Getting the alligator - São Sebastião

Photo credit: https://www.esporte.hsw.uol.com.br%25252Fcomo-pegar-jacare.htm

I am reading a novel by a Brazilian writer named Daniel Galera called "Barba Ensopada de Sangue" (Beard dripping with blood) which sounds pretty grim, but is actually a moving portrait of a young man searching for the reason why his grandfather disappeared in the south of Brazil.  It was a finalist for the Jabuti, a literary prize.

I am learning a whole new vocabulary of beach town slang with "guris" and "gurias" as the young men and women, and I'm really enjoying the characters who are appearing. My favorite is a crazy inn-owner who drives his VW Beetle completely drunk, just retrieving an eye patch from his glove compartment so he won't "see double." I'll write more about this book later.

One of the recent chapters is the narrator heading to the beach to "pegar uns jacarés." This literally translated means "getting some alligators," but in reality is a way of referring to bodysurfing. I suppose the idea is that you make your body flat and long to ride the waves--just like an alligator would...if an alligator bodysurfed.

It's our second to last day at the beach and the ocean is pretty calm to be an alligator...but I plan to try this afternoon...