Travel, to travel without direction and without a route previously established, it is still one of the few pleasures that remain us in ours disrupted and ephemeral terrestrial existence and the sensation of indescribable happiness, that it takes care of our hearts, we make to feel ourselves children again, in search of the magic of the lost entertainments of our childhood.

To travel is to leave the sadness and the discouragements of the life back and to leave for the stranger world of our emotions. They already said the duty counselors that it suits to take some precautions for the trip to be calm and free from unpleasant things, that can harm the good course of that taskwork. Will it be? The taste of the adventure and the unexpected surprises, that they wait for us in the corners of the life, they free us of that daily sameness, that arrest us to our habits and they chain us to an empty existence of emotions.

Johnny never planned your trips. He was totally contrary to the methodical and systematic behavior of some tourists, that before they undertaking your trips, they think not only in the dollars that will carry in the pocket, but also in the winter or sommer clothes that they will l have to take and mainly to speak fluently where the language of the country is traveling. The old sixty year's old always neglected about these details, thwarting all the expectations of his wife, Fafá..

They were anxious to live new emotions and to know new paradisiacal places, in the famous Caribbean islands of Atlantic Ocean. To travel with the face and the courage, without worrying in learning some words in Spanish, indispensable to a good understanding among the people of that immense Tower of Babel, that it is our global world. Why to learn Spanish? asked himself, the old Johnny - it is a language similar to ours and it won't have any problem. The communication among the human beings is so easy of settling down and for that we have the resources of the pantomime.

Badly he knew he that this negligence would end up disrupting the couple's trip, ventures that began in old Manaus, in a beautiful late afternoon of the eternal Amazonas' Summer, where an international highway bus, after a course of almost two days, it took them until the Venezuelan city of " Puerto La Cruz ". It was an itinerary difficult and full of small incidents, that almost finished with the trip in the middle of the road - The kidnap of the bus for the Indians in the Brazilian Amazon Reservation, with the respective toll payment, tires that burst, bridges in form of suspended boards in cliffs balancing the afraid tourists' emotions and other unpleasant facts that testify against the efficiency of our brazilian tourism.

Well, but the important is that they were there in an of the more beautiful port cities of Venezuela and because of one more of old Johnny's entanglements (confusions) , they lost Ferry Boat that would take them until the Island Margarita, for subject of few minutes. The couple bought the passages and following the agents' orientation ran in the direction of the wharf, however Johnny thwarting all the expectations he ran in the wrong direction, or be in the direction of the shipyard, where they just repaired ships. The wife ran in the right direction, but she didn't get to embark, because her husband was lost, seeking the embarkment bridge. Fafá shouted, she cried, bursted into tears, but Johnny was justified saying her that had not understood the agent's Spanish. Conclusion: they would have to wait more four hours, without doing anything to embark in other Ferry Boat.

Johnny remembered that would have to inform the hotel in the island to transfer the reservation that they had done and to explain the reasons of that postponement. He remembered the telephones in the " hall " of entrance of the small station of ships and he walked to them. He noticed that all were automatic and they only worked, obviously, with electronic cards, those that he didn't possess. Johnny tried to buy them, but nobody had card for selling, or what is more probable, they didn't understand what he spoke.

In the small bar and enclosed restaurant to the station he got to be understands, and the owner informed him that card was obtained directly in an of the telephone receivers of the " hall ", but to obtain this card it was necessary another card to have that access.

- " Another card? " - Roared the old retired, losing the little education that had remained him. - " But, that Devil! To get an automatic card I need to obtain other, that don't also have. Where do I buy that sheet card ? ."

Nobody answered him, perhaps afraid with your attitude and, more amazed they were, when he in an access of fury, began to cuff the poor and defenseless telephone receiver, that it was it least criminal in that story, in that technological confusion. The alarmed people ran in his direction and all screamed so that he didn't make that, that it was an apparel of the Government, etc such, and that the old man ould be arrested by being destroying a public patrimony. Fafá, when witnessing the new and unusual confusion of the husband, closed the eyes and she faked to sleep.

Finally, to solve the obscure situation, a charitable soul, noticing the difficulties of the old Johnny, he offered him, beautifully, a magnetic card, that would open all the doors of the paradise of the electronic communication. But, the story didn't finish there, the problems continued between Johnny and the receptionist of the hotel, worsened by the lack of total knowledge of the local language - not even mixture of Portuguese and Spanish he dominated. It was a horrible thing, mixed of Spanish and undecipherable Portuguese.

