After the jungle, we feel we have really started to explore, begin to understand and really appreciate Brazil… But as we are writing this we are stuck in a bus station in Maceio, beach town in the North, with seemingly no good options for the day. We have had several difficult and confusing conversations in sort-of-but-not-really-Portuguese with bus operators and the upshot is we have at least 3 hours to kill before we get underway, and we are not going where we wanted to go. Still, we will not let this spoil our view of an amazing two weeks*…

Straight after the jungle, having arrived back into Manaus at 5pm, we booked a flight leaving at 3am to Belem. Feeling exhausted (like Michelle sleeping on restaurant tables exhausted) we arrived in Belem at 7am and luckily found a nice hotel who gave us some breakfast before we got some sleep. Brazilian breakfast is amazing (toasted cheese and ham sandwiches, various cakes - including tuna cake - and loads of fruit), a huge improvement from what we`ve had so far… so it`s definitely back on the menu after the dreadful dry bread and jam of the west coast of the continent.

Feeling refreshed we headed to the zoo in Belem to see some jaguars through the safety of bars rather than mosquito nets! It was great to see them but the zoo felt rather cruel and it was actually sad to see these powerful animals in captivity. We then visited the micro brewery on the docks and sampled all the varieties (it would be rude not to?!). Rich`s favourite was the Amazon red, the kind of stuff to put hairs on your chest! We did some other touristy stuff in Belem, namely the fort and the market. The fort was built by the Portuguese to protect the river entrance from Dutch invasion, then used by the Dutch against the French, the English, Portuguese again and everyone else; it makes you wonder whether the locals ever really knew or cared which of the colonizers were in vogue that month. The best thing about the market was eating some super fresh Brazil nuts. Delicious.

Our next stop was the beach (woohoo) & our beach of choice was Jericoacoara. It took us 27 hours & 3 buses/ jeeps to get there but it was totally worth it. The beach is surrounded by sand dunes so is only accessible by 4x4, making it difficult to get to and hence less touristed, which was perfect for us. As an added bonus they were hosting a jazz festival that started the day we arrived, could this place get any better? We basically spent the 6 days we had there chilling in the sunshine, doing some watersports (check out Rich windsurfing in the photos), listening to jazz, and eating lots of seafood. The water and breeze was brilliant for wind surfing and the professionals were great to watch. Michelle did some more surfing, and progress is slowly being made, although some higher factor sunscreen is needed! We really enjoyed Jeri (as known to the locals) so stayed there for a whole totally chilled out week - it felt like the perfect start to exploring the Brazilian beaches.

From Jeri we moved to Fortaleza, this was just a stop gap for us, and we didn`t explore much, just seeing the beach and center of town before heading on to Olinda, near Recife. Olinda is a small town north of Recife and has a strong musical and artistic influence. The music is heavily drum based and the rhythms a huge melting pot of many influencing cultures. Pretty much anything goes, and the dancing has a similar theme. Olinda holds one of the country`s best carnivals and it was easy to see how, if we make it for carnival Olinda will definitely be on the list of potential cities. Just outside of the town there was a water park and theme park and we had an adventure day visiting both. The water park was by far the best and we had a great time sliding around and taking on the very high free fall drop slide (Mich managing to burn the skin off her elbows… ouch) no pain no gain as they say. We also timed our visit well with another free festival in Recife, the highlight of this being Sepultura, a heavy rock band. We hit the mosh pit armed with flip flops and caipirinhas, a very surreal experience! The music is not really either of our tastes, but it made for a great night!

Leaving Olinda on a high note we hit the bars with some friends and sampled the local alcohol (Ache), a drink made from 32 herbs only sold from a few houses in a certain street (very secretive!). It was good stuff and kept us going through the night. Hitting the road the next day slightly hungover we arrived in Porto de Galinhas. Described as paradise our expectations were high, however, the paradise it may have once been had turned into what seemed like a tourist trap, with extortionate prices and tons of people. We quickly jumped in a taxi and headed down the coast to a more secluded beach called Praia dos Carnerios, near to the town of Tamandare. Thankfully this was paradise and we had a great time at the beach relaxing. It was really beautiful and we swam with the fish in the natural pools and soaked up the sun on the beautiful beach.

From here we splashed out and hired a taxi to take us to Maragogi to swim on the reef and then onto Maceio. Maragogi was beautiful, and having got there too late to get the boat to the reef we managed to get a private speed boat (for only R$20 more miraculously!). It was great, Michelle felt very bond girl and thinks a speed boat is a good investment. The reef was lovely and we spent an hour snorkeling with a guide around the reefs and looking at the different fish (although with our very limited Portuguese and "snorkel talk" we`re not too sure what he was talking about!). It was amazing and we saw a ray and lots of tropical fish. Back on land we enjoyed the beach over some lunch and then headed to Maceio. Here we had another stop over night and we are now at the bus station as described in the first paragraph… ready and waiting for the next beach!

Rio for new year anyone? We have sorted an apartment two blocks from the beach in Copacabana for 8 days over new year (even though it took about 20 emails and 30 calls!) If anyone fancies coming out to join us for new year you would be welcome!

*NB this blog covers two weeks, not our target 1 per week, as we basically claimed a week off from the rest of the world whilst relaxing in the incredibly cool Jericoacoara…