Double-trouble Day 01: Jericoacoara.

Hi, guys! How are you? Hope everything is fine wherever you are!

Well, as I said in my previous text, today I’ll continue to write down about my December trip. It was only two days, but I did so many things it seems I was there for a week. First things first, I’m going to start with the first day: December 15th we arrived at a small city, took the car and went to Jijoca de Jericoacoara, where the village is.

The travel agency (@pazturismo, on Instagram) had prepared our schedule, starting on Pedra Furada. As the name say, Pedra Furada is literally a rock with a hole on it, but saying like this doesn’t make it as interesting as it is, but I’ll show you. To get there you have two options: walking (and here I mean going up and down on a mountain) ou by jUber (which is an Uber on a horse, funny, huh?).

We didn’t know the second option – which right now, I totally recommend you, because climb that mountain was very hard. It was almost half an hour to go down and then another to climb it back. Not that the view wasn’t worth it, but if I have the option of spend less energy on doing things, why not? But better then describe is to show, here I give you some pics of it.

People say the best hour the visit this place is in the end of the afternoon, because you can see the sunset throught the stone, I don’t know because at this time I was seeing another thing.

The path

The view from the top of the mountain

No filter, guys!

Still no filters!

Here is why Pedra Furada!

So, our morning was basicly to see this, then we climbed the moutain up and we had a free time to have lunch, and that was when we skipped our lunch to find horses to ride. See, the thing is that, as I said before, my boyfriend and I were talking about our vacation and he mentioned he wanted to ride a horse someday, so I suggest us to find a place we could do it. And so we went and we find! And instead of having lunch we spent our time riding the horses around the beach. I won’t say I wouldn’t do it again, it was very fun, and for a first time rider, I want to say I was super excited and I think I did a good job.

So, when we came back to go with the group to the next point, the only thing we ate was an amazing ice cream, I don’t remember the place’s name, but it’s the only spot in the major square, if you ask somebody, they’ll tell you. After this, we took the bus again to go to the last spot, the one I was waiting for the intire day: Lagoa do Paraíso.

All those pictures I saw, that clear water and everything… When I saw it in person, I got shocked. The only thing I could think was “how can we have such a beautiful and big landscape like this?”. That time I got even more sure (is this possible?) that we did the right thing by going to this place.

Lagoa do Paraíso!

Don’t forget the sunscreen lotion!

the Square

I love the things my cellphone does!

❤

Well, I could stay here posting pictures and writing about this day for the rest of the weekend, but I remembered I still have the Day 02 to talk about (which I’ll post another day), so if you’re still with me until here, I just have to thank you and say that – for now- that’s all, hope to see you soon! =D

Double-trouble: Jeri + Tianguá.

Hi, guys! How are you? Hope everything is fine wherever you are!

A year ago, I wrote here about places I want to visit and not more than 5 months later I got to see one of these. I remember exactly the situation we decided to travel: I was having this conversation with my boyfriend about how we should take some days off to travel, few minutes later I opened my Instagram and there was an add on @pazturismo  Agency of a weekend on Ceara, to see two cities.

After some research to make sure the agency was good and things offered were worth it, we decided to go. It was December, 2017 and I wrote on that August I wanted to see Jericoacoara. Can you imagine how happy I was?

I think that traveling with this company was the best decision we took because they are very fair with everything: prices, hotels, bus, food, everything they offer is high quality for a good price. The trip was for a weekend, we left our city on friday night, traveled by bus and arrived on Ceará on Saturday morning. The path to go from the city to the village has to be done by those 4×4 cars, those big ones, because there is no road, it’s only dust (in the wind….) and some trees, just like I’ve showed here before to go to Barreirinhas.

The village itselt is where the things are: restaurants, bars, the lake, clubs, hotels, everything. To go inside the village, you have to pay a fee, I don’t know how much it was at the time because the agency paid for it, but my stepmother was there some weeks ago and she said it’s something around R$5,00 per day/per person, very cheap, don’t you think?

