Fortaleza, Ceara - Brazil

Fortaleza, Ceara - Brazil slideshow

We considered bypassing Fortaleza and going to the airport directly from Prea, but I am glad we didn't. Fortaleza is a beautiful coastal city. Being there was a little like being in Rio de Janeiro 30 years ago when it was not as big and as crowded. The similarity comes from the beach front high rises and large side walks along miles and miles of beach. There were so much urban walking by waterfront that we even felt we were in Vancouver in some parts of the city.

I thought we would spend a few days relaxing in the city, waking up late, eating, going out for easy strolls for a couple of hours a day and taking it easy. But we kept our usual frantic pace every time we arrive at a place were we like. Fortaleza seems to have a lot going for it in terms of city: it is tropical but the sun is not overbearing as there is always a breeze. It is a large city of 2.4 million people but it is not overbearing or over crowded. By the end of our stay my feet was so sore I could not take another step. Good thing we were getting on a plane the next day to mom's house. All I could think was rest, relax and visit with friends and relatives while we rested from our travels.

Prea, Ceara - Brazil

Prea, Ceara - Brazil slideshow

Prea is a lot smaller than Jericoacoara, and it is the hub of kite surfing schools because the wind is favorable here as it blows southerly towards the beach. This is safer for kite surfers as their kite will drag them back to shore if they fall and can't get back on their board.

We were lucky again to get a great view of the ocean from our porch. The sea shore outside our room was very colorful with kite surfers and small sail boats used by fisherman in the northeast – they have colorful triangular sails, the same length on all three sides.

It was a busy scene in front of our pousada every morning, when the boats returned from their fishing trips that lasted from three days to a week. I heard from a fisherman that they had to go farther and farther into the sea to get a catch that was worthwhile for them. There were dozens of fishermen and every day a large group returned to shore in a flurry of activity. The men helped each other with their boats, people bought fish directly from them while they filled crates to bring their catch their cooperative. Finally, the sails were rolled up around their masts and were dragged up the beach to just above the high tide level until the next trip back into the ocean. By 10 am all was quiet again, and a few hours later, we tasted some of the catch at our favorite beach restaurant 50 meters down from where we stayed.

Life was very easy and soothing at Prea. We had a three-day decompressing time, mainly reading, writing and walking on the beach. Watching the kite surfers was a pretty good source of entertainment. Some of them make dramatic cuts through the waves, and leap in the air over the ocean swells. We don't know the next time we will be in a relaxing tropical beach again, so we said our good byes for now. We came to Fortaleza yesterday, Friday, November 20th, and we will fly “home” to Belo Horizonte from here. It is time to visit with family and friends as the holidays approach.

Jericoacoara, Ceara - Brazil

Jericoacoara, Ceara - Brazil slideshow

Many tourists hire a four wheel drive pick up truck and driver to take them on tour along the beach all the way from Jericoacoara to Cabure – this is a popular “off road” circuit in Brazil, and every day, there's at least two or three of these private cars going by. We were very lucky to find one leaving empty from Cabure to back to Jericoacoara.

Most people pay US$500 for the 300 mile ride, but the driver was willing to let us go with him for the same price the buses and ferries would cost us. Although this meant we'd miss the ferry ride through the delta, we were glad to hop on the comfortable truck with tinted windows and refreshing air-con . Had we taken our planned route, it would have taken at least 3 days. Instead, in six hours we were in Jijoca, where we spent the night – we were thanking our angels for this driver because we were getting tired of being on the go. The first part of the ride was rough, through dunes, and roads made of sand, but the last two thirds of the trip were on pavement.

The next day we took a truck/bus to cross the dunes over to Jericoacoara. The truck/bus is a fast way to get around different beaches around Jericoacoara. It consists of a four wheel drive truck with wooden benches on the back. They can easily transport 8 to 10 people, including kite boards and luggage. But most kite surfers got together and rented their own buggies for the season or a more comfortable truck to hop up and down the coast in search of the perfect wind, which is not a difficult task in this part of the world.

