Last one

How best to finish this blog than with a picture of a sunset over Rio. Those shots were taken 5h before taking my plane back to Europe. How much would I give to stay longer around here? A lot!


I spent my last day in Brazil chilling out on the beach in the morning, wondering how people here get those bodies: is it their diet, a lot of sport activities and plastic surgery? Anyway Europeans, go back to the gym if you want to show off here. I spent the afternoon on the Pao de Açucar where these pictures were taken.


I have seen very little of Brazil, but how can you cover such a huge country in a month? It is almost the size of the USA. The cities/regions I would need to see before I die are so many: Florianopolis built around blue lagoons, Curitiba apparently a model city, Petropolis near Rio for its crazy architecture, the whole region around Ouro Preto for its colonial architecture and history, Morro de Sau Paulo near Salvador which I missed because of bad weather, Porto Galinas which boasts some wonderful beaches, Olinda (a small version of Salvador), Pipa for its kite surf culture and its relaxed attitude (Pipa means 'kite' in Portuguese), a few nights in Fortaleza where nightlife is apparently phenomenal, the park of Lencois M. East of Sao Luis, the Amazon, the Panatal region....

This requires a few other trips to Brazil, don't you think?

Moments

There are times in life when you take a bit of perspective on the moment you are currently experiencing and think ´I wish this moment never ever ended´.

I am now in the plane flying back to Rio from Fortaleza and thinking about my last 8 days in Jericoacoara. I have had so many of these moments which I wish would never end.

- on the way to Jeri from Fortaleza we changed bus to take a ´buggy bus´, a 4x4 open truck which would take us to our final destination. It was around 1AM. The moon was bright, stars everywhere, the sea to our right and sand dunes to our left, driving fast through a succession of little villages, dunes and beaches avoiding the poor donkeys sleeping all around, the wind slapping our faces...
- lying in long chairs outside our pousada at night, listening to reggae from one ear and crickets from the other, watching the dune 200m ahead and talking about life and travels with Raul and Esteban. What a life you guys have!
- the sunset with the girls obviously, wonderful, relaxing, almost spiritual as I said before; followed by the running/rolling/jumping down the dune.
- the buggy ride on our back to Jeri, just before sunset. The wind, the sea, the beach, the speed... everything was perfect.
- Shirley, my caipirina buddy, opening her lovely sleepy eyes in the morning, just before starting cursing at me for taking the piss. I hope you behave better with your mum than with me young lady, F*** hell! You are gorgeous when you speak French to me.


- Netaya, so full of life and energy (during the day that is) trying to find the craziest way to roll down the dune. I think we found it babe, I still have sand in my mouth. Stay as you are, happy, natural and crazy.... and easy on the beans.

Say Salvador again...?



ANI O´HEV OTAJ´ to you 2 girls. I had such a fantastic time.

Sand dunes...again

I love them so here is another post about them. I am still in Jericoacoara. Seems like I will never leave.

From the top of the dunes people do all sorts of things: jumping, sand boarding, rolling, running down... Some kids go down these very steep dunes doing back flips and saumersaults the whole way down, it is very impressive. As I still consider myself as a kid I had a go at it..pretty appauling because very scary, I am usually better at gymnastics. But so much good fun! I will do better tomorrow, I promise. Check it out on the video below, sorry you´ll have to turn your head.

Buggy

Jericoacoara is built around sand dunes. So it had to happen, we went for a day buggy ride. And wow, what a day! Netaya, Shirley and I sitting in the back of the buggy and Erwin driving like crazy around prohibited sand dunes.


A few stops for refreshment swimming in lakes of fresh water created from rain falls; caipirinas and cocos at 12h to keep going; and the best fish meal I have had in Brazil on the beach (and by beach I mean Brazilian beach, i.e. kms and kms of completely deserted sand).


Driving back to thew pousada at sunset on an empty beach was something not to forget. The pix speak for themsleves.


I LOVE MY LIFE!!

