The Bakery Bees: live-in sweeteners at the Miracema bakery

While in Rio I met Savio, a Brazilian actor who had spent the last 3 years in New York. We soon became good friends and spent a lot of time together at the beach and eating out at many of the good restaurants around Rio. After my robbery, he invited me to visit Miracema, his home-town, and spend some time there in his family’s house. This was the perfect solution for me to not spend money, stay with a Brazilian family and get to know the country life.

As the bus rolled into town I knew straight away I was going to love this place. We arrived at dusk to find the homes and streets bathed in a glorious orange. As I walked with Savio around the streets we were always running into new people to say hello to. Im pretty sure that not many tourists stop in Miracema by the way that people would regard me with odd curiosity.

After meeting his family and extended family, I had a shower and then hit the streets to taste some of the Miracemense nightlife. We walked maybe 30 metres before we met someone else and stayed there talking for a while. I made at least another 50 metres up the street before we ran into the next group of people that wanted to chat. Two hours, ten conversations later and another 1.5 km down the street we arrived in the city centre. The corner bar was open and people were milling around ordering drinks, pizza and other snacks. My portuguese improved dramatically over the next few hours as I recounted my story of the drugged piece of chewie with the locals and swapped stories of Rio.

Making my way back to the house I felt completely at peace. This is one of those country towns which people dream of. Tranquility, peace, no violence and a burgeoning sense of community spirit and friendliness. This place is so friendly that you have to factor in which route you will take to get to your destination if you want to keep track of the time.

Things are done a little differently around Miracema and thats fine with me. I went into the local bakery the next morning and was shocked to find the place filled with bees. Discovering that this was normal for the bees to hang out and help make all the sweet buns even sweeter. I had to take pictures…