Fortaleza was not the most exciting place - which made it a good opportunity for me to catch up on my reading. Off to Natal on the night bus tonight.

We bumped into Kurt and Madelon again on our bus to Jijoca, and gave them a ride in our 4WD to Jericoacoara. It was a scenic ride as we drove through the sand dunes, and then on the beach, with 2 ferry rides in between - the second one involved 2 men poling our vehicle and the 10 of us on a raft across a stream. Jericoacoara is surrounded by beautiful sand dunes, and made up of guesthouses, sandy streets, bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and kiteboarding / winds...

Arrived early yesterday morning and spent the day getting oriented around town and lazing by the pool. We took a boat tour around the Parnaiba Delta today. It is the 3rd largest delta in the world after the Nile and Mekong. It was a pleasant trip - we enjoyed a good dip in the sea (great surf and extremely strong currents), cruised through the mangroves and we had a few crab and monkey sightings, and we finished with a walk on the sand dunes. The sand dunes ar...

We arrived in São Luis 2 days ago, and headed straight for the historical town center where our guesthouse is located. The Pousada Portas da Amazonia (Doors of the Amazon Guesthouse) is on Rua do Giz, the most photographed street in postcards, with its cobbled streets and beautiful facades of the colonial buildings lining both sides of the steep streets. São Luis is the only city in Brazil that was founded by the French (who befriended the Indians with their gi...

We arrived in Belém yesterday morning. I thought it was a reasonably pretty town, with quite a few colonial buildings preserved. All the shops were shut as it was a Sunday, but the markets were open, and we managed to get a few bargains at the market. Zema had cautioned us about safety in Belém, that we should stay in groups and not take our camera (I could not leave my camera behind, so I tucked it into my pocket). As we wandered around the city center in sear...