Day 220 - Jericoacoara to Fortaleza

  Fortaleza, Brazil
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

As it was our last day in Jeri and we were leaving on the 2pm bus this afternoon, I would have bet a lot of money that today the weather would be absolutely glorious.

True to form, we woke before 8am and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Typical.

Katie hadn't slept very well last night so we slow getting going and by the time we left the pousada it was nearly 9am.

Yesterday we'd looked into taking a buggy tour out along the beach or to a local blue lake, but in the end we decided that it was too expensive, so we decided to go for a nice long walk ourselves, to enjoy the fantastic weather and save some cash.



Up the great sand dune we walked again!



By the time we'd walked the 10 minutes to the top of the largest sand dune the weather was changing again, with dark clouds approaching fast.

Within 20 minutes the clouds were above us and it was even spitting with rain!

It's extraordinary how quickly the weather changes here, it's even worse than our little island back home!



Thankfully for once the dark clouds blew over and to be honest they saved us from melting if the sun had been beating down on us, so it wasn't the end of the world.

We kept walking, intrigued to see how far we could get without getting tired.



Soon Jeri was far behind us!



We walked west along the shore at high tide (which we found very strange because two days ago at exactly the same time it was low tide) for about two hours each way.



We rested at the point above (a lake between the dunes) before turning around and walking back home, which was a bit more fun because the tide had retreated very quickly so we didn't have to walk all the way around the high tide again.



The weather changed again, this time for the better so for the last 30 minutes back to Jeri the weather was absolutely perfect, with bright sun, blue skies, sparkling sea and a nice breeze to keep us from overheating.

Some of the views were really spectacular, this is the view as we walked back towards the big dune on the edge of town, note the beautiful reflections in the shallow water.



When we got back into town we picked up our laundry, packed our backpacks, had lunch at the same place as yesterday and paid our hostel bill.

We quickly grabbed some drinks and snacks for the 6/7 hour bus ride back to Fortaleza and went for one last quick walk around the sandy streets of Jeri.



It sounds like this will be the most under-developed beach town that we'll visit in Brazil and we've really enjoyed our time here.

It's such a chilled out place, we've hardly seen anyone else around, bizarely apart from in our hostel!

Everywhere else in the area has been quiet and so relaxing, but we have to push on with very limited time left now.



This is the main square in Jeri; there can't be many towns in the world where the square is lined with sand?



We didn't want to be late for our bus so hustled back and arrived right on the 1:45pm departure time.

The bus was only half full and the driver this time was an absolute NUTTER.

In fact I honestly thought that we were going to tip over a couple of times on the way back as he sped down the beach and back towards the main sealed road.

At one point I dropped the camera onto the floor of the jeep/bus, but there was NO WAY that I was bending down to pick it up because I was hanging on for dear life as it was!

We were bouncing around like a fairground ride, giving us white knuckles to match the white sand!

Thankfully it got a bit smoother when we reached the main beach, but he was still not hanging around.



This time the ocean was to our left as we made our way along a section of Brazil's north coast, heading east.



A few minutes later we saw the point were we were due to turn the sharp right and head back inland, so we bid our fond farewell to the Atlantic and promised to see him again on the east coast!



At exactly the point where we pulled onto the tarmac road (an hour later) it absolutely chucked it down with rain again, which wasn't much fun because both sides of the truck were wide open!

When we got back to the town a few kms away we changed onto the road bus, which was much more comfortable and settled back for the 5/6 hour drive back to the more developed town of Fortaleza.

We were due to arrive at about 9pm, so we'd considered getting off at the airport rather than the centre, in order to sleep in the terminal and save some cash on hotel tonight & to remove the need for a taxi tomorrow.

In the end the bus made our decision for us by not even stopping at the airport (I guess it was closed?) and instead heading downtown. Oh well.

When it stopped on the main beach we headed back to the pousada where we'd stayed when we arrived here a few days ago.

It wasn't great but it was a safe & easy option because we knew the price, the location and neither of us fancied wandering around in the dark with all our gear on looking for somewhere to stay. Fortaleza seems fairly safe, but sometimes you don't want to push your luck...

After checking-in to the hostel we headed back to the rodizio pizza place (again it was the easiest option) which was much quieter tonight, and so a bit painful waiting for new pizzas to come around, buffet style.

With less customers, they needed to cook less pizzas, so it was very different to the first time we came here, when we were being offered slices of new pizza every few minutes!

A few times it was really agonising when the table next to us grabbed the last piece of the pizza that I had my eyes on; when they took the last piece of (the desert) passion fruit pizza I couldn't help but groan audibly, much to Katie´s amusement!

After the pizza we went back to the room, booked a taxi for early tomorrow morning to the airport, then did the usual sweep of the walls & ceiling to hunt down any mosquitos in the room (the little buggers!) and fell asleep quite quickly.

Tomorrow we have a very early flight to the eastern town of Salvador, leaving Fortaleza at 6am. Ouch. So up at 4:30am then! WORLD of pain.... :(


Lots of love,


Al & Katie xx