Spirituality

Jericoacoara is a kind of religious place, very spiritual. It is also very hippy and all sorts of animals wander around the sandy streets. The village is built on a beach.


The place is spiritual first for windsurfers and kitesurfers as it is blessed with the best wind all year round. Maybe the best place in Brazil for these sports, let alone on earth.

But the real religious thing happens at 5pm everyday, as the sun goes down. Sunset in Jericoacoara is stunning. At 5pm, a stream of people (tourists and locals) start walking up the dune located to the South of the village. It is like a religious procession.


People go up the dune to witness the wonderful sunset. What happens here is what might have been happening before Christianity when people believed in the gods of nature, the sun, the earth, the wind, the trees...

In Jericoacoara people go witness the sunset from the same dune, everyday, all year round. It is very spiritual, as if an ancient religion re-appeared. When you get to the top of the dune you sit down, relax, stop talking, look West, let the last rays of sun warm your body and witness the end of another day. When the big red circle disappears, everybody claps. This is weird, it is like the end of a show or something... But it is very soothing and relaxing. You can spend 1h up there, waiting for the sunset which will last 2.5mn.


When the ´show´ ends, we all run down the dune and head for the village. There, capoeara is being ´played´ by the beach with everybody moving, clapping and singing to the sound of drums and berimbaus. The spiritual duties have been carried out, the night can start.

Becoming Brazilian

I am now in Jericoacoara, 300km West of Fortaleza. On the way here I met some real nice people with whom I spend my days on the beach. I also met a tourist information officer at Fortaleza airport who started singing ´La Marseillaise´ real loud when I told him I was French. Funny...

Anyway, I was told last night that I was becoming more Brazilian. I have the green and yellow flip flops, I am becoming really tanned, I wear yellow T-shirts.... and last night, walking barefoot as usual I stepped on a big donkey poo. The Brazilian guy walking with me pissed himself and told me I was on my way to becoming Brazilian...

Yeah great!

Chapada Diamantina

A cocktail for a good time in the Chapada Diamantina national park. Mix the following in a big bowl:
- huge waterfalls (among which the larger in Brazil)
- the best caves you have ever seen with very intriguing calcium formations
- rivers and streams where you can chill out for hours
- rocky mountains imported from Colorado
- ...and still very very nice people around who take you home when you are stuck 40km away from your hostel in the middle of the park.

Small town Brazil

I realised last night trying to sleep in the 15 degrees air conditionned bus that what I prefer when travelling is... travelling, i.e. when I am on the move. You get real excited and sometimes a bit nervous about your next stop: you do not know what to expect, who you will meet, where you are gonna sleep... and everytime it starts all over again: find a hostel, get your bearings, meet people, organise excursions, find the best and cheapest food...

Anyway, I am now lying in a hammock under a tree full of hummingbirds, in Lencois. Lencois is an old mining town, a 6h bus ride inland from Salvador. My original plan from Salvador was to get a boat to Morro Do Sao Paulo, a paradise island with very good vibes I had heard. But the weather was so bad yesterday that boats would not leave the mainland. And with rain in Salvador in low season and an empty hostel, what do you do? F*** all. So I jumped on the 1st opportunity to leave town and got a night bus to Lencois, in the heart of the Chapada Diamantina national park. To give you an idea, the park is larger than the Netherlands and offers wonderful landscapes, great walks, waterfalls, rivers, streams and simple, friendly and authentic people.


Going back to Lencois, I love the place, the best I have seen in Brazil so far. People are incredibly nice, there are almost no tourists and it is very pretty. You walk around the streets and locals salute you, an old man sitting on the pavement next to my hostel sings all day, house doors are open and let you observe people watching telenovelas (soaps) on TV... and a very strong caipirina will only cost you 3 reais (75p).


I just had a walk and I shook hands with last night´s barman, the shopkeepersaid hello and I realised the woman from the tourist information office knows me by my name. It is all a bit hippy and very chilled out here.

Wish European big cities were like that!