Things to do
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Parque Nacional
Nine thousand hectares of mobile dune, lagoon and mangrove made a national park in 2002, wrapped around the village on three sides. Its rules are the reason the streets are unpaved and unlit, and why buggies keep to marked tracks.
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Duna do Pôr do Sol
The high dune on the western edge of the village, climbed every evening by most of the people staying in it. The sand is loose and the walk up takes ten minutes, and the crowd on the crest applauds when the sun goes into the sea.
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Essenza Hotel
A small design led hotel on Rua São Francisco, a block back from the sand, built around a courtyard pool with a rooftop bar over the village. It is the most polished address in a place where most rooms are still pousada rooms.
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Lagoa Azul de Jijoca
The quieter lagoon on the same lake system as Paraíso, with fewer bars along the shore and the same wadeable, sand bottomed water. Both fill through the rains and draw back sharply late in the dry season, so the shoreline moves through the year.
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Lagoa do Paraíso
A freshwater lagoon on the southern shore of the Lagoa de Jijoca, warm, clear and shallow far out, with hammocks strung over the water on posts. Buggy tours reach it in about forty minutes from the village.
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Morro do Serrote
A rocky hill on the eastern side of the bay, walked up in half an hour from the beach for a view back over the village, the dunes and the arch. Most people go at first light, when the sand is still cool and the wind has not risen.
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Pedra Furada
An arch cut through a headland of dark rock about three kilometres east of the village, reached along the beach and passable only around low tide. For a few weeks in the middle of the year the rising sun lines up inside the opening.
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Praia da Malhada
The beach immediately east of the village, under low cliffs and open to the swell, which makes it the surfers' side rather than the swimmers' side. Natural pools form in the rock shelf at the eastern end when the tide drops.
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Praia do Preá
A wide, shallow beach east of Jericoacoara that holds a steady side onshore wind from roughly July to January, which is why the kite schools are based here rather than in the village. Buggies run the sand road out in about half an hour.
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Vila Kalango
Bungalows and stilted cabins in gardens on the dune edge at the western end of the beach, one of the first proper hotels to open in Jericoacoara. Rooms face the water, and the sunset dune is a short walk along the sand.