Field-report: sporting activities – wind-surfing, BJJ, capoeira and horseback riding [by Anna]

So I’m continuing my quest to try or at least to see all the sport activities in the village. So far I got quite hooked up on muay thai, it’s a lot of fun! I go every morning Monday to Friday and plan to do some evenings as well. I also go to the gym every second evening more or less, and it’s touch rugby on the beach on Sundays.

Last week I also took a couple of wind-surfing lessons, luckily for free – from our Serbian friend. Well what can I say… It is as difficult as I remember it from the last time! In two days I did manage though to sail both directions and turn one way. Then the small lagoon in which I was learning became too shallow so now I’m waiting for a high tide to fill it up again, plus I kinda had to do some work as well... Anyhow, hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to it.

The other night we also checked out BJJ and capoeira.  Well what can I say – it was fun to watch, and I think it’s cool that in such a small village as Jeri there is that good selection of sport groups! However, neither is for me I reckon. BJJ is too messy and in capoeira there is no contact, and I like to punch!

Yesterday I went horseback riding with some girls from the hostel. It costs 15 BRL (6EUR/47NOK/260RUB) for one hour. Well riding a horse in short and flip-flops is neither practical nor comfortable, plus the guide liked sneaking up on me and smacking my horse which would set it galloping… But all in all it was a wonderful experience! We rode to Pedra Furada (Pierced Rock) which is one of the biggest sights here and got to see the sunset from somewhere else rather than the Sunset Dune for a change. Quite stunning!

Field-report: night-life - samba [by Anna]

Well I guess it’s about time we write some updates! Still no internet here, and still no mobile phone. I have hard time putting up with the fact that it can be so hard to get it, but apparently it is. Yesterday the whole day I spent sawing curtains. While Marina is doing more advanced work, that all is pretty natural for now I guess, until my Portuguese gets better (it’s probably about time I open the book…)

So last night was samba night. It’s right next to the outdoor place where they sell drinks, so it’s quite practical. Marina and I had some drinks at home (Scandinavian style!) before we hit the sand-road around 1 a.m. It figures that Friday night is the biggest night out in town, and we met everyone there. There was some live music (yes, samba) and there was some main-stream provided by a DJ, but it was mostly the locals that were on the dance-floor, all the gringos stayed by the bar. Marina ditched me around 2 and I stayed with this cool Finnish/Swedish/Greek girl I met last week-end, who stays in the hostel. There was quite a bunch of people from the hostel and we just hanged out and chatted away, and by the time they closed it was already break of dawn so we decided to climb the Sunset dune to watch the sunrise. I must say it was quite amazing!

We stayed a while, there was this guy from Fortaleza who came for a week-end with a Russian girl, he is in her hosting family. He was interested in rugby so I did my usual rugby-is-the best-sport-in-the-world-all-the-other-sports-should-not-be-allowed sales pitch (that job is never done, eh!) and a Kiwi guy who was there confirmed it and said it was strange to meet a Russian in Brazil who is so passionate about rugby. I did a demo tackle on a Dutch guy and got another approval from the Kiwi. By then the sun was quite high up so we all shuffled home. It was time to grab some sleep cos it was a new day already!

Field-report: sporting activities – gym, sand-boarding and muay thai [by Anna]

And so we are slowly getting into our status of “moradores” – inhabitants I guess would be the best English word. As we still haven’t got our own internet connection, we are using our neighboring hotel’s password. The decent speed is only at night so we go to bed late and get up at 5 a.m. in order to be able to get some work done. During the day we go to the main town – Jijoca  – to continue our struggle with the Brazilian bureaucracy (city-hall, lawyer etc.), try to prepare some content for our marketing efforts, go around meeting the other owners, etc., etc. The bottom-line is – it is exhausting, but also super-exciting! Well on today we are getting installed our own antenna for the internet (there is no cable-internet here in the village, we are far enough from the civilization) so hopefully this misery will be over.

Anyhow, we are getting to know the people and the way the things work around here and it is time to start getting organized with some leisure activities. Now, nothing will ever replace rugby for me, but I gotta do my best to survive, right? Jericoacoara is a famous wind-, kite- and surfing spot and it is on my to-do list to revive my wind- and kite-surfing career, which has been on hold for a few years now. I would actually prefer surfing, as like snowboarding you only have to manage one thing and with your legs, but it looks like the waves are big enough in January only and the winds are good for almost half a year, so the choice is obvious.

