Carnival!

Oi gente (hey you guys)!
Andy and I are in Jericoacoara (jeri-cwa-cwara) for Carnival with John. From Fortaleza we took a 5 hour bus ride here. It's further North along the coast of Ceará. It's a beautiful little beach town, full of people for Carnival. So, imagine what you see on television of Carnival in Rio or São Paulo...this is nothing like that :0) It's a lot more tranquil. Jeri is pretty much a lazy, laid-back hippie-meets-yuppie kind of town (the hippies selling jewelery on the beach and the yuppies buying it). There was a concert on the beach tonight, but unlike normal Brasilian concerts which start at 11PM and end at 4AM, the concert went from 3PM to 8PM. It's all the locals would allow. John said 10 years ago barely anybody came here for Carnival, and you could lay on the beach and pretend like it was just a normal time of the year.
I would love to see Rio or São Paulo, and dance in the streets all night long, but this is good too. Practically a second honey moon. Andy and I can swim, eat, swim, sleep in a hammock, eat some more and no one tells us to do any different. It's hard letting go, after preparing so hard to come. I always feel like I should be doing something, but then I remember to enjoy this, work is coming soon, sit back in my hammock and sleep :o)
We only have rough plans right now about where we're going from here. Wednesday we go back to Fortaleza and prepare to go out to the "campo" the rural area where we'll be working. We'll go up there for a couple weeks, get to know the people (2 villages, one w/150 people, one w/50 or so), see if there's a project to do there, and then head to Sobral to work on a biogas digester. Super rough, especially since we're working on Brasil time...
Just like I remember, the people are amazing, hospitable, and a lot of fun. We've never gone hungry or thirsty, though camping last night was rough...we really should have brought sleeping pads :o) They say the first night is the worst, so hopefully tonight will be better. It's SUPER hot, but that just makes the water (which is warm too) feel that much better. Andy's Portugûes skills are improving by leaps and bounds every day, and mine are being tested to the max. It's intimidating to think that at some point we'll be left all by ourselves in the campo...but we'll manage. Anyone who's been outside of the US knows that hand signals do wonders!
Well, our rented internet time is limited, so we've got to go. We'll write as often as we can. The connection in Fortaleza is slow, and we'll definitely not have any in the villages, but we'll keep you updated somehow!
We miss everyone, but don't miss the snow :o)

Beijos!!!
Andy and Cait

PS Andy hasn't had any more mosquito bites yet, but he hasn't killed any either, so it's still 163:3