We drove for hours; whistling over a ribbon of tarmac mea­ suring the perpetual embrace of the shore and the sea, bounded by a fretwork of undulating coconut trees, pure un­ adorned forms framing the seascape into a kaleidoscope of bluish jewels . Above us a tracery of green and yellow leaves arrowed to a vanishing-point we could never reach. At times the road curved as though it were the edge of a wave itself rushing in and then retreating into the ocean. We skittered over these moving surfaces at a speed I had never experienced before. Through the back window I watched the road pour out from under us and settle into a silvery picture of serene timelessness. We overtook the occasional bus belching smoke or a lorry lisping with billowing hay; we blasted through  bustling towns and torpid villages . We passed churches and tem­ples, crosses and statues, grey shacks and lattice-work man­ sions. Mister Salgado only slowed down when we came to the skull-heaps of petrified coral -five-foot p…