Brazil beaches: Our 3 days in the hippie beach town of Jericoacoara, Brasil

After the amazingness of Lençóis we continued our tour of Brazil beaches! The next stop on our itinerary was Jericoacoara, which is a little hippie beach town on the north coast of Brasil. The drive from Barreirinhas (where we stayed when visting Lençóis) to Jeri was supposed to take close to 7 hours, so we decided to split it up. On Monday we drove about halfway, stopping in Parnaíba, and then on Tuesday we went the rest of the way to Jeri. I’m sure Parnaíba is its own awesome little beach town but we didn’t spend more than 12 hours there and Damian’s morning beach attempt was thwarted by flooded roads.

Getting to Jericoacoara and Day 1

We got to the main town area of Jijoca de Jericoacoara in the early afternoon on Tuesday. To get to the actual beach area it takes an additional hour of driving over (flat) sand dunes in a national park, and you must be accompanied by a guide. People in town were telling us we could take our car, but everywhere online and in books we had read that it’s better to park your car and then take a ride on a 4×4 to get to Jeri (cost of 20 reais, or $5, each).

We decided to go with the latter, which was definitely the right call; there’s no way our car would have made it over some of those bumps. We parked our car in a lot, found a driver heading out to the beach, circled the town a little bit to see if there were any other takers for rides, and then drove an hour out to the beach. You can see some of the “traffic” we encountered on the way there below.

After we arrived I decided I needed some downtime. Our lodging there was absolutely stunning (more on that later), so I was happy to relax, be inside and just chill. Damian walked out to the famous dune in Jeri, called Por do Sol, to see the sunset. While I was happy to relax, man, did I miss one amazing sunset! A little did you know: this is one of the few places in Brasil, even on the Brazil beaches, that you can see the sun set over the water? Because the country faces mostly east it’s a rare sight.

Once Damian returned we went into town to explore and to eat dinner. What’s fun about this town is that it is quite small (only about 5 main streets, with smaller streets/alleys – aka becos –  running between them), and all the streets are sand! It definitely adds to the hippie, laid-back vibe and it was a nice, unique feature of Jericoacoara (I haven’t seen any of the other Brazil beaches do this). For some reason (maybe I was pictured-out, it can happen) I didn’t take any pictures of the town, but you can find some good ones linked here and here. We finished the night by eating at Pescador (Damian’s moqueca (fish stew) was awesome!) and then headed back home to hit the sack.

Day 2 in Jericoacoara – chilling, the arched rock and beach sunset

On Wednesday I decided I needed some more down time, and I think part of that is that I was just obsessed with where we stayed. It was called Villa Jomael, and there are actually a couple of villas that are part of the property, each owned by different European owners, but managed by the same company in Brasil. Out of all the Brazil beaches we have stayed it, this lodging was one of the nicest, and I especially enjoyed lounging and writing and reading in this outdoor space they had.

In the meantime, Damian spent the morning heading off to another one of Jeri’s famous sights, Pedra Furada, or the arched rock. You can get to the edge of the trail to the rock (~2.5km from the main town) however you’d like (ATV, 4×4, walk, etc.) and then it’s 1km there and 1km back. It did look beautiful in the pictures! We thought about going another day, but the trail was filled with horse poop (more on that later) and bugs, and had the threat of snakes, so it wasn’t totally my thing.

In the afternoon we decided to go to the beach! We skipped the main beach in town, which was nice, but pretty developed with beach chairs and umbrellas, and vendors selling drinks and snacks. The water itself is also quite shallow, and the sand darker and grainy, and while it was nice, we just weren’t too excited about it.

We instead walked to the far end of the beach and kept walking over a bunch of rocks for about 750m and reached Praia Malhada. Now Praia Malhada is one of the awesome Brazil beaches. It was pretty empty, with just a few other folks and some local entrepreneurs selling caipirinhas, but the best part was the waves! We had so much fun jumping in and out of them and played there for a couple hours. We decided not to bring any valuables so we don’t have pictures from Praia Malhada of our own, but here’s one from Wikipedia.

We finished out the night by getting some gelato from Gelato and Grano and watching another beautiful sunset on the dune (you can see how many people head up there in the picture below). Not a bad day at all!

