Today, were sitting in a glass walled dining room, overlooking the beach. The doors are open to let the breeze in. A cook brings us grilled cheese sandwiches, eggs, couscous, fruit, cereal, milk, juice, and coffee. After a few weeks of long bus journeys, and quick stopovers it feels really nice to be spoiled. Rich's friend, Rafael, comes from a nice family in Joao Pessoa. His mother, Rafael, and both his brothers are doctors. His father owns a dairy farm outside the city. They've just built this beautiful, open floor plan house on the ocean.
Rafael has taken some days off of work to show us around his city, and to take us to some of the countries nicest beaches. His family tells us that Joao Pessoa doesn't get many tourists, especially not overseas travelers, and they accept us warmly into their family for our stay. Mariana, Rafaels girlfriend, has taught me the basic steps for forro when they took us out for a night on the town. It's been really nice to stay with a family, and I hope that they all come visit us one day.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Siren Call
Our guidebook accurately defines Jericoacoara as "A very lazy place". Jeri is by far the laziest place I have every seen, with the most active residents being the stray donkeys that wander around the beach village. We met a couple of travelers on our bus journey to the nearest town, and shared a buggy ride with them down to the village. Arriving in the heat of the day, we quickly abandoned our plan of wandering around the town to barter on room prices, and decided to get a room for the four of us to break up the costs. Our pousada had a nice family vibe, and a good breakfast, so it was a good choice.
Stores in Jeri open around 10 AM, and then close again from about 12 - 3 for the siesta/lunch time, and then open again from 4 - 12 AM. It takes no time at all to adjust to the schedule as the heat in the afternoon is unbearable. We didn't take the heat seriously enough one day, and all ended up with sunburns - Rich had a minor bout of sunstroke. It's east to fall into the schedule of the other residents: wake up around 9 for breakfast, nap until about midday, get your washing down and rest until the heat subsides, go to the beach for a few hours, then up to the dunes for sunset, home again for showers, dinner around 8 PM, and then to the Caipirinha carts to listen to the night's choice of music.
We stayed for 8 days, but like most people who go to Jeri, it was longer than we expected. Some people go for a week and stay for a month. And, by the look of it, some people go for a month and stay forever. If it weren't for the fact that we were on a deadline to make it to Salvador for carnival, I'm not sure we would have ever left.
Stores in Jeri open around 10 AM, and then close again from about 12 - 3 for the siesta/lunch time, and then open again from 4 - 12 AM. It takes no time at all to adjust to the schedule as the heat in the afternoon is unbearable. We didn't take the heat seriously enough one day, and all ended up with sunburns - Rich had a minor bout of sunstroke. It's east to fall into the schedule of the other residents: wake up around 9 for breakfast, nap until about midday, get your washing down and rest until the heat subsides, go to the beach for a few hours, then up to the dunes for sunset, home again for showers, dinner around 8 PM, and then to the Caipirinha carts to listen to the night's choice of music.
We stayed for 8 days, but like most people who go to Jeri, it was longer than we expected. Some people go for a week and stay for a month. And, by the look of it, some people go for a month and stay forever. If it weren't for the fact that we were on a deadline to make it to Salvador for carnival, I'm not sure we would have ever left.
The Boat Ride
We stayed in Manaus one more night, after returning from our Amazon trip to make sure we got one good night of rest, before the upcoming 3-5 days on a boat. In order to sleep on the boat, you need to bring a hammock and rope with you, so we picked up a couple of hammocks from a street vendor in the city. Against my expectations, street vendors aren't interested in bartering in Brazil. We tried to get a cheaper price on the hammocks, since we were buying two, but the vendor wouldn't budge. At the end of the transaction, he gave us 2 BRL back, so we could buy ourselves a bottle of water, because we must've needed the cash more than he did. The boat tickets proved a bit harder to obtain. The tour company we used for the Amazon tour originally told us they could get us out tickets for 110 BRL each, or 150 BRL if we didn't have our own hammocks. The next day, after getting our hammocks, they told us it would be 120 BRL each, and no meals are included on the boat. The following day they informed us it would be 150 BRL each, even with our own hammocks, so we went to another agency to get them booked an hour before our departure, almost missing our boat.
