Cozy Barra Grande, with the best flatwater-lagoon around! Hush, don’t tell anyone…
Typical streetvendor in Barrarinhas, selling alive cramped crabs. I wanted to set them all free… Shame on you man!
Meet my family:
And suddenly I felt like we were ten. Weird.
A very special Pousada we came by in the village of Marceo. Magical…
We’ve been completely out of wifi. But now back in Taiba we’re finally connected, so here’s my update from the downwinder. And oh man, I’m sore, sunburnt, stiff and superhappy…
We, 4 kiting “spice-girls”: Nina, a flight attendant at Norwegian who has also taken a leave from work to travel the world. Monika, a Swiss girl who quit her officejob to start a downwinder-business over her. And us, Maggie and I. This was the first time also for Monika downwinding this stretch, so it was more an exploration than an organized trip. We didn’t know in advance how the conditions were for kiting or where we could spend the nights. Also this excact stretch is quite undiscovered by kiters in general, so it was all pretty exciting. Day 1: We kited the whole day, passed the fishingport Camocim, till we reached a tiny village, Marceo, where we had bonfire on the beach and stayed the night. We crashed early and shared beds with cochroaches and frogs. Day 2: I had something wrong with the bar-setup (appearantly), so I was really struggeling to make it fly.
The car couldn’t follow us on the beach, so I couldn’t change the kite either. It was a nightmare with big waves and a non-flying kite, but we finally reached a remote beach-house (Robinson Crusoe-style) where the car met us. We had a lovely fishmeal amongst cows and hens before we headed to Barra Grande.
BG is a supersweet little spot with a few pousadas and one main road lit up by lanterns, creating that cozy vibe so uncommon in Brazil (they usually prefer flouresence). Day 3: We decided to kite at Barre Grande and do a downwinder to a lagoon nearby, with two options on how to get back (the car couldn’t follow here either): Upwinding or donkey-riding. We decided on the first option, which turned out to be a decicion resulting in a battle between us and the wind and waves. But the fantastic big lagoon with no other kiters, was absolutely worth the fight… Back at the beach barraca in BG, the little old japanese hippielady had made her famously dangerous space cake, which was strangely enough sold openly from the bar. And the people there who were all fine earlier in the day, were at this time completely out of it after only a few bites. Scary stuff… Day 4: Downwinding to Parnaiba, a major stepping stone on the coastline stretch, but ugly as hell. We were straight back to flouressence and restaurants in the middle of the highway (ironically enough with the best meat any of us ever had in Brazil). Day 5: We took a boatride down the Delta of the Rio of Parnaiba, a 2700sq-km delta of channels, sanddunes and mangrove forests, teeming with wildlife.
We saw croccodiles, monkeys and iguanas, and at the far end of the delta, at the rivermouth to the sea, we pumped our kites. As our Italian driver would say: “perrrfect conditions! One of ze best in Brazil!” And it WAS the best! We were only a bit scared of the croccodiles…
Day 6: We had a kitefree day in order to get to the national park of Lencois Maranheses. This adventure included: 4WD-drive to “nowhere” through the sanddunes, then a ferry, a looong boattrip through more mangroves (and plenty of animals), a carride, another ferry, then lastly a horrible rollercoaster of a drive through the forest. The lencois (meaning bed sheets) are immense expanses of sanddunes with usually crystal-clear pools and lakes between the dunes. But at this time of the year, the pools were not so impressive. It was definately more of a “been-there-done-that” sort of place, rather than a “I-definately-have-to-come-back-here” kind of spot… But by getting to the Lencois, we reached our goal. Although we didn’t kite the whole way. The mission was completed anyhow.
Driving back in the non AC’ed sweaty car, we stopped a few places, ate another meal in the middle of the highway, kited again in Barra Grande, played games, listened to music, sang christmas songs and lastly reached Jeri where we had our little farwell-party. Thanks Monika, Nina, Maggie and Francesco for an amazing adventure! I think I’ve learnt from this #12 that the scary stuff usually is the most rewarding. It’s easy to avoid the hard option and go for the easy ride, especially when your on your own. But rememeber that girl (note to self): You can do the long route…
The following day (yesterday) we picked up Scott back at Ilha do Guaijiru and drove back to Taiba. And now, we’re about to be seated for the final dinner with mummy and Maggie. Buhuu..
The kitespot in Jeri is choppy and gusty and with strong offshore wind. In other words, not ideal. The wavespot here, on the tip of Jeri where east meets west, is where the windsurfers are. And the kitesurfers have to stay far away from there in order to avoid the stormy war between the windsurfers and kiters during the hours of the day. At sunset though, everyone meets in peace at the famous Jeri dune watching the sun slowly dipping below the horizon melting the sky into an amazing kaleidoscope of colors. If not at the sunsetspot, you meet at one of the many caipi-kiosks on the way to the beach later on. Or in the Forro-party. Or last nights samba-party. We didn’t go. We needed to take an early night and save energy for today and the next weeks’ kitesurfing… We’re starting a massive, long fat downwinder. Meaning we’re gonna kitesurf downwind from here in Jeri and as far as we come (the goal is abt 300km) to lençóis maranhenses over the next 5-7 days. A 4×4 will bring our backpacks and take us back.