Jericoacoara looks festive at night. Soft colored lights hang over stores, restaurants and bakeries, where every possible type of food is available. Or at least that is what it felt like after eating overpriced grilled fish, farofa (a typical northeastern food item made with manioc flour), onions and tomatoes at Cabure. In Jericoacoara, unlike Cabure, there was a lot of competition for restaurants, so the food selection was very diverse and reasonably priced - almost as good as in a big city. There were several grocery stores and bakeries, and we could get a real cappuccino or espresso quite easily. We ate well there and indulged in more cakes, pizzas and caipirinhas than we should have, but it was all enjoyable. Also being the low season, we were offered a good deal in a central pousada with great breakfast, internet and air con.

But although stunningly beautiful beaches surround Jeri, as the locals call it, it was a little difficult to get used to it at first. At Cabure, we walked out of our pousada and we were basically alone on the river, 20 yards away, and on the beach, 300 yards away. We walked miles and miles on isolated beaches. In Jeri, although we were only a couple of blocks from the beach, there was a lot of distracting activities, like wind and kite surfers, buggies, pick up trucks, horses, donkeys, and people. There was also a lot of rocks on the eastern portion of the beach, which were quite beautiful, but difficult to walk on, especially during the high tide. But we still walked around quite a bit. On our first day we went to Pedra Furada, (stone with a hole), 2.0 miles away. Another day we got on a truck/bus and went to Prea, 12 km away, overly exerting ourselves by walking the 12 km back, half of it on mushy sand. It was an intense work out sinking our feet on soft sand. We were sore for days after that.

Jericoacoara is a very happy place, where anything a tourist would need is on offer: massage spas, salon, bars, restaurants, plenty of fresh coconut water, great sunsets, day tours to several places nearby, and constant wind and sun, a big attraction to kite and wind surfers. We've heard this is one of the top 5 places in the world for kite surfing. There were people from all over the world with their boards on the water during the day. At night, “caipirinha row” (as Peter called the lanes of makeshift bars on the beach), got very busy, as well as the many restaurants and bars in town. It is a tradition to party all night on the weekends and end it at the Padaria Santo Antonio, a local bakery that makes sweet breads with fillings such as coconut, guava, chocolate and many more. The bakery opens at 2 am, and stays open until all the bread is sold, usually at dawn.

We had a very relaxing time in Jeri and loved being there. But after 9 days we felt we needed to move on to a quieter place. That is when we went to Prea and checked into a pousada we saw during our visit there a few days earlier.

Cabure and Atins, Maranhao - Brazil

Cabure and Atins, Maranhao - Brazil slideshow

Most people on our boat had lunch at one of the four pousadas in Cabure and returned to Barreirinhas. But Peter and I couldn't leave the place. It was hypnotic to watch and experience life in this little peninsula between Rio Prequica and the Atlantic Ocean during the five days we stayed there. For starters, there is no electricity, making us more aware of nature all around us. And Cabure is all about nature. During the day we walked back and forth across beaches and dunes, awed by fine sand moving in all different directions with the relentless wind. Peter was fascinated with waterways and crevices formed on the sand, like subsystems of dunes and lagoons, created simply with the change of high tide to low tide. Sometimes the water created such deep holes in the sand, big enough for large pools perfect for bathing. To the west, the river met the ocean, across from the town of Atins, home of the large dunes. This part was greener, with mangroves. To the east, the long stretch of beach pointed to Jericoacoara. We loved hearing the wind moving fine sand across the beach, the ocean roaring and producing white foam as the waves broke, forming thousands of designs on the wet sand.

There was virtually no one on the beach this time of year, except for the few tourists who arrived at Cabure around lunch time and left by 3pm everyday. The guest houses were very empty also. During the week we were the only residents where we stayed, and the other three pousadas were almost completely empty. We saw a few abandoned fisherman huts buried in sand. We were told that they leave during the dry season (May – December) to work on farms and return during the rainy season when they fish. The beach was practically ours.

River and ocean were so close to each other, the distance separating them in the dunes ranged from zero to 1500 yards. During high tide, water crept up into the pousadas, basically all the way into the entrance. At Pousanda Pacuri where we stayed, the water covered the stilts where the generator was kept. We were told that our pousada was 1,200 yards away from the ocean 18 years ago, but since then, the ocean has encroached within 300 yards. At the rate the sea level is rising every year, it is estimated that in 6 years, Cabure will be abandoned, as high tide takes it away. A new island will probably remain where the western end of the peninsula is now.

Watching this movement of water and sand had the same hypnotic effect as watching fire – for some strange reason, it was a constant source of entertainment. In order to delay the sand from accumulating over the side of the pousada walls, the owners constantly had to arrange for barriers made of large buriti (a local palm-like) tree leaves. But the fences started being eaten up by sand almost the moment they were built. This made Cabure even a more magical place, under the spell of strong natural forces of the sun, water, sand, wind and global warming. A place that in 5 or 6 years will probably be swept away by ocean high tides.

One day we hired a boatman to take us across to Atins, the home of large dunes, 20 minutes across from Cabure, on Rio Prequica. Once on the other side of the shore, Peter and I went out exploring on our own without a guide. We did very well until we were returning to town to meet up with our boatman again to take us back to Cabure. We ran into a fisherman who told us that the local pousada/restaurant, Dona Luzia, famous for barbecued shrimp, was only 20 minutes away. We had already walked 7 hours under fierce sun up and down gigantic dunes, so we thought that 40 minutes return was not a big deal. But it ended up being a 3 hours return trip, and no time to eat shrimp or anything else. When we met our boatman, he took us to a lagoon where scarlet flamingos return to their nests at sunset.

By the time we got back to the pousada just after sunset, we were totally exhausted, not even hungry, and collapsed after sunset, completely beaten by sun, wind and sea. We slept like rocks, under the soothing gentle wind coming through the front window to the back one all night. After all, there was only natural light, provided by moon and stars. At dawn, the first rays of sunlight was our cue for another day of discoveries.

Barreirinhas, Vassouras and Mandacaru, Maranhao - Brazil

Barrerinhas, Vassouras, Mandacaru - Maranhao - Brazil slideshow

Barreirinhas is 350 km by bus east of Sao Luis, about four hour by bus. This quaint town with streets shaded by large mango and cashew trees has a friendly slow feel to it, specially when the sun is at its highest between noon and 2pm. Most pousadas (guest houses) and the main square stand by Rio Prequica, appropriately translated as Sloth River. The river makes a few curves as it slowly winds it's way through town – just looking at the river, you can't really tell which way is up stream. On the map it looks like a long snake cutting through the mangrove for about 100 miles.

Barreirinhas is the gateway to Parque National dos Lencois Maranheinheses, an area of 155,000 hectares. The wind is a constant presence, lifting the sand that glide from the ground with a force and momentum that is dictated by the wind. This creates an interesting landscape, including small and large dunes. During the day it is hot, dry and windy and at night it is windy and cool, very similar to any desert. Rio Prequica is the easiest way to get to most of the dunes, the second best is by four wheel drive or buggy. For the last 10 km before it empties into the Atlantic, the river flows parallel to the ocean, separated only by dunes. The best time of the year to visit is right after the rains (May – August) when temporary lagoons fill up huge ponds between the dunes with rain water, but the area is impressive any time of the year.

We arrived in Barreirinhas from Sao Luis around lunch time. After finding a pousada by Rio Prequica and eating lunch, we strolled around to inquire about outings to the dunes and watched this friendly place come back to life after the siesta – that's about an hour before the sunset.

