losing my toes in paradise

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November 20th 2006

Published: November 27th 2006

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mars3

fellow sunset worshippers

13th November- 20th November

Jericocoara, nicknamed Jeri, is without a doubt one of god´s little gems of beauty....

Imagine this. a broad cream sandy beach, palm trees swaying above the beachside bars where you leisurly lay enjoying your caipirinha. turqouise blue waters (but arent they all in North Brazil!!!). and the mystical sand dunes rising from the left where all the sunset worshippers make a pilgrimage each day to witness the daily changing magnificence of the sun setting over the horizon! despite having seen so many sunsets along my trip, i still feel overwhelmed by each one...

Jeri is a definitely a european haven, blessed with strong winds, it has become the mecca for windsurfers and any sport requiring wind. It is not surprising to find about 80 people windsurfing in the same area, bypassing each other with impressive manouvres, yet repeatedly failing to crash into each other..something i could not understand! i even took up a windsurfing lesson (cmon....it is the world´s best windsurfing place!!)...and this represented one of my many injuries that my poor toes endures here in Jeri...thus explains my strange title to this blog.

boy and dog

The Toe scenario...
Toe 1- walking bare foot, i hit my left foot on a 'hidden´rock (so i call it!) and bruise, possibly break my second toe of left foot.
Toe 2- practicing Capoiera, i blister my right big toe, resulting in an open blister that remained painful for 2 days as my exposed skin failed to heal from the disrupting sand.
Toe 3- my left big toe. whilst windsurfing in the lagoon (apparently safe), i fall off, landing onto, what must be the only point of the lagoon containing sharp jagged edged rocks...and get deep grazes across the sole of the whole toe...that took a week to heal and stop hurting!!!

so half my time in Jeri was spent walking around like a cripple!!!

stayed in Pousada Juventude, hanging around much the same people that i had met further north (Felix, Martin, Amanda, Juliana ), and later the hilarious greeks (Fay and Elias....Elias you still remind me of my 'big fat greek wedding!!!
Quote ( in greek accident)- 'i like that man, he´s a good man, so i decide to take lessons from him. though i have not seen

local rock formation

him work, he´s a good man'

Our lazy days would largely be spent lazing by the bar tables under the cover of the scorching sun, eating, drinking. we made a friend in a little local boy named kéké. sweetest little boy, and highly entertaining. He would be selling these pure sugar coconut cakes. one was enough sugar for a week! though he would spent most of his time in our company instead of selling the sweets to potential customers.

The nights would undoubtedly start outside Sky bar, located on the beach, we would listen to music whilst sipping down our 2Real Caipirinhas (a Brazilian drink made from sugar cane...i could only drink it with passion fruit...mmm...the taste quickly grew on me!). Then it would end in either mama africa, or some random house party or pousada party....playing anything from Reggae to the local Forro.

CAPOIERA!!!!
im in love wiht this intoxicating martial arts. when it was first introduced, it was quickly banned. instead of abandoning the art, it evolved instead into a dance like martial art where there would be no contact involved. amazing to