Jericoacoara — "Jeri" to everyone who has been there — is a beach village in the far northeast of Brazil, tucked behind dunes on the Ceará coast. It shouldn't work as a destination: the roads leading here are arduous, the last stretch requires a 4x4 taxi or dune buggy through sandy tracks, the village has no cars, and the infrastructure is basic by any resort standard. And yet Jeri has been pulling travellers for decades, drawn by one of the most beautiful combinations of landscapes in Brazil: a vast dune, a turquoise lagoon, a windswept beach, and a village that has held onto its fishing community soul despite years of tourism pressure.
The Duna do Pôr do Sol — the Sunset Dune — is the social heart of the place. Every evening, hundreds of people climb the enormous sand dune at the western edge of the village to watch the sun sink into the ocean, a ritual that has its own near-religious quality. Around it: the main beach where kitesurfers compete with fishing boats for water space, the Lagoa do Paraíso (paradise lagoon) a few kilometres inland where freshwater runs over white sand, and the Pedra Furada — a hole-punched rock arch at the water's edge that has become the symbol of Jericoacoara.
The village sits within the Jericoacoara National Park, protecting the dune system and surrounding lagoons from the intensive development that has transformed other Brazilian beach towns. The park designation hasn't stopped guesthouses and restaurants multiplying, but it has prevented the construction of roads that would have changed the place beyond recognition. Getting here still requires effort, and that effort still filters the visitor type.
Jeri is one of the world's top kitesurfing and windsurfing destinations, drawing serious athletes from across the world for the reliable trade winds that blow from August to January. Outside wind season, the sea is calmer and the atmosphere shifts toward sunbathers and backpackers. The town fills considerably for New Year and Carnival; out of these peaks, it's possible to find Jeri surprisingly quiet.