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An outpouring of wet, wet Jeri love
Leaving Jericoacoara was quite an experience…
I woke up very early for any traveler (6am), packed my things and left the pousada (hotel) to make my way down to the one bus stop in Jeri where you can catch the bus back to Fortaleza.
It had been raining a little the evening before, but suffice to say, it had turned into a torrential early morning riser as well… The sandy streets of Jeri had become surging rivers of water racing back to the neighbouring sea. Armed with only a plastic bag around my backpack, I stripped off to just my shorts, and trudged through the rain for 7 minutes until I reached the bus stop, thinking of the warmth of the bus that would soon be my shelter.
I was soaked to the bone, but luckily, my backpack had largely escaped unscathed by the elements. Upon spying the bus, I soon realised that I would not be as lucky, as the 4WD dune buggy-bus had open windows, no flaps, and just enough seats to fit most of us in…
The leaky roof didn’t really help either. We soon became best buddies with our shivering travel companions as we put on a brave face for the next hour or so until we would get to the ‘proper bus’.
I wrested my towel from my backpack, and managed to dry myself off, but it too soon joined the rest of us and was drenched. When we got to the proper bus, there was no time to get dry clothes out of our bags, it was straight under the bus for our bags, and we jumped on board to try and dry off as best we could.
Lucky for me I had packed a spare pair of shorts/shirt in my daypack, so was largely able to get dry enough again over the next 4 hours to Fortaleza, then prepare myself for the next bus to Natal…
A crazy, crazy, yet adventurous day was had by all.
It is oddly amusing that this trip was one of the more friendlier trips, as the cold and rain brought all the travelers together in one spirit.
Finding My Feet At Tobogã
The shrieks of excited children can be heard long before your trail to the waterfalls comes to an end.
And then that strange extended ‘mushy’ whoosh sound followed by a loud splash is finally explained. A smooth moss covered rockface, worn down over time, forms a natural waterslide down to the pool of water below.
Young kids, egged on by their parents, take cautious turns sitting or lying down and sliding the ten metres or so into the cool freshness of the mountain water below.
Then it’s the teenagers’ turn… not content with the simple pleasures, they prefer to surf down the slippery rock face on foot – dangerous, yes, but thrilling to watch.
I can barely make it across the flat slippery path without falling over at the top of the Tobogã, (or toboggan). The kids glide past me with grace and ease.
I think that this time, even with travel insurance on my side, I might stick with the ‘lying down’ option…
Locals here practice at the Tobogã for the annual ‘surf’ competition. That’s when you’ll see the most thrilling and daring moves come out…
Preparing for the adventure
So it’s my final few weeks in Sydney.
There are a lot of changes coming up for the Brazilianaire these next few months… New job, new place to live and of course, the new travel adventures.
While I’m traveling, I wanted to be able to keep my friends, family and readers up to date with where I’m at and what I’m up to… but keeping it as simple as I can.
My site homepage will be updated on January 20 to include a new homepage that will show you the latest blog updates, latest tweets, photos and where I’ll be.
I didn’t want to take a computer with me when I was travelling, so I opted for an approach which would let me publish everything beforehand and update it with a simple email as I go.
iWeb, Apple’s web software created the pages for the www.thebrazilianaire.com site.
Location updates come through Plazes, and the widget that will appear on my homepage.
Blog updates come through from Posterous, a blogging platform that lets you update easily by sending emails from your standard addresses direct to your blog as posts. Posterous also lets me update Facebook and Twitter automatically.
Photo and video updates are done through Apple’s MobileMe galleries, which have been pre-published online so I will just upload direct to those…
Anyone using the twitter hashtag #brazilianaire can join in the conversation online and will appear in the homepage tweet timeline.
Widgetbox has provided a few widgets for me to easily share the blogs, location and photo updates.
Hopefully all the above will make it easy as to update the site while I’m travelling around.
Tales of The Brazilianaire 