Four Days in Paradise

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Fernando de Noronha - 19th to 23rd April

Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago 400km of the coast of mainland Brazil. In the past the main island has been used as by the Portuguese as a prison colony, the French used it for aviation research & the American´s as base during WWII. Now most of it is a protected Eco reserve where sea life flourishes & to sum it up it´s stunningly beautiful & it´s where we went for my birthday treat. Lucky lucky me!!!

Our four days there were some of the best of our whole trip. The main island is beautiful, green & lush with cliffs, hills & gorgeous beaches, some calm & perfect for snorkeling, others with good surfing waves. All the beaches were gorgeous backed with lush green hills & Palm trees & quite often we had them all to ourselves.

It had rained heavily on us for three days while we were in Olinda so we were really worried that our (rather expensive) trip to the island would be a wash out. We flew out of Recife in the pouring rain but the further we flew the better the weather got & by the time we circled the island before landing the sky was blue with white fluffy clouds & the island shone like a jewel in the glistening sea below us. It did rain quite a lot while we were there but only at night & we had brilliant sunshine every day.

We booked a tour there with a agency we found in Recife airport as it was the cheapest option available to us. The package included an introductory talk on arrival, so our bus drove us to the visitor centre & we all filed out to watch a video but to our surprise & bemusement the guide wouldn´t let us watch the film as it was in Portuguese. We explained that we were quite happy to watch it but she insisted on herding us back on the bus & taking us straight to our Pousada where someone allegedly spoke English. Of course no one did but we had read in the Lonely planet about ¨Your Way¨an English speaking tour agency which by chance was just a short walk away.

The lady at the tour agency was very friendly we had a good chat about the activities on the island. All of which seemed very expensive & decided that the best thing for us would be just to hire a beach buggy (pronounced Bitch Boogie or just Boog). They new a man who would rent us an old Buggy for cheap.We had activities the next day as part of our package so we made arrangements to hire the buggy for the two days after that. Happy that we would now be able to explore the island in style. We headed to the local self service restaurant to fill up on cheap & tasty food before returning to play cards on our little veranda until we felt sleepy enough to head off to bed.

The next day we were up early waiting to be picked up for a boat trip around the island. The tour bus arrived & we were shuttled to the port where we hired snorkeling equipment then boarded our boat. We sailed to some of the little islands of the archipelago where we stopped for the Brazilian tourists to oooh & ahhh at the sight through the Glass bottom of the boat. We saw nothing there but sand rocks & seaweed so no oooohs from us. It wasn´t long though until we were oohing along with the best of them as we sailed through a bay in the main island which was filled with at least fifty & probably nearer a hundred spinner dolphins which to our delight took turns to race our boat ten at a time. The boat was a catamaran with a rope net across the front I managed to find space to lie there less than a meter above the dolphins while they zoomed through the bow wake below me. It was wonderful.

Further round the island we stopped for a snorkel before heading back to port. As we sailed on to our delight the dolphins unexpectedly returned. And & I had been sitting at the front of the boat so we both managed to scramble on to the net & dangle our fingers within an inch of the dolphins. it was lovely to be able to share that experience.

We were dropped at our Pousada where we chilled by the little pool for a couple of hours until we were collected for a guided walk of the historical centre of the island. The walk took us to the old fort into the centre of the main village through some woodland & down to the beach to watch sunset in a bar. Our English speaking guide, ha ha ha not soon gave up on us & let us wander around the fort on our own instead of standing for ages not understanding a word of his lectures. We enjoyed ourselves by watching the Brazilian tourists pouting like page three models posing for photos in front of everything we saw. I took some photos of And doing the same but she wont let me put them in the blog!

After the sun had set we were dropped back at our Pousada again where we chilled for a bit before wandering back into the historic centre for dinner. We ate by candlelight at a sweet little Bistro on the church square then strolled contentedly back up the hill to bed.

On Saturday morning we wandered back up the hill to Your Way to collect our buggy. We were excited about getting our hands on it but when we arrived the buggy we had seen was not there what was there could only be described as a rust bucket. The lights didn't work, the seat belts (which we were told we had to wear there by law) fell off, there was no handbrake but best of all the roll bar was completely rusted through on one side. We said thanks but no thanks & walked straight to a buggy hire place thinking we'd have to pay a fortune for a good bug but ended up getting a sweet little rust free blue bug for exactly the same price. Our Bug's licence plate said hug so we called it the HugBug. We whizzed around the tiny island & soon fell in love with the little thing which was not much bigger than a golf cart but could go just about anywhere. Andrea loved driving it especially when we went down some of the dirt tracks which were mostly boulders & muddy water filled pot holes. We drove back towards the port where we filled up with petrol then drove right to the end of the island & up to a viewpoint by a tiny church. This end of the island really reminded us of Scotland with rolling green grassy hills rising out of the blue sea. We drove of across the island stopping in the middle to visit the turtle organisation "Project Tamar" where to our delight we found a notice that they were releasing newly hatched turtles that evening on one of the beaches. Then we drove on to the other end of the which looked completely different as here the beaches were surrounded by tropical palm trees & black cliffs. Here we joined a queue of buggies waiting for access to the pools at Atalia. We were told we might have to wait for over an hour but in a few minutes Andrea was steering us down the long bumpy mud road with me clinging on for dear life & trying not to get too muddy as we splashed through the puddles.