We arrived safe and sound on the boat, however late, and found that there was no real space in which to string up our hammocks. I strung mine as best I could, wedged between two other passengers, and Rich strung his hammock in the middle of the boat, where there was a bit more space, but it was impossible to access. The mass amounts of people crammed into one small space made for an uncomfortable ride, but luckily for us, our neighbors were all very friendly and helpful. They ensured we received our dinners, shared their desserts, and even loaned us some eating utensils. All meals are served in an aluminum foil packet, with plastic cutlery. Trying to eat a slab of beef in a hammock is hard enough, let alone when you've only been provided with a cheap plastic spoon. Our neighbors, however, came prepared. Knowing they would be receiving plastic spoons, they brought... metal spoons. We're still not entirely sure why they wouldn't have brought forks and knives, knowing that all meals are rice, beans, pasta and meat, but metals spoons it was.
A twelve year old Brazilian boy, named Luke, found Rich. Luke spoke a little bit of spanish, and no English, so he decided this journey would be the perfect time to learn. After watching Rich talk to this boy for a couple of hours, I decided to investigate, at which point Rich pawned him off on me. We spent the next couple of hours pointing at things and saying their respective names in English. Then I told Luke I was going to read my book for a bit. Luke's idea of me reading, was to have me read a sentence out loud, and then translate it into Spanish, and then French, so he could read with me. When Luke's grandmother finally called him off of us to have his dinner, Rich and I got into our hammocks to have a nap. Unfortunately, at the same time our neighboring hammocks decided this would be the perfect time to have a recorder and harmonica jam session. After dinner, everyone started to calm down and go to their hammocks. I was just falling asleep when the man next to me decided he didn't have enough space, so he strung his hammock above mine. I slept badly that night, alternating between too hot, too cold, too cramped, and hearing loud forro music coming from the bar. At some point in the night, we hit some rough water, and all the hammocks were rocking into each other, making it impossible to rest. The rocking of the boat also knocked all the cockroaches out from their hiding places in the life vests that were stuck above us. After one fell on me in the evening, I was done.
The next day was much like the first. Same cramped space, same food, same music, same everything. I was really happy when we finally arrived in Santarem for our break before taking another boat journey to Belem. The only problem being: we had another boat journey to look forward to in 3 days time.
We arrived safe and sound on the boat, however late, and found that there was no real space in which to string up our hammocks. I strung mine as best I could, wedged between two other passengers, and Rich strung his hammock in the middle of the boat, where there was a bit more space, but it was impossible to access. The mass amounts of people crammed into one small space made for an uncomfortable ride, but luckily for us, our neighbors were all very friendly and helpful. They ensured we received our dinners, shared their desserts, and even loaned us some eating utensils. All meals are served in an aluminum foil packet, with plastic cutlery. Trying to eat a slab of beef in a hammock is hard enough, let alone when you've only been provided with a cheap plastic spoon. Our neighbors, however, came prepared. Knowing they would be receiving plastic spoons, they brought... metal spoons. We're still not entirely sure why they wouldn't have brought forks and knives, knowing that all meals are rice, beans, pasta and meat, but metals spoons it was.
A twelve year old Brazilian boy, named Luke, found Rich. Luke spoke a little bit of spanish, and no English, so he decided this journey would be the perfect time to learn. After watching Rich talk to this boy for a couple of hours, I decided to investigate, at which point Rich pawned him off on me. We spent the next couple of hours pointing at things and saying their respective names in English. Then I told Luke I was going to read my book for a bit. Luke's idea of me reading, was to have me read a sentence out loud, and then translate it into Spanish, and then French, so he could read with me. When Luke's grandmother finally called him off of us to have his dinner, Rich and I got into our hammocks to have a nap. Unfortunately, at the same time our neighboring hammocks decided this would be the perfect time to have a recorder and harmonica jam session. After dinner, everyone started to calm down and go to their hammocks. I was just falling asleep when the man next to me decided he didn't have enough space, so he strung his hammock above mine. I slept badly that night, alternating between too hot, too cold, too cramped, and hearing loud forro music coming from the bar. At some point in the night, we hit some rough water, and all the hammocks were rocking into each other, making it impossible to rest. The rocking of the boat also knocked all the cockroaches out from their hiding places in the life vests that were stuck above us. After one fell on me in the evening, I was done.
The next day was much like the first. Same cramped space, same food, same music, same everything. I was really happy when we finally arrived in Santarem for our break before taking another boat journey to Belem. The only problem being: we had another boat journey to look forward to in 3 days time.
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