Advertisement
Published: April 22nd 2010
Edit Blog Post
An idyllic island one hour off the coast of northern Brazil, Fernando do Noronha is something very special.
After a 24hr delay in getting here (I misread the time of the flight and we missed it, then had to pay an extortionate amount to book the flight the next day … woops!) we arrived on the 14th April. It was a glorious sunny day as we flew in to the island and it looked as beautiful in real life as in the marketing photos.
Our Pousada (Frances) was OK but the island is very expensive and we’d negotiated a reasonable rate with them. The access road to the Pousada was the main problem. When it rained, which it did frequently during our stay, the road turned to a mud-slick which was hard to walk down. Fortunately any tours we arranged included pick-up so it wasn’t too much of an issue in the end.
The first day we took a tour around the island, cruising around on the back of a jeep and going to the best spots on the island.
It’s a tiny island and you can drive on a paved road from one end to the other
in about 15 minutes, although there are lots of side roads that are mud and rock and 4WD access only.
The first place they took us to was Sancho Beach, a wonderful and calm cove great for snorkeling. The access to the beach was, well … surprising and unique. We had to go down a ladder for about 15 meters through a narrow crack in the cliff. It was a difficult scramble down and a bit worrying in case Amy slipped. But we managed it and arrived to see a truly beautiful beach. The water was fish-tank clear and filled with lots of colourful fish a short way from the shore. Amy had a lifejacket on to snorkel with and this made it easier for all of us knowing she couldn’t sink! Sancho is definitely the best place on the island for snorkeling as the visibility in the water is excellent and it’s relatively calm.
It was then a day of cruising beaches, snorkeling and swimming. The waters are warm and clean, the sand is white and fine and the scenery is impossibly beautiful.
One of the places we were taken to was the Port and although
there was some seaweed and the visibility was poor it was a magical place to snorkel - the port area is heaving with marine turtles. We would see their head pop up close by and eventually we managed to swim with one for ages. The turtle was so relaxed and seemingly oblivious to us hovering over it as it chewed away at the seaweed.
On several other days we took the boat cruise of the island. We went with Barco Naonda each time - the staff were charming and the boat was good. They also didn’t charge for Amy and generously gave us our second and subsequent trips for half price.
The highlight of the cruise is seeing some of the hundreds of Spinner Dolphins that surround the island. Amy would sing her “Dolphin Song” to encourage them to come to us and each day the dolphins came and treated us to an acrobatic display and some of them would swim with us at the front of the boat, leaping in and out of the waves. They were so close at times we felt we could have reached down and stroked them.
It is a magical experience
and one that we had to keep going back for. The boats are careful not to disturb the dolphins though, they travel around the coast, only slowing for the dolphins but never following them.
Of course the boat trip also allowed us to see the beaches and coast more easily and gave us a true appreciation of the island. The weather was poor at times though and only on our last trip out did we have blue skies and sunshine. Well, it is the rainy season so it’s to be expected. Even when it rained it was still warm and never stopped us from enjoying the swimming and snorkeling.
On a couple of afternoons we hired a beach buggy from our Pousada. Let me just say, it wouldn’t pass an MOT … (no handbrake, no indicator, no working seatbelts, seats that weren’t bolted down, no tread on the tyres etc). These things didn’t pose too many problems though - we just didn’t park on a slope and I held the buggy while Andy did his hill-start! However, it was great to have wheels that got us to some of the beaches which we couldn’t walk to.
We
went back to some of our favourite spots and also got down to Praia Leao (Lion Beach) which was the most outstandingly beautiful beach ever - without exaggeration! At each end of the beach were tidal rock pools teaming with small, colourful fish (off limit for snorkeling or walking on). There were small islands off the beach (one that looked a bit like a sealion, hence it’s name). There were reefs and blowholes, turquoise waters and the white froth on the waves, and just us. A couple of other people came and went, but other than that we had the beach to ourselves. We dipped in and out of the sea, too many waves to swim with Amy properly, walked the beach, and we felt privileged to be there.
Late one day we went to Cacimba do Padre Beach, built sand-castles and watched the sun go down.
Another time we went back to the port and spent time snorkelling with turtles, all three of us holding hands while we hovered over the feeding turtles.
The local bus went on the paved road to the ends of the island so we took a trip out to Sueste Bay one
afternoon for a swim. It’s not the prettiest beach on the island but it does have a lot of turtles there. I swam out quite a distance (cheekily following a tour group) to go to the area where the turtles fed. There I found a couple of turtles together and swam along with them for a while, getting very close at times.
When we were just leaving the beach there were some of the TAMAR researchers bringing a young turtle up to the beach, cleaning off the identity tag, measuring it’s growth etc. Amy was transfixed as she saw the turtle up close on the beach, then when it clumsily waddled back into the sea when they released it. They do a lot to preserve the turtle population on the island.
On our last day out we went snorkeling at the Atalaia Reef. We’d had to book a time a couple of days in advance as they only allow 25 people at a time to snorkeling in the very shallow rock pools. It’s expensive and you have only half an hour at the reef but it’s very much worth it. The tidal rock pools are full of fish,
big and small, lobster, crabs and coral. We had to float around without kicking our legs or putting our feet down so as not to damage or disturb the reef or fish in it. It allowed us to be wonderfully close to the fish, within centimeters at times, in water as clear as possible. Amy managed to stay snorkeling the entire half hour without a break which impressed us immensely. Half an hour is too short a time there but we understood why they controlled it as they did. A very special experience to add to the many on the island.
A very happy and lasting memory from our time at Fernando do Noronha will be hearing the squeals of delight from our daughter as she watched dolphins dance in the sea, as she swam with turtles and colourful fish and as she played on some of the most beautiful beaches in the entire world.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.217s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 9; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0432s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb