O que faz meu coração bater
Or: What makes my heart beat…
Jerí is not known as a kite spot per se — the wind is off-shore and the local windsurfers don’t like the kiters there. But starting around July every year the wind blows so hard it turns the beach into a sand blaster and makes the palm trees bend toward the ground. It’s hard to resist.
Most days, I kited at a beach called Praia Malhada. It has a little bit of a funky launch with a rotor coming off a hill, and sharp rocks camouflaged as sand that claimed both considerable skin from my right big toe and rip-stop nylon from both my kites, but other than that, it’s a fantastic spot to kite.
My typical daily routine would be to hit the beach around three pm and kite for about three hours until sunset. Then I would wonder on down the beach and grab an açaí on the Rua Principal, or a beer at Club Ventos. The town is small enough to know everybody after a few weeks, so you always have a friend to talk to (and practice Portuguese!).
On many occasions I went for downwinders with my buddies Marko and Zé (and Rob earlier in the trip) either from Preá back to Jeri, or from Jeri to a river about 12km down. Pedra Furada as seen from the ocean at sunset is quite spectacular.
Many thanks to Erik Almklov for this footage:
Yesterday got my visa extended for another 3 months 🙂 Even tried to speak portuguese with taxi drivers and most of the times they were stunned speechless with my perfectly pronounced sensible sentences 😉
August 26, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Nice — I guess you’re not going anywhere for a while…Well keep working on the Portuguese. Maybe one day the cab drivers won’t be quite as speechless hehe.
August 26, 2010 at 12:17 pm