Hammock swinging practice
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
14
88
Trip End
Feb 01, 2005
Jericoacoara,
Brazil
Friday, March 19, 2004
Jericoacoara is this little beach town situated on the sand dunes, with a ban on paved roads and capped number of pousadas and hotels. There is very little to do in Jeri except relax and I spent 6 days doing exactly this.
I arrived at 5pm after an awesome truck ride across the beach and dunes, looking out over a vista of cows and donkeys grazing on the grass with dunes in the background and a cloudswept sky in blue tones. If I was an artist, this place would certainly give me inspiration.
Touts meet all the buses and I was shown a place for R$25 with a double bed, private bathroom and breakfast, but I wanted to meet some other people so I was off to the Hostelling International, Pousada Tirol. There I ran into Paolo the Photographer again. I had seen him unexpectedly in Fortaleza and now again. We went out for dinner to watch DCDP and during dinner he freaked me out even more. He was trying to force me into going to Pedra Furada with him the next day, but I kept firm and said that I wanted to go to the beach the next day.
I woke up and was about to go out to breakfast when I looked through the slats in the door and saw Paolo sitting in the chair closest to my door. I decided to wait a bit, but after an hour he was still in exactly the same spot, and I´m sure he was waiting for me. I was psyching myself up when someone sat down next to him and then they struck up a conversation.
01 Sliding
I knew then that I would be safe so I left my room and sat in a hammock, nodding good morning to Paolo. The staff asked if I would like my breakfast and they brought it out to me. Silver service! It was the best breakfast I have had the entire time and I was looking forward to more breakfasts. Omelette, 3 types of bread, ham and cheese, cake, two pieces of fruit, fruit juice and coffee!!!The Frenchman
My place was set beside Benoît, a guy who I had seen on the bus from Fortaleza the day before. Benoît was French, tall, brown, very sexy and as luck would have it, was leaving the next day, before Alex arrived in town. We decided to go to the beach together and ended up walking for ages, crossing some estuaries and climbing some dunes. We were standing at the top of one dune, admiring the scenery knowing that all it needed to complete it was a kiss. So of course we kissed and it felt very Lawrence of Arabia with the wind blowing the sand onto us.
We wandered down to a lagoon that is formed from the rain on the dunes and had a swim and a few more kisses before heading back. The way back was much more difficult, and I have never been much of an orienteer, so we ended up having to wade through a muddy, swampy pool where I broke my thongs again from the suction of the mud.
We then hiked up the sand dune on the beach to watch the sunset, but were most disappointed that it was cloudy and that you couldn´t see it. We spent our time doing flips off the steep side of the sand dune, trying to copy a little boy doing spring after spring down the dune.
Nurse Camille
The next morning was spent playing cards before Benoît almost missed the truck to Jijoca.
02 Toes
I then went to the beach with Neil, an English guy also staying in the hostel. He convinced me to go for a swim with him, as I was just prepared to lie on the beach, so we chased the sea out. We walked for ages before it became deep enough for any kind of squirm in the water. Fed up with walking so far for so little depth, Neil turned around and dropped into the water, to sit on the sand. Suddenly he sprang up shouting with pain. At first I didn´t know what the problem was and then he turned around there was a fish about 10cm long, white and suspiciously shark-like attached to his backside. It was biting him through his board shorts and obviously causing him a lot of pain.I was a bit nervous of it, and grabbed it between the tips of my fingers and gave it a little tug, but then it moved and I shrieked (like how I shriek when I have to put the live mouse caught in the trap in a plastic bag and throw away) and was scared that if it let of Neil´s backside that it might bite my finger. After finally being able to turn around enough to get a look at it, Neil was scared into action and flicked it off his pants. The little devil then swam away as if nothing had happened.
We were still carrying on when a local came up towards us. He had seen the strange behaviour from the shore and came to investigate. We both tried to explain in our pidgin Portuguese and the guy had a look of total disbelief on his face. He said that it was probably a bagrei and that it had never happened before.
Turned off by swimming in the sea, Neil and I went back to the hostel, with Neil wincing in pain and feeling his backside where the bite was.
03 Pedra Furada (I'm inside!)
I was delegated to administering pain relief and searching for what Neil believed to be one of the fish´s teeth in his behind - a task I couldn´t complete without bursting into giggles every time he twitched. Unable to find any teeth, I rubbed some antiseptic in and hoped that the bagrei wasn´t poisonous.A Phone Call!!
Sensing an opportunity to speak to my parents for the first time since leaving home without me having to pay or have them see the huge reverse charge bill, I seized it. I could receive calls at the hostel for free and I got the phone number and emailed it to Mum with the phrase "Por favor, posso falar com Camille em quarto um" for her to get through to me.
The awaited call arrived as I was about to start eating my chocolate cake for breakfast and it was great to hear Mum and Dad´s voices. I think that Mum was quite pleased that her Portuguese had been understood. Mum has found a website with the worldwide weather on it, and has been following the meteorology of my trip. She told me that rain was forecast for Jericoacoara for the next few days and then had to ask me where it was because she couldn´t find it on the map. I´m sure she jinxed the weather as within 30 minutes of hanging up, it was pouring the hardest I had seen so far.
The Return of Alex
As soon as he got off the truck Alex set out to find me, and he was lucky as his first stop was Pousada Tirol. It was nice to see him again, and I had been saving the walk to Pedra Furada rocks until he arrived so we could go together.
04 The Hammock Chair
He then checked in at another pousada that had been recommended to him and returned so that we could go to dinner for DCDP.For some reason the bug I had in Fortaleza was rearing it´s ugly head again and I had to lie down in the hammock after every meal. I was not liking the look of this bug.
The next day we went on a buggy tour of Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Paraiso with some other girls from the hostel. They were quite pretty and very huge, especially considering that it was all rainwater from the dunes. En route we stopped at a dune where I tried skibum which is sitting on a board going down a dune and into the water. It was pretty cool and I had a couple of goes.
The next day we had planned to walk to Pedra Furada, but Micheline told us that we needed to go early before the tide came in, and since I wasn´t feeling well we stayed in the hammocks all day, swinging and lazing about in true holiday style. I felt a bit better in the evening afted DCDP as I hadn´t eaten much all day or done anything to agitate my stomach.
Thursday dawned the last day Alex and I had together. He was going to Fortaleza the next day, where his sister had stayed, before heading back to São Paulo and was catching the night truck to Sobral on my way to São Luís. We left early for Pedra Furada and ended up walking with a drink seller who pointed out various rock formations and told some history of the rocks and dunes.
Pedra Furada is a big arch of stone. It looks somewhat like a dragon sleeping. We took some photos and hung around for awhile before it was time to go back so that I could have a shower before checking out of the hostel. The rest of the afternoon was spent practicing my hammock swings and then heading up to the sand dune for one last hopeful sunset gaze. The sunset was the best I had seen, but still, low lying clouds prevented us from seeing the golden ball drop into the sea.
Alex had promised me a present in Fortaleza and he gave it to me. It is a very cute red shirt with "A Allegre é Pouco" A little bit of happiness is enough. He lucked out and got a clip on koala from me!!!
We at at Pizza Reggae, watching DCDP for the last time. Alex refused to come to the bus stop with me, and so he said goodbye at the hostel, telling me that he is waiting for me to visit him in São Paulo.
Things I have learned
* Despite knowing very few Portuguese words I can still tease someone in Portuguese
* It´s very easy to lie in a hammock all day and stay in one town because you can´t be bothered buying a ticket out
* Sunsets in Jericoacoara are overrated
* A donkey in Jeri costs 50 centavos, or 25 Australian cents!!!
