From Jericoacoara to Camocim with a beach buggy
West laguna
Our buggy driver to Camocim is there on time. We strap our heavy luggages on the roof and off we go. We learned that he has been doing this job for the past 15 years, and every one says “Hi” as we drive past. He is a little older than the drivers we have seen around. First things he asked: Music or no music? We are ok without, the loud party music is ok for a few hours, but we have the whole day – that would be too much. He is quite happy with our answer.
The West of Jericoacoara is a lot nicer than the East, it’s wilder. There are donkeys, muttons and some cows grazing on the little patches of green between sand dunes. The lagunas are fresh water, so I guess apart from the harsh sun, it’s as a good place as any.
We pass by some fishermen with use nets. They are catching shrimps. Locals are stopping by with buckets and buying directly on the beach.
We start with a good section on the beach itself until a first ferry crossing. As soon as we reached the other side, we have our first stop: a short 20-30minutes boat trip into the Mangrove to see seahorses. We are quite surprised to see them right at the very edge of the water. They usually hide quite well, but here there are many and easy to see – it’s quite incredible. We also spot a couple of juvenile needle fishes and colorful crabs. A short but pleasant stop.
A short drive away, and the coastline is mostly mangrove – it’s shaded and sandy. There is a middle point for pictures there. Lots of small souvenirs and refreshment stations have grouped in a surprising spot. Why here? I do not know. I didn’t find the location nicer – other than it was shaded… They set up photo props on the shorelines with swings and people stop there for pictures & refreshments. We did a few pictures too.
Once we passed this area, we drive through a lot of dunes. It’s fun with the buggy and the landscape is totally different. As we pass by a very tall one, we see down below a laguna – it’s the first opportunity to slide into the water. We decide to go with the next one, which is taller.
It’s not really far before we reach it. We take our foam boards and slide down into a delightfully cool fresh water laguna. It’s a ton of fun !
Once this is done, we are already close to lunch time and our driver brings us to a larger laguna with restaurants around. We can stay here for as long as we like before continuing to Camocim. This would be the last stop of a standard day tour to the West. The restaurants here are a lot low key and simple than the East, which is proper beach clubs and fancier menus. We can only choose between a variety of seafoods. Since this morning, we saw the fisherman on the beach with their nets catching shrimps, we picked these.
After a little while enjoying the place – it’s time to go and continue our trip. Needless to say, from this point on, we were alone. We hardly crossed another car or buggy until Camocim. The path is very nice, it goes through a lot of different landscapes – dunes, mangrove, under rows of coconut or right by the sea on the beach. It’s a very nice drive.
We passed by Tatajuba beach and there were probably 30 and more kitesurfers there. It made for a nice view with all the colors. This beach has only kite schools and a few accommodations. It’s extremely wide.
We arrive in sight of the town – we are on the other side of an inlet and another ferry is there. We board and wait awhile, hoping that another car will come. After 20min, the boatman brings us on the other side in under 5min. Everything is manual on the boat (except the engine of course), bringing the ramp up and down is all done by hand. The crew must be super strong doing this all day!
I understand why some buggy drivers don’t want to do this extra 30km more and additional ferry crossing. The road on this last section is more challenging – but it’s a really nice way to travel to Camocim instead of the asphalt inland route.
Our driver drops us off at the hotel we picked for our only night in Camocim. Our bus is at 5am tomorrow morning for Parnaiba.