We used this map here to help us. Since we were there only for a day, we had to go very quickly to see the places, so on a short sight we walked to Pedra Furada (2km away), then we came back to the center of the village to have lunch (which we didn’t, later I explain it to you), then to Duna do Pôr-do-Sol and to finish we left the village to go to Lagoa do Paraíso (something like Paradise Lake).

Jeri’s map.

Our time in the village was very short, it’s the thing I regret the most becaus everybody says the night in Jericoacoara is amazing and we didn’t had the opportunite to see because we had to take the bus to the other city: Tiangua, where Sitio do Bosco is.

We left the village around 5p.m. and took an 2 hours-trip to the other city. In this one we had a hotel room to sleep and everything, it was a “fancy/nature/natural”-something. The hotel is in a mountain, so at night is very cold, which is funny because this state (Ceara) is super hot, just like mine. Anyways, it is a perfect pitch if you want to rest or an adventure or just relax at the pool or climb a rock, I mean, even if you want to stay in your bedroom all day long it’s fine because the room is amazing (but I wouldn’t). Again, I can’t give you the prices and everything because I set everything up with the agency, but considering by the drinking prices, I could tell you it isn’t as expensive as it could be.

Sitío do Bosco’s view.

Of course I’ll write a text to each day, if it wasn’t clear, because I want to give you more pictures and details and advices, everything I can, but for now, I’ll leave you with this amazing view, just a little sneak-a-peak. So, that’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed this, and, for sure, I hope to see you soon! =D

Experiences to grow.

Hi, guys. How are you? Hope everything is fine wherever you are!

Well, if you had the time to check my last post, you may have seen that I did some trips while I was off, right? And I decided to tell those through a timeline. The last travel I wrote about here was the one I did with my (girl) friends to Alcântara, a small city next to ours, just across the sea.

Since there, I went to Jericoacoara/Tianguá – Ceará (December), to Lagoa do Cassó  – Maranhão (February), São Paulo – São Paulo (March), Santo Amaro – Maranhão (April) and a few places in Goiás (July), until now, all those in Brazil… My goal was to travel more than last year, and it’s already completed (yay), but if another trip shows up, why not? hahaha

One thing I remembered in theses trips is that it doesn’t matter the reason, the conditions, the way you go, just go. Good or bad, the experience will make you grow, that’s for sure. Even if it’s only for a day, it will take you away from your routine and you’ll have a time to breath and rest. I’m taking too much, I know, I know, but don’t worry, the next post will be about the trips themselves.

So, that’s all, guys! Hope to see you soon =)

Struggling

Hi, guys! How are you? Hope everything is fine wherever you are.

It’s been a while I was here, I know, everybody knows that. And it has been a while since I’m thinking about to come back here to write. The thing is that I still have the same problems: when I started writing I had some travels on my backpack, so I had a lot to write about, but when all of this ended I got stucked so I just… stopped. And between this, I also have to share my time with college, fraternity, job, teaching, gym, dating, family, friends etc, so it means I almost forget about myself, and writing is one thing I really love to do.

But the other thing is that I’ve been missed it a lot. And in this time I was off, I travelled a lot, small and big travels, by car, by bus, by airplane… and it was amazing! When I was there, all I could think was “when I come back, I’ll write about it”, “I’ll post this picture”, “Oh, that’s a nice story to tell”, but the minute I got in my city, im my routine… Argh! Everything jumped on me so hard that I let it go… but here I am, I let my guard down and I’ll give another shot, I’ll start one more time because this is a project I really love and I really care about.

When I write, I feel my voice is listened through my words, my points of view, my experiences and I doesn’t matter if it is one person or a thousand people, I like to be read (because I like to talk, in fact) and besides that, I feel that someday my experience may be useful to someone. Maybe someone could use my tips in their own trips and by this, make it easier and nicer. Any ways, I’ll try my best to do whatever I’m capable of doing here and I hope to be proud of it (me).

