An update

Sorry, no pictures in the blog this time. The internet have been extremely slow everywhere we've been. I'll edit this post some time later to make it more colourful. I was able to upload the slideshow which has the pictures in reverse chronological order. I think there are two pages.

With the departure of my Dad came the arrival of my good friend Chris and his girlfriend Vanessa. Both just recently finished school and are taking this one trip before RCMP training and life begins. Earlier this year Chris had his first taste of kiting and was hooked. When I told him I was going to Brazil for the fall, he was in.

We all spent a few nights in Cumbuco then headed North to do an lengthened version of the trip we took with my Dad. We started off with a few days in Taiba kiting the lagoon where crowds have grown considerably over the last month. It's weird kiting in Taiba though, one minute there will be 12+ kites in the lagoon and the next everyone will be off the water taking a break leaving a nearly empty lagoon. If you spend the day there, you can still get plenty of quality kiting in. Just watch out, every time it's been busy, there always seems to be at least one out of control kiter who you need to keep an eye out for both on the water, so they don't crash into you, and off the water because it can be entertaining.

After Taiba came Paracuru for a few nights. Paracuru has been the best spot for waves thus far. There is still one place, Pecem (South of Taiba), which I think might have cleaner waves but I have yet to kite there.

In Taiba, I strained the muscles in my forearm trying to do low, powered kite loops on Brianna's 5m. For a few days after that I couldn't unhook so I was on my surfboard for most of Paracuru. I'm really enjoying wave kiting and our planned Peru trip would be perfect for just that. Unfortunately, though, I don't think well be able to afford it and may just take a trip to Rio or the Amazon. We may even just stay in Ceara which in no way would be a big disappointment.

Our next stop was Lagoinha to escape the crowds, ride flat water, and do down winders. Here we stayed at a posada called 'Sol Poente' which had a communal kitchen where I was able to eat my first self cooked meal since I got here (well Brianna made it, I helped). Pasta, garlic, and tomato sauce. Mmm, mmm good.

I had my 22nd birthday here on Halloween and though they don't celebrate Halloween here, they was a big party / carnival / night market / bar / gong show in the nearby town, Paraipaba. Actually, one of the big reasons we went, other than my birthday, was because this Brazilian superstar, whom we constantly hear on the radio, was supposed to be there. We saw his tour bus but unfortunately either got there too late or left too early and didn't get to see him perform. Nevertheless, we had a great time drinking 25 cent shots of Cachaca (except Chris, our responsible designated driver), eating chicken skewers, shooting lead bb's at candy then eating what we could hit, buying random stuff, and going on the most dangerous carnival ride I have ever been on. The whole time on the ride I was thinking 'it would be so easy to die right now.' It was a great birthday.

Though Lagoinha is also getting noticeably busier, the lagoon is still mostly empty and would serve as a great spot to learn (if your not scared of the crabs). Vanessa actually had her first rides here and Brianna landed some of her first backrolls. Myself and Chris, on the other hand, managed to rip our kites from leading edge to trailing edge one day apart from each other. I ripped mine the day before we left and had it repaired that night. Chris ripped his the day we were leaving (right before our 18km downwinder to Flexeiras) so we had to stay an extra night so his could get fixed.

Unfortunately, the posada we were staying in couldn't accommodate us for another night so we went to this place right next to the kite repair guy's house. $40R bought us a single room with one bed, cockroaches, no lights, no towels, and a broken fan. Me and Chris slept in our hammocks while the girls slept in the bed. They thought they were lucky getting the bed but my guess is that the sheets hadn't been washed in a week. Silly girls. Anyway, we met these cool Brazilians there who told us about this party about a 10 minute walk away. Communicating with horrible Portuguese, English and hand gestures, they assured us it was safe and we were off. They brought us to this small courtyard fenced with a 10' brick wall, in the middle of nowhere, packed with speakers, a horrible DJ, and a handful of dangerous looking drunks. Shortly after getting inside they closed off the only entrance with one of those unrolling steel doors making us all wonder what we got ourselves into. The night actually went pretty well and we managed to stay out of trouble. The three Brazilians we came with ended up paying for the two bottles of rum and multiple bottles of Coke (a-cola) we went through and we all partied the night away. Chris was a bar-star (see: dancing machine). We eventually made it back to our shack of a posada and all passed out pretty quickly not having to deal with the grossness of where we were sleeping.

The next day I did about a 15km downwinder, Chris drove through a river on the beach going mach one and tore off a hub-cap and separated the tire bead from the rim, and we all made it to Flexeiras just after dark. The beach between Lagoinha and Flexeiras is perfect for down winders. When the tide isn't high, driving on it with a car isn't a problem (except this one small river) and its about 18km of areas with chop, flat water, and waves. One our only full day in Flexeiras, Chris and I after kiting in front of our posada decided to do a late-day downwinder as the wind was really strong.

We didn't know exactly what the tides were doing but we figured that they're probably going down, or about to go down. We brought Brianna with us to take the car back and around high-tide we set off up the beach. Well, we got stuck pretty quick just outside of where we could easily run to get help. As a general rule, the sand is hardest right next to the water. Not in this one spot though. I got us stuck with the waves breaking and just reaching our tires. We all got scared as if the tide was to come up anymore it would sink one half of our car and make getting the car out next to impossible. After some of the most frantic digging I have ever done, with thoughts of my rental deposit running through my head, me and Chris with little Brianna at the wheel managed to get it out. Biggest relief of the trip. On the way back, with the tide much lower, we passed the spot where we got stuck only to see most of our tracks had disappeared from the rising tide. I estimate we were lucky within minutes.

After Flexeiras came the long drive to Prea and a 30 knot, apres sunset session. The next day we made our way to Jericoacoara early in the morning in order to take advantage of the low tide (high tides now scare me) and I had my fourth (and much needed) day this whole trip where I didn't kite. You don't really realize how bad you need a break until after you have it. Kiting today felt like I had a brand new body.

Me and Brianna made our way north from Jeri, on the beach, during the low tide, to a spot called Tatajuba. It took us close to one hour to get there including a flat tire and a short ferry ride on a small raft called a Borsa which cost $5R per trip. Tatajuba is known for it's lagoon but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to kite there (stupid tide) and just kited in the ocean.

This morning we were all planning to return for a full day of kiting but after breakfast, just before I was about to get our flat repaired, it turned out that our spare tire had gone flat as well. The Borrachaira (tire repair shop) told us there would be a two hour wait so our plans to kite today were ruined. They got it done five hours later. To pass the time Bri and I went surfing here for an hour or so. The waves were pretty clean but I didn’t really know what I was doing and either could have used a bigger board or bigger waves. The only other times I have surfed have been on boards 2-3' longer. I can't complain though cause we had a blast.

We'll be back south soon with a faster internet connection so hopefully I'll be able to keep this a little more updated.

Till then, tchau.

Dan and Brianna