Hazards of Writing On A Beach In Rio

End of the day at Ipanema

The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers by Moritz Thomsen was a memoir travelogue I was reading during my travel to Brazil. The book came into my hands at a particularly propitious time from a friend. He travels a great deal and thought I could use the book as an inspiration.

I soon discovered from the book that I had come to Rio about the same age as Thomsen, who visited the city in the Seventies. His life and viewpoints were similar to my own. Soon enough I began to write a modest travel blog in the same style as his wonderful travel classic. 

Tomsen refers to his title as the state of paradox, of his being in two worlds at the same time, arriving and leaving, always conflicted by the joy of arrival and sadness beyond words of departure. 

My early writings in Temporary Carioca were done while sitting on the beach. The early notes were difficult to read because I had spilled a beer on them while sampling tasty beach edibles under an umbrella at Ipanema.  

Then once, a wave crashed nearby and got my paper wet.  The waves were persistent in calling me from work to play. And so I did. 

Daily I rode a bicycle to the beach, had a coconut drink and quickly succumbed to the allure of the Brasilian waters and never ending array of beautiful women to watch.

Much of what I wrote in my six months of posts was truly inspired and I am grateful to myself for the wisdom to keep writing these posts. Especially now as the years go by.

I will continue to add posts from stories that were not published in Temporary Carioca in this blog, Michael Shandrick.