So, that’s all, guys! Hope to see you soon =)

The Alcântara City!

Hi, guys! How are you? Hope everything is fine wherever you are. So, probably you don’t know about it, but here in my city we have a big holiday every September, we celebrate the Independence Day of Brazil and the Anniversary of my city (São Luis), September 7^th and 8^th, which means a good time to hit the road and make a small trip, and that’s what we did.

I say we because it was something I did with 3 friends of mine, we decided the day before we wanted go to Alcântara, which is a small city near to São Luis. There are some ways to get there: you can go by car (something around 8 hours) or by boat (way faster and cheaper, something about 1h30min and R$15,00), so obviously we decided to go by boat, but I’m going to be very honest with you: this time of the year, the wind is super strong and the water is very agitated, so if you get nausea easily, it’s not a good option, the chance for you to throw up is high (but the crew is prepared for those things).

Ok, moving on! Since we thought food was going to be expensive, we bought some things (like bread and soda) the day before, so we could eat and save some money. When we arrived there it was almost noon, so we decided to have our lunch first and then go out for our walk. Yes, walk. Alcântara is tiny; you can see all the biggest points on foot without paying a single coin, the only thing is that you have to be willing to walk. A lot. Caring your stuff. On a sunny day (if you’re lucky enough to take good pictures). Wear shoes, buy water, put on some sunscreen lotion, and you’re good to go, that’s my biggest advice.

When you get off the boat, you walk a little and see a big map of the city, take a picture and use it to guide yourself, it’s easy and very useful. People may offer you some kind of “tourist guide”, but to be honest, it’s an easy place to walk, you can handle yourself. And a very interesting point is that almost every big place has things in Portuguese and English, so if you don’t speak Portuguese, you won’t be totally lost. But don’t hold yourself on your phone: the signal there is poor; at least, I suffered a lot.

I don’t have a lot to describe about the city or the main points themselves because they are pretty much the same thing: churches and abandoned places. I’ve heard some people say that the city was been built to celebrate Dom Pedro II arrival, but something happened and the canceled his trip to Alcântara, so people interrupted the constructions and left things without being finished, but that’s the beauty of the city. The ancient ruins are awesome; you can feel like time traveling because the “old days” aspects remain until today. I’ll leave you with some pictures to prove my point:

 

 

So, that’s all, guys! Hope to see you soon =)

Hey, I’m back!

Hi, guys! How are you? Hope everything is fine wherever you are. Yeah, yeah, it’s been a long time since I showed up here for the last time. And I really don’t have another explanation but my lack of experience and things to write about.

The thing is that I got very discouraged because I had nothing to write about and keep posting about random things isn’t my goal. I post (I write) about travel, that’s what I like to do, so why should I try to write about something else? If you feel me, I really want to say that I’m sorry. So, since this is my explanation, now that (taa-daa) I went to two different places this semester I own my blog some posts, right?

When I spent my first week without posting a thing, I felt so bad with myself because I had this goal of keep posting for a year and so, and so, but as long as the time went I realized that I should write things with quality, not quantity, so I started to feel better with it (but it doesn’t mean that I feel completely fine about it).

As I said before, why post about other things when my objective here is to post about my travels and tips about it? So I convinced myself that I didn’t abandon my blog, but that I understood that I have the right to write only when I have real things to say, (good or bad) experiences to share, you know?

So that’s basically me saying that I’ll not be here every week as I was on the beginning of this project, but I’ll be here every single time I have something to share with you, and having said that I tell you that this semester I went to two place I’ve always wanted to go: Alcantara (here in my state, Maranhão) e Jericoacoara (a small city on Ceara).

As you can imagine, I’ll share my (amazing) experiences with you sooner than you think, but this is my “I’m back, but no so back” text. I took a long time to understand myself, but I hope you can understand me too. And, for sure, I hope to see you soon!