But I’m taking a slow start. I’ve signed up for the local gym. The membership is 60 BRL a month (23EUR/180NOK/1000RUB ). Totally overpriced, if you ask me, considering the size of the place and the quality (I am not even sure I can use the word quality here, its lack rather!) of the gear. 

The picture speaks better than anything that I can say about this place! Around five machines, two tread-mills (only one functioning properly) but a lot of free-weights. Well thanks to the Basement Challenges Hardcores I can be creative enough with the gear available! Plus due to the climate, I sweat more than during the Hardcores doing one tens of the effort.

Next step was sand-boarding. For 10 BRL (3,8EUR/30NOK/168RUB) an old snow-board of unidentifiable brand (oh my LibTech, baby where are thou?)  is yours to ride the Sunset Dune “until the sunset”. Having said that – you gotta work your way up by feet, so it’s only that many times you can have a go. So my first try wasn’t that good. As you ride with bare feet and the sand is much heavier than the snow, it’s kinda difficult to control the board, at the same time it goes much slower than it would on the same inclination on snow. After the first ride down I thought – hey this sucks! I tried a second time and thought – hey this still sucks, but I give it one last shot. On my third ride I managed to start controlling the board, took a steeper slope all the way down to the beach and even caught an applause from some local guys passing by. So I ran up again, but to my great disappointment the board got wet from the beach sand and refused to move at all. Marina was getting hungry and impatient and we left.

Today I was to my first muay thai training. I got really hooked-up on kick-boxing in Oslo, so I was very much looking forward to it! So 8:30 in the morning together with our new German friend (surf-shop owner) we headed off to the training. What can I say, it was amazing! In a way similar to the gym kick-boxing training, but really oriented towards actual fighting. The instructor is very charismatic and motivating! There are trainings from 8:30 till 9:30/10 each morning AND evening Monday to Friday and it all costs 50 BRL a month (20EUR/155NOK/855RUB). That’s what I call money well spent!

And – wonderful news – yesterday I met some Argentineans living here who used to play rugby back home! We’re meeting up 4:30 a.m. to watch Scotland – Argentina and organizing some touch rugby on the beach! I also met a guy from Perpignan on muay thai today who’s also in, so things are beginning to get better!

I will revert with more field-reports on wind-surfing, horseback riding, capoeira and of course rugby.

Field-report: night-life - forro [by Anna]

Ok maybe it's time we cut the sentimental crap and write something about Jericoacoara, or Jeri, as everyone calls it. Let's start with the night life! Yesterday we did some field-research - gotta know what to recommend our guests, right?

Like in other small Brazilian resorts, there is normally one big party that takes place at a different venue each night. It's not too difficult to find out what happens and where, as there are people walking around with big signs announcing parties. Jeri, being a rustic place, has parties with traditional music - like samba and forro (pronounced very close to [for whore] but don't be alarmed!). So Saturday night is a forro night.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forró if you want to know more about it.

Knowing that the action kicks off late here, we were out of the door (the gate) around 1:30 a.m. The forro place had a small cover-fee (5 BRL/2EUR/16NOK/90RUB). There was a live band and the place was half-full, with quite a few couples dancing, around 95% locals, so quite authentic yeah. Actually it reminded us of the Dirty Dancing the movie, remember, where Baby comes in to the place where the stuff is dancing? Anyhow, we stayed a bit and headed out to look for other alternatives.

Jeri has five streets so after a bit of walking we found where the international crowd was hanging out. There is a place right next to the beach with modern main-stream music and a dance-floor, open till 4 a.m. each night of the week! There is a dozen of movable stands with all sorts of caipirinhas made of fresh fruits and quite a good selection of liquor and even wine sold per glass! We went traditional and got two lime caipirinhas paying 6 (!!!) reals for two! That is 3 BRL for one caipirinha (1,3EUR/10NOK/50RUB) and there is nothing like the Scandinavian 4 ml of cachaça in it, I'm telling you! The price was a pleasant surprise as despite what many people think, Brazil is not a very cheap country and in big cities one caipirinha costs up to 15 BRL (6,3EUR/50NOK/260RUB). Naturally, you cannot enter the bar with a drink bought outside though.

Around 3 a.m. the crowd started getting thin and everyone headed back to the forro place. So did we. The bar was very full now, a lot of people dancing and the ambiance had heated up. We hit the dance-floor and didn't have to wait too long to be invited by multiple locals willing to teach us to dance forro! The band stopped playing at 4 a.m. and we shuffled home, Marina went to bed and I used an opportunity to go online, as the fastest connection here seems to be at night.

We'll return with more night-life reports!