NE Brazil... Part 2 - Jericoacoara

Leaving Fernando, I think we all were excited about what the second leg of our trip had in store for us. None of us had been to Jeri and from what little we knew, it was going to be a real adventure. After flying from Fernando to Recife to Forteleza, we took a 5 hour ride in a 4x4 thru remote villages and at least an hour of driving on the beach (no road!). For me personally, this drive was very memorable and our driver (Daniel) was great.
We stopped at a roadside stall for Christmas eve dinner and had a fun time eating bbq meats, rice / beans, drinking beers, and chatting w/ whoever walked by. After we got past the last village and started driving on the beach, Daniel stopped so we could all get out and really get a good look at the night stars. I think its great when you can take time to allow yourself to get completely absorbed in the stars. There were a few times on this trip when we allowed ourselves the luxury to just gaze up and drift off into conversation. Something else thats extra cool for us northerners is that the stars seem completely different due to the southern perspective... its like you are seeing a whole new set of stars!

Pulling into Jeri we were all immediately struck by the charm of the place. The streets are all sand, very few cars, great little cafes & restaurants everywhere, and lots of people all enjoying themselves! Our posada was on the outskirts of the village about 15 mins walking or 7 minutes by horse cart, and it was really, really nice. In fact, I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how nice our accomodations were... on top of this, the owners, Marcio and Patricia were extremely gracious, engaging, and loads of fun to hang out with! Can't talk about Marcio and Patricia without mentioning their angel daughter Mika, having her around the posada was really a huge bonus.

Most days we would roll out of bed around 9am or so, take breakfast, hang around the posada (literally hang in our rede), then grab a lift via horse cart down to the beach. At the beach we'd usually setup basecamp at the windsurfing center during the main part of the afternoon, then each evening we'd wander down the beach for a snack, watch capoeira, maybe do a little shopping, or catch sunset from up on the dune. Ultimately though, each evening we found ourselves at the sky bar having caiparoskas and laughs w/ an assortment of characters.

AP made some nice new friends that she met at the windsurfing center, one of which was pals with one of her childhood best friends from Jacarei (Sao Paulo)!! In addition to the new friends, we had some existing friends that also made the trip... our good friend Elrid who lives in Florinopolis, John Shannon who lives in London, and Marcia and Chris who we knew from San Francisco. Rob also did a great job making new friends :o) .

One experience that really stands out when we took 4 motorcycles and a dune buggy out for a day trip. I'll tell you, riding a motorcycle in the soft sand is alot more challenging than you'd think... fortunately, we escaped without any serious wipeouts (though I thought I was going down at least once) and it left me trying to think of a way to get a dirt bike back in SF. The scenery was incredible and at one point we came to a river, where we loaded up the motorcycles and the dune buggy all onto a raft and portaged... with pole power!


Our last night in Jeri was NYE. True to Brazilian tradition, we dressed in all white and had a fun night eating and partying. Just before midnight we climbed to the top of the dune to watch the fireworks and make our toasts, then after we walked down to do the wave hops for good luck in 2006. Noteworthy is the fact that Rob pulled an all-nighter on NYE, in fact, I think he pulled a few all nighters that week... buy him a beer and I'm sure he will have some stories.

Here are my favorite photos out of AP's collection (there are lots)... http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/72057594051893336/