I am now a surfer...

The coolest thing in the world...surfing!
Took a few lessons in the past few days and have been out on the waves.
I can see myself staying here for a long long time.
I need to get some pictures and video of the place. It is amazing, we're now staying here 8 days instead of the original 3-4 and we want to extend this more. The problem is that we need to get moving down the coast of Brazil, all the way to the tip of Argentina (possibly Antartica, if we can find a cheaper excursion) and we need to get to there by the third week of April.
By the way we have decided to extend this trip until about mid June. Previously we though we would return by mid May, but with so much to do and see we need to extend it!
Once again, for the next 4 days we will remain here in Jericoacoara surfing and learning Caipoeira then we are off to another town on the Brazilian coastline.
By the way, sorry about not uploading the video of the Amazon experience, have been so busy down here doing stuff that we haven't been able to work on the computer. Hopefully we have it ready soon.
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Segimos en Jericoacoara

Hay tantas actividades por hacer en este lugar que se puede quedar uno un mes y no termina de practicarlas todas.

Ayer comenzaron mis clases windsurfing, la primera clase la hicimos en el mar. Fue muy divertido pero trague demasiada agua por que las olas y el viento estaban muy fuerte y no era capaz de sostener el equilibrio por mucho tiempo.

Al final del dia estaba muerta y insolada, con una u#a arrancada y 10 morados, entre las 1000 veces que te tumban las olas y te vuelves a subir a la tabla y controlar la situacion quemas demasiadas calorias y el sol tambien te roba mucha energia.

Hoy todo estuvo mucho mejor, la practica fue en una laguna del mismo mar, osea que no habian olas, asi pude tener mas control de la vela y la tabla y pude avanzar un poco mas. Al final del dia me senti muy satisfecha por todo lo aprendido y lo mejor es que fue muy muy divertido.

Aqui estamos preparandonos para la noche, es un pueblo con mucha actividad nocturna, puedes ir a un bar o simplemente quedarte en la playa, mirando las estrellas y escuchando una gitarra sonar.



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Llegamos al Paraiso

Ayer llegamos a Jericoacoara un pueblito de dos mil habitantes a mas de dos horas en buggy, carritos para la arena.



Salimos en la manana de Camocin el pueblo donde habiamos llegado la noche anterior, el senor del buggy nos recogio en el hostal donde estabamos y empezamos la aventura.



Salimos del pueblo hacia Jericoacoara, primero tuvimos un recorrido de una hora, por las dunas, extensiones y montanas de tierra gigantes fue muy divertido pero a la vez un poco peligroso ya que estos carros andan con mucha velocidad y hacen subidas y bajas muy altas y la cosa es que uno esta totalmente desprotegido.



Llegamos a un lago hermoso, donde comimos ostras y tomamos unas caipirinas, depues continuamos nuestra jornada a Jericoacoara, definitivamente es el lugar mas bonito que he visto en mi vida.



Es un lugar unico, es la combinacion de montanas de tierra, el mar super azul, el cielo completamente despejado, palmeras gigantes y un pueblito super cool. Todo el pueblo es en arena, no hay nada de semento. Hay uno que otro carro pero la mayoria son buggys y motos.



Los hoteles tienen decoraciones rusticas combinadas con detalles muy modernos. Hay toda clase de tipos de cocina, argentina, mediterranea, griega, italiana y por supuesto brasilera.



Hay muchas actividades para practicar windsurfing, kitsurfing, sandsurfing, capoeira, clases de bailes, bicicleta y motos de arena.



Hace muchos a#os no habia visto una noche como la de ayer con millones y millones de estrellas y como a las 12 de la noche la luna se perdio completamente en el mar. Definitivamente es uno de los destinos donde me gustaria vivir por mucho tiempo, de verdad que parece un paraiso.













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Pouring rain in Jericoacoara...

We have 20 minutes to get to the internet place but it has been pouring rain for the past 3 hours... We may not make the 12pm EST live broadcast that we had mentioned on the website...
I wish we had satellite phone and data connections so badly...we would be able to do this from anywhere and anytime without the need for internet cafes!!!!
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VIDEO- Jericoacoara Brazil

Finally arrived in Jericoacoara Brazil, after another 12 hour bus ride yesterday and this morning about 2 hours in a dune buggy traversing 3 story high dunes. It was amazing. We tried to broadcast a quick clip that is linked below, but tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll do a better job and upload some cool pics and if possible another live video.

Rumbo a Jericoacoara

Ya dejamos Sao Luis una ciudad muy bonita, ubicada a 12 horas en bus de Belem. Una ciudad muy colonial, me recuerda mucho Cartagena de Indias por sus murallas, llena de color, historia y arte.

