Jericoacoara and Tatajuba (The back of beyond)

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So having had enough of city living - we decided that it was time to leave Fortaleza and head out to Jericoacoara - 4 hours up the coast by a mixture of mini-bus and 4x4. Our guide describes Jeri as a small , tranquil beach villiage - and it is really beautiful with the most amazing stars at night - the only problem being that it did seem to be a bit of a tourist trap with expensive boutiques lining the sandy streets. Having said that it shouldnt take away the beauty of the place - huge sand dunes (amazing for watching the sunset from) , calm seas (great for swimming) and animals wondering all over the place - a great place to chill. We also met some great people who were staying at the same pousada as us - and on the seconf night we stayed up drinking beer and eating prawns - thats right i (Dan) ate seafood - i havent done since - i think i must have been partly drunk and bloody hungry and to be honest i quite enjoyed them - im not progressing to fish though - uh uh - no way.

To get out of Jeri - we hired a local beach buggy to take us the hour and half along the beaches and the dunes to the next town of Tatajuba. The ride itself was great fun - racing along the beach at god knows what speed - to descending bloody big dunes - hair raising and brilliant.

The next villiage we arrived at was Tatajuba - hardly any people , huge lonely beach , wonderful lagoon for lunch and swimming and nothing - and we mean nothing else to do - but eat , read , play Yatzhee , drink and walk the beaches. One day we walked for a couple of hours to the solitary coconut tree that is on the beach - walking along the beach is deceptive at best and everything seems closer than it really is - for the the entire 2 hours we were both saying - we´ll be there in 5 minutes - eventually we got there - and realised that we now had to walk back - lucky for us - we had taken sun tan lotion !!

It truly was the back of back of beyond. We found a great pousada to stay at - everyone was so friendly - Gina went on a shopping spree of the local clothes and the home cooked food was out of this world. If anyone is thinking of heading this way and you want to experience something totally different - head to Tatajuba - its crazy !!!

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Photos

The Sunset Dune
You can just make out the people at the top - they actually sand surf down it - and one kid even backflipped all the way down - very impressive.

Sunset on top of the dune.
Everyone gathers to watch the sun go down.

Too much time - too little to do !
On the way to Tatjuba

Quick side trip !
En route to Tatajuba - we did a quick trip down the river to look for seahorses - which we managed to find !

One of the lagoons near Tatajuba.
We went down this one on the buggy then raced round the sides of it !

At the Lagoon.
Water lapping at your feet , great swimming - the good life !!