Wedding bells and dizzy spells...

I woke up still fully clothed with my headphones on. I sent an email and headed out to the beach to get some mental stability. I woke up rather in a panic, and needed some beach medicine. I got out there and was befriended by a couple white boxers. Those dogs were sweet, but I didn't trust them at first. After last night of being distracted by the dog and having my shoes stolen, I thought that maybe these dogs were distracting me from some other gang of hooligans creeping up on me. These dogs were too dumb for that, and they just wanted to a)drool on me b)drool on one another or c)both. Their owner called them back, and I walked down the beach a bit. I was befriended by another dog, and after that one took off for its morning jog I looked at the ocean until I laid down and took a nap. I woke to a lite drizzle of rain, and headed back to where I started my walk. I got my morning coco nut and was very happy with this fine fruit. The dude man who cut it open after I was done with the milk had a meathod I had not seen yet. He cut all the meat out with his knife. Usually they just cut it in half or thirds, and then they slice a little wedge off the side for a spoon. By cutting all the meat out, it was more like a breakfast than a snack. Big points for that guy!

When I got back to the hotel, Karin and Josh were just serving themselves some breakfast and I joined them. After taking our time with coffee and the tasty morsels we were offered, we headed down to the beach. It was a tad overcast and we played gammon amongst crowds of Brazilian wedding goers. We didn't get in the water just yet. Instead we went back in to get some sun screen on and to iron our clothes that had gotten infested with wrinkles. We headed back out and then farther down the beach, away from the crowd. More backgammon and Josh water colored a bit. The sun fully came out for a while and this is when I went in for a dip. I remember how nice it felt, and I floated around until the sun went back behind the clouds.

We booked back to shower and get ready for the wedding. We could hear them testing the p.a. system down at the wedding tent. The wedding was to be right on the beach and we could tell it was getting close to time. We got over there around 5ish. Kaio was there to greet people when we showed up, and he looked very nice, dressed casually in all white. He had his shirt untucked and he might have been bare foot. Josh and I were once again feeling awkward about not being able to squash the language barrier so we kept to ourselves.

As I said, the wedding was right on the beach. It was taking place at an outdoor restaurant / bar. The wedding tent was only a frame covered by translucent plastic, as to keep the rain out and to let the light in. There were wooden pews set out for anyone who wanted to sit. There was no hierarchy as to who could or couldn't sit. People stood behind the pews and even back into where all the tables were set for dinner. The ceremony was very nice. Leslie walked down the isle(of sand) in a simple and beautiful white dress. None of the brides maids wore the same dress. It was very free form. They actually signed their wedding papers there at the alter, or maybe they were vows of sorts. We couldn't understand anything they said, other than love love love love love love love love, etc etc. A couple brides maids and best men said some things during the ceremony, which once again was unorthodox to me. The Gunn's family dog brought the rings down the isle, somehow attached to its neck. Gogiba, that was the dogs's name. I had a chance to hang out with him on my first night in Brazil. As I heard from others, this was not like a typical Brazilian wedding. Leslie and Kaio had paid for the wedding on their own. They didn't want any family members telling them how certain things should or shouldn't be done.

We ran into Karin and Leslie's friends, Vanessa and her girlfriend, who we had had sushi with several weeks before in Sao Paulo. They asked us if we wanted to sit with them. We were looking for them for the same reason. They are really sweet and it was nice to sit with people that we already felt comfortable with. We did not want to have to have awkward translation conversation for a couple hours. From the get go, there was champagne and beer. Food was brought out fairly quickly in small bite sized pieces. The assortment was delicious. Then came the glasses of whiskey on the rocks. More food amongst our conversation and laughter. I really liked these girls because they were easy to joke with and were having a good time, just as we were. More food in small portions. I guess it was good that the food was in small portions, because the drinks were coming out strong. There was a coconut and rum drink which was small and delicious. Then the girls got us all some caporinhas. So at one point I believe I had 5 different types of alcoholic drinks in front of me. Shit! I just can't turn down an assortment of free and delicious drinks. We were passing our caporinhas around the table since we all had an assortment of flavors: kiwi, strawberry, passion fruit, and a mixture beverage. I couldn't put them down. We were done with dinner and we walked around a bit. I should have had an espresso to sober up a bit, but I was drunk and didn't think about this.

Josh was feeling it too. We headed back to the hotel room which was just down the street from the wedding. I can't say I remember the walk home. I do slightly recall walking out of the wedding, but not the walk home. I guess we were headed back to smoke a bit. The next thing I do remember, was a quick flash of Josh trying to get me up off of the bed to go back to the wedding. I wasn't having it. I woke up fully clothed around 5:30am. I completely missed the second band, which I heard was great. Karin came in the room as I was taking my wallet out of my back pocket. She gave me some attitude about sleeping through the party, but I ignored her and said nothing as I got back into bed fully clothed, once again.