Oh, no. It’s been one year.

Ok, ok, I know it’s not Thursday, buuut I beg your pardon to post today because this is a special date.

Hi, guys! How are you? Hope everything is fine wherever you are.

This month completes one year since I went to Toronto to live the best three months of my life, until now. It was August 27 when I left the city I was born in to start a new part of my life. The one that would give me different perspectives on things, that would show me how life can be lived simply and still be amazing.

A year ago, 9 am, I had just landed there and the funny thing is that, even with my shitty memory, I can remember everything I felt that day, what I eat, places I went. It seems like it was yesterday, but now, a long yesterday ago. A friend of mine also went to an exchange program once and she told me about this feeling you have: it seems like this thing you lived now is in another life. Once you get back, it only gets far away from how you once felt. It is weird, I freaking hate it because she is totally right. At the same time I feel it just happened, sometimes I feel it was 60 years ago.

If you don’t know/remember how I manage to do this exchange program, I’ve already talked about it here and every now and then I remember the steps I had to take to grab this opportunity with both hands. Today, one year after, I remember that February 29th when the final result came out of my uncle’s birthday party and ran all the four floors to my aunt’s apartment to use the computer so I could see if my name was on that blessed list or not. I think I can’t remember a time I felt more amazed than when I saw my full name in the 19th position, with the 6th best grade of almost 100 people and see all the effort I’ve put onto it came back to me.

It feels funny to remember that a week from my flight, my godmother texted me to give her compliments one more time, to say that she saw me as a girl and now she’s seeing me as a woman, accomplishing my goals and all those things, because at that time I just burst into tears, a mix of being thankful and super afraid of what was to come. “I don’t think I’ll make it, I don’t know how to manage my own money, my mom wakes me up to go to university, how am I supposed to live by myself these three months? I’ll dye, for sure”, but, of course, those words never came out of my mouth. To all the world, I was feeling very confident and “I can handle myself, you dumbasses”, but on the inside… Only God (and perhaps my mom) knows how many times I crossed my checklist before leaving the house.

At the airport, there were two people living inside me:

“ISABELLA, YOU’RE GONNA LEAVE EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING YOU KNOW. DON’T. DO. THIS.”

vs

“HEEEY, THIS IS YOUR FUCKING DREAM. YOU GO, GIRL”

I remember my family and friends there, seeing me enter the boarding hall, my brain full of fears, my heart full of braveness and so I went. I put my feet on my dream and now, the thing I wanna the most is to get back to that place that made me feel like home. Yes, I knew few people there (only those who studied with me here in Brazil), but the place is so amazing, the people I’ve met are so awesome, the feeling of being safe when you walk on the streets… Just the fact that the city itself offers you options of things to do anytime you want, it takes my heart. And now, looking from the outside, I remember every second thought I had and I see how small they were/are compared to what I lived, to what the world gives to you. Possibilities of things go wrong are here, anything can happen at any time, any place, but it shouldn’t stop us from doing things (especially when it comes to our dreams) and I think today, that’s my biggest contribution: go. Just go and see what happens, because if you don’t, you’ll never know.

And then… were three months realizing I already know how to wake up by myself, how to take care of my own money, how to choose the right medicine to my stomachaches, how to arrive late from parties and wake up early to go to school because I have to stick to my obligations and be responsible, I realized I know more than I thought I knew and sometimes I underestimate myself, I realized people can connect with others by energy, not by how long the know each other. I created an affection with people in one week that I haven’t created with those I know for years. You may be thinking ‘you had to travel all across the continent to realize that?’, yeah, maybe! I’m a slow person, ok? It takes time and effort for me to realize some things, but I take your judgment.

Damn it, guys! One year and I still can’t get over it. Time really flies. Now I leave you with these pictures that I love. Hope you to see you all soon.

 

Niagara Falls!!

Scarborough Bluffs

 

My favorite skyline! ❤