Daily life - rainy season, garden, the angry bird, Luna goes for a swim [by Marina]

So, the low (rainy) season has started, however, it's not raining too much, as mentioned before in Anna's post.
We are happy to notice that our occupancy rates are higher then forecasted and by the middle of the month we already reached the monthly lowest target. However, due to little amount of tourists and high competition among half-empty pousadas in Jeri, the rates are drastically dropping down and we have to implement some cost-saving measures in order to be able to still make some profit.

Low season also means more free time for the owners and therefore a good possibility to do some maintenance here and there. One of these days I collected a bunch of flower pots that were standing around the garden and painted them red - our Russian signature color :-)


While I was busy with the pots, spray, solvent, and all my artistic mess in the area behind the kitchen, the piririguá bird that made a nest on top of our palm tree got stressed up by the noise and decided to protect the chicks (or, the eggs? whatever it had there in the nest).



Actually, I wasn't even aware of the bird's nest on our palm-tree until that moment. I don't go around the garden randomly looking for some piririguá nests, you know... So, it was quite a shock for me when one of the small coconuts fell right next to me, I look up and see the angry bird some meters above - I bet the piririguá was aiming at me, but it missed it. I saw more coconuts around the nest, ready to be launched and withdrew myself closer to our closet. You have to respect the local inhabitants, you know ;-)

After 2-3 weeks of regular rain, many trees in the garden got full of flowers - all at the same time. It's so amazing to look around one day and find so many nice surprises here and here, some of the flowers that came out we weren't even aware of!

Luna also enjoyed some benefits of the "color-it-red" campaign and now she's a proud owner of 2 clay bowls matching her new collor.

That morning she got me worried by the way. 



Half and hour after breakfast I noticed that she was gone. Normally she hangs around the breakfast area or stays in the street in front of pousada, but now she was really gone. I even walked around the neighbor trash cans to see if she hasn't fully satisfied with her breakfast, but nothing. 
She showed up one hour later happily wagging the tail, dripping wet&salty. I figured she decided to take a swim in the sea after breakfast. Well, it's a good start of a day, I must admit, however, she could have left a quick note or something "gone to the beach, brb, kisses", couldn’t she? ;-)

Daily life - International Womens Day, dead toad and new number [by Anna]

pretty quiet here these days, so why not write some updates about the life in Jeri!

yesterday i finally bought myself a SIM-card. i paid BRL10 (NOK32/EUR4,3/RUB168) at the pharmacy for it and didn't have to fill out any forms. the only time i need it is when Marina is out of town and needs to reach me and Dadi has already gone home (cos if she hasn't, Marina would call her), which doesn't happen all that often, but it's good to be prepared!

the past couple of days we had a terrible stench around the entrance to the storage, which also started spreading into the house through the windows. Marina had suspected a leak in the sewage due to heavy rains, but Dadi insisted it was some dead animal trapped underneath the lid of the entrance to the sewage pipes. today we found out that Dadi won! it was indeed a toad that got stuck there, and which wasn't very easy to discover. we contemplated trying to fish it out, but in the end we just covered it with a bucket of dry sand. now we can breathe again!

on a more positive note - today the courier-boy working for our accountant brought us a rose. he said that Erivando (the accountant) is sending flowers to all the clients because it is the International Women Day tomorrow. it's been ages since i got flowers for the 8th of March!!! wha a nice surprise. happy 8th of March, ladies!!!

Daily life - new hammocks and fridge [by Anna]

i don't really know how often it rains here during the rainy season, but past couple of days have been hot, sunny and windy just as during the other months. i am almost looking forward to the rain starting again. it will be nice with some freshness again!

today is a big day - the fridge that we ordered one month ago has finally made it's way to our hotel! it's our second positive experience with shopping online at Walmart, that delivers to the door and before the dead-line. it was really about the time we changed the fridge - the pictures of our old one speak for themselves.

unpacking the new fridge!

old freezer with permanently frozen bottle of Smirnoff in it

the old Consul

Marina also bought five new hammocks in Camocim today. neither of us really like the frills on the sides, so Marina used a couple of hours to cut them off.

Marina cutting of the frills

as a bonus comes another picture of a sunset. Marina thinks it's kitsch, but i like it!

