investment pay off.

We closed 2012 with satisfactory result and 68% average occupancy rate and also found that we re-invested over 80% of the profit. Since June 2012 we are Number One B&B in Jericoacoara and we've been working hard to maintain this position. In 2013 we plan to ripe the results of this reinvestment and work less and relax more! No big plans expect changing two last old ACs to new models and doing some general maintenance during the low season. Although of course you never know what kind of new inspiration we may get all of a sudden!

I have also decided that my 50% of the business are now up for grabs at the initial price of €200.000 and any takers are welcome to contact me for more info!

Here are some photos on the Room 7 development:

the beginning

the washing area that has been moved into the house

one week into the construction

three weeks into the construction

the result (we paved the outside area with big flat stones now)

the inside (we still want to paint two of the walls pink)

the draft of the shells

the result

check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

about cashew [by Anna]

after closing July and August with 90% occupancy we had a bit of breathing space in September - we are now coming to a finish line with 70%. this week-end there is a sport music festival in Jeri. well, it is always good with something different than traditional weekly samba and forró parties! next month we both are finally going to Moscow. it's been a while!

in order not to get bored in medium season now we started a new project - constructing another room where the washing area is now. the washing machine will move into the house where we have a lot of unused space and we will dry the bed-linen behind the house now. the project started today by cleaning up behind the house and preparing the area for putting up the ropes, tomorrow we move the machine and then next weed start with the foundation. the whole thing is scheduled to be completed by the end of October. well, we'll be happy to get some part of the investment back selling the room for New Year's eve - the top highest season in Jeri. the 4 days packages for a double room in economic B&Bs like ours starts at around BRL2.000 (RUB30.500/EUR760/NOK5.600). mind you, we have only one room available, the has been booked for a couple of months now! time to make money!!

anyhow, that's for the update. this post is about cashew. i remember the first time i tried cashew - it was in early 90s. my mom asked me to close my eyes and guess what i'm eating. i thought it was some sort of a cookie. then my mom told me it was her favourite nut - my grandfather used to bring them from his trips abroad (his was a diplomatic courier). cashew was not a common thing in USSR!

here in the state of Ceará cashew is one of the most common fruits. the season starts in September. Jeri is surrounded by cashew farms and the strong winds bring the smell of cashew fruits all the way till here. well, there are a lot of cashew trees in Jeri also, we have one of our own. it's quite small but you can see some fruits getting ripe on the top:

the fruit itself has a slightly astringent, but pleasant taste and is mostly used to make juice. we use it a lot to make juice for breakfast - it is nice and also pretty cheap during the season:

well as for the nuts... obviously they don't grow on the trees roasted with salt and packaged to go with a Friday beer. so i decided what lies in between! every local person can tell you how to get nuts out of the cashew, just like any person in Europe can tell you how to grow potatoes. so i didn't have to search long - i asked Dady! here is the process. first, you put the nuts into the sun. this is supposed to make the oil start coming out. this process takes a couple of days:

then we have to "fry" them, as Dady put it. normally it is done on bigger surfaces on the sand, but due to the lack of thereof, we used our grill. ready to go - cashews piled up and straw from coconut palm trees is prepared. Juja is making sure everything is according up to the standard:

well, then you put th straw on top and set the whole thing on fire. the straw picks the fire very quickly. it is only used to set the cashews on fire though - the shell has a lot of oil and it starts burning easily. now the trick is to move the nuts around so that they fry evenly. this is done with a very long stick - the nuts start spitting the burning oil that apparently can make burns that leave scars for life! hence the very long sticks. and - lucky for me, as today the preparation for the construction work started, our handy man Alfredo and his helper were more than happy to take a break and participate in the frying:

as soon as the straw has burned, it is time to stop the nuts from burning:

here we pick the ones that are done and leave the rest a bit longer:

meanwhile we break the first ones with the stone and taste the warm nuts. nice! and totally different from the salty ones you get in Europe, naturally:

