Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
We got up around 6:30 am to prepare ourselves for an adventurous day! Someone was going to pick us up at our pousada at 8 am to take us to the port for the dolphin watching excursion. We prepared everything for the day – cameras, snorkel equipment, beach towels, etc. It was 7 am and we were just about to go for breakfast when there was a knock at our door.
It was the pousada staff, telling us our transportation for the dolphin trip was waiting outside! But it was only 7 am, why did they come an hour early? We showed the time on our iPhone to the lady, which said something like 7:03am. Then she shakes her head and tells us that the island of Fernando de Noronha is one hour ahead of the mainland! What?! Momentary panic struck us, but we just grabbed our bags and snorkel equipment and hopped in the vehicle – obviously we missed breakfast.
The dolphin watching excursion started off by cruising down the very scenic coastline of the island. There were some very interesting little islands, various birds, and some dramatic waves crashing against the rugged coastline. The water colour is the prettiest we’ve seen in Brazil – cobalt to aqua marine blue – stunning! Then we headed for ‘Dolphin Bay’ where dolphins ALWAYS come out to play. Here’s a video from the boat:
Incidentally, ‘Dolphin Bay’ was the same name of a bay we took on our last dolphin watching excursion back in Praia da Pipa. Better luck this time, we hoped.
Well, it seems that dolphin watching is not for us – another bust! But at least they took us to a great snorkeling spot at Baia do Sancho. There were a ton of fish, including some enormous Angels! A Moray eel was sleeping on a rock and didn’t seem to mind all the snorkelers. We didn’t have the underwater camera enclosure with us (due to the mad dash this morning), but it would have been amazing footage. We’ll come back again to this spot with the underwater camera on our own.
We met a German family from Hamburg on the boat with whom we decided to have lunch with. We figured out a way to fit six people in a VW buggy and headed off to the village of Remedios where we found a restaurant. The restaurant suggested we order a whole fish to share as a group, which was what we did. The wait for the meal was quite long, but when it finally came we were shocked by the size of the fish they prepared for us! Not only that, but they also served us two big platters of fruits and vegetables, a mountain of rice, and some other things. Everything was awesome – the fish was delicious!
Our friends had to run for a diving trip in the afternoon, and we needed to get back to the pousada for our buggy rental. After signing some paperwork for the buggy, we were ready to hit the road. The buggy was a little worse for wear, but it seemed to run fine. The pedals were so close together, Ray couldn’t wear his right shoe or it would cover the break and gas pedals at the same time! So the shoe came off, and off we went.
Our first stop was at Buraco da Raquel – an incredibly beautiful and rugged part of the island. After walking around this area a bit, we continued on and found our first jaw dropping beach – Praia Cachorro. This beach was so beautiful it looked like something from a movie. It was a small bay with a ribbon of perfect white sand, and a backdrop off towering cliffs! The waves were rolling in with some gusto on this beach, so we went for a dip and wrestled with the breakers for about 20 minutes. It was a ton of fun, but we were curious to see more of the island!
Our next stop was at the next beach down – a point between Praia Meio and Praia da Conceicao. The roads are very rough anywhere off the one main paved road (BR363), and the roads leading to the last few beaches were no exception. A mix of cobblestone, steepness, and huge craters kept us on our toes. We parked the buggy and walked down to the point – wouldn’t you know it, there was a quaint little barraca with a perfect view to the west for sunset. This seemed like a perfect spot to enjoy the last hour before sunset. Looking to the west, there was another awe-inspiring beach with a very dramatic backdrop off Morro do Pico. This 321 meter high thumb- shaped rock juts into the sky – it’s almost too amazing to believe! Even more amazing is that supposedly we haven’t even seen the best beaches on the island yet – those three award- winning beaches.
We watched the sunset from this perfectly situated barraca, enjoying a drink and a snack of fried cheese that we have become addicted to. This island is one of the few places in Brazil where you can see a sunset on the ocean because most of Brazil’s coastline faces east. This island is so amazing it’s very difficult to describe in words – hopefully some of the photos we took will do it justice!
