Ubatuba: Once upon a time, there was a small bamboo house in the middle of the forest in Ubatumirim

Son. Time passes and you become more and more, she says, a big boy. Every day there are more discoveries, questions, logical thinking and I wonder how long there will be Santa Claus, the Easter bunny and playful excursions around fairy tales.

Today I remembered a very special experience, your fifth birthday on a deserted beach, at the height of the epidemic in 2021, in the wake of contagion after Christmas and New Year’s parties – parties we didn’t have, no matter how I wished. It hurts that the first Christmas is away from my dear parents and grandparents.

For the first time we had a lively birthday party with family and friends. But your father and I, already separated, decided to put in a little effort (well, a big effort for mutual tolerance) and give you this joy: Hit the road on Monday for a private party at Ubatumirim Beach, the mini-paradise of calm and warm waters of Ubatuba, on the north coast of São Paulo. We were entitled to the chocolate cake (which I made according to the dictates of tradition), the decorations, the balloons and the brig. To this day I feel sand in my teeth.

I’ll never forget we’re setting up a beach party scene and urge you to “unwittingly” find your gift, a felt squid that you pious think came from the island right in front of the beach, an imaginary teacher in a bikini bottom. Guests include SpongeBob, his best friend Patrick – who was “found” several months ago lost in a forest near his house – and Harold, the friendliest dog and good traveler ever.

The highlight of the trip was a literally magical accommodation, a hotel Surucuá Bungalow, All made of bamboo in the middle of the forest, no breakfast service due to social isolation, almost no human contact (too bad, the host family was very nice), but with air conditioning and wifi. We were sure that it was the most enjoyable and memorable experience we could have chosen for the date when we finished the trail with the smell of the damp woods and shouted: “It’s the home of the Three Little Pigs!”

It’s been three happy days, and you take turns sleeping with your father downstairs and I upstairs. The landing was done up and down by an innovative bamboo ladder and the view of the vegetation was beautiful, it was very close.

In these three days of sun and heat, we bathed in the river, swam in the warm sea, and saw the most beautiful sunsets, and bathed in a spring gushing from a water pipe in front of the cabin, and ate your father’s delicious meals, and ate long breakfasts with large pieces of cake and pastries left from the the party.

We didn’t know it, but it was a goodbye, and it broke my utopia thinking that we could all continue to travel together after a divorce. It was a journey full of meaning and beauty, yes.

I love you more than anything, not to the point of taking trips with my ex to please you, it is superfluous, but to the point of remembering this day with the best memories of love and companionship and the good times of three, the best we could at that time.

It was the most beautiful thing. I love you, my little fish.