well, i use the next hour to crash the outcome. it takes me a while to figure out how much force i have to use to crash the shell and not the nut. after one hour i have a tiny ball ready. no wonder cashews are so expensive here! by the way, here they are normally fried with sugar and sesame seeds, cinnamon etc. mine have to be dried a bit further in a frying pan in order to get rid of the outer shell that is bitter:

well this will be a souvenir that i bring for my mom when i go to Moscow!
check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

end of winter/summer updates [by Anna]

we are good way into the high season now and since we more or less finalized some upgrades to our territory, everything is business as usual now. check-ins, check-out and everything that comes in between. since the standard amount of employees in hotel business is one for each five rooms, and we have actually six rooms, everything in betweens also includes now helping serve the breakfast and cleaning up afterwards, loading the washing machine and hanging the bedlinen afterward etc. and since we fired the night-guard, it also now includes watering every day cleaning the territory in front.

we have been in Jeri for almost a year now. i am finally considering taking a kite-surfing class. since people from all over the world come here to surf, i thought it was silly i didn't. our surfer friends from last season have started coming back and the village is busy.

both Marina and i have finally bought our tickets to Moscow, which we will visit in October. it's been a while since we left Jeri and i'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends, and inhaling some cool air.

meanwhile, here are a couple of things we did - we finally took care of the territory outside the fence. we put yuccas all along the east side, replaced the missing palms and moved the ones that were not in the line. now there is only one big one left, but it has to wait until rainy season. for those who is wondering - fences and nets around the small palms are meant to protect them from donkeys and cows that eat them.

then we got rid of the messy plants in front of the entrance:

before

after

and finally, we solved the problem with the neighbour pousada's windows going out to our territory. technically, it is not allowed, and since according to the local legislation all the constructions should be at least 1,5 meter away from the fence, we thought the owner would be willing to collaborate and close the windows.

before

he refused to do it though, motivating it with the fact that he cannot have rooms without windows. well, we thought we couldn't have someone else's windows going out straight to the passage in front of one of the rooms, so we had to think creatively. so basically this is how it looks now. the neighbour still have the windows in the rooms, although the view is questionable, and we have spared our guests the necessity to remember that there are other people close to them!

after

check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

О простоте деревенской жизни

Мы уже много писали об экзотике и красотах, которые нас окружают, а теперь настало время написать о простоте нашей деревенской жизни.

На мысль об этом посте меня натолкнул блог какой-то бразильянки, одержимой модой, которая живёт в Жери и постоянно пишет о новинках из Нью-Йорка и Голливуда, о новой модели юбок "муллет", и прочее. Очень странно как-то читать об этом в нашем экологическом захолустье.

Ну, начнем со шмоток. Ещё перед переездом из Сантоса я повыкидывала мешков 5 ненужной, старой, плохо сидящей или просто не носимой мной одежды. Остальное взяла с собой. После нескольких месяцев жизни в Жери, заметила, что ношу из привезённого только одну треть, если не меньше, и повыкидывала ещё (мешка 3). Какие-то новые шмотки тут или в Форталезе подкупила, конечно, в целях приспособления к новой жизни. В основном платья и топы из хлопка и шорты, в чём спасаться от жары. С чем-то старым засчёт новых покупок сразу рассталась по принципу one in, one out. В итоге ВСЯ (and i meant it!) одежда, которая у меня есть может уместиться в 1 чемодане. То есть у человека есть 2 пары джинсов, много маек, шорт и платьев, и пара-тройка кофт на "прохладный вечер". Из самой тёплой одежды осталась голубая спортивная кофта на молнии из ткани флисс. Это для поездок в самолётах и автобусах, где кондиционер.

Из обуви осталась пара кроссовок, разные сандали на плоской подошве, и несколько пар дорогих (кошельку и сердцу) туфель на каблуках, которые плесневеют в чемодане под кроватью, и выкинуть которые у меня не хватает силы воли. А, да, ну и ковбойские сапоги для верховой езды. Оказалось, что с обувью расставаться труднее, чем с одеждой. При этом последние 2 месяца я хожу в одних и тех же коричневых вьетнамках, начиная от утренней пробежки в магазин и прогулках с собаками, и заканчивая вечерним выходом в "свет". Надо заметить, что по моим наблюдениям, так живёт большая часть населения. Сегодня я заметила у нашего соседа новые вьетнамки и порадовалась за него. В предыдущих он проходил с сентября прошлого года.