Day 3 in Jericoacoara – ATV tours, shopping and another beach sunset

The next day was Thursday and our last full day in Jeri. We decided to do an ATV tour of the area so we could see and enjoy some of the famous lagoons. To do a group tour, where you have to stop at all the destinations cost 250 reais total ($69), but for 270 reais ($75) we could do our own private tour (with a guide on a motobike). We opted for the private tour so we could spend as much or as little time at the sights as we wanted to!

The first place we headed was a big dune (I don’t know the name of it). Obviously it wasn’t as expansive or crazy as Lençóis (not that that’s a fair bar to compare it to), but it was still super fun to walk up it and explore and hang out. You really do feel like you are in another world!

We then headed out to Lagoa Paraiso (Paradise lake), the biggest and most swim-mable lagoon/lake in the Jeri area. It was really cute how they had done it up, with lots of hammocks in the water (which we of course took full advantage of). There was also a trampoline, a slide and other fun things set up in the water.

However, as you can see, while we were there the storm clouds started rolling in. In our Brazil beaches tour, even in the rainy season, we’ve been pretty lucky to not be stuck in too many downpours. This one was a doozy though and we were glad to be in the water already (there was no lightning so we felt safe). Damian also enjoyed making his favorite dad joke to everyone he could see “guess it really isn’t paradise lake today, eh?” har-dee-har-har. We hung out until the rain stopped (driving ATVs in the rain is even less fun) and then headed to the next destination.

We stopped by Lagoa Azul only for a hot minute. It is another stop on the tour and has a place to eat and some nice scenery to look at, but there is less swimming there and we just weren’t super stoked about it. We passed through a cute little local town (more Brazil beaches! but I sadly don’t know the name of them…) and then got to ATV on the beach, which, as two beach bums, we loved. We also stopped at this tree that is called Arvore Preguiça, or the lazy tree. It has been blown over so severely by the sea winds that it grows horizontally, and many of the branches have become roots. Nature can be pretty neat!

We headed back into town and it was early afternoon, so we did a little shopping (you’ll see the fruits of that later) and had the most scrumptious Middle Eastern food at Kafila. Seriously it was so good. We of course got gelato again at Gelato and Grano and headed back home to shower.

After the shower it was sunset time again! I put on my new dress (which, by the way, I’m still obsessed with and wearing nearly every day) and headed to the dune. And, I mean, what good is a new dress if you don’t take pictures twirling in it? It’s a total waste! So we did that as well 🙂

Day 4 in Jericoacoara – later tater, on to more Brazil beaches we go!

And then finally, when we woke up on Friday, it was time to go. Our time in Jericoacoara was interesting. I liked it, and I’m glad we saw it, especially since it’s one of the more famous and heralded Brazil beaches. However, for what we are looking for I wouldn’t say it’s the best fit for us to return there again in the near future. The sand streets are fun, but when combined with stray dogs and lots of horse tours, you end up with poop throughout and lots of flies. The whole area it a little too developed for my taste, and the beaches are nice but not great enough to make up for it. To be fair, we also are not partiers or going-out people, and I know that is a big reason that Jeri-lovers really enjoy about the city. I can see all there is to love about Jericoacoara, I just think it really just depends on what you are looking for!

Next , we were headed to Itapipoca for a night, en route to our next destination of Canoa Quebrada, because, you know, we just cant get enough of those Brazil beaches. Onwards we go!

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Read more about our time in Brazil using the links below:

• Brazil Country Recap – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Iguazu Falls
• Exploring São Paulo
• Exploring Bonito
• Touring in Bonito (river snorkeling and waterfall hiking)
• Rio de Janeiro: Our first three days in Rio
• Rio de Janeiro: “Professor-ial” thoughts on attending a game at Maracana
• Rio de Janeiro: Volunteering with Project Favela
• Three days in the beach paradies of Ubatuba!
• Rio de Janeiro: Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain
• The amazing landscape of Lençóis Maranhenses
• Three days in the hippie beach town of Jericoacoara (you are here!)
• Why we had to skip Canoa Quebrada and go to Natal instead
• Six days in Praia da Pipa (my favorite beach town)
• 24 hours in Olinda