Jericoacoara urban legends [by Anna]

so now it rains for real! proper tropical showers that make us wonder how our hotel survived the flooding they cause all the previous years. we gotta find a way to get rid of the water that forms pools around the breakfast area. the humidity is crazy, the temperatures plummeted dramatically to +26, Marina got sick and nothing dries anymore. thank God Marina brought her drier from Santos that we use now to dry all the clothes after washing. today i made a facial and had to use a hair drier to make the peel-off mask go stiff! Luna also doesn't really fancy the rain. she loves swimming in the ocean but fresh water is apparently not her thing.

our occupancy rates follow the temperature, but we were prepared to that. we use this opportunity to do some maintenance work around. amongst other things, today i've been planting some bad-ass-mother-fucker plants along the fence on the outer side. the grown up version has huge thorns so they are meant more for security rather than pure decoration. they also produce baby-plants and i separated and planted the whole eleven of them today.

grown-up evil plant

baby plant ready to go

anyhow, back to the title of this post. one night last week our night-guard had a day off. both Marina and i woke up 4:45 because of an alarm. i thought that Marina had changed the ringtone on hers, as it sounded as if it was ringing in our room. but it was an alarm in room number 2, we found out later. it's not that close to our bedroom, so it was quite a strange sound effect to start with. anyhow, we had just began to fall asleep again, when we heard strange noise. it was not to loud and it was coming from inside the house. although it didn't sound like it was a human making this noise, and it also sounded as if the sound was coming from inside the wall... Marina got up on her bed and said my "my bed is shaking, my bed is shaking! as if someone was shaking it by the legs". then we heard romp from the other side of the bedroom door, where Luna sleeps on the sofa. naturally, the first thing that came to our mind was that it was Luna who woke up cos of the noise too, but then we realized that we had left her to sleep outside that night, as we had no night-guard. immediately we heard Luna barking outside in a distance. then we heard some sound from the roof, as if some animal of a dog size was walking on the roof. and then it was quiet again!

we were quite scared i must say, as the supernatural version of an explanation came to our mind only later and first we thought we had robbers in the house. i asked around and found out that other people hear noises and see black shadows as well, and it is more common on our side of the village. amongst other things we found out that when white people came to this land, the local Indians resisted the occupation and were killed either by the whites or by the dogs they had brought with them. many bodies were buried in shallow graves in the sand, and for many years after that the wind and the tides would expose human bones here and there. so we figured that maybe the spirits of the poor Indians who inhabited this area come back to bother people at night...

you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave... [by Anna]

Today is the first day in Jeri (since we arrived here on September 15th) without the wind! There’s been no sun today and we had a pretty heavy but short shower as well.  The rainy season is now almost upon us. Since there’s been no wind, it is extremely quiet in the village. This quietness is very unusual, and the whole day I’ve been feeling like something is missing. The sun is down now however, and while during the day it was humid and stuffy, now the air is very fresh. We better get used to these new conditions as they are to last more or less until June. After the carnival (February 18-22 this year) there will be very few guests at the hotel and we are trying to work out how we will kill time during the three months to come.


All January we had only Brazilian guests but now in February again the majority has been the Europeans. Actually, it’s been quite a cool bunch of people, including our Russian friends and some people from Austria, Hungary and Brazil. They all came for a few days, but stayed longer. This is one of the main qualities of Jericoacoara – it is not easy to leave again! We’ve been hanging out quite a lot together. We love it when the customers become friends! There is a flipside to it of course – sooner or later people will leave anyhow, and we will have to wave them good-bye… But they do promise to come back, and we believe that they will!

Баллада о собаке [by Marina]

Впервые Лýна появилась у нас в гостинице прекрасным лунным вечером, подстать её имени, легко и бесслышно перепрыгнув через наш полутораметровый забор. Она радостно лизнула меня в руку и деловито забегала вокруг, осматривая новую территорию. Её хозяин, наш друг и сосед Карил Иван, хозяин гостиницы «Сахара», аргентинец, которого мы с Аней прозвали Кирилл Иванычем, зашёл на огонёк и оставил её за калиткой, но у Лýны есть 4 крепких лапы, и она одна за забором сидеть не хочет.

