A coconut's throw from the sea
Things of a personal nature were turning sour. I had just up and moved to a new city, friends were either far away or hard to come by, I was finding it pretty difficult to relate to my neighbors in the quasi-favela where I was living (most of them were from the poorest parts of the interior, where I had also never been), and in the back of my mind a nagging feeling had grown legs and was crawling around, getting me to question my life and my choices, as well as my general geographic location. The singular person who I came to call my friend, after our one month sharing the same small apartment complex, was about to say goodbye, with no plans to return. I found myself in the straits.
Think Global, Act Local
(source)
Tourists are kind of akin to actors. They have a role to play, scenes to shoot, you could even say they have a script to read from. Even if they aren’t the typical, camera-wielding, map-checking type of tourist, it’s hard to escape the feeling that you’re being treated differently. I don’t necessarily mean this in a negative sense as half the time it is merely rooted in curiosity on the part of the resident, much like seeing a famous actor. Luckily, there’s an escape route (though not so much if you’re white, blond and blue-eyed).
