9500 Kilometers - (9) Urban Diversity

For the afternoon, we had planned to explore the city a bit. We walked past a harbor where smaller sailboats and larger yachts were docked and arrived at the famous Selarón Steps. They were completely covered in yellow, green, and blue tiles, the national colors of Brazil. Luna handed her smartphone to a passerby and asked him to take a photo of us casually sitting side by side on the steps.

We continued through narrow, cobblestone alleys. At almost every street corner, there was a chaotic tangle of power and telephone cables, something I had only seen in meme pictures before. Eventually, we reached Luna’s favorite restaurant, where she often went with her parents and grandmother. It was invitingly decorated with lots of plants and string lights. I carefully studied the menu on the table, but it was in Portuguese, I couldn’t make sense of it. I looked at Luna questioningly, and she ordered something for both of us.

Shortly after, two glasses of Coke with ice cubes and a slice of lime on the rim were brought to our table. A little later, our food arrived: for her, a dish with grilled shrimp and fries, and for me, pasta baked with lots of cheese.

After the meal, we leisurely made our way back to the beach where we had started. We took off our shoes and walked right along the water’s edge. The sun was already just above the horizon and would disappear over the ocean in the next few minutes. At a quiet spot, we sat down in the soft sand. I put my arm around Luna, and together we watched as the sunset painted the entire sky in the most beautiful shades of orange.

It got a little cooler, and the large floodlights that illuminated the entire beach for several kilometers turned on. I stood there wide-eyed, briefly thinking about the amount of electricity they must be using. Gradually, the beach and the nearby streets filled with more and more people. They started playing soccer, opened their stalls and bars, and in almost every one of them, live music played as people danced.