My Apologies
Unfortunately my blog is several days behind. I’m currently working on the updates of the last days. In the meanwhile you can few already the pictures but please come back to read the stories behind…
Jan 25
Is this Kitesurfer’s Heaven?
Canoa Quebrada is a small fishing town in the northeast of Brazil and since there is a strong wind blowing it’s also a popular spot for kitesurfing and windsurfing. Actually Jeri and Canoa Quebrada are said to be one of the best kitesurfing destinations in Brazil. Others include Cumbuco and Fortaleza.
Canoa Quebrada has two major spots for kitesurfing. The first one is part of the approx. two kilometer “Long Beach” right in front of the town. There aren’t just kitesurfers here but also other people walking on the beach and swimming in the sea. However, the kitesurfers more or less stay on the Western part of the beach while the swimmers are mainly in front of the restaurants and bars. The second spot is where the Jaquaribe River meets the sea. The sea here is nice and flat and one can stand in most parts of the water during low tide. Therefore, this spot is better for practicing or doing tricks (jumping) than the spot at “Long Beach”.
Have a closer look at the first picture I have posted under today’s blog entry. Isn’t this a gorgeous spot? When kitesurfers go to heaven this is probably where they want to end up… In total I have never seen more than ten kites in the air at the same time at both spots so there is a lot of space and the ultimate feeling of freedom in the air.
I spent about half of the day at the beach and the other half walking around in town. Compared to Jeri, Canoa Quebrada has less charm and is more touristy. It’s a former hippie community but there is not much left from these times with the exception of Reggae music played in some of the smaller bars and restaurants.
Canoa Quebrada
We had to leave Jeri at 8am. I could have stayed a few days longer but overlanding continuously drives you forward to new destinations. However, I’m pretty sure that I will return to Jeri one day for kitesurfing, maybe already in November this year.
Leaving Jeri was the same procedure as coming here. The first 15km were off-piste in 4×4 drives until we hit our truck “Mamacita”. From there it was a 6-7 hour drive to Canoa Quebrada our home for the next two nights. We actually expected the drive to be 1-2 hours longer but there was a new road which speeded up our travel so that we arrived around 5pm.
Our pousada was situated in only one minute walking distance from the beach. When we arrived there was some confusion with our reservation. They had reserved rooms for us containing only one small double-bed for two people. Usually we don’t sleep that close to our roommate and cuddle with each other so that Anki, who speaks pretty good Portuguese, had a discussion with the hotel manager. In the end six of the eight of us got a single room which was a welcomed change after spending several of the last nights in dorms.
This evening I spent some time to create the “Travel Statistics” page of this blog so please take some time to have a look and count the countries of the world you have visited so far…
Another Kitesurfing Day in Jericoacoara
In the morning I went for a walk around in Jeri. Compared to yesterday it was much calmer probably because the Brazilians, who come to Jeri for the weekend, had left the town. It was a nice atmosphere to stroll around the little sandy streets and the beach area. There are not too many places I fall in love with and have the desire to return but Jeri has the potential to become one of these places. This little town has lots of charm: no big hotels, small restaurants with tasteful food, outdoor bars with delicious drinks, a beautiful beach, lots of sun and strong wind…
Francesco, I and two Brazilian guys left at 12pm to go kitesurfing. Jeri is also the dream of every kite- and windsurfer since it has excellent wind conditions, especially from end of July to the end of December. There are several spots for kitesurfing in the area and independent from the wind direction there is always a spot to go to.
Today I tried out two different kites. First there was quite strong wind and I had a large kite, so that I only had to move the kite a little to get good traction. When I changed to the other kite the wind was changing and less strong so that I needed to move the kite more quickly. I especially had difficulties with the first kite since it was pulling me very hardly and 2-3 times I lost control over the kite ending up in uncontrolled flights over the water. Luckily I was not flying too high and the water surface is not as hard as land or ice so that I didn’t hurt myself. Modern kites today do also have a three way safety system which allows you to completely detach the kite from your body in case of an emergency, e.g. a boat is driving into your lines and pulling you. I was also happy that I have taken my new polarized sunglasses (level 4 protection) which I have bought for the mountain glaciers and my 50+ sun blocker to the lagoon since the sun was pretty intense. I actually managed to survive the two days on the water without getting sunburned.
The guys and I again spend approx. four hours kitesurfing and it was very much fun! I’m honestly considering returning to Jeri for 1-2 weeks later on this year, maybe after my Lima to Cartagena trip in November. Let’s see…
For dinner I went with Anki, the co-driver / mechanic girl of our truck, to a restaurant serving Arab specialties. The food was very delicious and less pricy as in many other places. After spending quite some time on the water I was very much hungry and also my body temperature had dropped. While my roommate Molly was sweating and sleeping with the air-conditioning switched on, I was somewhat shivering and had to put my fleece on.
