JERICOACOARA (Brasil)
07 July - 21 July 2017
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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?
