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Published: August 9th 2007
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Caiprinhas on the Beach
First night in Jeri, it was time to celebrate in the tropics with a couple of beers. It had taken a long time to get here.
We left Forteleza with excitement for getting off the beaten track. And we certainly did that (tourists, where are you?). From Forteleza, we headed to a small fishing/beach town (and a popular destination for Brazilians) called Jericoacoaca (nicknamd Jeri). The only way to get there was to catch a normal bus part of the way and get transferred onto a large 4WD truck. The journey went along the fence line of many tiny properties, where the local lived in simple brick home with no doors, floors or windows. Many of the people were busy washing their clothes in a tub or cooking in a pot on a fire. Apart from the tiny homes, there was the occasional soccer ground. The last part of the trip was interesting, we hit the beach and the beach became the road. There were street signs and everything on the beach - very bizarre. I don´t think I will ever see another stop sign on a beach again. When we pulled into “town” there were people everywhere trying to convince people to stay at their hotel, it was funny because I was worried we wouldn’t find
On The Dune, Jeri
Every evening, the people in Jeri head down to the beach to watch the sunset, either from the top of the big sand dune or from down below while doing capoeira. anywhere (it was the Thursday before the Easter long weekend). Fed up with people hassling us, we walked along the beach and decided to walk around and find accommodation ourselves (as we normally do). But a couple of guys just didn’t give up. One was an older bloke who spoke no English, the other was a young hippie looking dude. Eventually, we got rid of one of the guys, but the other one kept following us. Eventually we caved and took a look at his hotel. It was nice but we left to keep looking. As we were walking down the street he continued to chase after us, so Jeff turned around, and said “You aren’t going to understand this, but you’re persistent”. The guy laughed but obviously didn’t understand what Jeff had said. Oh well.
After we dumped our bags in the hotel we went down to the beach, bought some beers and walked up the massive sand dune and watched the sun set (tradition in town). It was beautiful, and down below there were drummers and capoeira-ists on the beach below. After, we walked back down the dune and decided to have a few Caprinha´s
(they are
Sunset at Jeri
Need I say more? the traditional drink of Brasil, made from cheap rum, lime, ice and sugar, and guaranteed to give you a bad hangover every time). They were so cheap, we were buying them from a small stall on the beach and they were really strong. It was strange stumbling back to the hotel, walking through streets with no road (sand only here).
The next day I got up with a sore head, Jeff was looking a little worse for wear. A bad hangover, I thought, but it turned out to be the start of a bad flu for him. We stayed in Jeri for a few days; I spent the time tanning and relaxing while Jeff was getting better. And every night, we would go up the dune with the other locals and watch the sunset. When Jeff was feeling better and it was time to leave, I was a sad to say goodbye to the little laid back town.
From Jeri we were hoping to get to Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, accessed from the small town of Barreirinhas. A short journey of only a few hundred kilometers took 2 days. It included a trip from Jeri across river
Sick of Agua De Coco
Jeff doesnt look impressed with the coconut he was given as a present by the owner of the hotel... we were a bit sick of them by then! deltas and mangroves along the beach in a small 4WD with plank seats in the back. Awesome views. This was followed by another bus ride (we were in a town called Parnaiba) on one of the worst roads I have ever travelled on (potholes everywhere, we travelled 40 kms in three hours). We spent the night in a dodgy but reasonably nice town called Tutoia, which is not mentioned in any guide books, we found out why. Our accomodation that night was OK except for the swarms of mosquitos in the room (great news for malaria prevention). I woke up the next day feeling average, and just as Jeff had recovered, I now had the flu. We searched the town for a 4WD truck (the only means of transport) to get us on our way to Barreirinhas, we found a helpful local, who was leaving soon and would take us half the way. After some awesome 4wd-ing, and a very sore bum, we arrived in another small town (can’t remember the name) and caught another 4wd truck to get us the rest of the way to Barreirinhas. This was an awesome ride; it cost 10 reals (about $6 aussie)
for
The Journey
Part of the fun... waiting for transport for our 4WD over one of the many rivers in the north of Brazil (from Jeri to Parnaiba). a 3 hour thrill ride in the rain through massive puddles, through small lakes and over massive sand dunes, driving past people´s ¨"houses" consisting of some dodgy brick walls and someone washing their clothes on the outside.
With my butt now aching after 2 days of rough riding, we arrived in Barreirinhas. We had lunch somewhere, got some burgers.... I took the salad out of mine (necessary in Brasil, we had experienced the consequences before) but Jeff, craving "goodness" (as was I) ate his. And he suffered for the next couple of days. So our stay in Barra, which was only going to be 2 days, was extended to 4!
In between Jeff’s regular trips to the toilet in our dodgy, mouldy room, we managed to take a boat tour down the river, which was beautiful, catch up with some monkeys and reach the river mouth for a swim at the beach. On the last day before we left, we finally got out to the national park proper (Lençóis Maranhenses), got to walk over the massive sand dunes, and went swimming in the natural fresh water pools that exist only during the wet season because of the rain.
Lençóis Marenhenses
One of the beautiful fresh water lakes surrounded by sand dunes in Lençóis Marenhenses National Park. The water was perfect, clear, fresh and beautiful.
From Barreirinhas we then went further west, across the top of Brasil coast to a city called Sao Luis, one of the oldest and best restored cities in the north. The city was originally settled by the French. While we were there we made the side trip to Alcantara, a small island one hour away by (a very noisy) boat to check out the only preserved Pelourinho (whipping post) in Brasil. Ironically the whipping post was situated in front of the old town church. Funny that. It was good to see but wasn’t really worth the trip though. After a couple of quite but uneventful days there, we caught an overnight bus to Belem, on the mouth of the Amazon River.
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