Tuvimos la oportunidad de visitar varias casas en su interior. Casas con 8 y 10 habitaciones, 2 y 3 pisos, 3 y 4 jardines y terrazas. Totas pintadas de diferentes colores vivos, casas construidas en 1600s.

Otra atraccion turistica de Sao Luis son sus playas, ayer estubimos en una de ellas, Playa Grande. Estaba llena de gente, muchos de ellos eran jovenes jugando futbol, volleyball y otros nadando o simplemente tomando el sol y disfrutando de las caipininas, el trago mas popular de la region.

Hoy dejamos Sao luis hace 10 horas, 10 horas en un bus rumbo a Jericoacoara un pueblito pequeno donde todos las personas que conocemos en el camino nos has recomendado, se pueden practicar muchos deportes de agua y aprender Capoeria.

La unica forma de llegar a Jericoacoara es a traves de 4X4s especiales para la arena, este es la unica via para llegar al pueblo, ya que no hay carretera. El camino es de mas de dos horas por estas extenciones gigantes de area. Pero solo hasta manana en la manana lo podremos hacer. Estoy muy ansiosa de llegar a este lugar.
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Resting at a bus stop along the way

Today's bus has been in the day which is completely different. Interestingly enough we have been passing through some great landscapes full of even more trees than the Amazon jungle! These types of trees are completely different and do pale in comparison to the size and shapes we saw back on the river the last couple weeks.
So, what can you do on the bus in daytime besides stare out the window??? We've been catching up on some overdue reading, listening to the same 45 songs on my mp3 (forgot to load it up before leaving USA- what a jackass I am!), playing word games, eating, hmmm that's about it. Bummer is that along the whole coast of Brazil and Argentina and Chile there are about another 200 + hours of bus trips that we'll be taking over the next couple months!!! We seriously need to come up with more word games!! Side note: traveling at night is cool because its possible to get some sleep, but the theft factor is always looming, especially when people get on and off at those late hours....
At about 9 pm tonight we'll be at the town that we have to sleep in before taking a 4x4 for 2 hours along the sand dunes of the beach to get to this treasure of a place called Jericoacoara. Can't wait to get there- by Tuesday late morning.
Mauricio, we hope you feel better dude!
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Para Maria Antonia en Madrid

Maria Antonia muchas gracias por tus emails, siempre nos llenan de mucha alegria recibirlos.
Dile a mi Madre que estamos muy bien y que nos estamos cuidando mucho, dile tambien que la queremos mucho.
Un abrazo

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On a bus now..12 more hours to next town

Although this town of Sao Luis was so nice, we decided last night to get to a town further down the coast called Jericoacoa that has all kinds of activities...there's internet from this part of the highway but maybe not later in the morning...
LIVE broadcast will be on Tuesday
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Beach soccer, brazilian bikinis...

Everything's changed now...we are finally on the Brazilian coast and outside the Amazonian area! It was very cool but after 20 days of giant mosquitos, ants, and unbearable humidity, it was time to get out of there and get some ocean & sun.

We bused down last night 12 hours to a colonial beach town called Sao Luis... What we didn't expect is for there to be soooo much life on a Sunday morning... The whole vibe is different down here, starting with cool ass brazilian reggae, strong sun, fresh ocean breeze, very small bikinis ( I mean very small ;-)), powerful caipirhinias, and people that just want to have fun...

Seriously, we basically got off the bus at 7AM this morning after an all night drive, searched for a hotel and decided to walk on the beach, people already had music, drinks, were laughing and shouting, playing soccer, parasailing, you name it... AND ALL by 9AM... We actually joked about it that maybe this was carried on from the party last night!! Apparently that is a different crowd, they were home by 7AM and will not be on the beach until about 1 PM this afternoon! That is according to the beach restaurant bar we are now at!

All we can say is that we plan to really start to chill out in this part of the country.

We were told of the greatest place on the coast that is another 10 hours south of here.

We have decided to leave first thing tomorrow ( monday) morning for this place. There are huge dunes that you can sand surf, para sailing that gets you to the fastest speeds on the Atlantic, caipoera class that really allow and support foreigners to learn this art form, a night life that rivals any other town or city, and hopefully more sports and fun.

We had wanted to upload a 10 minute video of our entire experience of the Amazon time we just had, and hope to have it soon!

Paula is waiting for me to finish my 2nd caipirhina ( by the way, our time now is 2 hours ahead of NYC time, so its not that early to drink!)

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