Hey, everybody! I recently went to Jericoacoara, Brazil on vacation to be with my fiance and I had an amazing time. Jericoacoara is located in the state of Ceara and is actually a very difficult place to get to! You have to take a 4x4 vehicle to get there because the roads are made of sand. There are no paved roads at all within the city, only sand. But If you are willing to put forth the time and effort you will surely be rewarded because Jeri is unlike any place I've ever been before. It's truly a paradise!
There are a lot of transfer services that you can hire to pick you up at the airport and take you there for a fee. We had a driver waiting for us at the airport in Fortaleza with a sign that had our names on it. It costed 1,000 reais for the ride there and back. Not so bad in US dollar terms since it was about a 4 hour drive there and 4 hours back. You could not get a deal that cheap in the USA for a similar experience. The ride was extremely bumpy but it was a fun experience for us.
You can also book 4 wheeler / ATV tours and you can hire a guide and they will furnish the 4 wheelers and gas for a single price. There are many places to see and they offer different packages and you can choose as many places as you'd like to visit. The 3 main packages are Pedra Furada, Tatajuba and Lagoas Paraiso - Azul. The 4 wheeler trips were very fun and we really had a blast riding through the huge dunes really fast and going down huge dunes really slowly. If you like 4 wheeler riding you will really love driving one in Jeri. You can book the tour private also if you prefer. Just costs a little extra. We ended up spending around 600 reais for all 3 trips. The trips last for about 2 or 3 hours each usually. We combined 2 of them and stayed out for around 6 + hours one day. You can get a lot of bang for your buck there with activities like this.
As part of one of the tours we even got to go on a boat ride with a local and see some of the wildlife on the river. There are red crabs on the banks and also they will catch a seahorse in a jar and you can take pictures with it. It was pretty cool and it only costed around 30 reais for that if I remember correctly, so not a bad price for the experience. Our guides name was Alirio so if you ever go there, look him up because he's a great guy and will take good care of you. He even took our pictures for us on his phone and sent them to us through Whatsapp Messenger for free! I was worried about the guides there because I had heard some can be pretty bad but we got lucky and found a good one!
The food there was some of the best I'd ever had! Everything was very fresh and I'd imagine the fish were probably caught that day. Hands down the best fish I've ever had. There are tons of small restaurants in the main city and you can walk around at your leisure and find places to shop and eat. No need for a car or anything if you are close to the main city area. Lots of couples there and the city can be crowded at times but it's a very peaceful environment. People are just there to enjoy themselves and have a good time so you don't have the usual pressures and stress of the city. The best way I can describe the place is that its a very warm environment and it's all about relaxing and walking around enjoying the place. No pressure really at all, only good times and peace. Even the dogs there are peaceful! There are dogs all over the city and they never even bark at the people. They fight amongst themselves sometimes but that's about it! They will often sit around while you eat and wait patiently for some food if you're willing to give it to them!
Most of the restaurants are outside, I found this a little unusual because in the US it is the opposite. But it was great because you get to stay out in the nice weather and enjoy the nice breezes that Jeri is known for. The have a lot of seafood, rice, tapioca, coconut snacks and native juices. They also have some common foods that foreigners would be familiar with such as really good hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, milkshakes, ice cream etc. There will always be a type of food that you are familiar with and enjoy here. That was one thing I wasn't sure of going in since it was my first time in Brazil.
Fresh seafood brought out for your viewing and choice before they even cook it!
This place had the best hamburgers I've ever had!
Those are some basics about what you can expect from a trip to Jericoacoara, Brazil. I must say if you can't speak Portuguese then it may not be such a good choice to go here unless you have a significant other or friend to accompany you that does speak Portuguese. My fiance speaks Portuguese so we were ok but we only found one couple the whole 2 weeks we were there that spoke English! They were from Australia! Saw a few French, Spanish and Italian speakers there as well but 99.9% is all Portuguese from my experience there. I noticed they will use calculators to show amounts on your purchases a lot so I would recommend bringing a calculator if you aren't fluent in Portuguese. Most of the menus at the restaurants have english below the Portuguese as well. So you can survive at least with these 2 tricks!
I may post some more of our pictures and tell more of the experience if there is interest in it. :) Have a great day and you should consider visiting Jericoacoara if you have the oppurtunity. It's an amazing place if you want to relax and enjoy the peace of nature. If you have any questions or want to know anything in particular about Jericoacoara post a comment and I'll try to answer it the best I can! I couldn't find a lot of down to earth information about Jeri when I went so I had no idea what to really expect going in!