I have noticed, specially in small towns, including Barreirinhas, that pentecostal churches like the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has become a common sight even in a strong Catholic country such as Brazil. I have also noticed that Coca-Cola is sometimes more available than water in very hot places, a blunt sign of the strength of the brand. And although I had already made the connection between the ubiquity of churches and Coca-Cola, it was only in Barreirinhas that I had this thought illustrated. On a back street, I saw a “franchise” of the pentecostal church right next to an old Coca-Cola distributor. This picture could even be called “Exhibit I” in a demonstration of the strength and the close relationship between Coca-Cola and pentecostal churches in Brazil. In Maranhao, there is even a brand of Guarana made by Coca-Cola, called “Guarana Jesus,” a syrupy version of the original Guarana Antartica sold all over Brazil. So much for globalization, franchises, religion, and their control of the masses, either by giving them a bad health, a clouded mind, or both.

At the end of our stroll, we made our way to the town square by Rio Prequica, had our daily coconut water and firmed up our deal to have a dune spotting boat pick us up at 9am. Our Pousada has a pier on the back side, so we were picked up on the river, which I found really charming. Our first stop along the river was Vassouras, where we saw small dunes, then Mandacaru, a fishing village, where we climbed up the light house and had a view of the river, ocean, and some dunes in the distance. The dune spotters would leave us at Cabure.

Sao Luis, Brazil

Sao Luis, Brazil slideshow

We arrived in Sao Luis on the Saturday of a three day holiday weekend (Monday, November 2nd is the day of the Dead.) and saw only a trickle of tourists walking on cobblestone streets of the historic town. Most of them were shopping at the few open craft shops, the streets were empty except for a few coconut water vendors waiting for customers in the shady spots. We love this stuff, so we were happy to see that Sao Luis has no shortage of coconut vendors even on a sleepy holiday weekend. At night the town became a little more alive with food stalls and visitors from the modern city across Rio Anil coming to enjoy movies and listen to street music in the main square under the dim light of the quaint light posts. We were told that a week of folklore shows and music in the historic town had just ended the night before we arrived, so the hodgepodge of government offices, restored cultural buildings, market, and houses on a verge of collapse were very subdued on the weekend.

The grandiose buildings and villas in the historic city seem to have had glorious days a couple of centuries ago, but since then have slipped regally into decay. The Sao Luis historic district was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site twelve years ago, when 3,200 buildings were identified. However, although several buildings have been restored since then, many more seem to decay while they wait for action. The local tourist office claims that thirty houses are in danger of collapsing. Restoration projects are costly and lengthy, but the city could do better as funds come from a Brazilian federal bank for economical development, UNESCO and the local government. The city is supposed to recover 30 buildings a year, for the “world heritage title,” but barely complete 12 per year. Currently, homeless people and squatters occupy many of the abandoned and condemned houses, which, they claim, presents legal problems.

Rio Anil separates the historic city from the modern one, where fancy residential skyscrapers in the neighborhood such as Calhao and Sao Francisco clearly show the economic divide so common in Brazilian metropolitan landscape. One side mimics Waikiki with fancy shops, restaurants and buildings, while not so far from there, people live in shanty towns. Also, the lack of proper sewage is shocking even in the middle class neighborhood of Ponta de Areia. Although from a distance, the nearby Lago Jansen looks very good, when we walked by the place, it stunk because of untreated sewage water. Sipping coconut water and caipirinhas was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon at the ocean front Calhao, a 5km stretch of beach, restaurants and bars. No doubt that is where everyone was hanging out on this long holiday weekend.

In terms of food, although we are already in the Northeast region, Sao Luis offers most fruits, and a lot of the same food as the North region, like manioc flour and lots of fish, crab and seafood. The regional dishes changed a little though – we didn't see the wide variety of river fish common in the Amazon area. We were introduced to a dish we had not tried yet. The cuxa is made with a local green leaf called vinagreira only found in this region. It is also put into the rice which goes well with seafood. The “doce de epecie”, a cookie with coconut and sugar is another local fare shaped into a turtle. The recipe was brought by the Portuguese from the Azores during the 17th century, but it never caught on outside of Sao Luis. It is not very different from a macaroon very common in California, and not to be confused with the double-decker French macaron.