У Ани была пара ценных вьетнамок, купленных в Рио, голубенькие с розовым (тоже ко всему подходящие), особенной модели, которой тут ни у кого нет. В них она проходила последние 3 месяца. На прошлой неделе у неё их спёрли на танцах форро, в то время как Аня танцевала босиком. Теперь ей пришлось вернуться в старым шлёпкам, купленным ещё в 2005 году в экономичном магазине Нетто на станции метро Норрепорт в Копенгагене.

Теперь о косметике. С тех пор ещё как я переехала жить в Бразилию в 2005 году из моего употребления полностью вышел тональный крем. Его заменил загар. Со временем декоративной косметики становилось всё меньше и меньше. Перед переездом в Жери я приняла решение взять с собой только то, чем я пользовалась с течение последнего полугода. В итоге в моей косметичке на сегодня осталось: тушь для ресниц, 3 карандаша для глаз, 2 блеска для губ и пудра, которой я не пользуюсь, но выкинуть не могу. Всё. Даже ни одной помады нет. Вот надо будет на карнавал что-нибудь такое изобразить, а нет.
При этом красимся, что я, что Аня, может быть пару-тройку раз в месяц, по особому случаю. В ежедевной жизни залезать в косметичку не приходится.

Ввиду всего выше рассказанного, думаю, про декоративный маникюр и педикюр, писать не надо, да? Всё, что кроме гигиены и ухода за собой, как-то отпало со временем.

В следующем посте думаю написать про прелести деревенского быта.

It's getting windy here! Полгода шквальный ветер! [by Marina]

We are close to the middle of July, and it's getting really windy!

Yesterday our friend Marko Berger, owner of the BLU Kitesurfing school in Jeri registered 32 knots during his session. I checked wikipedia - that's considered to be a squall already (шквальный ветер), and this would be our weather for the next 6 months, or so...

Normally we should be expecting at least 15-20 knots on daily basis till August, then 23-30 knots from September to November, then back to 20-25 knots till February.
Among other wind and kitesurfing spots in the world Jericoacoara has probably the most stable wind, and we are very proud of it. It's time to get your equipment wet, ladies and gentlemen!

Also, thanks to this wind even with 300 sunny days per year and average temperature above +30 we don't suffer from heat - the stormy Jeri wind blows it all away :-)

Ужастики – в кино и наяву (слабонервных просьба переключить канал!) [by Marina]

В то время, как все в нашей деревне уже обзавелись или обзаводятся большими модными жидкокристаллическими (или как там..) телевизорами, мы с Аней инвестировали денежку в улучшение комнат нашей гостинички (купили новые кондиционеры, сделали косметический ремонт...), а покупку современного телевизора отложили на поближе к Чемпионату Мира по футболу, Олимпийским Играм, и т.п.

Последние 8 месяцев мы прожили вообще без телевизора, и нам без него было очень хорошо, но низкий сезон дал о себе знать, и захотелось вечерком посмотреть киношку по видику... Тогда мы выволокли из кладовки старый допотопный телевизор, приспособили к нему мой видак, перевезённый ещё из квартиры в Сантосе, и теперь, сидя на полу на ресепшн, можем наслаждаться ассортиментом местного видеопроката. 

Параболлическую телевизионную антенну, которая установлена у нас на крыше, мы тоже к нему подключили, но кроме чемпионата Европы по футболу по местным каналам нас больше ничего не заинтересовало.

