I’ve already heard of the effect that Jericoacora (“Jeri”) has on people, most come for a couple of days and end up staying weeks. It’s hard to say what it is about this place, maybe because it’s quite a trip getting there (you first travel 6 hours by bus from Fortaleza and then change to an open truck-type vehicle that takes you the last 1 ½ hours to Jeri along tiny dirt roads, beaches and across dunes).
The town or rather village is about the same size as Stainz, my hometown, with a population of 2000, lies beside a huge white sand dune and is built on sand. There are no concrete roads, everything is sand, and the only means of transport are buggies, “Toyotas” (apparently Toyota has the monopoly on 4WD vehicles in the region), trucks, motorbikes or horses. But anything you need (except maybe a cash machine) is in walking distance anyway.
The beach itself isn’t the most beautiful but it has definitely something. There is a point break with small waves for beginners and longboarders but the main water sports are windsurfing and kite surfing. But you actually don’t see many people on the beach during the day and you sometimes wonder if there are any tourists at all in the place. In the early evening they all come creeping out of their hammocks or wherever else they chilled during the day, and the first real activity is climbing the dune to watch the sunset.
This ritual is repeated every day, followed by watching capoeira on the beach until it gets dark and time for dinner and some more chilling out.
Nightlife starts late in Jeri, don’t even try to show up before midnight, you’ll be bored. It centers around 2-3 bars/clubs at the beach end of the main street and a number of drink carts that sell freshly made coctails. Everybody ends up there, tourists, locals, hippies and street vendors and after 2 days you virtually know everybody (and you know why there is hardly anyone to be seen on the beach or in town during the day).
I did resist the temptation to laze around and was actually quite active during the day, due to the fact that I discovered a little surf beach nearby and I was able to rent a board from a local surfer for 4 days cheaply. On this beach I made my transition to shortboard (6 ft and pointy), I loved it. How easy it suddenly was to get across the oncoming waves and to drop into waves! For the first time I felt that what I’m doing there can actually be considered surfing. Besides, there were only locals on that beach and I was proud that I didn’t stick out as the tourist who’s in everybody’s way, we actually caught waves together and had great fun!
I did slack however with taking pictures of all the new friends I found there, which I regret a little now. I also managed to embarrass myself in front of everybody on my last evening. I rented out a horse to do a sunset ride across the dunes and along the beach. It was absolutely beautiful, I think I never rode a horse in such a spectacular setting.
The guys in my group were a bunch of Israeli’s, however, who apparently believed the only way to go is full speed. So we were galloping for a full hour. The horses seemed to be used to it, my bum however wasn’t. At the end we passed by the dune where everybody just descended from watching the sunset. I wanted to make a little show of myself and elegantly gallop by the crowd. The horse sensed that the stable was near and decided it’s time to go home as fast as possible. It started to run like crazy and me already being tired out and I lost my stirrups and balance and got thrown off into the sand. Behind me a crowd of at least 80 people.
I hit the sand hard with my lower back and for a moment thought I can’t get up anymore. When I got back to my pousada an area as large as a dinner plate was completely swollen up. Now I’m still sporting a massive blue bruise but I was very lucky in a way – I could have hit my head or broken something. Anyway, when I limped to the cocktail stalls later in the evening to have one against the pain, all the vendors along the street burst out laughing, I didn’t stop to ask why.
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| Dune country - Natal, Jeri, Maranhao |
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