With our departure from Brazil fast approaching, we decided that our trip to Jeri that we had discussed so much needed to happen. So tickets were bought and kit bags packed again. The 5 hour journey consisted of 4 hours on a minibus and 1 hour off road. I got rather confused during the minibus on hearing what I thought was some terrible brazilian flute song on the radio, at which I remarked rather loudly "this just sounds like some shitty guy just playing random note after note". On hearing this jamie pointed to a french guy sitting in front of me playing a pikey wooden flute...oops.
After this we were transferred to a fairly structurally unsound pickup to take us the rest of the way to Jeri. The town is located behind massive sand dunes and there are no paved roads leading there since they would just get covered in sand, hence the need for the 4x4. Even in Jeri itself, practically all the roads are just tracks in the sand. On arriving it was quick to see why its such a popular place with travelers; shallow clear waters with gently rolling waves, huge towering sand dunes right behind the town and a friendly and very slow placed feel.
We settled into our cosy 6 person room with the 7 of us and went for a wonder around town and check out the beach. That evening, we decided to check out the nightlife that we had been told is going off most nights. We were shown around by some of the guys working/staying in the same hostel and ended up camped by one of the drink stalls by the beach selling ridiculously cheap and tasty cocktails; chocolate nesquick and vodka was a winner. None of us apart from Jamie really felt like dancing away to Forro, so we left him to it (with some of the others from the hostel) and hit the sack.
The most of the next day was fairly uneventful with hungover strolls around town and more lazing around on the beach. However, by late afternoon, we felt that a bit of horsing around was in order. So we found some guys near the beach with many horses and onto them we were ushered. Considering that none of us were expert horseman, when we were asked if we needed a guide, we promptly replied that one would probably be a wise idea; oh we were right. I spent the first 10 minutes laughing constantly because our 8 or so horses decided that going in any random direction was better than following the track we were meant to go on. Jess' horse also thought it would go for a canter up a dune which we were alerted to by hearing 'NO, NO, STOP, STOP!'. She swapped with a more sedate horse that still didnt seem to want to play ball and lead her through a bush, emerging bruised and scratched, naughty horse. A high point was seeing Booleys locks flying in the wind after our guide had disciplined his horse for going AWOL and set it to return to the group at full speed.
After a while we started to get the hang of it just in time to appreciate the sun setting from one of the biggest dunes in the area; quite a breath-taking sight. Horses were returned and arguments had over how much we had to pay, it was time to gear up for the concert that was happening on the stage that had been erected during the day. It was held to celebrate the anniversary of the square in town; not a particularly exciting square but the brazilians will find any excuse to dance very energetically for extended periods of time, as we were to find out.
After some predrinks in the hostel from their honesty/self service bar (dangerous), we could hear that the music was in full swing so we ventured off to the drink stalls littered around the stage. After throwing some shapes down, we were joined by a very small and old brazilian man who decided that our western dancing was rubbish. For the following hour and a half (possibly more, who knows) we worked through dance move after dance move whilst he pulled our legs up higher, swung our arms more ferociously and knocked drinks out of mine and sams hands because we didnt need more alcohol, we needed to DANCE HARDER AND FASTER. Whilst all this was going on, one of the singers on stage decided to hold a dance off on stage with members of the crowd. There were some interesting people that were called up; a very unconvincing tranny, a testosterone filled 16yr old lad who couldnt keep his top on or stop tensing his abs and many very underage scantily clad girls, all thrown together in a very disturbing mix. Eventually he said he was going home, or at least thats what I thought, so we bid our farewells and we went down to rest our legs on the beach and gaze at the stars. After drunk ramblings most of us headed back to the hostel, at which point jamie saw our Mr.Motivator dance master heading into one of the clubs at about 5am, nutter! Jess and Zac thought it was a great idea to stay on the beach till 7am chatting about this and that; this did not seem to sit well with Jess' hangover.
The next day jamie was determined to get a kitesurf in since we had lugged our kit there. Every day previous to this one had been absolutely booming with wind and we thought it was a bit less, how wrong we were. Jamie put up his small kite and proceeded to struggle just to stay still on the beach. Meanwhile, we were all rather content to frolic in the sea and have splash fights, which seemed hilarious given the state we were in. That day in general was not a good one in terms of swimming competency, later seeing most of the guys walking in the shallows and then all start practically drowning as the beached shelved deeper. Sam also got savaged in the face by a tightening mooring line of a fishing boat; certainly didnt seem to help the whole drowning situation.
Later that day, a few of us trekked off to find a big natural arch around the coast to take some nice piccies. Getting to the arch involved slipping and sliding down a rockface in order to get down to the beach, flip flops were not the best choice of footwear!
The last day, once more, just involved wonderings around Jeri, a bit of shopping, eating out and then a touch of sandboarding (yes we found yet another way to fill every orifice with sand). Its basically snowboarding with a much more budget board with simple footstraps. After slowly mastering it standing up, and working out that the wax we had been given for the underside of the board does actually make it work a hell of lot better, going down face first on your front seemed a better idea. This was true, except for the whole issue of stopping before smashing into very hard packed sand. Our final decent involved sitting 3 people on each board in a race to the bottom. All was going well on my board, also crewed by booley and zac, until zac got pushed off the front by booley and I slipping forward and then proceeded to get run over, face down in the sand, nice.
We thought a massive BBQ before bussing home was in order, shared with all our lovely friends we had made in Jeri, awwww. The bus we got home was different to the one out there and should have been better since it was a large executive coach if the driver had not decided to floor it the whole way, leaving us bouncing around all night long!
The next blog will feature our departure from Brazil and first experiences in the Dominican Republic
