Fernando de Noronha

Hello all,

Been a while since our last post. We´ve moved in with Gordo in Paulista, which is a bit further north out of Recife. We haven´t found computers out here with working USB connections. Anyways, I digress.

We spent five days in Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago about 500 kms from Recife. There is one main island, and several small ones. We debated about whether to go on a package tour, or just wing it. We ended up winging it, and I think it worked out better that way. With Gordo´s help wheeling and dealing, we found return flights for about $330 cdn, and I called a pousada from the mainland and reserved a room.

When we arrived at the airport someone met us, and drove us to the pousada in a buggy (pronounced boogy here). We took a little walk into Vila dos Remedios, the biggest village on the island, for a fish in a banana leaf dinner. This was probably the most expensive meal we´ve had, which was $20 for both of us for all we could eat. There are lots of cute little froggy dudes around, like this guy:



The next day we took a walk down to the closest beaches, Cachorro and Meio. Very beautiful beaches, and nearly deserted.. in fact many times during the trip we found ourselves the only ones on the beach. Swimming was good, waves were decent as well. One of the islanders told us that in summer the waves get pretty big.







Also common on the Island were the little lizard dudes. The one in the picture I found in the sink of a pousada we were checking out.

The second day we rented a buggy, and headed to the beaches that were further away on the island. We tryed to get up at 5:00am to see the dolphins at Baia dos golphinos, like the tour book said, but didn´t make it until 7:00am. There were dolphins, but they were far away and not doing much. The view was very beautiful, however. Later rented some snorkelling equipment. We visted some more picturesque beaches and then headed for Baia dos Porcos, which had snorkelling. I went out first, and ran into a sea turtle, which we had heard were around. Leanna did really well snorkelling, not being a water person. We saw quite a few different types of fish, and some rays.

The Morro is a big rock on the middle of the main island that characterizes the place. This is on another empty beach.



We also took a boat tour of one side of the islands. In the first 20 minutes or so we encountered a pod of dolphins, who came to play in the wake of the boat. That made the trip worth it, which was good, because it poured rain for the rest of the trip. In fact, it was quite cold, which was a feeling we hadn´t had for a while. Fernando de Noronha is about 4 degrees south of the equator, and it was warm.

The last day we walked down into Porto and did some more snorkelling. I immediately was met by a couple stingrays (one I almost stepped on) and a moray eel. I swam after the moray, figuring he would just swim away faster, but instead he turned on me and coiled up, ready to tangle.... so I backed off. There is a sunken Greek ship not too far off shore as well, but I didn´t know quite where it was and didn´t manage to find it.

The trip was definitely worth it, and as these things go was relatively inexpensive. Since returning we´ve been back to our normal routine, taking capoeira classes, and watching Brazil´s soccer games, which unfortunately were ended by France this afternoon.

We´ll try to find better computer hook ups so we can put up more pics soon.
mike and Leanna