Greetings from Lencois!

We spent a day camping in Jeri for a couple of reasons; we wanted to save money since we have been a bit over budget so far in Brazil and because we needed to justify hauling 20 pounds and its associated volume of camping/mountaineering gear along thousands of kilometers of coastal Brazil. We had intended on spending 2 nights in Jeri, but when we went to get the bus tickets they were sold out of any tickets for the morning of our (would-be) 3rd day there.

Our hike in Jeri overlooking the ocean

So we bought tickets to Fortaleza for late on our second night in Jeri. We spent most of the day swimming and climbing a very windy sand dune to run down. We also checked out a tide pool--fairly lifeless--and did some beach stretching. We made some Mac n Cheese with sardines for dinner and met a lovely German couple in the communal kitchen who complained a bit about how inconsiderate the youths at the campground were (and we had to agree since we like to go to bed sometime before 3am generally speaking). They also shared some stories from Germany and gave us advice on our travels south since that´s where they were coming from, and mostly it was just nice to speak to others who knew English. We jumped on a bus super late, and the first was a leg across the beach in an open air Indiana Jones ride type of bus. Very bumpy and exhuasted us had to fight falling asleep so we nor our stuff bounced out across the sand from the hard wooden bus bench we sat on. Once we got to Jijoca it was another 6 hours on normal roads to Fortaleza.

Arriving in Fortaleza at 5 in the morning we immediately found some comfortable looking cement steps to nap on. I found a bus company that had connections to Canoa Quebrada, and the first bus left around 6:15. Perfect! Short little nap, grab some breakfast, and then jump on the bus to Canoa. Or not. We failed to consider the fact that the ticketing booth wouldn't open until 7:45 (even though the sign claimed it opened at 5:30) and since we had no idea where to pick up the bus we got so spend a few hours reading and eating 'cake of cheese´, a strange yet enticing dessert akin to sweet swiss cheese cake, in the Fortaleza bus station. We finally saw the ticket booth open and I ran up, asked for the 8am bus to Canoa and was told to follow some guy in a blue official-ish looking shirt outside and across a busy street to where a jenky bus would pick us up. So I quickly flagged Acacia and we ran after this guy booking it to the bus stop. The bus was a small no a/c type of bus that stopped constantly to pick people up along this 4 hour route to Aracati. Once in Aracati, deep into a podcast of 'Bottom of the Bottle' learning about lagers, we were signalled to jump off the bus, and pile into a van. The bus driver grabbed our bags, threw them into the van, handed the van driver a few reals, and we were off to Canoa. The driver asked where we wanted to go, so we quickly flipped through our guide book and pointed to a recommended pousada. He had no idea where it was, so asked a couple of locals, and then proceeded to drive in circles until I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small sign 'Hostel Europa'. ´Hostel Europa!' I yell, and he abrubtly stops and we proceed to our hostel.... to be continued...

The view from our pousada

Acacia reading in the hammock on our front porch