Jeri and Barra Grande

After a few days hanging around in Jeri we have the feeling to do something. Jeri isn't the great spot for kitesurfing because it is too gusty and choppy with one exception: the place where the windsurfers ride. But the windsurfers don't accept kiters at their place. So we decide to do something else - some touristic things. First we go to the dune Duna Pôr-de-Sol to see the sunset with hundreds other tourists, later a Capoeira show takes place at the beach.
The next day I have the chance to bring Beat on a horseback. He's afraid, because it's his second time on a horse. In gallop we ride to Pedra Furada a special formation of stones. On the way back Beat misses the beat of the gallop and fall almost off the horse, but he manages it well. After one hour on a horseback Beat is so happy to chill again in a comfortable hammock and we can mark the touristic things in Jeri off... :-)

As we are looking for some good kitespots we leave Jericoacoara and are up on the drive towards Barra Grande which is 150 km northerly from Jeri.

Barra Grande is a small and therefore quiet fishing village in the state of Piauí where the thermometer indicates sometimes 40°. It's a upcoming place for kiters. Flat water, huge space plus a lagoon next to the mangroves. Big playground for freestylers! As I learn some jumps Beat enjoys to slalom in the mangroves.

Hoohooohooo it's end of November and it's around 32° celsius hot with a humidity of 80% during the day in Jericoacoara. Jeri is only accessible by 4wheel drive or the Jardineira bus a 4wheel drive that reminds me to the Unimog a swiss military vehicle.

We left our car in Jioca and enjoyed the one hour drive by the Jardineira bus. We arrived well shaken and even our kiteboards had to pay for the honour to be transported in this bus.

Like Canoa Quebrada Jeri was owned by Hippies in the 70s and even today it's a peaceful place with around 250 nice pousadas and restaurants.

Julien a friend which I know from the IKO teacher course gave us the opportunity to live for little money in the extravagant „Casa da Gwen“ a house that belongs to a french owner. At the moment we speak more frenglish (french-english) than portugues since we live together with Julien, Pierre, Selina and Benôit.

Julien and Pierre are crazy about windsurfing and Selina and Benôit both are kitesurfers. In the evening most of the time we cook something nice together or enjoy an incredible bbq with fresh fish.

Despite the fact that Brasil is a beautiful country with warm water Sabrina and me realize that we fell deeply in love with South Africa especially Cape Town. We are missing the big waves and the perfect wind without having the impression that the place is overcrowded. But it's complain about the price of champagne since we have the pleasure to stay at the most beautiful places and most of you guys have to sit in the office and maybe starring at a boring computer :-)

Bye Bye Cumbuco

Thanks god tomorrow we leave Cumbuco despite of the nice sunsets from the dunes. Cumbuco is one of the places you will find all around the world. Very touristic and....boring!  Sabrina and me would not recommend to come here neither for kitesurfing nor for anything else.

Cumbuco is well-known among kitesurfers and therefore completely overcrowded and it's definitely one of the choppier spots we've ever seen. Cumbuco is half an hour drive by car from Fortaleza  and in the evening and especially during the weekends you will see lots of piriguetes (ladies of easy virtue / leichte Mädchen) from Fortaleza trying to find a Gringo.

If you want to see Brazil and get in touch with the people from here avoid to go to Cumbuco. Sad to say but it lost it's charme of a little fishing village.  I hope we will not see the same shit gonna happen in Barra do Cunhaú with all these stupid Gringos not willing to speak one word Portuguese staying in their 24 x 7 secured apartment complexes.

However we checked out some delicious kitespots around. Paracuru is a great spot to play in flatwater and in waves up to 3 meters but can get very crowded during high season. Many thanks to Aryen to show us this spot.

My personal favorite is the bay of Taiba (Image 2). We have seen perfect waves with wind from side-on to side-off and not to many kitesurfers. All in all a relaxed place and atomsphere. It has a lot of surfers in the water as well. Make sure you stay on the left of the surfers in the bay.

Ladies and gentlemen sorry for the inconvenience gotta go back to the liquid office not least to work hard on my tan in brasiwonderland. Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes......yiiiiiiiiiihaaaaaaaaa!

Don't be gentle it's a rental

We left Canoa Quebrada and landed in Cumbuco three days ago. It was a little mission to find a pousada that fitted our needs. We don't need a beachfront appartment for 250 Reais where the wind is hammering 24 hours against the window.  Most of the nice pousadas were all fully booked. An older dutch lady sent us to Manfred's Pousada and adviced: "Don't take the next road to the right, take the second to the right since the first is full of sand.

Can you imagine what I did? - It's like if you tell a little boy not to touch the hotplate.  I took the first road and honestly I almost made it ;-)  Thanks to two friendly Brasilians the last then meters took us only half an hour. Sabrina was not in a very good mood. Driving this car now feels like walking at the beach since there is sand everywhere inside.

A lot of the roads along the shore are dirt roads out of sand and stones. And we have to treat our rental sometimes like a little offroader. As the world famous kite dude Heneee Filleeee would say: "Don't be gentle it's a rental!"

Today we enjoyed a nice session in Taiba with some good waves and steady wind for the 9m2 and the 7m2 Kites.