Лýна - помесь пойнтера с далматином, ей 4 года. У неё серьёзный вид, вокруг глаз черные "очки", очень подходящие к нашему тропическому климату, круглая женственная попа и длинный рыжий хвост с белой подпалиной. Когда Лýна путешествует по улицам Жерикоакоары, её хвост всегда бодро поднят кверху, мягкий кончик загибается  вперёд и ритмично балансирует втакт её бегу: вправо-влево, вправо-влево. Для меня Лýнин пляшущий хвост - это "thumbs up!" - поднятый кверху большой палец, символ оптимизма и жизнелюбия.

Очень скоро я узнала, что Лýна - собака очень, а может быть и слишком, самостоятельная. Кирилл Иваныч, большой любитель свободы во всех её проявлениях, воспитал её без особенных ограничений. Ошейника она не носит, думаю, что к поводку тоже отнеслась бы без понимания. Деревня у нас маленькая, как остров отрезанная от остального мира с одной стороны океаном, а с другой бесконечными песчаными дюнами, пространство замкнутое, собаке далеко убежать некуда. Лýна давно привыкла шляться по улицам одна, у неё свои дела, друзья и развлечения. Дружит Лýна только с людьми. В отношениях с собаками очень сдеражана. Если надо, умеет за себя постоять в драке, по-аргентински горда, и не привыкла спасаться бегством, но сама к другим собакам не пристаёт и даже играть с ними не любит. Лýна платонически влюблена в соседского чёрного кобеля Вижи́лио, но, когда он пытается с ней заигрывать, она начинает по-девичьи стесняться, и держится ближе к хозяину.

Кстати о хозяевах. Лýна их выбирает сама. Своего первого и главного хозяина, Кирилл Иваныча, Лýна, конечно, боготворит так, как суки умеют боготворить мужчин-хозяев, но одним Кирилл Иванычем список не ограничивается. Около года назад она подружилась с хозяевами соседней гостиницы «Агапантус», завоевала расположение их собственной собаки и начала жить на два дома. Жители нашей деревни начали путаться: Лýна – собака из «Сахары» или из «Агапантуса»? 

После того, как гостиница «Сахара» и «Атлантис» начали дружить домами, Луна стала заходить к нам на огонёк уже одна, без хозяина. Сначала осталась на ночь. Потом на две. Пару недель назад она переехала к нам жить. Пожитков Луна с собой не принесла, так что пока получила пластмассовый контейнер Ziploc в виде миски, и соломенную лошадиную попону в виде места. Контейнером пользуется ежедневно, попону особенно не признаёт, не смотря на её очевидную мягкость. Предпочитает спать на соломенном коврике перед дверью, чтобы всем приходилось через неё переступать, или на кафельном полу перед калиткой, чтобы все на неё натыкались при входе в гостиницу. 
 
У калитки Лýна торчит постоянно. Это её телевизор. По телевизору показывают кино про её возлюбленного соседа Вижи́лио, про его ревнивую жену, чёрную суку Ки́ку, про ослов и коров, слоняющихся по улице ночью в попытках объесть декоративные растения.
Калитка, как ясно из начала рассказа, для Лýны не закон, а всего-лишь декорация, знак того, что она не дворняга, а домашний пёс. Из-за перекладин калитки она взирает на попытки Ки́ки объяснить Вижи́лио, кто в семье хозяин.

Когда Лýна решает, что ей пора погулять, выпустить её наволю она никого не просит. По показаниям нашего ночного сторожа сегодня она, перемахнув через забор, куда-то отправилась в 3.30 ночи. Вернулась домой к завтраку, часов в 8, когда я уже собиралась нести её морковно-куриную баланду обратно в «Сахару». На вопросы о том, где и с кем провела ночь, Лýна отвечать не стала, только виновато потупилась и вильнула хвостом.

Теперь Лýна везде со мной, куда бы я не пошла. Когда мы идём по улице, я никогда не оборачиваюсь и не жду её. Если её что-то заинтересовало по дороге, я знаю, что, удовлетворив своё любопытство, она меня догонит и найдёт, даже если я уже скрылась из виду. Сегодня был поставлен эксперимент – если на большой скорости уехать от Луны на мотоцикле, она срежет дорогу дворами, и всё равно догонит.

