First day in Brasil! We arrived in Sao Luis at around lunchtime after 15 hours of flying and an eventful stopover in Sao Paulo: we thought one of the bags had gone missing but lt turned up as we were attempting to file a missing bag report! 

The Brisa Mar (where we checked in in Sao Luis) is right on the beach and at first look it’s modern and clean...at least in the common areas. Unfortynately, the rooms don’t reflect the same care, as we did find a cockroach later the same night in the bathroom...urgh...I have now put a wet towel over one of the grates on the floor and shut the door to the bathroom. Hopefully, this jolly little animals won’t come out and visit me on the bed during the night! As a esult, one of my room companions forfaited the room and decided to sleep with her parents (I’m not sure she’ll be totally safe there either :-)))! ).

We spent the afternoon visiting the old town. As luck would have, it’s sunday and market day, so the main square of this colonial part of Sao Luis was mobbed by people eating and drinking from makeshift food vendors. The most interesting one was without doubt the Caipirinha cart, although I could not really vouch for the cleansiness of the hands of the man that made us our drinks!  If you ever end up coming to this part of the world, you’ll wonder as to what has brought the people of this city to totally abandon this colonial style streets. There are some beautiful abandoned buildings that you could tell used to be important for the community. The pretty coloured houses line the streets (unfortunately the streets also house cockroaches and, I fear, rats). We walked around and tried some of the home made food and eventually sat at a cafè called Tia Dica for a little respite from the relentless heat and humidity. As we tried to find out what the best dish on the menu could possibly be, our waitress confessed to having no clue, as it was her first day. Still we didn’t go hungry...or stay thirsty...man will find a way even with the language barrier. The beer was very very cold, the pastel great, and the arroz con camarao that we ordered on a whim, excellent.  On the loop back to the main square we visited the Lions Palace, which is at the hedge of this colonial area. It’s where the governo lives and it houses some of the administration buildings. It’s not too taxing a visit as the rooms open to visitors are only a handful. A lovely lady took us round for our 15 minute visit in English (or close enough to that). Both the french and portuguese influence is evident here. Sao Luis was actually french for a length of time before being taken over by the portuguese. 

A couple of fun facts: Sao Luis is known as the brasilian Jamaica as the main musical beat in this part of the world is reggae and is also known as the island of love (Sao Luis is on an island connected by a bridge to the mainland), as they have had a large number of poets born here.

By the time we made our way back to the hotel we were tired...the travelling and the time zone difference was beginning to take its toll. We walked down to the beach where a crowd of people gathered in makeshift open air bars and watched the sun go down.

Our body clocks are still a little out of sink with our south american location, so, we have little need for alarms to get up. Even the girls, who would normally sleep happily until lunchtime, at 8.30/9 are wide awake...me...at 5.30...

So, today was our first true full day of holiday I guess...there were no transfers! We took our time at breakfast. It was a novelty to see omelettes being cooked over hot coals. We then spent the morning by the pool and met a family from Rome. They have been in Brazil since the beginning of august as Antonella’s (the wife) brother got married in Rio de Janeiro, and are spending almost the whole month travelling round the country. Their arrival here from Jericoacoara however, has been rather eventful. The lady in question refused to make use of local agencies to organise her travels and ended up with a driver who did not know the way, and a car that broke down! It took the family 10 hours to get here in Barreirinhas and they arrived late at night. She was not best pleased.  

After lunch we were picked up by Josè for our first look ag the Grand Lençois. It’s a protected nature area of very white sand dunes and lagoons. We left on a 4x4 mini truck/jeep with seats out in the open (like a safari jeep I would imagine). The driver must have been related to the one we had had for our transfer, as he seemed to be in a rush to get places! Having the tyres of an old truck screeching round the bends it’s a novel ‘formula one’ experience. We got to the river and loaded the trucks on a barge to cross the narrow water course. Health and safety would have had a field day with arrangements here:-). Once on the other side, the true adventure began, as we appeared to be in a race with one of the other cars to get to the white dunes...except we were driving on the equivalent of a beach with random water hazards. It was like being on a rollecoaster! We did eventually overtake the other truck and cheered of course as if we had one a GP. You start to see the white dunes from a distance, and it is a sight to behold when you eventually get there. The sand is powdery and so white! After abandoning our driver, we climbed the first dune and from the top you get a flavour of the magnificence of it all. They call it Lençois because from the air the whole area looks like a bed sheet has been laid out to dry. The whiteness of the sand and reflections of the lagoons create a very special view. We had a swim in two of the bigger lagoons...so nice! Clear and cool water. Some of the younger crowds and Fabrizio, had fun running down (or sliding) the steep sides of the dunes and ending up diving in the water. Lots of fun, I’m sure, but the idea of tripping and seeing myself roll down like a sack of potatoes (breaded like a cotoletta milanese) was deterrent enough for me. The lagoa Azul was not very Azul because of the algae, but the water was clear here too and there were some tiny fish living in it. Josè explained that the lagoa used to be much larger but that the dunes have actually moved over the years because of the wind, changing the shape and size of the water pockets. 

We said goodbye to what has been our comfortable home for the last three nights. Josè (same chap as for the Lençois trip) picked us upand dropped us off (with our outsized baggage) in Barreirinhas by the river where our boat was waiting. There was a fair bit of laughter as our bags where loaded over the side of a wall down into the boat. We strapped on our floating vests and off we went, down river Beira towards the Vassouras community where a colony of monkeys live. We picked up 6 other brasilian passengers on the way, one of which spoke a little english and helped with translating Ognoso’s (our boat captain) long winded descriptions of our surroundings. The vegetation along the river banks is tropical and thick...lots of mangrovias. We eventually got to Vassouras. The monkeys are cute but a touch aggressive. They grabbed Fabrizio’s bag of fruit and jumped on anyone with food on them. It’s actually forbidden to feed the monkeys, but tourists being tourists, the sign was totally ignored, as people attempted selfies with the primates.

