Praia de Jericoacoara

Jericoacoara is on the coast of Ceará in north-eastern Brazil, about three hundred kilometres from Fortaleza. It is a village of a few thousand people inside a national park, and the last stretch of the journey is across sand.

There is no paved road in. Visitors transfer to a *jardineira* — an open-sided four-wheel-drive truck — for the final crossing over dunes, and the village itself has sand streets rather than tarmac. Street lighting is prohibited to protect the dark sky and the sunset, and the village is lit by what spills from its buildings. Both rules are products of the national park designation in 2002, and both are why the place still resembles what it was.

The wind is the other constant. Ceará's trade winds blow reliably from July to January and Jericoacoara is one of the world's principal kitesurfing destinations as a result; the lagoons inland — Paraíso and Azul — are flat-water spots reached by buggy across the dunes. The sea itself has swell and a shore break. Pedra Furada, a rock arch a walk east along the beach, is reachable at low tide, and the lagoons inland at Paraíso and Azul are the standard buggy trip — freshwater, warm, and shallow enough to put a hammock in.

The landmarks are the Pedra Furada, a rock arch on the coast east of the village reachable at low tide, and the Duna do Pôr do Sol, the dune where the entire village walks up for sunset. The Sunday-evening capoeira circle at the top of it is an established institution.

Sand streets, no paving, no street lighting — the last because of the turtles, with an unusually dark sky as the side effect. The whole village climbs the dune at six. The wind runs from July to January and is close to guaranteed, which is what made this a kitesurfing destination rather than just a beautiful place.