В нашей деревне нет строгих правил, и обычно никто не жалуется на Лунино появление вместе со мной с универсаме, потому что ведёт она себя прилично, с полок ничего не хватает и на посторонних не брешет. Естественно, больше всего Лýна любит посещять мясной отдел. Сегодня, когда я уже ушла к кассе, она осталась в мясном. Оказалось, что мясник – её старый знакомый. Через пять минут она появилась, довольная и облизывающаяся.
Лýна умна, с ней можно разговаривать на человеческом языке и обычно приходится только гордиться её поведением. Постояльцы гостиницы влюбляются в Лýну с первого взгляда и хотят фотографироваться вместе. Позировать перед камерой собака не любит, стесняется и нарочно получается плохо на большинстве кадров.

Никаких собачьих команд для людского развлечения, навроде «дай лапу» или «голос» Лýна не знает. Когда я попыталась научить её давать лапу, собака посмотрела на меня как на идиотку, как будто говоря: «Я что, в цирке работаю?». Когда я спросила Кирилл Иваныча насчёт команд, он посмотрел на меня с тем же выражением и приблизительно тоже самое изрёк про Лýну на своём испано-португальском наречии. После этого унижать Лунино достоинство цирковыми трюками я не решалась.

Сегодня у Лýны был банный день. Я отвела её в родной дом «Сахару», мы повынимали из её спины, лап и ушей в общей сложности около 30 клещей (недостатки деревенского образа жизни), постригли ей когти канцелярскими ножницами, отшлифовали их куском строительной шкурки и отмыли запах коровьего помёта, в котором она вывалялась для охмурения сердцееда Вижи́лио, первым попавшемся шампунем. 

Во время всех длительных и болезненных процедур собака вела себя, как ангел, послушно подставляя все причинные части тела. Когда же её заперли на время просушки в кладовке, спортсменка мигом выбралась оттуда через окно и убежала к подножию Дюны Заходящего Солнца, где ждала меня, с укором выглядывая из травы, пока я не пошла домой.

Почему Лýна выбрала меня своей новой хозяйкой, знает только она, мне остаётся лишь её благодарить и платить любовью за её любовь. Сколько ещё она проживёт со мной, тоже неизвестно, но пока Лýна рядом, она дарит нам радось каждый день.

Of graviolas and hammocks [by Anna]

so we have been quite busy lately - fully booked pretty much since late December, with just a couple of windows here and there. I think both Maria and I are pretty much looking forward to the rainy season to start now, so that we can relax a bit. as a preparation for th rainy season Marina has signed up for the music school to learn how to play guitar and i have finally started taking surfing lessons.

I had heard many times that it is very difficult to learn how to surf, just as I had heard that it is difficult to snowboard. what can I say, although I'm normally not very good with coordination, I thought snowboarding was easy to learn, and I thought surfing was not a rocket science either. so, first I got some instructions on the beach and got to do the standing-up sequence about five times. then it was time to go into the water. the instructor was pushing me onto the waves and I had to do the rest. on my first wave I manged to get my feet up on the board, my forth wave I manged to ride for about twenty meter and the last wave, when my one hour course was finished, I rode all the way to the beach almost.

so, if you take one hour course it's BRL70 (238NOK/31EUR/1245RUB), three hour course would be BRL50 an hour (170NOK/22EUR/889RUB) and you can rent a board for BRL20 an hour (68NOK/8,9EUR/356RUB). the first hour covers standing-up sequence, the second - paddling techniques and the third - catching the wave. i'm going to take the other two courses when I come back from Norway, as this week I work the mornings.

our first graviola in the garden has finally ripen. actually, the correct English name is soursop, but I think it sounds ugly. just as the Russian name - cметанное яблоко. anyhow, it was the first time I tasted it, and I quite liked it - it has sweet and sour flavour that doesn't really remind of anything, so it's not easy to describe it. another good thing about graviola - it is argued to have anti-cancer effect.

we have a first friend-guest at the hotel these days. it's Claire, my French friend with whom I used to work in the Student House some 11 years ago. as the hotel is full, I conceded my bed to Claire and I'm sleeping in the hammock at the reception. the first night I didn't sleep that well but once you get used to it, it becomes addictive! there are so many comfortable positions, it is incredible! as contrary to the bed the hammock is three-dimensional, it provides very nice support to the body. no wonder the hammocks are so popular in this part of Brazil. I decided that I will continue sleeping in the hammock after Claire has left. meanwhile, here is Marina doing a demo of the most comfortable positions we've discovered so far.

