Jericoacoara, Brazil (wikipedia, map)
Today was a day of many ‘lasts’… Our last day in Jericoacoara, our last fun day (tomorrow we spend 8 hours in a Land Rover going back to Fortaleza), our last swim in the ocean, our last Brazilian sunset…
Our day began with Marcy heading off to her second kitesurfing lesson, while Ray was feeling good enough to hike out to Pedra Furada (the rock arch).
Marcy’s second lesson was spent entirely in the water. In addition to Adriana, there was an assistant, Marcilio, who spoke some Spanish so Marcy and he were able to communicate for the most part. The lesson today concentrated on controlling the kite in the water, body drags, controlling the kite with one hand, and lastly, how to get up on the board from the water. It was a tough day – the waves are relentless and Marcy spent a lot of time drinking sea water! But overall, it was a great lesson for Marcy, but now she wishes she had one more day here to complete the lessons and really start kitesurfing.
Meanwhile, Ray started the trek to Pedra Furada. With some tips obtained from Marcy’s journey there yesterday, the trip was straightforward – past the water tower, up a hill, down to the ridge, look for the garbage can, and drop down to the beach. The arch comes into view about half way down from the ridge. There was a vendor selling ice-cold coconut water, so Ray indulged and refreshed himself with one. The arch is very impressive and is a must see when coming to Jericoacoara. On the return, Ray chose to go along the ocean, which is a bit longer, but takes you by the windsurfers who were doing their tricks in the sea.
We had a very late lunch at about 3:15pm, and then we were going to meet a taxi driver between 4:00 – 4:30 pm to take us out to a mangrove where you can see sea horses in nature. Our ride didn’t show up, so we started walking around town to see if someone else could take us. They all told us it was too late to go today because there would be no fisherman available to take us around in the boat once we reached our destination.
So, we decided to go back to the beach to find a nice spot to enjoy sunset, and suddenly we ran into the taxi driver who was late coming back with some clients who were out windsurfing. He was eager to take us out there, even though we expressed some concern that it was getting so late. He said that if there were no fisherman available, he would take us out on a boat himself as he used to work there. We decided to give it a shot and jumped in the buggy and took off.
It turned out to be the perfect time of day to go – not a single other tourist there! One fisherman was still lingering and he was able to take us out. We saw two sea horses, one grey male and one orangy pregnant female. They scooped the sea horses into a small bowl for us to look at – they were so small and fragile. We took our photos and then released them back into the water. We also happened to catch the sunset while we were paddling through the mangrove, and also over the ocean just after we got out of the boat – it was a great excursion!
In the evening we strolled along ‘main street’ where all the action is. There were mini-bars set up where you could order a drink, a few vendors selling kebabs, and some busy restaurants. Because we ended up having such a late lunch today, we weren’t hungry so we skipped dinner.