I am super nervous and excited about this. It is one big experiment. We are four girls who’s never done a downwinder this intense before, in an undiscovered stretch, covering abt 40-60 km everyday. Uææææhhh. Please wish me good luck…
It’s backrollday!!! Meaning I’m practicing 360 degree backward jumps with my new young loverboy: A short & fast neon-colored Liquid Force board (standing stoutly to the right of the photo. On the left, meet my older but oh so handsome “good-karma-board”). <3
Farewell to you Ilha do Guaijiru. Hello Jericoacoara!
Here are some pictures from our morningwalk in Paracuru. Another little village with plenty of kiters (brilliant oceanspot especially at low tide) and laidback fishermen. We were here last week, but I was just slow with posting these photos…
Last night we went to Circus Fantastico in Itarema, the nearest village of Ilha do Guajiru (where we’re at now). Introduced by the classical deep MC-voice, through the haze of popcorn and dust, flames and colored lights; an obese female midget danced sexydance, a midget kid flipped around doing little M.Jackson-ish dancemoves and a male midget danced with an older man. There were also trapese artists, a clown, a young boy dressed as a tranvestite and a dachs doing trix. It was all pretty odd… Jens (the hitchhiker), Jamie (a Bob Marley-look-alike from Colombia), Scott (from USA), Maggie and I, were seated frontrow. And besides us, the audience were all the kids in the village and liquor-drinking adults, shifting between laughing-out-loud and being in awe. After the show the circus-artists themselves were selling popcorn and beer in the stalls outside the tent. So the whole bunch of us were outside when Maggie says she was feeling dizzy.
A fraction of a second later, she disappears in the arms of Bob Marley and myself. She’s out, fainting. We get her in a chair and she awakes a moment later surrounded by; (besides us), the obese sexydancing midget, the male- and the kid-midget, the trapese artists, the transvestite, the clown and the dachs, all staring at her.
She was surely the star of the final act. Surreal!!! But no worries mates… Maggie was only dehydrated and some water-downing later, she was all good.
Right now: Waiting for high-tide in Ilha do Guajiru, Scott and Maggie are kiterepairing and the white rabbit is suntanning.
… And so much more.
The world’s fifth largest country (population 201 million), with an array of natural and cultural wonders, rainforrest, buzzing cities, sanddunes, islands surrounded by reefs and rich aquatic life, big surf, windy kitesurf, thundering waterfalls, dazzling and deserted beaches. Enchanting carnevalrythmic nightlife, lazy daylife, amazing wildlife and a culturally diversed; rich/ poor, favela/ middleclass, indigenous/ big-city, Catholic/ Evangelistic, capoeirapracticing/ footballplaying/ sambadancing -Brazilian life.
With so much going for them, it is not so strange that the Brazilians say “Deus e Brasileiro” (God is Brazilian)…
And allthough the poverty, social ills and violence looms, the country is booming. With less unemployment, record numbers of new jobs, rising economy, and former president Lula’s antipoverty programs that are helping a large number of the worst-offs. I would love to understand everything about this positive, energetic place, but it will take a lifetime to travel all around “the great land of the future”. I guess I don’t have that much time…
But, as a start, and for the next few weeks, Maggie and I are gonna roadtrip through the 800km+ stretch of the beautiful Ceara-coastline. Starting the engines and taking off now, we’ll keep you posted on our pitstop-stories. So long, and broooom!
This weekend: Roadtripping with Katie, a girl who owns and runs the kiteschool and “Pousada Revolution”, the most chilled hangout in Taiba. It has that special welcoming feel to it, and so has she. A really fun(ky), laidback chick from the UK who seems to be taking care of everyone that passes her way. And she’s definately drawing up her own trails, with good genes. Her father was the bassplayer of the Animals and a musicproducer.
Get this one: He was the one who discovered Jimmy Hendrix and made him a star. How supercool is that! Cool cat, with a cool dad.
The two of us filled up her boogie with kitegear and drove south to a larger buzzier Taiba, Cumbuco. It was a big kitesurf competition there with lots of smily windaddicts hanging around. We kited ourselves, watched the pros and joined the party. Skinnydipping, pool bathing and dancing all night long. It turned out to be a pretty damn good legendary party this one. Jeeez.
Katy, has for allmost 6 years now, created a place with so much charm and good vibes that I would say it’s the heart and soul of Taiba. And she is only 29. Inspirational (#5) this one… I give her a big fat “like”.
Oh, and by the way -all good roadtrips gets at least one flat tire, no?
