Blogs from Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, South America

Tuesday 16th February, 2016. Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil Natal is the capital and largest city of ro Grande do norte State in north-eastern Brazil. It is approximately 873 kilometres (543 miles) northeast of Salvador and 2,068 kilometres (1,285 miles northeast of Rio. It has a population of approximately 803,739. Natal is a city built on sand. It blows across the city streets and piles up like snow drifts. It lines the city's beaches, landscapes and city parks. Outside of the centre, the sand spreads in mountainous dune ranges that stretch for miles and miles. This was the first thing we saw as we approached the entrance to the Potengi river that is the entrance to the city docks. Natal is one of the 8 most visited cities in Brazil and is regarded as being ... read more

Spontan haben wir beschlossen, doch noch einen Tag in Natal zu verbringen. Eigentlich wollten wir hier nur übernachten und dann gleich weiter nach João Pessoa. Aber letztendlich dachten wir uns gibt es hier mehr zu unternehmen und außerdem können wir so noch ein bisschen länger unsere Zweisamkeit genießen. UND vielleicht mag mich Natal ja doch endlich mal. Also haben wir heute einen Buggyausflug gemacht, der wohl in Natal bzw. der Umgebung touristisches Pflichtprogramm ist. Zusammen mit einem brasilianischen Pärchen auf Hochzeitsreise sind wir Richtung Norden losgedüst. Insgesamt über 100 km haben wir zurückgelegt, fast ausschließlich an Stränden und durch Dünen. Denn dafür ist Rio Grande do Norte bekannt – für seine fantastischen Dünen. Und das sind sie tatsächlich! Inmitten der unendlichen Sandlandschaften begegneten uns ab und zu Süßwasserseen, in einem davon durften wir sogar bade... read more

Morro Branco is a tiny beach town 80km east along the coast from Fortaleza; however, our journey there was beginning 250 km WEST of Fortaleza, and the road for the first hour was hardly worthy of the title. We bounced along from Jericoacoara on a huge 4x4 truck, passing through small villages on our way to meet a proper bus to take us as far as Fortaleza. Bizarrely, this bus took us to the city's airport so we had to take a taxi to the bus station, before getting on another bus to Beberibe, a small town near Morro Branco. Another taxi helped us complete the journey, arriving at 4pm on May 10th. We quickly arranged a place to stay (which wasn't hard - this being low season we were swamped with pousada owners offering their ... read more

NATAL We arrived in Natal after a 28 hour bus ride with directions to Camy's beach house in hand. We were happy not to get robbed in the night, but we were also very tired. We found Camy's house with a lot of help from her neighbors and it was such a wonderful place we felt very fortunate to stay there. We spent that day mostly resting and walking along the beach. The ocean was green with the temperature of bath water. Unfortunately, where there wasn't submerged rocks there were surfers. We weren't sure which was more dangerous but Ammi was determined to swim regardless. She was having fun until a surfer decided to deviate from the group and force Ammi to swim into the rocks, scraping her knee. But she still had fun. “Other than ... read more

On Thursday the day started out raining, not a very nice beach day.. but we went down the coast anyway and visited two other beaches. They were ment to be really beautiful beaches. The first one was very basic, nothing too great.. But after awhile the clouds moved on and it turned out ok.. We found a beautiful spot to eat lunch overlooking a creek running into the ocean. After lunch we went to the next beach. This one was cool because we hired another buggie, but this time Georgia came with us so it was more calm and we just went along the beach. We stoped at a hut on the way, it was kind of like a tiny turtle museum. We also stoped at Coca cola lagoon, which looked very beatiful with the evening ... read more