"This corner of the world is like me in many ways..." Daily Life [by Marina]

You know, sometimes there comes a day when everything's just perfect, and you are in the happiest mood, and everything you do, turns out right the way it should, and you end up feeling high because of all this harmony and unconditional happiness, and feel like you are floating inside of a big shiny ball and nothing can get through it to hurt you? Today is one of these days, and i couldn't help but share it with whoever reads this post.

I've been getting up early recently, and even though I'm a late bird by nature, I guess getting up really early, at the sunrise, gives people good vibes, at least it gives me good vibes, if I get to be outside to see the nature waking up.

Yesterday, I went for jogging through the hills at 5 a.m, and today I had my first (and only because it takes only one to learn) class of stand-up paddling (SUP) at 6.30 a.m.

The class was fantastic! I had a lot of fun falling down from the board again and again  ploff-ploff! while learning how to pass by the waves and even regret that I didn't ask anybody to film this "Charlie Chaplin" action on video. 
However, after all, stand-up turned out to be quite easy (at least comparing to surfing) and I even rode my first wave by the end of the class! :-)
So, now I am busy looking for a SUP board to buy, which turns out to be quite expensive and there's not much offer on the Brazilian market because SUP is considerably new here. So, ironically most of the offers I saw online are from Santos where I lived for 6 years and never even tried it!
 
We have our first friend-guest Claire from France who knows Anna for many years already and we are very happy to have her with us!
While the girls are enjoying their morning at the beach, I take my first shower of the day, and work my morning shift at the reception. Today is an easy day, nobody's checkin-out, so I just reply some quotations and go get some groceries for lunch. Walking through the village is always funny, even after 6 years in Santos, I still can't get used to meeting so many people you know in just 3-4 minutes and saying "Hi!" to everybody as you are passing by the streets - a real village life ;-)

Back to pousada, cooking some pork sausage-tomato-potato stew for girls, sweating like hell, dancing to Jamiroquai and baby-sitting the dog of our guests from room nr.2. Then comes my second shower of the day.

Lunch is ready, looks like everybody liked it, the girls are back from the beach and I'm writing this post, attending customers and sending customers which are popping up from the street to our neighbours in order to earn some comission - doing all this at the same time - multi-tasking is something that a small hotel owner needs to do a lot ;-)

Soon I am off my shift, maybe will take a nap or do manicure, will take my third shower of the day for sure ;-) and tonight is Vanessa da Mata's free concert at the beach, all the friends are going of course, and I am looking forward to have a lot of fun and feel very HAPPY TODAY!

My tune and lyrics of the day: Jamiroquai
"Corner of the world".


Little darlin' don't you see the sun is shining
Just for you, only today
If you hurry you can get a ray on you, come with me, just toplay
Like every humming bird and bumblebee
Every sunflower, cloud and every tree
I feel so much a part of this
Nature's got me high and it's beautiful
I'm with this deep eternal universe
From death until rebirth
This corner of the earth is like me in many ways
I can sit for hours here and watch the emerald feathers play
On the face of it I'm blessed
When the sunlight comes for free
I know this corner of the earth it smiles at me
So inspired of that there's nothing left to do or say
Think I'll dream, 'til the stars shine
The wind it whispers and the clouds don't seem to care
And I know inside, that it's all mine
It's the chorus of the breakin' dawn
The mist that comes before the sun is born
To a hazy afternoon in May
Nature's got me high and it's so beautiful
I'm with this deep eternal universe from death until rebirth
You know that this corner of the earth is like me in many ways
I can sit for hours here and watch the emerald feathers play
On the face of it I'm blessed
When the sunlight comes for free
I know this corner of the earth it smiles at me

Русский новый год, он и в Бразилии "Русский Новый Год" [by Marina]

Некоторые традиции сохраняются в любом месте, и в любом климате, и это очень здорово! 

