Fashion & travel: TRAVEL: JERICOCOARA...BRAZIL

1 ACAI AND CAPARINHA DAY....

Wednesday 19th August Fortaleza to jericoacoara

sleeping in the airport is never really a barrel of laughs, but its often better on the chair, we however slept on the cold floor.

we found a nice quiet area near the banks, it even had a plug, and the toilets and water fountain was nearby - but its wasn't silent, i find it hard to sleep on the ground on tiles -even with the Brazil flag laid down. so i only got a bit of sleep. coffee was needed for sure! we booked the 8am vip bus with stopped at a castle like restaurant en route to jijoca. i slept most of it - waking up with Mor having taken selfies of this! the restaurant was cool. it was excessively hot here. the building was very medieval hispanic, we didnt buy lunch but we did try a delcious nut icecream lollies. chilled in the hammocks and played like children on the trampoline they had. there was also a parrot and it was hilarious as it randomly decided to poo when on Mor's arm haha! Karma for the selfies i think.

at jijoca fishing village you change from the bus to a 4x4 truck as there is no actual road to Jericocoara - only sand and dunes. unfortunately on route the bus got a flat tire - unbelievable! we had to all wait at someones porch before 30minutes later help arrived.

was a nice journey despite that as the sights are beautiful - barely a soul around, high white and golden sand dunes and Azul blue cloudless skies. like a desert.

we eventually arrived and checked into our hostel nearby the bus station on Sao Francisco. before we watched the sunset at the beach eating the best açai I've had yet after trying cheese and coconut tapioca - odd, not as good as banana and cheese! they did amazingly good and strong caparinhas, after one i could feel it going to my head haha.

theres not so many parties here late at night - its all rather chilled, and no streets, just sand paths - but could be due to time of year

Thursday 20th August Jericocoara

i keep cutting and injuring myself here, silly scrapes especially on my feet, i gained more today with my event first attempt at horse riding. in the field like area at the edge of the town near the beach and sand dune is where we bargained for our horses, we should have taken a guide but instead we decided we could do for ourselves for 25BR an hour. we bumped into Nils - the guy we met at the airport and helped get the bus here with us - he's from Frankfurt, his accent is often more French than German i think. i got on my horse, with no real instruction. they gave me a little branch to hit him with which i didn't want to use (veggie life), but i didn't even need it as within a minute of setting off he sped off with me. clinging for dear life, i had no idea how to stop him, or slow him down, the gestures i was taught and saw from the movies didn't seem to work and i didn't know what to say in Portuguese that might help. i remained calm - animals can smell fear, as long as he doesn't rear up and try to kick me off i will be fine, besides, eventually he will get tired and slow down, i just need to stay on. A good thought process and plan i think. luckily he ran down the beach in the direction of more horses and a guy slowed him. the others soon followed, along with the guy from our group, who showed me the moves again, i seem to be making him go faster i think, and i swapped with Mor. this taller horse was a lot calmer. we took them down the beach over the wet sands. however, the short cut to the area we wanted to go was rocky and steep and the horses wouldn't go. Mor's stopped to snack (this was a common occurrence, and i felt reflected his personality very well haha) we took them instead up the street paths to start climbing up the cliff path, mine was slow and kept lagging behind, it wouldn't go faster, the views we lovely, however halfway to the lighthouse, mine decided she would go no further, i was stuck on the side of the cliff, i could not get her to budge, and when i eventually climbed down, i still couldn't. Mor after 10 minutes came back for me. nils later caught up with us, it seemed he had a similar problem later on. disastrous horses! funny though i guess.

we later went to the beach. dry wet sparkly sand, though very windy, the water is clear blue, but very shallow, warm. we made drinks and nils friend from Argentina joined us - Ollie. they all started trying to do handstands and capierha moves having watched them dance at sunset.

we joined them at their hostel later (tivoli-you can sleep in a hammock here for 25 a night! comfy!) and had a barbecue and drinks, making friends with some of the others, lots from Israel, some french, and Argentians. we went to a sort of salsa club night, but it was mainly full of older people. danced a bit (there was 1 fantastic couple who clearly had lessons and two girls who spent the night dancing, they could really move their hips, they moved closed and together, they might have been a couple) before leaving the others. so to conclude my opening statement, cuts on my ankle front from horse riding. another one of the collection

Friday 21st August laguanas paradiso

far to the left there are people kite surfing. here there are 2 swans to rent or paddle boards. but mainly everyone is here to chill and enjoy the white sands and crystal waters,chilled in the watres and the hammocks and on the beach - white sands that didnt burn you bare foot. i was jumping off the boards and knocked off my glasses - easy to recover in crystal clear waters. we got ice from the bar gelo and made drinks with the vodka - no wind so no sand in yourface. kept applying sunscreen 55 but got burnt again haha. chilling in the hammocks is so much fun

the ride itself, through the dunes is crazy, bumpy and wild, white sands all around, you can see nothing but high white dunes and piercing blue cloudless skies

with the others and got some drinks and watched the sunset from the sand dune with everyone. though its super windy - i think its better on the beach. once it had set i decided to roll down the dune. it was so fun, messy - sand was everywhere! but super fun, and i was so dizzy. some fo the ohters joined in, one nearly hitting people with their flying flip flop. he did not cope well with the dizziness. the others came down leaping.

we met up again later for drinks and bbq. we did a sort of high low card drinking game with the Argentineans - nils had went for a shower so i convinced him we'd all did two shots of casis, he believed me and did it CRAZY! haha. we then all played a drinking game in a big group - BOOM. multiples of 7/doubles/7s i was awful and kept having to drink the casis. nils started getting bad too and he started it. we went round to the salsa club with nils complaining "guys dont walk so fast - we're on vacation" we were in stitches - or another great one liner - 'just punch him in the face and take it, they wont expect it, we're foreigners"

this was apparently a club were all the locals go - it was packed but the atmosphere was also crowded - too much going on and not in a cool way like in morro - we didnt stay long - though we did get speaking to an older swiss guy who could speak 5 languages - impressive!

Saturday 22nd august

went back this morning to the lagoon, nils had to organise buses for his next destination. .we narrowly passed a truck that then got stuck in the sand, all the guys got out to help, it wouldn't budge another truck of people came, it was until maybe 12 or more people started to help after 15 minutes that the truck finally budged and we were back on our way. we had the most manliest female driver ever, i think she was even wearing male swim shorts, and could possible have an adams apple. she drove really badly, I'm pretty sure i got bruises from this ride!

was nice to finally get the and hit the water. was busy today of course since it was a Saturday. we drank a good bit to ourselves, made everything seem evermore dreamlike. then suddenly - around 2.30 everyone appeared, all the people from the other hostel with nils - the annoying pompous Israeli guy who was trying it on and failing with a French girl, an Israeli girl i met in lencois, etc. we all conoodled in the near the front drinking sunbathing, swimming, listening to ,music etc very beautiful and chilled

couldn't find the others from the other hostel for the sunset so we paid for a buggy to go watch it at the rock. music pumping, wind in our hair freespiritedness. climbing the rocks, chatting and doing the crab in front of the arch, it was great.

the last day was spent at the other laguna, less people and with only a line of hammocks swimmin, more private, open and less for tourists. tropical paradise at its best