Juggled to Jijoca

Somehow we managed to get by on very little cash for the first month in Jeri, but it was time to bite the bullet and go to the bank. The town of Jericoacoara doesn't have an atm in it, so it was off to Jijoca, the neighboring town. Usually tourists get roped in to taking the scenic route to Jijoca by paying for a buggy ride in and around the lagoons but since we're gringo-locals (or at least we like to see our selves that way!) we hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck for R$7. These trucks are Jeri's form of public transit: there are two benches in the back and a wooden frame above the bed. Our driver was a little crazy. First we drove around Jeri for a good 45 minutes (he said we'd be leaving in 10...) trying to pick up more passengers. Then we embarked on possibly the fastest, most wild and bumpy ride anyone has ever had across the dunes. Ever. It really didn't help that mid way there he decided to take a new path because apparently the one he was on was quite rough enough, but he hit one bump too many and had to stop to fix something around the wheel. Uh oh. He slowed down a bit after that, but had to stop every few minutes to fix something new. We did finally make it into Jijoca in one piece.

Walking around Jijoca was weird. Paved streets, two way traffic, tall buildings, sidewalks and traffic signs seem very foreign to us after not leaving to beach for over a month. After we figured out how to use the atm machine (it was all in Portuguese) we wandered around town. As it turns out, the super cheap prices in Jeri are actually inflated quite a lot compared to the rest of Brazil. A meal in Jijoca costs at least half of what it does in Jeri, of which is already half of what it would be back home. We didn't end up spending much time in Jijoca, I found it was just moving too fast for my liking. We wanted to get back to the beach and the relaxed atmosphere of Jeri.