Beautiful beaches, sandunes, red hot sunshine... its tough at the top!

As promised on my last post. it's beaches all the way. Impanema Beach in Rio was a lovely beach helped by the amount of beautiful Brazilian women wandering around wearing very skimpy bikinis. The only problem was due to the weather being a little overcast I only went to the beach a few times. A lot of my time spent in Impanema was slowly walking around taking in the surroundings and the views - as well as the lush women! I did manage to visit the famous christ statue one day which was well impressive. The views over Rio from the hill that the statue stands on were amazing. Luckily at first the weather was reasonably clear especially on the coast, so photos could be taken. Also managed to get some good photos of the statue before the clouds came in.
From Rio I took a 3 hour flight to the northern coastal city of Fortaleza. Not a bad city but the best part is the coastline and the hostel I was staying in, was right on the beach. I could almost fall out of bed and onto the beach. Here in the north the weather is a lot clearer and red hot. Spent a few days kicking around on the beach, mind you at the moment I can only stand a few hours on the beach as it's so hot.
From Fortaleza I headed again north to the beach resort of Jericoacoara which I have to say, was awesome. It's so isolated a 4 wheel drive truck come bus, meets the main bus to take you the final hour over the sandunes to the beach resort. I was in my element there as the scenery was amazing with mile after mile of beach surrounded by giant sandunes. It was great to go walking down the beach taking photographs. The whole area of Jericoacoara is a national park so you can imagine the views were spectacular. There were even some OK sunsets, which I took advantage of, by sitting having an ice cold beer on the beach until it was time to drag myself off to take some shots. Jericoaoara is famous for windsurfing as when you head out to sea or on top of the sandunes where it is exposed it's well windy. But, in the village and on the beach in front of the dunes there is a lovely breeze. Did not spend a lot of time on the beach as I got burned in Fortaleza. Yes, I would like to think I was too old, wise and experienced a traveller to get burned, but there I was walking around looking like the singing detective! I made do with spending time chilling, reading a book and maybe having a siesta in a hammock, oh how the days fly by!
One day I did manage get out of the hammock and go on a beach buggy tour for the day. They take you deeper into Jericoacoara National Park where there was some really good sandunes of different colours. We ended up at a lake spot in the middle of the dunes, like an oasis. A great spot to relax and have a beer and some very fresh fish. The one I picked was still swimming round when I chose it. With the food, drink and photos taken, a perfect day was had by all.
At the moment I am back in Fortaleza where, from here I will now head south overland back to Rio ready to fly back to Blighty, Christ!!!
I hope to send a couple more blogs - so stay tuned. Nothing left but to wish you all a Merry Crimbo and a Happy New Year... the bear

p.s. if this post has not made too much sense - I apologise, as two local girls have been all over me, distracting me and taking the piss out of my two finger typing - how dare they!!!