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: 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!