A Fabulous Lightning Display

Sunday 18 March

When we woke this morning we found text messages and emails from all three children with best wishes for Mothers Day. It doesn’t appear to be celebrated here in Brazil – perhaps Ladies Day was the equivalent when we were at Caiman Lodge. But it was great to hear from the children and know they were thinking of us. We breakfasted as usual – Colin indulging in more boiled eggs which appear in egg cups big enough for a duck egg, so that nothing of the white ovaloid is showing until you peer into the top.

The rest of the day was a repetition of yesterday – relaxing on the balcony, cooling down in the plunge pool and quenching our thirst at the bar. The weather was much more overcast today, the sun hardly managing to make an appearance at all, but it was still very warm and pleasant. Consequently there was little more than a few pink tinged clouds at sunset, but soon after dark we were treated to a lightning display all round the bay – huge jagged forks lighting up the sky for the merest instant, so that all around was cast in a harsh white light. Thunder rumbled in the distance intermittently. We were pleased we had planned to eat in the hotel again tonight. We were able to watch the light display as we feasted on fish for me and chicken for Colin. The food at this hotel has been exceedingly good, although we felt that the service was not as attentive tonight as when we first arrived – we have been here a few days now and many other new guests have arrived, receiving the gushing attention associated with 5* hotels – the magic of being in Room 18 is no longer recognized.

After dinner, we sat in the lounge for a while, checking and sending a few emails– by this time the lightning display was over. We then returned to our room in time to watch a film before bed.