Jericoacoara (Brasil) - A city in the sand

JERICOACOARA (Brasil)
07 July - 21 July 2017

The fabled Jericoacoara, described to me on my first trip to South America as a hippie style commune where people beat their tamborines, sang songs around bonfires, all the while sitting in the midst of wild, remote sand dunes and gorgeous blue lagoons.

So 'Jeri' isn't quite that, although there are elements of all those things to various degrees. It is however a town far removed from the modern world with its crazy deadlines, traffic jams, iPads and iPhones and endless queues everything. In some ways the streets here are paved with gold, albeit golden sand. Part of the absolute charm of Jeri is that cars into the town, expect for anything tourist related, are banned. It's a pedestrian paradise and that laid back vibe is typified by the way you get around, all sand streets, all sand floors, all chilled and built with the spirit of bohemia on the beach.

Jericoacoara - Brasil

Jericoacoara - Brasil

Post beach drinks on the avenue - the end of Rua do Forro - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Jericoacoara - Brasil

What drew us to Jeri the first time we were here a few years ago were those stories, what brought us back was finding a place where white sand beaches stretched endlessly off to the horizon, where palms trees swayed in the breeze, where strolling through the town is the equivalent of your dose of daily exercise and your obligation, should you choose to accept it, is simply laze in the sun and drink caipirinhas.

To provide a bit of background, until 20 years ago Jeri was nothing more than a fishing village, secluded, simple and out of the touristic eye. No roads, no electricity, no phones, no TV, all those common elements of modern civilisation weren't here. Of course its discovery by those from outside of Brasil has meant that Jeri has changed. Boutique stores, bars, cafes, boutique hotels but still, it has a very easy going, laid back charm that will hopefully be maintained by the locals. Indeed, since the area was declared an Environmental Protection Area in 1984 there have been a lot of building restrictions and tourism controls that brought so as to preserve what's there.

Our 'go to cart' - Tommy Cachaca - Praia Principale - Jericoacoara - Brasil

The MAN - Tommy Cachaca - Praia Principale - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Sweet cachaca dreams -  Jericoacoara - Brasil

Inga & I went for the AirBnB option this time and got ourselves a great place on the south-eastern part of the town. A place where we could catch the breezes whilst laying in hammocks and make ourselves caipirnhas to our hearts content.

Strangely, even though we were on our honeymoon we still manufactured a type of routine for our stay. Aside for the fact that we also booked in Private Training  sessions every couple of days, usually we'd commence each day with a run from the house along Praia Principale, which in itself sounds reasonably gentle other than the fact that the route we crafted had two major dune climbs on the way out and then a revisit of the climbs on the way back. The entire run would commonly take a little over an hour and cover somewhere between 11-12kms. It doesn't sound so bad until you understand that a major part of that run is on relatively soft sand which is completely soul destroying and energy sapping.

Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Did not expect to have that much grey!

Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

The most relaxing hammocks around - Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Thankfully we were much kind to ourselves in the afternoon, heading to the busy end of Praia Principale where the sun lounger chairs were located along with the drinks carts. Now this to me is what a honeymoon should be about, and with that, Brasilians have this style of beach life 'dialled' in. You don't have to lift so much as a finger, food and drinks will find you without a problem. There's always a constant flow of peddlers with caipirinhas at the ready and also sorts of food items ready to be sold. As for me, I had a favourite cart that I'd go to for drinks and I struck up a bit of an understanding with Tommy and his drinks cart. He's make us the meanest caipirinhas on the block and I'd tip him a little each time for the privilege. It was an agreeable working relationship.

Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

'Tons of guns' - Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Hot potato! Lagoa Paraiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

We did have the opportunity of getting out of Jeri also. One of those times was to discover Lagoa Paraiso, a crystal blue coloured lagoon where the main objective of the day is to laze out in the sun or laze in hammocks on the water. A difficult choice, either way you look at it.

Caipirinhas in the mix- Jericoacoara - Brasil

The other step outside of our Jeri comfort zone was to make an attempt to take on kite surfing. Which looked an absolute treat, when it's done the correct way, but let me tell you, there are so many working parts in the process of attempting to fly a kite and wake board at the same time. After two full days I actually did get to the point where I was able to stands on the board for a second or two, just before coming off the board and yanking on the kite a bit too much. What happened after that point actually withdrew my commitment to learning this new water sport almost instantaneously, as my move of complete indiscretion had me plucked out of the water and airborne for several metres before I was unceremoniously dunked head first into the drink. That in itself is not completely horrific other than the fact that I was clipped into the kite that was still very much airborne and was dragging me off shore at a rate of knots. Now of course, I can swim, and I also had a life jacket on, but the amount of ropes and equipment that was surround my person and the speed at which I was getting pulled out to sea was quite disconcerting. Even more so, as I was getting dragged out I was waving to the instructors onshore and for quite sometime wasn't getting any feedback at all - almost a type of look that said, 'Oh well, he's lost to the ocean now, what can we do'.

Prea beach - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Prea beach - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Prea beach - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Prea beach - Jericoacoara - BrasilJericoacoara - Brasil

Inga on Prea Beach - learning the ways of the wind - Jericoacoara - Brasil

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Kite Surfer Central - Prea Beach - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Centre of Jericoacoara - Brasil

That's Jeri in a nutshell. It has some mighty fine beaches, wide, flat and functional for sports, lazing and finding drinks. It's atmosphere is obviously beach chill and its sunsets are picture perfect. Our near two weeks flew past so quickly - who knew that doing nothing could be so time consuming?

