Jericoacoara 2

Here are some random observations that didn't fit into the previous 2 posts on Jeri.


The last part of the trip was made, as mentioned before, in a jardineira. This left the main road and took a dirt track towards Jeri via a beach. This was a truly bumpy ride with the vehicle going up and down depressions, fording one or two small streams, sometimes having to shift to the lowest gear to get through particularly slippery sands, and so on. It takes over an hour to cover the 24 km or so.


At the start of the dirt track, there are caju trees on both sides. I also saw the occasional mango tree. The plantations didn't look particularly well looked after, or maybe the caju tree requires less husbandry than I think. The tree is native to this region. It's a strange fruit to behold. The Wikipedia explains that what looks like the fruit is actually a false fruit that develops from the receptacle of the true fruit, the drupe holding the seed which we call the cashew nut. The drupe looks like an afterthought to the large false fruit, like something that might drop off easily but I picked up a fallen fruit and could not easily separate them by hand. The false fruit is edible and can be turned into a drink but is too easily bruised to transport. I should try a caju drink sometime.


As mentioned, people come to Jeri to chill out and a host of local businesses have developed to cater to tourists. Beside the regular bus+jardineira combination, it is also possible to get there by 4x4 over the coast. Besides the restaurants, drinking holes, patisseries, ice-creameries, and Internet cafes, there are buggy operators, sports outing operators, beauty services, artisans and so forth. However it seems to be low season now and the owners are grateful of any business. They all seem to be small operators, nobody has resort-ified Jeri, and I hope they never do. However it means that the businesses are a bit haphazard. At the restaurant where I ate my second night's dinner, the musician was a guitar player and vocalist. But he sounded a bit out of tune and I doubt if he will be releasing any albums.


The villages on the dirt track are typical rural Ceara. There will be a main street usually the same one you came in on, a couple of side streets, and a main square with a church or town hall. There will be a bakery, a grocer, maybe a mobile phone shop, a mechanic workshop, a beautician, and sometimes a clinic. You can probably get videos from the general store. There will be people sitting on porches as you go past. Some children will be playing in the street. Maybe some school kids will be coming back from school. Yards may have chickens scratching around for food. These people are not isolated from the outside world, they have their phones and watch the same TV programs as the Brazilians in the city. But their work will be to do with local agriculture or serving people who work in it. I suspect the young will try to get out and go to school in larger towns or even big cities, coming back by the bus service for holidays. I hope they will get better schooling than the bugeiro who could not write my name properly as I spelled it out for him, reversing the N. Brazil has a large population, around 200 million, and much of it is young. Their education will determine the progress of the nation.


The dunes surrounding Jeri are unique but it's also a long way to travel, over 7 hours each way from Fortaleza. Was is worth it? Yes, but probably only once. Perhaps it's this isolation that keeps Jeri from getting too commercial.