Next, we were up on the dunes next door: the little Lençois. A similar view to the Grand Lençois...perfectly formed panettoni of powdery sand and lagoons. With a difference. There is a wind turbine power plant on the hedge of the forest and you can see a very very log row of huge white windmills.

We made a further stop in Mandacaru, a small village of fishermen with a lighthouse...although it is anybody’s guess if it’s working or not, given the general run down state of the village. The one cool thing was a makeshift caipirinha bar on the small mooring where the boats waited for us. Best maracuja caipirinha so far!

As luck would have it, the last minute boat they found had a young captain that was amazing fun and did his best to make himself understood. Because of our lateness we skipped the dunes (we have however seen a few dunes these past few days) but just the red birds were worth the ride. They are so red they don’t even look real. They apparently get that colour because they eat a crab who eats a fruit from the mangrovia forest that turns the crab red and, in turn, the bird red. After a speedy ride we reached the rest of the tourist boats who seemed to hang around a small island in the middle of the delta. There were a few red birds on it but nothing prepared us for what we then observed. The red birds started arriving in large groups as the sun began to come down...and they all settled on that small island. They kept coming for a good half hour. By the time it was dark, the island was pretty much covered in red birds. Apparently they gather there every night to stay together and avoid getting oicked off by predators. And that was it really. We then had a 40 minute ride to Parnaiba. The chap driving the boat tried to make it as fun as possible by driving like a mad man, zig zagging and overtaking his colleagues but also stopped for us to observe as some fishermen were pulling up their nets. I have to say I did not recognise any of the fish though. By the time we got to Parnaiba it was pitch black and the fishermen were unloading their crab 🦀 catches of the day. I have never seen so many crabs together!  We reluctantly said goodbye to the fun young man that had taken such good care of us and off we went to Vila Parnaiba, our home for the night. A definate step up from the previous awful looking place. The girls jumped straight into the pool as we checked in and, as we were all very tired, we later had dinner in the Vila. Nothing to write home about...so I won’t...except to confirm we ate the crab we had seen in Parnaiba all covered in mud 😱!

Today we travelled from Barra Grande to Jericoacoara. Our new driver is great! Our excessive luggage was loaded on top of the 4x4 and off we went. An initial ‘road’ ride followed by a ferry or to (if you can call them that 😂) and quite a long stretch on the sand.

Top extras in the car: water bottles and a usb connection to play our south american pre prepared playlist!

Our 3 and a half hours journey took 6 hours as Tiago (the driver) transformed into an amazing excursion. We stopped along the way in Chaval and Camocin (where we crossed water the first time and had a little banking excitement - getting cash from the atm’s in Brasil is always a challenge). After Camocin we were off road for the rest of the day, with our path being dictated by the tides as the ocean took back some of the land for a couple of hours at around lunchtime. After Tujoca (a small village on the beach that seemed to just house a few kitesurfers), we stopped for lunch and a break at a Lagoa (Guru I believe). Despite its small size, they were kitesurfing here too! But, that is not why we will remember the place when we are all back at our desks...

Lunch! And yes it deserves an esclamation point...With no expectations of any kind, given the location, we asked for menus. What did arrive was not in paper form. It was two trays of fish and shellfish 😱. We opted for the shellfish 🦞 🦐...twice! It was perfectly cooked. Amazing lunch. 

About an hour later we were in Jeri. It’s the only place on the trip that I have been to before.  It’s bigger than I remember, but maybe it’s just busier...and there is an eco tax to pay (5 reals a day is not going to be the way to protect the area). For the rest, the spirit is the same. Lots of surfers and kite surfers, sand everywhere, restaurants (way more than there were 7 years ago) and little cute shops. It was lively last night. There was live music and fire juggling in the main square.

We ended up having dinner in a place that has only been open 10 days, managed by a guy from Milan who had decided to move to Jeri four months ago. The façade of the place is ‘unguardable’ as it is so kitsch, but the food was not bad. Of course we ended up getting Matteo’s life story. He and his wife adopted a brasilian boy when he was one years old (he’s now 10). Who then grew up in Italy and ended up being the member of the family more reticent about coming back! Towards the end of the meal the owner of the place turned up. He’s a Briatore lookalike: Giorgio Bonelli. Giorgio comes from a famous and rich family in italy that produces comics (Tex Willer is one of the famous ones). Whereas his nephew is now running the family business, he branched out in high end real estate, hotels and restaurants. He has made several investments right here in Brasil: http://www.bonellibrasil.com/giorgio_bonelli.php. 

Souvenir of the trip: in the main square two chaps walked around with a beautiful, but huge, white amaca. Cost of the amaca? 250 reals! (roughly 60 euros to you and me)...but...where would any of us find the space back home?

...we finished off with an ice cream in the same shop I had my ice cream on my last visit...and then slowly walked back to the pousada...

Reflection:  I am sure we have all been to places we loved or thought special, that we never thought we’d visit a second time. I have a few such places that because of distance and difficulty in reaching them (as well as our limited time on earth) I think I’ll never see again. So when I said goodbye to them at the time, I was left with a little ache in my heart. Jeri is one of those places. Easter Island would be another on the top of this list followed closely by  the salar de Uyuni...