Kitesurfing in Jericoacoara
After a sleep in and a relaxing morning I went kitesurfing with the guys from “Zona Kite” in Jeri. There is an Italian guy called Francesco who speaks pretty good English and is a certified IKO instructor. If you haven’t kitesurfed before or what to improve your technique he is the guy to speak to. He also operates a website called Kitetripbrasil.com on which you can arrange several days of kitesurfing in the Northeastern part of Brazil with him.
IKO is the International Kiteboarding Organization which spans an umbrella around the three major kite sports: kitesurfing (also called kiteboarding), snowkiting and powerkiting (also called kite landboarding). Although I do related sports like windsurfing and snowboarding, kitesurfing is still very much different. Probably it’s 80% of the skill to control the kite and 20% to actually control the board which is the main differentiator from snowboarding. You also have to overcome your fear and “feel” the kite if you want to enjoy flying…
Francesco said that the wind is currently stronger in the afternoon why we didn’t leave Jeri before 1pm. Our destination was a lagoon very close to the sea which we reached in approx. 10-15 min by dune buggy. Since there are no dunes, the wind blows as much as on the sea but you have a flat surface which is optimal for practicing or doing tricks (jumping). We spent approx. four hours here which was very much fun. My fellow traveler Bob from Australia came as well to watch me kitesurfing. Since he is already seventy years old and has an artificial hip he couldn’t give it a try himself but just watched. But he said if he were ten years younger with a proper hip he would have tried it which is so typically him. Bob remains the coolest seventy year old guy I have ever met…
While I was kitesurfing the other people in my group went for a tour in a dune buggy which took them to some scenic lakes and rocks in the surrounding area of Jeri. All of them very much enjoyed this tour although some of them came back very much sunburned.
In the evening most of us went to the beach to have some kebabs. I tried each of the four different kinds offered which were chicken, beef, shrimp and cheese. Especially the cheese kebab was surprisingly delicious since it was covered with some unidentifiable but tasty spices. Afterwards we went for a drink into one of the small bars which brought this wonderful day to an end.
Meeting Mamacita and Saturday Night in Jericoacoara
Today’s drive was from Parnaiba to Jericoacaora. It was actually the first day since the beginning of the trip on Jan 9 that we were travelling in our lovely overland truck called “Mamacita”. Every Dragoman truck has a name which gives it a kind of personality when speaking about it. “Mamacita” is quite an old lady but our co-driver / mechanic girl Anki brought her into a pretty good shape during the last days.
Before starting to drive at 10am, Ross and Anki gave us a short introduction into the truck, e.g. explained where everything lives, gave us the code for the combination lock at the door and we also received a special demonstration by Ross on how to enter and exit the truck without jumping and breaking your angles. As soon as the truck started to move we also had the possibility to put our valuables into the “pub” which is the nickname of the build in safe of the truck. We actually always call it “pub” so that strangers do not get alerted when they hear us speaking about it. For the same reason we do only go into the “pub” while the truck is moving so that nobody watches what we are doing.
Ross also gave us our truck jobs. Every traveler has to take on certain responsibilities which are related to the operation of the truck such as cleaning, loading / unloading luggage and tents, checking the accounts of the kitty money etc. This time I’m up for cleaning together with my roommate Molly.
After driving for three hours we had to park “Mamacita” and use 4×4 drives for the last 15km which is an off-piste drive across the sand dunes. We were picked-up around 2pm and arrived in Jeri, the nickname for Jericoacaora, half an hour later. In Jeri we stayed in the lovely Pousada Pareiso which is situated only a five minutes’ walk away from the beach.
After everybody had a walk around in town and watched the sun setting behind the big dune, people started partying. First there was a room party in one of the boy’s rooms out of which half of the people came out pretty tipsy. I joined a bit later at the beach bar which had very good and relatively cheap Caipiroska. One could select the fruit of choice and watch the drink freshly made. I tried strawberry, passion fruit and kiwi out of which strawberry was my favorite. What’s also funny is that our seventy year old fellow traveler Bob joined the partying and ended up pretty drunk and vomiting during night time… He’s really the coolest guy I know in his age group. Bob has the shell of a seventy year old but behaves like a thirty year old which makes him really special.
São Luís City Tour and planned Travel to Iran
For today we had a city tour of São Luís planned and our local guide Bruno was supposed to pick us up at 9am. Actually he showed up at 10am because our leader Ross tried to re-schedule the tour to 10am. Since Ross didn’t receive any feedback on his email, we assumed that Bruno didn’t receive it in time and were ready at 9am.
The city tour started at a plaza where we saw a strange statue of a guy with a chopped off hand. When I understood the story behind correctly, his hand was chopped off because he didn’t agree to the closure of the school located at the plaza.
We continued our walking tour to a church, the sea front and a number of colonial buildings. The city very much reminds me of Lisbon. Especially the buildings with their colorful flagging are very similar but less well preserved. Therefore, the city center of São Luís was declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site and owners of colonial buildings are taken into responsibility to restore the buildings. Actually this is a difficult task since the hot and humid weather is continuously washing off the paint.
