And that is how it’s done! [by Anna]

People often ask me – how could it ever cross your mind to open a hotel in Jericoacoara? Well, generally – I’ve always liked working in the service-sector. With my 7 years of higher education and even having a full-time office job, I always kept as extra job as a waitress or barmaid, just because I really liked it. I also really like cooking, that’s why we’re planning to re-open the restaurant (me and my Italian friend Elisa were for a long time playing with an idea of opening a restaurant in Copenhagen, when I lived there). At the same time, ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of having my own little business. When I was seven, I opened a beauty-shop in a small room at the summer-house, where I put hand-cream and perfume on my family-members and tried to charge them for that (they never paid me though). That’s why, when I got a bit older, I decided to study business administration (in Moscow anno 1993, yeah baby!)

And then again – my dream life-style has always been surf-bumming. I also remember watching the beginning of The Bourn Supremacy, you know, where Matt Damon and the girl from Run Lola, Run have their own little café on the beach somewhere in Greece (or somewhere else) and thinking – this is what I really wanna do! And then of course, the Brazilian soap, so popular in Russia in the 90s! The Tropicana, where 90% of the action takes place on the beaches of the North-East! It made me incredibly jealous, watching all those people who see the ocean every day... I’ve always been a beach-freak and could stay on the beach for days! My Odessa-blood I guess. 

So what could be more perfect than having a hotel in Jericoacoara???

Last year I visited Marina in Brazil. One day we were having a long conversation about... well, the meaning of life I guess, to cut the long story short. We were driving to the beach of Guaruja and talking about what we would do if we had won a million. At that very moment (we were on a ferry) a lady selling tickets for the New Year lottery came by. We interpreted that as a sign from above and bought a ticket. Few hours later on the beach we got to talk about opening a hotel if we win the lotto. In Jericoacoara, said Marina, without quite knowing why. 
  

And so I remember that moment – Marina was sitting in the beach-chair and I was lying on the sand. I looked up at her and said – do we really have to win a million in order to be able to do it? That was November 18th 2010. September 14th, 2011 we arrived to our hotel.

One rainy Sunday morning in Oslo... [by Anna]

... I was sitting at my brand-new bar-table having a cup of tea and mackerel in tomato-sauce with crispbread for breakfast. I had just finished renovating my new apartment which I adored. I had a rather boring but quite well-paid job. I was playing rugby and I loved it. I had an extra job in a bar which I kept for entertainment mostly and which brought it some extra money in form of tips. I did a lot of traveling. I had a lot of cool friends.



And so I was sipping the tea, looking at the parking outside my window (the view was the only thing which was not perfect in my new apartment) and thinking - is this as good as my life is gonna get???

I guess that was the day when I realised that I gotta go, although at that point I wasn't quite sure where to.

Some months, a couple of suite-cases and endless good-byes later I'm lying on bed in Santos writing this entry and watching my friend Marina's agony while she's trying to fit the contents of her studio apartment into four cartons. It is D-5. Tuesday the 13th we're heading off to São Paulo to catch flight to Fortaleza. By 3 a.m. Thursday we are supposed to reach Jericoacoara.