By Mark Steinbach
Fortaleza is really a beautiful place and the surroundings have a lot to offer. We got there quite late at night, because of our connection via São Paulo and Brasilia was delayed. The Fortaleza airport is new, but quite far from the centre and the drive to our hosts beach-front home took about 40mins. It is a massive property at least a couple of acres and has palm trees all over as well as a huge pool. Fortaleza has a great beachfront with a huge promenade, beach and a waterfront area with bars and restaurants. In typical Brazilian fashion there is always music playing and something going on. Every evening there is a flee market at the beach so we managed to pick up a couple of souvenirs (dust collectors) and left it at that.
The following day we went to Praia do Futuro (Beach of the Future) on the east coast of Fortaleza. The beaches here are massive, very wide and this particular one had a restaurant, bar, swimming pool and a couple of shops right on the beach. There is no entrance fee, you just get in sit down under the palm trees and get served whatever you want - prices are not unreasonable.
On our way home we went for a radical dune buggy ride, the four of us packed onto the buggy and the driver took us around and over the dunes. At times it felt like being in a roller coaster, but a tight grip on the roll-bar was good enough. We all tried our hand at ski-bunda (skiing down the dune on a plank sitting on your ass...)
We spent the evening at a restaurant, with some Americans and a Brazilian - as well as a beer tap at our table. The food was great and the huge umbrellas shaded us from the tropical downpour. After 11 litres we called it a night...
On Sunday we followed a guide in his beach buggy with our 4x4 (a courtesy car) along some beautiful beaches, stopping along the way to enjoy the great seafood specialties - I enjoyed some very tasty land morsel (could have been any of the wild donkey's in the area). After our guide and hung-over American tourists decided to call it a day, our trusty friend still recommended us to see Canoa Quebrada beach (Broken Canoe Beach), which was according to our guide Marcus, only a 30 minute ride. Anyway, after more than an hour including swerving and dodging potholes the size of car tires we also managed not to flatten any of the wild donkeys, we arrived at Canoa Quebrada. The drive was well worth it and we took a walk through the town and onto the beach. We still managed to get the last bit of the sunset before we headed home with our eyes peeled in order not to add to the donkey road kill average and keep our shocks in tact - Juliana was on pothole patrol while Pascal and Lee alternated on wild Donkey watch - I was trying to drive...
On Monday we found our way to the Beach park which is also on the eastern side of Fortaleza and spent most of the day going from slide to slide, having some lunch on the beach and swimming in the sea. Here the sea water is actually warm and there is no need for a wetsuit... (I know I should not complain but sometimes it‘s nearly too warm...a bit like the kiddies pool)
On Tuesday we headed west of Fortelza, towards Jericoacoara (supposedly means crocodile sunning itself). It‘s about 300kms from Fortaleza and we stopped at Mundaú for one night. We found an Inn right on the beach - and managed to have the whole place to ourselves. We spent the rest of the day driving around the dunes and visiting some other beaches nearby before enjoying another dinner and washed it down with some beers.
The following day we still had about 150kms to go until Jericoacoara. We managed to get to Jijoca before we needed a couple of guides follow us for kilometers on their bikes in order to show us the way to Jericoacoara. Jeri (this is how the locals refer to it) can only be reached with a 4x4 as you have to cross over the dunes and through some big puddles. After heckling us long enough we bargained a price with one the guides - so him and a mate grabbed their bike and showed us the way. The drive there took about 40 minutes over the dunes, around lagoons and along the beach. We got into Jeri late afternoon and still enjoyed the sunset from one of the massive dunes. Watching the sunset from there seems to be a regular thing and around 5:30 pm everyone treks up the dunes and before the sun sets the locals provide the entertainment by doing backflips down the 30 meter dune or renting sandboards to locals. The whole of Jeri is just beach roads, with gift shops, bars and restaurants. There is a lot to offer there, horseback riding for 10 Reais (US$3.00) an hour - they just give you the horse, no guide required... we took a 5 hour dune buggy ride and visited nearby lagoons, went boarding down some dunes... The famous hole in the wall, was according to a local, a 2km walk along the beach - so we grabbed our cameras, Lee rented a horse and started to walk. What we thought would be a nice stroll along the beach barefoot, soon turned into a climb over this rock, wade through that water and don't step into the donkey shit hike - Lee turned back coz the horse got tired - but we managed, got our photos, so now we've been there and done that.
If you have ever seen a picture at a travel agent with a couple of palm trees arching over the beach...it might just be Jericoacoara.
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