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: 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.