He insisted and the situation went being more and more disrupted. Fafá not controlling decided to intervene, she pulled him the phone of the ear and in " good Portuguese " she explained to the operator girl everything that was happening and her, for incredible that it can seem, she understood everything. But how? The enigma is not that complicated: the girl was Brazilian!

Finally, solved the conflicts among the two countries, the old ones decided to take advantage of the long and forced hours of wait that would have for the front and they entered in the enclosed bar-restaurant to the port station.

They were hungry and anxious to savor the delicacies of the Caribbean cuisine, at least a good sandwich to appease the hunger. They looked confused for an enormous panel, where it was the name of all the sandwiches and they didn't get to understand, nor to imagine than it was treated, that were done, because the names in Spanish were curious and they didn't bring any indication of your composition, at least for the couple's understanding.

They tried for the most beautiful name and that called more the attention: pepitos ", that it should be, to the couple understanding, a type of small little cake of meat or any other thing, small and easy of being ingested. They made the request and the waiter involved the amount.

- "Seguro, que quieren dos pepitos, senőr? - (Sure!, that you want two pepitos, gentlemen? .")

- "Si, seguro, dos pepitos, uno para mim e otro para a senôra - (" Yes, we are sure that we want two pepitos, one unit for me and the other for the lady ").

The waiter didn't discuss plus, he left shaking the shoulders conformed in to assist and to understand that he finds as a strange request.

When waiter came back and he approached to serve them, the couple noticed frightened that it was treated of two enormous form of bread , of those of almost a kilo each one, stuffed of fried meat, lettuce, onion, tomato and naturally, with the more Americanized seasonings: Mayonnaise, Ketchup and Mustard! Nothing of that seemed with the small thing that the name " Pepito " suggested. It should be " Pepităo "!. Laughing, old Johnny investigated regarding the size of the Submarine " sandwich ", following item of the menu list (our traditional ham and cheese mixed hot) imagining how his proportion would be in relation to it now served " pepito ". He made a mistake, as you can verify. It is a small sandwich, in spite of the name.

The waiter due to the couple's perplexity, timidly, he suggested each other, that the sandwiches were cut to the middle, transforming them in four enormous " pepitos ". What to do to solve the problem? The solution was to cut them, reducing to the maximum that gastronomic paraphernalia . Soon after, they asked for two Cokes emphasizing the word " coca- cola ", for us not to have the surprise of they just " ingest that coca " Venezuelan, Colombian or Bolivian, as the case of the famous tea, that the Săo Paulo Futebol Club's team took was when it went to play football in Bolivia, what almost put an end to your titular goalkeeper's professional career. Johnny, gave thanks to God that the waiter served the old and traditional American Coke, in your opinion, great to dissolve in the stomach that " whole mixture of Caribbean sandwich ".

Some hours later, walked slowly until the embarkment bridge and practically they were the first passengers to enter in the gigantic ship of two pavements, where an enormous " mouth " swallowed people and vehicles of all the sizes and to the departure sign, the enormous board was picked up if transforming in an enormous cover, closing Ferry Boat " mouth ". The Ferry left, sailing slowly the placid and bluish waters of the Venezuelan bay, in direction to the beautiful and aphrodisiac " Isla Margarita ", or the popular " Pearl of Atlantic Ocean ".

The old couple smiled alleviated after so many profits and problems, that they were able to, in a certain way, to abbreviate the good course of that trip. Fafá, in your usual posture of matrimonial counselor, noticed the companion that next time everything would be different. In the future, those incidents should not repeat if and that before any trip to the exterior, long months would pass getting ready in a good language course, indispensable to avoid confusions and situations badly cleared, mainly the one of eating the indigestible " pepitos of the life ", for not knowing to ask another thing. Smart tourist not " puts the hand in ceramic vessel (brazilian: cumbuca)" and it always avoids constraining conflicts, wherever he goes, _selfly when the matter t is visiting our " hermanos caribeńos " (Caribbean brothers).

(Story published in the Coletânea " Entrelinhas " of the Artistic and Literary Association the Word of the Century XXI - ALPAS - 2002 – Cruz Alta - Rio Grande do Sul - Pages 223 to 226).

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