And then they were three

The Universo Paralello festival was everything you could have imagined. A secluded beach far away from all civilization, lined with palm trees as far away as the eye could reach. All the hazzle we went through to get there was totally worth it!

Let the party begin

At the main stage

A complete village had been built for the event. Small shops and restaurants, bars, toilets, showers, everything you could need. And of course 4 stages playing different music! The main stage, alternative stage and the chill stage were at the beach, so you could either dance or relax on the beach while listening to great music. The goa stage was further away close to the jungle on a beautiful grass opening with high palmtrees. Nice!

Main stage

Loco vagabonds

Party beach

More beach just next to the main stage

On the second day, riding on top of a truck that drove along the never ending dirtroad from Pratigi, came Saara, who had made her way there from Santa Rosa in Argentina. And it is no short way, I tell you. It's about 4000km estimated with a quick look at the map. Her butt was somewhat sore from sitting in the bus for a great part of the journey . But here she was in Bahia, ready to party and celebrate new years eve at the beach!

But where was she going to sleep? She had no mattress or sleeping bag... and we had our miniature tent that the two of us barely could fit in... Well, she settled for a piece of cardboard we found in the trash as a mattress and a blanket from one of the shops at the beach. And those she placed between our inner tent and the outer rain cover. Bueno!

She wasn't the only one who came a bit unprepared. Two danish girls next to us had a hammock and a piece of plastic for the two of them. But it seemed to work quite well; they just hang the hammock between two trees and fixed one part of the plastic above the hammock and another piece below it and they were good to go! At some point they even had a guest sleeping in their new home; it was a great place to sleep for a guy who didn't have any sleeping gear at all!

Party party!

Happy new year!

Happy happy new year!

Our new crazy vagabond friend

Dancing at the main stage

The festival was great. We spent a week there in the sun listening to music, dancing, relaxing, eating fruit, drinking caipirinhas... Life was great.

Only one sad story from the festival:
Before they let you into the festival premises they searched through everybody's bags. Great, we thought when we noticed it. We had with us a special treat for the festival that we had been saving and guarding with our lives: A bottle of Laphroagh single malt whiskey. Mickus had been carrying it all the way from Finland just for this event. Many times had we been tempted to taste it, but decided to save it for the festival. So of course we had to get it in, we just had to.

So... we took the chance and got in line for the search. The girl who searched Mickus' bag was really thorough, of course . She searched and she searched like a maniac in the 40 degree heat although you could see that she was really exhausted. She opened every pocket and stuck her arm in everywhere touching everything in the bag. Well not everything, 'casue she didn't find the bottle. Yess!

Finally she was already giving up, but did one final hit on the bag with her elbow: "klonk". Her elbow hit the bottle. Damn it!

Despite all classic and less classic explanations like "I need it for my stomach" and "we carried it all the way from Finland", we didn't get to take the bottle into the festival. But it was single malt! Can't you understand?!! Nope,I guess not.

What to do then? No way we were just gonna hand it over. Mickus grabbed the bottle and went into the jungle and hid it in a safe place. We were gonna come back and get it later.

Two days later we went back to get the bottle equipped with empty bottles and a complete and perfect smuggling plan. Happy and exited we went to the place were the bottle was supposed to be hidden. Hmmm... "where did I hide it again? I'm sure it was here. Or was it here?"..."I'm sure it was here..." We searched the bushes for a what felt like an eternity sweaty and exhausted in the unbearable heat, but in vain. The bottle was gone. Damn it! One more desperate search... -No. It was definately gone. Damn it! That lucky guy who found it! Or who knows, maybe someone some day will stumble upon a bottle of some really fine whiskey.

Well, We just had to settle for the Catuaba then.

Taking a nap...