Jericoacoara (BRASIL) - Jijoca de Jericoacoara

Jijoca de Jericoacoara (Brazil) via Fortaleza (Brazil)
06 JUNE - 11 JUNE 2015

Paris, New York, London, Sydney - they're omnipotent in the consciousness of the mind of the traveler. They're the beacons that somehow draw you into their gravitational frame of reference. Somehow you feel compelled to visit and inevitably there's something that captures the imagination. They're locks. That's a given.

Other experiences of mine have been happy discoveries when 'sailing the seas of consequence', places like Buenos Aires (Argentina), Hallstat (Austria), Antigua (Guatemala), Caye Caulker (Belize), Cape Town (South Africa), Amalfi (Italy), El Tunco (El Salvador), El Chalten (Argentina) - there's probably a few more to add AND they're not so hidden. These places are well known but it was the unspecified consequence of chance and choice that delivered me to these locations without preconceived notions of what would exist, usually, but not always, being the route to take for the happiest of surprises....and then, you have a third category,  he 'randomly referred locations'.

I've found that the randomly referred location has also brought me a lot of joy over the years. Whilst those have been few and far between, mostly as travel discussions centre on the well traveled and traversed locales, some do happen to appear out of the blue. In this category I add Vang Vieng (Laos), Chefchaouen (Morocco), Huacachina (Peru) and Jericoacoara (Brazil).

Usually the randomly referred locations come in the form of legendary or fabled stories. I recall Vang Vieng being described to me as an Apocalypse Now type of setting, random bars located in the Lao jungle where drugged out hippies floated down the river on rubber inner tubes looking for their next giant water slide....(and guess what)...that was more or less the case (back then, FYI). In the same manner "Jeri" was sold to me as a hippie hangout, 'kumbaya' sing alongs on mountainous sand dunes overlooking the sea. Streets paved of golden sand and not a closed toe shoe within 50kms...(and guess what)....well, I'll get to that in the moment.

Our flight out of Foz du Iguaza was via Brasilia, landing in the city of Fortaleza early in the evening, a city of around 2.5 million people and the fifth largest in Brazil. Whilst this acted purely as a transit destination the city, or rather the beaches, were more than pleasant, and we spent a nice day working out the logistics of how to get to Jeri whilst downing beach side caipirinhas. This my friends was also the trigger for my downfall - once again....

 Fortaleza - Brazil

Fortaleza - Brasil

Whilst in Fortaleza we stayed in a nice beach side hotel called the Seara Praia. The top floor had a rooftop spa, nice views down the coastline and bar service. This as they say in the classics was the 'Return of the Mack', or something akin to that, you know insert whatever moniker you want for making a comeback. I do believe that it was another errant Tom Collins, or at the very least, a drink with a bit of squeezed lemon that commenced proceedings, but 2-3 weeks after shaking off awful stomach troubles whilst in Puno (Peru), whatever it was that was somehow still lurking in the nasty crevices of my intestines decided to come back for a second bite. I knew it immediately too. I knew what trouble existed just over the horizon. In that moment I tried to rationalise it as just some acid reflux that I'd easily step out of but come the next day, the very moment when we started our 5.5hr journey by minibus to Jeri, I was layed out on the back seat and painfully riding out every bump on that God forsaken highway to nowhere. Now, I've done that same road a few times since then and can say that its not nearly the pot holed riddled bomb pit that I make it out to be, but bouncing in the back of the van with that ultra sensitivity to vertical movement in the hope of delaying the upcheck reflex - man oh man, that was a nightmare.

 Jericoacoara - Brazil

Jericoacoara - Brazil

Jericoacoara - Brazil

From Jijoca to Jericoacoara the only method of transport is via 4*4. All the roads are sand and there's just no other way. Quite the pleasure ride into wild if at peak fitness at will but somewhere on that road, I believe it was when we stopped to view some pissant lake (which was probably quite nice), the ghosts of Tom Collins' past came back to me. On that day I left a piece of me out on the dunes of Parque Nacional de Jericoacoara - there's just some thing in life that you can never get back.

It took me a few days to get into the idea of Jeri, that was purely for the fact that a lot of that time I was occupying a position on the 'bed of recuperation'. Inga however was like a duck to water, what more does a Latvian girl want than sun, getting a sun tan, beach life and sand wherever you go?

When I finally recovered myself I found Jeri to be quite the location. Probably not exactly the trippy hippie commune set in the sticks of Northern Brazil but how can you go past streets of sand, sand floors in restaurants and bars, and a saloon where the locals do actually tie their horses up out front. The place was and is quite beautiful with God's additional gift of magical sunsets being granted almost upon request.

Jericoacoara - Brazil

Jericoacoara - Brazil

Jericoacoara - Brasil

Jericoacoara - Brasil

If the beach wasn't on the agenda for the day then there were other opportunities aplenty. One of those day we did a quad bike tour around the area that took us to dreamlike places like Paradise lagoon (both Lagoa Azul & Lagoa Paridiso), place where the water is disarmingly clear and you can pick your own hammock in the water, swaying in or just above the azure water. If this place isn't an advertisement for 'tranquilo' then I don't know what it.

Lagoa Paridiso - Jericoacoara - Brasil

Jeri has a lot going for it, a relatively small community of 16000+ people, sand, beaches, bars, relative isolation. If anyone is interested, here's my vote to you for a randomly referred location.

Fortaleza airport - on the way to Rio - Brazil

Getting there

We got to Jeri utilising www.fretcar.com.br 

Book from Fortaleza to Jericoacoara - there will be a transfer required in Jijoca. The site covers that, so don't be surprised by the request for two tickets, it's essentially Fortaleza - Jijoca, then Jijoca - Jericoacoara

The site is in Portuguese, so if you're unsure then go to a Fretcar agent in Fortaleza, either the airport or on the beach in Meireles.

Time wise you're looking at 6-7hrs one way.