Пригодившийся старый телевизор на ресепшн

Ранее в одном из постов на английском языке Аня писала о том, что в нашей гостиничке (а точнее в главном доме) живут настоящие приведения. То есть, тема нечистой силы для нас очень актуальна. Поэтому сразу после установки телевизора и ДВД проигрывателя мы просмотрели трилогию «Paranormal Activity». Первая часть понравилась, а две другие немного разочаровали – у нас по ночам в гостиничке интереснее ;-)

В продолжение темы ужастиков хочу рассказать об пренеприятном случае, произошедшем со мной несколько дней назад. В одно прекрасное утро из-за сильного ветра (сезон винд-сёрфига приближается) свалилось с крыши перед входом в гостиницу вьющееся дерево бугенвиль, красные цветы которого давно стали нашей визитной карточкой. При наших тщетных попытках закрепить его самостоятельно я сильно ударила большой палец ноги и растущие внизу перед входом растения «щучий хвост». Помните эти невзрачные щучьи хвосты, которые любили разводить в горшках в школах, где-нибудь при входе в кабинет завуча...? Так вот в нашем тропическом климате они расрастаются до очень больших размеров и становятся твёрдыми, как деревяшка. 

Короче говоря, ударила палец, из-под ногтя пошла кровь со всех сторон, в течение следующих двух дней при нашей жизни в шлёпанцах и хождению по улицам из песка, в котором полно всякой заразы для моего хилого иммунитета, палец воспалился, начал нарывать, со всех сторон из-под ногтя пошёл гной, всё распухло, у меня поднялась температура, и никакие солевые ванночки и мазь с антибиотиком уже не помогали. При взгляде на палец, увеличившийся в размере, начавший менять цвет и источающий запах мёртвой плоти, мне стали мерещиться перспективы заработать гангрену (по характеру я ипохондрик), и я поняла – ноготь надо рвать (и никаких перетонитов, как сказано в любимом фильме)! А кто сможет мне оказать такую услугу?

На пункт первой помощи, расположенный в нашей деревне я полагаться не стала, и поспешила в единственную во всей округе больницу, расположенную в 20-ти километрах от нас, к городке Жижока.

Как вам описать городскую больницу, расположенную в бразильской глубинке? Наверное, так же плохо обстоят дела в забых Богом и государством больницах в русской, колумбийской или индийской глубинке. Длинные очереди страждущих жителей, стар и млад, старое оборудование, обваливающаяся даже при непрекращающемся ремонте штукатурка, колченогие стулья в коридоре, которых всегда в 2 раза меньше, чем больных, один единственный врач сомнительной квалификации, но с золотой цепью на шее, выписывающий всем подряд антибиотики, а вся реальная медицинская помощь населению держится на медсёстрах, которые что-то вкалывают, перевязывают, вправляют, ну и так далее.

К врачу при очереди в 25 человек я прорваться так и не смогла, но зато попала в кабинет к старшему медбрату. На просьбу вырвать мне ноготь он прореагировал совершенно спокойно, у меня не спросили никаких документов, просто записали имя-фамилию-возраст-адрес со слов пациента и отправили в процедурную.

Как вы можете представить, в единственной процедурной принимают по 2-3 человека одновременно, дверь в коридор вечно нараспашку, ждущие в очереди люботно тырятся внутрь, чтобы как-то скрасить своё многочасовое ожидание... Короче, весело всем – и те, кого уже... и тем, кого за ними.

Когда я туда зашла, с кушетки со стонами как раз слезал предыдущий пациент, держась за пятую точку обеими руками и роняя вокруг себя желто-красные куски то-ли бинта, то-ли ваты... “ Фурункул,“- почему-то подумала я и с ужасом посмотрела на простыню, покрытую множеством пятен разного происхождения, вероятно скопившимися со всей утренней смены, на которую мне суждено было лечь. “ Простяня грязная,“- робко пожаловалась я медсестре. Она посмотрела на меня с непониманием и приказала: “Ложитесь с той стороны, где ещё чисто!“.

После того, как материал для нехитрой операции был готов, в процедурную вошёл мой спаситель – старший медбрат. Сначала было несколько уколов обезболивающего в причинный палец. Было очень больно, но терпимо. Я несколько раз пискнула, любопытствующие в дверном проёме перестали переговариваться, и придвинулись поближе. 

