20. Farewell to the Massilia

The Massilia is leaving. The gangways have been removed. The siren has wailed three times. The tugboat has passed its ropes. Leaning over the rail, the passengers throw a last look on the roofs of Santos which a heavy Noroeste fog crushes. Waving handkerchiefs. The cables stretch. The stern moves away from the dock.

The ship turns its bow towards the channel exit, soon the tugboat will abandon it. Santos fades away in the hot mist which hides the steep slopes of the Serra do Mar¹ behind which São Paulo stretches its tentacles.

Farewell, Massilia, who brought us to Brazil thirty years ago. We were full of illusions and we had beautiful dreams of the future. The Massilia is no more, our illusions died. But Brazil has seized and kept us, strange and beautiful country, irritating and captivating as a too much loved mistress.
1. Long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southern and South- eastern Brazil.