Where is Marcelo?

We wake up at this remote campsite, open our eyes and immediately realize how right Marcelo was. What a place! Not only because of the beautiful weather...

Hardly any people, surrounded by mountains and greeted by a blue sky, we start the day. Marcelo is already gone. He's probably already left early to go fishing... After breakfast, we head towards the beach and are once again impressed. A wonderful beach, kilometers long and empty! Mallorca can only dream of something like this... Next to this beach is a small island that can be reached on foot at low tide via a small path of rocks. We suspect that Marcelo will be on this island, as we can't see him anywhere else and you can really see the entire beach... And indeed!

On the back of the island, we meet Marcelo and are greeted with a laugh and a 'Good morning bro. Didn't wanna wake you guys up, you know?!'. Great guy! There is already a fish lying next to him, a considerable specimen, perhaps 40 centimeters long...

We watch Marcelo fishing and enjoy the view, the pounding waves, which are relatively strong here, and the great weather. Then it's my turn. Guided by Marcelo, I also try to fish... It's important that the fishing line always remains taut so that I can feel when a fish takes the bait. There! A tug! I reflexively lift the fishing rod to hook the fish, but the fish was faster. When I reel in the line, there is no fish on the hook, but the bait is gone... a new attempt. Again and again, I feel a tug on the line, but I can't manage to pull a fish ashore. Meanwhile, the waves are getting higher and crashing against the rocks. Shortly after, our shoes are soaked, we underestimated the incoming tide! I give the fishing rod back to Marcelo without success and say that we will make our way back because the tide is coming in and we don't have rubber boots like he does, but we still want to arrive dry at the shore... We receive the response 'Yeah I think I will come soon, too'.

We set off and... damn, the water is already high! Only a few rocky peaks protrude from the surf on the path that we could walk on dry just an hour before. We have a choice: to stay here and wait for the next low tide or to go through the water. We secure our phones as high up on our bodies as possible and jump into the waves. We would like to keep our shoes dry and take them off, but the rocks are too slippery. So, into the cool water, with shoes and long pants! The waves are really high, so we have to time our jumps to avoid being washed away. Eventually, we are waist-deep in the water and then it doesn't matter anymore... we wade through the water (not as cold as we thought) and reach the shore after 30 meters. We were lucky! We probably wouldn't have made it across much later...

Wet but alive on the beach, we head back to the campsite, dripping wet. Constantly looking back to see if Marcelo is back... But he doesn't come! We wonder if we should stand at the shore and wave to warn him or if he already knows what he's doing... We hesitate for too long. When we decide after 5 minutes that we would feel guilty if we didn't warn him and start making our way back to the island, we see Marcelo walking around on the island from a distance... It doesn't look good with the tide. We watch as Marcelo stands at the edge of the island and tries to find a dry path over the rocks. But after a few seconds, he waves us off, no chance. The tide has become too high. Trying to make the crossing now could be dangerous... Marcelo waves us off and turns his back on us, heading back to the island. Damn! Now he is really stuck on this 15x40m island that will shrink even further with the rising tide...

We feel guilty. Would Marcelo have made it across if we had warned him immediately?? Powerless and with the feeling of leaving a friend behind in a war (a bit exaggerated, but that's about how we feel :D), we reluctantly return to the campsite. There is nothing we can do for Marcelo now. It is about 11:30 am now...

The guilty feeling worsens during the subsequent shower (cold, but still...) and lunch... Marcelo would surely also enjoy a shower and be hungry. But hey, he has fish!

The weather is mostly good, so apart from our guilty conscience, we enjoy the day. We eat, kick a ball around, take photos of the beautiful surroundings, and so on...

Marcelo's Alcatraz, his prison, is also photographed. And of course, our guilty feeling gets even worse... but Marcelo wouldn't benefit from us not taking photos of this beautiful nature, I tell myself. Here is a photo of the island where Marcelo is trapped, while he is somewhere on the backside, waiting for the next low tide...

At some point after sunset (fortunately, the weather held up reasonably well for Marcelo throughout the day), we decide to check on Marcelo... At 7:45 pm, we arrive at the beach in front of the island. The path to the island is now accessible again, but no sign of Marcelo! We go onto the island and start searching. After less than 2 minutes, Marcelo comes towards us, dressed in a rain jacket, rain pants, and rubber boots. And with a bag of fish in his hand. Will he be mad at us for not warning him immediately? Is he hungry or thirsty? Surely, after about 11 hours on this small island, he wouldn't be in a good mood...

Think again! You can only marvel at the mentality of Brazilians. With a smile, Marcelo greets us enthusiastically with a 'Heyy bro' and can't understand why we were worried. He was able to fish all day and hey, the weather was great too! The only thing that separated him from complete happiness was not having anything to drink...

Relieved that Marcelo survived the day well, we return to the campsite together and chat a bit more. We exchange our Facebook contacts and get some tips for the next few days from Marcelo. He says that the Bay of Islands, a large bay with about 150 small islands, is really beautiful. Then it gets very cold and windy again, and we say goodbye. Marcelo makes his way back to civilization because he still needs to contact some people, and we go to bed. With a now clear conscience, we can sleep well tonight...