Date of Entry: July 13th 2016
Date of writing: September 24th 2016
My second tour out of Jericoacora is one that’s a bit less popular than yesterday’s journey along the eastern coast, but I’m maybe more excited for it because this time i’m in a buggy with just three other people instead of a shared pickup truck with 10 or so. And all that for just 5 reals more. 75 instead of 70 (about 30 CAD). In the morning I’m again applying sunscreen in bulk and hiding from the sun outside of Jeridise hostel at the edge of town, waiting for my pick up in an awesome dune buggy. Soon enough our guide is there, introducing himself as Tatu and we’re off to the desert, zooming over the beautiful sand, hurrying past beaches, dunes and everything else. As usual I’m the only gringo so the tour will be in portuguese, but I’m getting better with that language so it’s no big deal to me.
Eventually Tatu pulls off the seemingly endless beach and towards a river a few hundred meters up from where it flows into the Atlantic. The water is a beautiful green turquoise colour and I’m getting excited as I climb out of the buggy because here is where we pay 10 reals (4 CAD) to go on a boat ride and search for seahorses, a creature I’ve never seen in the wild, and I don’t believe I’ve even seen one in a zoo.
We board the boat and head out onto the fairy tale like water fringed by palms and sand and opening up to the ocean just ahead as the local poler pushes us up through the shallow river. There’s one or two other small boats out on the river, but nothing like how crowded the last tour was. We stick close to the shores looking for the most talented of all the horse breeds. It takes a while and a few crisscrosses of the river, but eventually we find one, and our boatman expertly scoops it into a glass cylinder somewhat not to my liking though the creature seems tranquil and after quickly being passed around for photos he’s put back into the river and calmly latches on to the tree. Maybe he was pregnant, because you know seahorses are awesome like that.
As we get back to shore Tatu shows off a fish he’s found and I snap a few last photos of the river before hopping back into the buggy and driving a short distance to our next stop.
After maybe 10 minutes in the buggy we’re back at another point of the river where’s theres some enterprising locals offering ferry rides on questionable looking barges loading 2 or 3 cars or buggies and then poling them across the river. It’s quite a scene to behold and it comes with a truly stunning backdrop.
We get back to land and drive down off the hand placed two y fours and continue on into a mangrove swamp, though most of the mangroves look more dead than alive. It’s very dry here and the stark and brittle branches twisting up out of the sand give the place an otherworldly feel. We drive through it for a while before stopping at a little family hut where Tatu buys a little bag of ice cream for 1real. I end up buying two before posing for some photos in a few of the hammocks strung up between the mangroves and the trees. It’s a beautiful place.
Soon enough we’re back in the buggy and driving along yet another endless beach entering an even more remote and much bigger series of truly impressive golden dunes. The wind in my face alleviates the heat to a certain degree and I’m feeling great as we speed through the dunes, Tatu being wild and driving at breakneck speeds up and down steep sand inclines until I start to worry a bit about me surviving the tour.
Eventually we pull up to our next stop, a tiny hut with a few lounging locals atop perhaps the tallest turret of golden sand in this part of the desert where a few teenage locals are lounging drinking beers from a cooler and renting some basic planks of wood that will serve as proper sand boards in a pinch. I opt not to pay and go down, never having been much of a fan of this type of thing. Instead I take tons of photos up on this awesome viewpoint.
Tatu being crazy he goes down the sandboard a few times before deciding to take the buggy down the same nearly 90 degree dune in the buggy pretty damn quickly too. It’s terrifying. We motor on through the desert for a while before pausing for some shots of each of us driving the buggy, my three new brazilean friends all taking their turn too.
We keep tearing through the desert until the dunes start to flatten out a bit and we get to our longest stop of the day at another mysterious lagoon in the middle of the desert. The waters are a slightly different shade of green from Laguna Paraiso but there’s less people here and a few street vendors for cheaper food options and truth be told I think I like this lagoon more, plus there’s even some kite surfers out on the lake.
I take a walk around the lake wading in knee deep water and snapping photos as I go, partially entranced by the near flying antics of the kite surfers out on the lake.
This lake is well developed too, but with smaller restaurants and business’ lending it a more natural feel and the surrounding desert seems somehow more remote than lago paraiso too, that plus the extra palm trees all around might make this my favourite place in the north east ofBrazil yet.The water is refreshing,the hammocks idyllic, and the significant winds offering some form of shelter from the oppressive heat.
As I get back to my friends at our chosen restaurant I order a coconut which is beyond refreshing and also serves as a great photo prop as we take shots of each other lounging in the absurd hammocks soaking up paradise.
Our driver Tatu has disappeared somewhere so after some nice grilled cheese kabobsI head back to wading around the lake and beaches watching the kite surfers riding the thermals including one little daredevil who makes me gasp.
Eventually Tatu shows up and around 5 pm we leave the absurd lagoon behind and drive back across the golden endless desert making just one more final stop on our way back to Jericoacoara a small family hut who offers us to ride their donkey, I pass but my tour mate from sao paulo does not. So now everyone get ready for the donkey show.
