Brasil is so cool!!!!!!!

I arrived in Fortaleza on the evening of the 2nd of May. I check in to my hostel, Full Sail, where I meet Evelyn in my room. She’s only speaking to me in Portuguese even though she’s Argentinian, and asks me if I want to go out with her and her friends. I answer if I please can just have 15 minutes to take a shower, to which she replied that it’s fine, just hurry the most I can. I express shower, change and here we are leaving the hostel, and her friend comes to pick us up. In the car are Argentinian Andres, Brazilian Andres and Deborah. We drive to the main beach area where we join two work friends of the Andres’. We have cervejas and some delicious beef with its sides (yes, I already broke and ate beef the first day, but I can’t be difficult on my first day meeting people). Não falo muito bem o português, but I managed to understand most of the conversations, and spoke some words. A real immersion already in the first few hours!

We had a great night, in the bar and then in another bar where we danced Forró and had more beer and tequila. Forró is a typical music from the north west of Brazil. The dance is pretty good!

During the next day, Evelyn and I went to the beach and the one after I explored some parts of downtown. Fortaleza is a big city so I didn’t explore the whole town and preferred to go to the beach. Night bus direction Jericoacoara!

A vida é linda. Life is beautiful. It’s now my fourth day in Jeri and third in couchsurfing with Rodrigo. (Couchsurfing is a community / website where people offer their homes to people travelling, to meet people and share experiences and cultures.) \240The house is simple, but has everything needed, and a cute garden with all types of plants: passion fruit, papaya, chillies, basil, mint, tomatoes, acerolas, bananas, coconuts, lemongrass, and more! Life here is so great, so calm and peaceful. I walk “home” in the evening and hear the chickens up in the trees, tired from running in the street the whole day.

I found a volunteering job in Tirol hostel which I will start on Saturday. It’s maybe not the most ideal hostel, but the few staff only speak Portuguese so it will be good for me!

In the past days I’ve been walking on the dunes, along the sea and small forests, exploring the area. Even though it is rain season, it’s nice being here. The large amount of rain creates lakes at the bottom of the dunes, which is a stunning view.

Jericoacoara is amazing!

Life keeps smiling at me, and I’m smiling back. Working at Tirol hostel is very relaxed, I do some cleaning and then some reception work. As it’s low season we don’t have meny guests, so I spend most my time continuing to learn Portuguese.

Today it was finally sunny again, after a few days of rain, so I went to the beach (very windy, even after a long shower I still have sand everywhere)! So beautiful, the landscapes keep fascinating me. I hope to go for some walks in the next days to see some new places around.

I started a new volunteering! On Tuesday the 14th of May I changed hostel to go to Mandala hostel. At first I didn’t want to come here because most of the volunteers are Argentinian and therefore I won’t progress in Portuguese, but the vibe here is so much better than Tirol!!

I’m still working in cleaning, but only in the evening (except on Mondays) which means I have the whole day free. We are 14 volunteers here, which means there’s always movement and people around. During the day we always go to the beach or walking, which is very nice. I went twice to Pedra Forada, the first time with Pampa, and then with three Argentinian guests, Pampa (from Argentina), Paulina (from Uruguay) and Lucas (from Spain). The other volunteers are: Roberta (Brazil), Carol (Brazil), Esteban (Colombia), Jesus (Venezuela), Jorge, Rama, Seba, Belem, Juansito and Javi (all Argentinians). The hostel vibe is amazing! And Paulina (from Chile), the owner is really cool! Everyday we have lunch all together, and we all have to cook (two and two) once a week for everyone. In the evenings we hang out, go to the beach or the main square together.

The main parties are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, where there re many caipirinha stands on the beach, with music and everyone dancing.

I’m very happy here and start to feel at home, now that I’m integrating into the group. Also I’m getting used to cleaning now. It’s still not something I wanna do my whole life but for now it’s ok!

Here are some photos of the last days