Вот, помню в новогоднюю ночь с 1999 на 2000, мы с Вероникой были у Аньки в гостях в Копенгагене. Точнее, даже не у неё самой в гостях, а у какого-то её знакомого, любезно предоставившего свою однушку на переночевать. И вот, когда русский новый год уже наступил, а датский ещё нет, прежде чем выйти из дома, мы красились-наряжались и крутили по видику «С лёгким Паром!», потому что какой же Новый Год без «Иронии Судьбы»? Помню, Анька ещё домой на такси сгоняла за фильмом в последний момент, потому что без него справлять все отказывались.

И вот в этот раз, 12 лет спустя (страшновато сейчас было писать эти циферки) мы с Анькой сидели в последние часы уходящего года на ресепшн у себя в гостиничке в 2-х градусах от экватора, гости разогревались напитками перед праздником, да и мы, чего греха таить, тоже, и крутили всё тот же «С лёгким Паром!». Всё те же Надя, и Женя Лукашин, и «...это он мокрый от слёз...» - и всё идёт как надо! Ну, нет снега, и нет ёлки с Дедом Морозом, зато есть новогоднее кино, а значит и настроение :-)

Atlantis's happy campers [by Anna]

so, only three days to go to the New Year's Eve and Jericoacoara is really boiling with people! for most of the hotels the packages started today. there are people traffic jams in the streets and the air is getting hot! the stage and the concert area behind our hotel is almost completed and the concerts will start tomorrow. it is really party ambiance around the village!

we are also full. we have six couples, all in their late twenties and in their thirties, three foreign couples and three Brazilian. the foreign ones are from Denmark, Australia/Canada and Austria/Canada, the Brazilian ones are from Rio, São Paulo and the least exotic one from Fortaleza. the atmosphere at the hotel is very nice. the foreigners hang out together. all of them wanted my dish of the day today, and after we served it they pulled the tables together. i love it when people are enjoying themselves in our hotel!

today i started working at 4 p.m. i went to the beach in the morning and stayed for almost four hours. i just can never get enough of it! then i got home and made the dinner for the guests and did the dishes afterwards. now it's time for the administrative work. i finish at 1 a.m.and then i'm gonna go out a take a couple of caipirinhas i guess. better enjoy the moment! i work late again tomorrow so i can sleep late.

2011 was a great year for me. i lived in Paris for three months so now i will always be able to say "quand j'etais parisienne...". i love the way the French say "when i lived i Paris" - it translates to "when i was Parisian"! i met a lot of wonderful people... i scored a couple of nice tries (i'm talking about rugby here)... i bought a hotel in Brazil... it was a year of dreams coming true for me. and i'm sure that 2012 will be even better.

happy new 2012 everyone! may all your dreams come true. just don't forget to dream!

check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com

we love to hate booking.com [by Anna]

this post is probably not going to be very exciting for the people using booking.com only on guest-side, but i need to get it out there - WE HATE BOOKING.COM!

this site is always number one in Google search results when you search for a hotel, and i must say - yes, we do get quite a few bookings via them. but guys, for 12% commission you should be doing a better job, i'm sure you can afford it!

the main issue is - the interface for the hotels looks like it's been designed by the first year Computer Science school drop-out! it is not at all intuitive. the drop-down menu still has months for 2010. if you want to change the price you have to do it day, by day, by day as it is not possible to select a period. the availability is marked by colour and a number of rooms available, and often the colour would be red even though there are rooms available and the other way around. so what is the point of having both?? it is possible to set booking restrictions on the site, but in order to remove them you have to contact the office. also, once we had to cancel a reservation due to wrong credit card details. we selected this option on the web-site and got a message that the site will try contacting the customer for the next 24 hours. 3 days later we still haven't heard anything back, the reservation was still hanging there and only after a reminder sent by mail we got a chance to delete it.

now talking about the São Paulo office, they are terrible. there is no option for changing any text description. you have to send a request which will be considered by the Editorial department! i don't know how many e-mails and calls we had to exchange with them in order to persuade them to change the "Duna do Pôr-do-Sol" text into "the Sunset Dune" in the English description of the hotel! they kept on insisting that the English-speaking users would know what the  Duna do Pôr-do-Sol is because they know what the main attractions are, but they would have no idea what the Sunset Dune is!!! during the over-the-phone introduction to the web-site we made a test reservation on the name of the hotel. the commission for this reservation was included in our bill for the first month! when we sent a mail to them, we got a standard reply back saying that it is important to pay the invoices on time in order to avoid penalties.

