Jamming in backpackers paradise – Jericoacoara

Jericoacoara on the north coast of Brazil is often called as the “backpackers paradise” and after several days of traveling we definitely needed to relax some days that we decided to go to the not easy reachable costal village of Jericoacoara. To go to Jeri from Fortaleza we only could go by bus to Jeijoca, an inland village 20km from Jeri. From there we had to change to a jeep which was bringing us to our hostel.

The hostel was only 200m from the beach so we first discovered one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been in Brazil so far. Jericoacoara is just a super tranquil beach village with several bars, a nice beach, a big dune and palm trees and a rough coast on the other side of the cape. We relaxed in some natural water pools, which were build after the low tide and we enjoyed our backpacker life. On a big dune next to the village we saw an almost perfect sunset. The big ball of fire was melting in the ocean while a single kite surfer practiced his sport and the crowd on the dune was for some seconds quite and enjoyed this beautiful end of the day.

This day was the last day when I could say that I am 25, because the next day was my birthday. The beautiful day and the wonderful sunset was like a resume of the fantastic year I had and made me curious how my next year would be… The year started very cool. Matze and me had some beers in the hostel with backpackers from different places of the world, so I got a happy birthday in German, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Hebrew. We went to different bars after that and managed it almost to get to the sunrise to bed. The next day I phoned with my family from home and I was for some minutes a bit sad to not be there with them, but after we opened the first cold beer on the perfect sunny beach in nice beach chairs I forgot about that and enjoyed my birthday.

We walked to a stone gate which was on the rough west side of the cape and a 2km walk through nice coast vegetation and finished the day in the natural water pool, with some fruits, beer and again a perfect sunset. The guys from the hostel were very cool so we decided to have a barbeque and very funny evening. According our plan we wanted to leave this day to the impressive dunes of Lencois Maranhenses which are only 200Km east of Jeri, but very hard to reach due missing or bad infrastructure and after the lady in the bus station told us to come back in 30min to buy the ticket from another lady and when we came back it was about to close, we interpreted that as a sign to stay one day longer so we‘ve got stuck in paradise.

The next day was a lazy day. After some time in the hammock we discovered an oasis which is “eating” by a big dune. The afternoon we went by a jeep to a beach party because that Monday was state holiday and all the people went there to make party. We were quite happy that we not arrived earlier, because according the Caipirinha prices (0,80€) we would have find a bad ending there. The party was over after the sun left and a lot of people decided to go back to Jeri, which made the Jeep super full. Inside and on the back was normally space for 14. We left the beach village with 22 inside and 5 people on the roof…

The next day was a travel day to Lencois Maranhenses and an adventure for itself. We took a pickup to Comacin, 35KM east.

The ride was only possible in the morning because the costal route is only accessible in times of low tide. The ride was rough, we crossed mangrove forest and had to take care to not fall from the pickup when the guy was driving the pickup with guessed 80kmH, because we didn’t had things to hold ourselves…   100m before we reached the final point my backpack was falling from the pickup and I was afraid that something broke but I was lucky, nothing happened. From Comacin we took a transporter to Chaval, changed there in another one which picked up locals until the transporter was more than full (22 people in a minibus for 14) and we reached Parnaíba. From there we got a direct bus to Paulino Neves, close to the big dunes. In this bus my friend was a little irritated by a girl sitting next to him who was observably attracted to him. She tried to give him signs in Portuguese which he couldn’t understand and he was not able to speak English so for the rest of the trip she moved closer and closer and Matze couldn’t move more to the window, it was fantastic to observe 😀  We arrived in Paulinho Neves at 18:00 (we started 07:30 in the morning) and there we already were 8 people wanted to go to the dunes. SO we took another Jeep which went 2 hours through the dark on rough tracks and dunes and puddle holes. We arrived in Barrareinhas, the gate to the big dunes and we got a cheap Pousada for 15 Reals the night (7Euro) which was making the night to the cheapest night in Brazil so far. The room was small and smelly. A breakfast was included but super poor and taste like anything – You pay what you get. We booked a tour to the dunes cause we were running out of time – the next day was the departure date of our flight to the amazon. The tour was bringing us to the dunes, which were not that full with water, because the rainy season is about to start. And it rained all the time that we couldn’t enjoy that much the tour. Plus a group of old ladies was jelling all the time like stupid teenager but was giving us a smile when one super fat lady was falling from the truck while leaving it and plumed in the sand… But it was impressive to see the dunes and we felt like in a dessert. It was a weird scene when it started to rain – rain in the desert? How is that possible?

In the evening we went to Sao Luis were we stayed right now. It’s the capital of Reggae in Brazil and we went to some bars to see some bands playing. The city itself is visited in 2 hours and has a nice colonial charm, but most of the buildings are too old and are close to collapse. In 5 hours our plane is leaving to the Amazon. The last week of traveling together with my friend Matze and we are curious what will await us there. It’s going to be another adventure – for sure!

More pictures are here:
http://mathias-travelblog.com/lang/en-us/galery/?album=JericoacoaraAndLencoisMaranhenses

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Mathias Verfasst von:

Ein Kommentar

  1. 12. April 2012
    Antworten

    Beleza!!!!!!!!! Wow, wow, and wow! Your trip starts to get really really good as you get to know forgotten places in Brazil. It seems Jericoacoara and the dunes are MUST-visit places for any backpacker aspirant in Brazil. It should have been lovely to watch the Brazilian girl annoying your friend. However I must admire the guts of Brazilian girls. At least I hope she was nice looking :P.

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