Потом медбрат вооружился стальной лопаткой, и нацелился на ноготь. “Ей он будет ноготь поднимать,“- догадалась я, и приняла мудрое решение смотреть на белую кафельную стену. Когда он приступил к делу, я почувствовала – анестезия не сработала! Я стала кричать, как радистка Кэт во время родов, по-русски:“ Мама! Мамочка!“. Любопытствующих у двери поубавилось, а медбрат одёрнул меня: :“Не дёргайся, женщина, ты анестезирована, ты ничего не чувствуешь!“. Эта по-русски грубая его реакция, без бразильского традиционного сюсюкания мне помогла, я получше зафиксировала свое обливающееся потом тело на кушетке, и прилежно запыхтела.

Тот момент, когда он рвал корень ногтя щипцами я плохо помню. Помню, только, что сквозь слёзы увидела, что в дверном проёме не осталось ни одного человека, только где-то за углом женщина увещевала своего ребёнка: “Вот не будешь маму слушаться, с тобой тоже самое дядя сделает!“.

После перевязки мне выдали 2 облатки противовоспалительных таблеток и отправили домой, наказав менять повязку каждый день. По этому поводу я озадачилась. Этим же вечером мне предстояло ехать в Рио де Жанейро по делам, а дорога не близкая – 3 тысячи километров, 3 дня поездки туда-обратно.

К счастью оказалось, что в каждом аэропорту есть медпункт, где в любое время дня и ночи пассажиру могут промыть рану и поменять повязку, всё очень приличненько организовано.

Теперь только осталось набраться терпения, пока рана заживёт и вырастет новый ноготь.

Палец по возращении домой из больницы в Жижоке

А медбрату тому я очень благодарна, оперативный мужик оказался, чтоб я без него делала!

check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

before and after - continued - back and front yard [by Marina]

As mentioned before by Anna, we got sucked into a never ending list of little improvements all around our pousada. Hopefully, we are going to finish all works by next week. 

This post is dedicated to the back and front yard.

The backyard, or the passage behind our kitchen leading to the storage room and room nr.6 has always been looking kind of untidy, so we tried to do our best without involving ourselves into major construction changes. Just some make-up - cleaning&painting...

Backyard - before, with the ugly roof for the gas bottle, dirty walls and electric cable in the middle

Backyard - after, with the new cabinet for the gas bottle, painted walls, new grass, plants in pots and decorated cable

Yes, in an old house like ours we've got to be creative sometimes when trying to make things look nicer. After some pondering we decided not to mess with the fragile walls of the old fisherman house because of the electric cable that takes electricity out to the front yard and left it at the same place, however, gave it a new look. Within just a couple of hours it was covered with the decorative rustic rope and then we hanged the polished shells from an old necklace on it. This necklace by the way I bought a few years ago in Moscow at Izmailovskiy Market for RUB25 and used it maybe once ever since.

The decorated electric cable with the shells from an old necklace

Backyard - before. Different angle.

Backyard - after. Different angle.

  The top of the parasol in the front was renewed a few months ago, now the table was polished, the chairs repaired and painted red, and the Bougainville tree cut and pushed to grow on top of the hotel sign, the old moldy bench removed and stone walls washed.

Pousada Atlantis entrance - before. The way it looked when we first saw it.

Pousada Atlantis entrance - 7 months after.

  Actually, when you live here and see things every day, you don't notice all the changes. So, we got very impressed ourselves when compared the actual situation with the old pictures :-)
check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

before and after continued - room no. 6 [by Anna]

as we say in Russia, renovation cannot be completed, it can only be terminated. Marina and I found ourselves trapped in this rule - we just cannot stop trying to make the things look prettier. the past couple of days we were working on room number 6. this is by far my favourite room! it is the smallest, but it is the only room situated on the right side of the main house, therefore nobody passes by and it is very private.

