Monday 9 June 2014

Five go to Ilha Day 2


Mikaela and Elliott say:

Well rested and with newly washed hair (never thought that a hair wash would be worthy of a mention) we headed down to Anchora D'Ouro for breakfast. Like the creatures of habit that we seem to be, we sat down at the same table as last night and were served by the same friendly waiter who speaks a little bit of English.

After breakfast we picked up paint and brushes and headed in the approximate direction we thought the backpacker hostel Ruby's was located. Although we had already found the hostel yesterday, we once again got lost in a maze of small streets until we finally saw the familiar sign.

On the third and slightly louder knocking attempt, a woman called Vanessa opened the door and welcomed us in. The owner, Claudia, is letting us paint the LIFE butterfly on the wall by a staircase that leads up to a cozy roof terrace.  It's the first thing you see as you enter the hostel, and thus an ideal location. We were given the grand tour of the hostel, which had a lot of character and felt very homey. Then we set about drawing the grid for the butterfly. We spent a bit longer on the mural this time, since it was inside and would be a very visible part of the hostel. Instead of plastic bucket lids that we've been working with so far, we were given two ceramic plates to mix our colours on. This made it much easier to keep the colours bright and clean. We started somewhere around 11AM and put the final typographical touches on the mural at 3PM. It was worth all the hard work, since everyone agreed this is the best mural we have painted so far.

After lots of photographs and a cold drink we left Ruby's feeling a sense of accomplishment. We found a tiny food place where we had a quick lunch before heading off to explore the island a little more. As we headed towards the Fortress at the end of the tourist side of the island we were once again followed by a group of children who wanted their photographs taken. We did our best to shake them off but they followed us for a good twenty minutes before realizing that we weren't going to give them anything.

We headed for our favourite evening location, the pier. On our walk we came across the musician who played at Sunsetti and exchanged smiles and greetings. At the pier we were joined by a little boy (maybe 8 or 9 years old). Unlike the previous group of boys, this lad was very friendly and curious. I (Mikaela) took the chance to practice a bit of Portuguese and found out he has two sisters and goes to school to learn English. He happily posed for our cameras and was like a little Tarzan model as he climbed the rails of the pier and later arm wrestled with Elliott.

A little later a man came over and started talking such fluent English to us that we thought he was from England despite looking like a local Mozambican. We quickly realised this must be Harry Potter, the man we should contact if we had any issues on the island. It was great to put a face to the name and the name Harry Potter now has a new meaning beyond that of the wizard boy. We've agreed he's by far the coolest guy on the island.

We'd been so consumed in conversation with Harry Potter, that we nearly missed the beautiful sunset. As the darkness descended on the island we returned to our hotel.







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