i could go on and on, but i guess you get the point. on our web-site we use the Reseliva booking engine which is fantastic and cheap. the interface is clean and well-structured and the support is always timely. i wish booking.com learned from them!!!

while i'm at it, a couple of words about the infamous TripAdvisor. in early September we tried to register with them. that took forever - it is not at all easy to find a way to do it on their web-site! after two hours and a lot of clicks, i finally managed to do it. i got a pop-up window saying that in 5 business days we should get an answer. after not hearing anything for one week (and not having received anything at all by mail, not even a confirmation of the application), i set to find a way to find out what the status is. it turned out that there is no way to contact TripAdvisor, and the only thing i could do was to leave a message in their forum. i did that, and received an answer saying that they have a big back-log and during one month we should get a reply. two months later i wrote again to ask what the status is, as i thought it was weird that we still haven't heard anything. i got an answer back saying that there is no way to find out what the status is, and if we haven't got a rejection by now, it means our application is still being processed. it's been being processed for nearly three months now!!!

well, if anyone read until here, i just tell you one thing - people, use booking.com to find a hotel that you like, and then google them and book directly! you will save the hotel the 12% commission and a lot of trouble, and will probably get better service as the owners will be happy not to pay a crazy commission for a terrible service on your booking!

Daily life - unequal fight against the insects [by Anna]

Here is Jeri we don't really have a problem with any insects, although the mosquito can be annoying on a windless night, as I have already mentioned. Cockroaches here are quite peaceful insects who live in the garden , in bushes close to the ground. Actually you don't ever see them, until some neighbour hotel start spraying the poison against them, and then they come with the wind. The New Year's eve is approaching and I guess everyone is preparing, so last week in two rooms at the same time the guests saw two roaches in the bathroom! We were quite shocked (let alone the guests), as we never ever see them, but we took the matter seriously and decided to spray also.

A tiny bottle of poison is enough for a bucket of water. So we put on masks and gloves and set out to spray the rooms and the garden. The whole process took us about three quarters of an hour, despite the protection we felt nausea by the end of the process and we were afraid that the frogs and lizards would also feel not quite well after the spraying. We were very excited to see if any dead roaches would pop the next day, but there weren't any. I have a suspicion that no one ever manages to kill them, they just migrate around...

Retail therapy Jericoacoara style [by Anna]

so believe it or not, even in Jericoacoara there comes a day when a gal could use some shopping. for me that day was a couple of days ago. the list of (useful) things you can shop here is pretty limited. shorts, tops, flipflops... i have already a lot of. but can a gal living in Jeri have too many bikinis? my answer is NO!

a bikini is something that really tells a local from a tourist. you see someone with a bum covered completely by the bikini-bottom? that's a tourist. you see someone who from behind looks like there is no bikini-bottom at all? Brazilian!

i started my collection of Brazilian-style bikinis last year in Morro de São Paulo. it was a weird experience wearing it for the first time. i felt totally naked taking off the dress on the beach and thought that everyone would stare at me and point their fingers. naturally, noone paid me any attention at all. now i'm used to wearing them and think that the European bikinis are an unnecessary waste of fabric and create too much tan lines (hahaha you gotta love Wikipedia sometimes).

talking about the tan lines, i was surprised to see how many women wear proudly their bikini-top tan lines here. until i've figured out that it was kinda fashion here. and another sign that tells a local from a tourist. i got some of my own now.

it's a hard knock life for us...

Moon-walking - photo-report [by Anna]

Marina has been a bit stressed today as our occupancy rates can still be better and we still have to do a lot of maintenance around. I’ve been trying to keep the spirits up. Then in the evening our Slovak friend Daniel, whom we like to call Martin (he just looks more like Martin!) passed by. He’s the manager of the kite-surfing school that we work with and Martin (Daniel) came to bring us the commission for the people we referred to his school. Two of them were the Swiss guys we captured from the jardineira and two other were a Swedish couple that I also met at jardineria, and although they stayed with our neighbours, we helped them arrange a course as at their hotel no one spoke too much English and they found it cumbersome to arrange it with them. That has lifted up our mood and Martin was happy to get some borsch that Marina had made earlier today.