São Luís is also said to be the center of Reggae music in Brazil and one of the major locations for Capoeira but I didn’t recognize it too much by walking along the streets. Bruno also took us into a local bar where we tried different kinds of home-made schnapps including flavours like passion fruit and ginger. The owner of the bar had hung up big posters asking guests to not spit on the floor and to not take pictures. So I only took a few sneaky pictures to capture the atmosphere. And of course I didn’t spit on the floor :-)
We ended the tour on the local market right next to the area where the locals hang out at night. I returned there in the evening and tasted some street food which was very good and with only three Real surprisingly cheap.
I also received an email from Dragoman today informing me about the travel situation in Iran where I’m planning to go in 3-4 months from now. The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) does currently not advice British nationals to travel to Iran but Dragoman still assesses the places we travel to as save and will run the trip through Iran as planned. However, travelers have the option to fly over Iran but if the political situation stays stable in Iran I will trust the assessment of Dragoman and travel over land through Iran. I know that the company is very experienced in overland travel and that they wouldn’t hesitate to cancel a piece of a trip if there is serious danger in the country. As an example they have currently cancelled all trips through Syria.
Here is the letter:
Istanbul to Ashgabat / Ashgabat to Istanbul 2012 departures
It is important that you do keep updated with Government travel advice. Just in case you are unaware, the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) is advising against all but essential travel to Iran.
Your Istanbul to Ashgabat (and vice versa) trip is due to spend 16 days visiting Iran.
Is it important that we make you are aware of the current British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice, we have therefore reproduced the text below.
‘We advise against all but essential travel to Iran. All British nationals in Iran should keep a low profile. There has been a dramatic increase in anti-British rhetoric from parliamentarians and demonstrators. The Iranian parliament and Guardian Council voted on 25 and 28 November respectively to expel the British Ambassador to Iran. During a demonstration on 29 November the British Embassy in Tehran was attacked, entered and set on fire. British nationals have been arbitrarily detained in Iran in 2010 and 2011.’
Visit http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/middle-east-north-africa/iran for the full advice on Iran.
‘The British Embassy in Tehran has closed and all UK-based staff have been evacuated. British nationals requiring urgent consular assistance can visit the Embassy of any EU Member state in Tehran, or in an emergency call the FCO in London on (+44) 20 7008 1500.’
Other governments differ in their advice. Below are links to some of the websites
Australia: http://www.smartraveller.gov.au
New Zealand: http://www.safetravel.govt.nz
United States: http://travel.state.gov/travel/travel_1744.html
Canada: http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/menu-eng.asp
Dragoman has comprehensive passenger liability protection and tour operator insurance valid for travel in Iran. These policies have total indemnities of £5,000,000 and £10,000,000 respectively. This is in addition to local vehicle insurance and your personal travel insurance.
We are also in regular contact with our ground operator in Iran. Their in depth knowledge and understanding of the situation on the ground is vital and helps us make an informed decision. From all the advice given to us, Dragoman believes Iran remains safe to travel through and would like to continue running the Itinerary through Iran. However, because the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice is advising against all but essential travel it is important that you fully understand your options.
There are a couple of ways to proceed with the trip without totally disrupting your plans
a) Continue with the trip as planned crossing the border from Turkey to Iran and continue with the original itinerary.
b) Continue to travel with us but “sign off” the trip in Turkey and fly over Iran (at your own expense as per the booking conditions) meeting back up with the group in Ashgabat on the same date the group crosses into Turkmenistan.
If you are unhappy with either of these options please let us know.
If you are happy with option A, we ask you to sign the disclaimer below and send it back to us. If you would like to fax it to us please use +44 1728 861127.
If you would like more information about option ‘B’, please contact your sales agent who will be happy to discuss this option in more detail.
Dragoman, in the meantime will be looking at all the latest British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice and will remain in close contact with our ground operators in Iran. If there are any changes to the current situation, Dragoman will act accordingly.
Travel Insurance
If you have a travel insurance policy arranged by Campbell Irvine it is important to note that their underwriters have agreed to provide cover subject to each client being fully advised of the FCO warning advising against all but essential travel, acknowledging such warning and signing this letter (disclaimer). Cover will then be operative but excluding any claims arising out of or in connection with the reasons for which the FCO are advising against travel.
If you have a policy other than Campbell Irvine’s you should check whether or not the cover will be affected as some Insurance providers may not be able to offer cover due to the current FCO advise. If you wish to purchase a Campbell Irvine policy to cover the duration of your stay in Iran please see the details below:
Campbell Irvine
48, Earls Court Road
Kensington
London
W8 6EJ
Telephone: 020 7937 6981
If you have any questions please call and speak to one of our sales team.
Regards
Charlie Hopkinson. Director
I, …, on behalf of myself and … acknowledge receipt of details of the advice from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office against all but essential travel to Iran. I confirm that I/We are happy to continue with the trip to Iran and confirm that I/We are aware of the alternative options open to us.
signed …
dated …