before from last year

before painting

it all started by us wanting to treat the bricks of the fence to stop them from getting dirty by the water, but as this solution turned out to be quite expensive, we decide to use it rather in room 6, that has three brick walls that constantly lose the loose cement particles and make the room feel dirty. then we decided also to paint the fourth wall as it was only painted once and not too nicely. then we fixed the bath-room door (it wasn't possible to close it), removed the ugly and rusty door-handle and lock, polished and painted and put the hand-made door-handle. we also painted the door frames, as suddenly with the new paint-work, they started looking really untidy. then I also polished the surfaces of the furniture.

a while ago Marina fixed the electric socket. the top of it was missing, we couldn't buy a new cover as this model is not produced anymore, and it was not possible to change the socket itself, as the way the wiring was made, it would require rewiring of the whole room. so we had to think outside the box!

before from last year

after from now

also, before it was possible to walk to the washing area from this room. we have closed the passage and removed the stones of the path, put plants there and instead enlarged the area in front of the room. now we only need to get a small table and some chairs. hook for a hammock was added yesterday :-)

after from now

fish-scale "curtains" [by Anna]

we have a long list of the things to do on our "maintenance and improvements" list, but today finally i crossed out one - making some sort of curtain over the laundry-drying area on the right side of the house. this part has historically been half-neglected as there is only one room that is situated there. the entrance to the storage room is there, the garbage tanks etc...

as mentioned in the previous post we have already changed out gas container solution, and now, after long hours, 110 holes in the fish-scales and 220 knots on the thread, we put up some sort of decoration to masquerade the ropes for drying cloth. well they don't exactly hide everything behind, but at least they distract the attention from the laundry and also from the window behind, which actually goes pretty much straight to our bath-room :-)

before from last year

these are the same fish-scales we talked about here by the way!

after from now

before and after (mostly after) photo report [by Anna]

it's been a while since we posted anything, so maybe it is time to do some updates!

so we are half way through the rainy season now. people say, it is the driest rainy season in years. indeed, we are a bit disappointed with the amount and frequency of rain. believe it or not, the sun and the heat do start getting tiresome at some point! every day we hope for some rain and every day it's sunny and hot. so far it rained maybe every 3rd-5th day and the longest it rained was 15 minutes at a time. it seams though that for the nature it is quite a lot of ready, and everything is green. the serrote hills are green and the desert around the village turned green. it makes me nostalgic as I think of summer in Europe. the landscape is even more beautiful than before now!

as for the occupancy, we closed March and April with 44% and 62% respectively, which is higher than we had projected originally, but still not quite enough to make up good numbers. oh well, luckily the low season does not last that long here! now in May most of the places close and it is the lowest of the low. however we seem to be ok for now. today Marina picked up four Russian tourists from jardineira, so we are happy! the last week of May we will close to go for one week field-trip to Lennçois Maranhenses.

meanwhile, our team has expanded with yet another female member - it is Zhuzha. her mother is a Doberman and the father is supposedly pit-bull. well, we doubt the latter, although it seems as her character is the one of a pitt-bull. Zhuzha is a very active puppy and it is pretty much impossible to take a picture of her sitting still. however, it appears that she learns fast, as I already managed to teach her to sit. and she is not even 2 months old yet!

since we are not super busy these days, we've been using this opportunity to do some maintenance. amongst other things it includes polishing up the look of the hotel - adding the numbers to the rooms (after some clients managed to mixed up the rooms and walk in on the neighbours in the middle of the night), painting more things red, making a new storage for the gas container and taking care of the garden.

the old solution for the gas container

the project

the result

Marina and I have rather different ideas about the garden (to put in mildly) and since Marina's ideas are much more dramatic and involve a lot of cutting down and taking out, she always makes sure to invite the gardener the day I am away. I am not completely agreeing with that approach, but I'm sure I will get even with her on another occasion :-) meanwhile I have been spreading some grass and cutting some plants to make them look more neat. also we finally found out that our papaya tree is a she, since it started having baby-papayas!

new grass

before cutting

after cutting

as a bonus - a shot with some sort of strange seaweed that invaded the beach a couple of days ago.

the strange seagrass