Meanwhile it’s full Moon these days and everyone talks about some special cosmic energy now. For some reason it is quite common to talk about the cosmic energy here, I even heard someone say that some American scientists did some measurements and confirmed that it is so. In the meantime I’m just trying to enjoy the beauty of this period!



Moon rising over Preá



On Saturday we went to the kite-surfing base in Preá. Originally we were supposed to go horse-riding, but due to some problems of communication we were late for that so we only took part in the dinner. Preá is only 15 km of the coast from Jeri and the kite-surfing base is about 1 km away from the “center”. Basically, it’s in the middle of nowhere, there is just nothing but the beach around. The base is really big, with a restaurant, hammocks, showers, chill-out area etc., everything is very well done - like quality design and quality products around, so uncommon for this area… It felt like we were so far away from Jericoacoara, nice short getaway! The dinner was very good too, but needless to say, it was expensive. Well, someone has to pay for all that beauty, right? Still, in terms of Norwegian prices I guess it was not too bad, but I was quite shocked to have to pay BRL8 (3,3EUR/25NOK/138RUB) for freshly-made mango-pineapple juice. But then again, watching the Moon rise above the Atlantis was absolutely priceless! 

Moon light over Malhada



Last night my friend Lily and I went to the Malhada beach to take some pictures. The Moon was high and it was really bright. The light was amazing, it felt like we were on another planet, there was just such a surreal feel about it all! The ambience made me think of one of my favourite movies – The Wristcutters. We stayed a while and wondered off. Neither of us really knew the area and we randomly stumbled into this bar where four people were playing some kind of laid-back jazzy bossanova. There was no one else there but us and a lady who looked a lot like Susana Vieira who turned out to be a friend of one of the musicians. The musicians were all local except for one American girl. That girl had come to our hotel some days prior and she seemed to be totally lost, almost looney-kind-of-lost, as being lost in our village of five streets is not very common. She had had some water and went off looking for the main street again. That girl, the music, the lights, the place – the whole ambiance made me think of the Wristcutters again.  



the Wristcutter style bossanova place

My friend Lily is leaving for the US on Wednesday so today we finally made our long awaited hike to the Pedra Furada (the Pierced Rock). We made sure in advance that the tide was low, so that we would be able to go by the beach and wouldn’t have to climb the hills around in this heat. There were a lot of curious rock formations on the way and the whole journey took us almost two hours I guess. The best part of it was the pools of water in the rocks left by the high tide, and thanks to Silvana we discovered a really deep one tucked in a rock by the water. The difference in the water levels was quite astonishing, it was quite deep and the water was refreshing, so we hung out there like in a nature-made Jacuzzi for quite a while. We would have stayed longer, but we noticed that the water really started coming up, so we had to hurry back before it was too late, and to be on the safe side we walked the hills the rest of the way. The climbing was not very pleasant, but the route took less time and I made it home just in time for my muay thai training.

Silvana by the Chuck Norris style wet-bar

dead (?) coral (?)

pool of water left after the high tide

fishes in the pool

funny looking animal (it was moving!) about a size of a fist

Lily in the "Jacuzzi"

Daily life - post and garden maintenance [by Anna]

So days go by very fast! We are entering the busiest period of the year and we are working hard trying to fill out the remaining vacancies that we have for the next couple of months. Everything is going well, despite the couple of power blackouts that we had recently (luckily during the day time) and the fact that the garbage truck broke down and the trash is really piling up now. 

I now manage to answer simple phone-calls without having to pass the phone to Marina or Dady. Never before I have learned a language this way – just listening to other people and then talking. Or I guess I did learn Russian that way!

Couple of days ago we received some packages – the heart-shaped forms to make fried eggs (our Australian guests were the happy eaters of the first ones we ever made); some strong pain-killers from my English friend Cynthia in Paris (she works as a journalist and she used to buy those for the B-52 lead-singer she told me) and a blue mini-bar for room 6 (now all our rooms have mini-bars).

The same day we also did some maintenance on the coconut palm trees. We were mostly after the big dry leaves (?) and those other dry parts. We would like to use them to make our ugly lamps look nicer. There are used a lot around here and we also would like to make our place look more rustic!