Atalia is a beach where a stretch of rock creates a large pool at low tide. The environment is very fragile so you can't enter wearing suntan lotion & you have to be very careful not to touch or sand on the delicate corals. We put on our snorkels & entered the pool. The water was only knee deep, even shallower in some places so all you could do was float around using the smallest kicks to propel yourself along. We were giggling about how ridiculous it was as we floated inches above the sand with nothing much to see but then we reached the reef & realised just what an amazing place it was. There were fish everywhere of all shapes colours from huge green parrot fish to tiny little purple & yellow neons. The water was so clear it was like swimming in a fish tank & the shallowness of the water meant that sea life that would usually be meters beneath you were now just a few inches away. We floated on pointing things out to each other, staring at the shoals of miserable looking red snapper lurking under the rocks & trying not to get too close to the beautiful but scary sea snakes that slithered their way across the sandy floor.

I spotted a sea slug nestled between some rocks & as And came over to look I realised to my delight that I could see too beady eyes peering back at me under the rock. It wasn't a sea slug but something I have searched for every time I've been snorkeling since I was a little kid, an Octopus. I may have got a little carried and got too close as suddenly the Octopus launched itself from it's hole & swam slowly towards me with one of it's tentacles raised in a menacing fashion. I back peddled as fast as I could letting out little eeks of alarm as the tentacles fast approached my face but just as it was a few centimeters away the Octopus changed it's mind & chose to drop to the bottom. It sat there for a while glowering up at us furiously flashing different colours & making it's skin go spiky then smooth in a fascinating display. Eventually it got bored of us & pulled up it's legs and suddenly whooshed off back to it's hole.

I watched him for a bit longer while And swam off to explore. Suddenly I heard her shouting through her snorkel "Fwark, fwark!" So I waved my bad tempered friend goodbye & swam after And. Sure enough she was following a small reef shark who cruised around the pool. We watched him for quite a while until he gave us the slip. Then we realised that we had long outstayed our time slot. We were supposed to be there for 20 minutes but had been in the water for an hour. Reluctantly we left the pool & drove back round to Bahia Suiste which is a favourite feeding ground for turtles. We snorkeled around the bay but the water was very murky & we only was a fleeting glimpse of a turtle as he sped off into the gloom so we went back to the beach to sunbathe before driving back to our Pousada to quickly shower & change then head out again for the turtle hatching.

I have always imagined seeing turtles hatch out as being a serene experience. The little cute baby turtles flapping their way to the ocean as the sunset, with only the sound of the waves to accompany them. Well this hatching couldn't have been further from this idea. The beach (Praia Bode) was heaving with people as the Tamar people arrived, the turtle people fenced off an area for the turtles to run down to the sea & then started digging up the nest. Brazilians aren't the quietest of people & as the first of the turtles apeared they crowded round elbowing each other for space & shouting at each other as they took a thousand photos. We had been told by a Tamar volunteer not to take photos with flash so every time anyone's flash went off by accident the whole beach erupted into a shout of "NOOOOO FLASHHHH!!!!" And & I soon gave up trying to see anything as there were more photographers surrounding those turtles than had ever chased after princess Diana.

After measuring & counting the baby turtles the Tamar volunteers carried them in a plastic container to show them to the by now very over excited group of children then they gently tip up the container & the tiny little turtles were off surrounded by more shouts & noise than you'd ever hear on any race track around the world (the poor little fellas). Soon people just broke through the barriers & crowded closer in an attempt to get a closer look then the climax of the evening arrived when a nosey dog ran through the middle of everyone to see what was going on. He stood there with turtles scampering all around him wagging his tail at all the attention he was getting while the children screamed as if they were at a Beatles concert. Somehow all the turtles made it to the water & got away & when the crowd ad gone And & I wandered up to the nest to see the broke shells our cheeks aching from laughing so much at the ridiculous antics of the evening.

The next day we couldn't resist driving back to the pool at Atalia. We arrived over an hour early so we parked our bug in the queue & went to the beach. We decided to go for another snorkel to see if this time we could see any turtles (fully grown ones this time). We swam around for a while with no luck but soon got distracted by a beautiful shoal of fish which we followed until they took us to a fascinating huge green fish which we followed until he took us to (at last) a turtle. This encounter was worth the wait this huge turtle didn´t seem to mind us & let us swim with it for a good ten minutes. it seemed just as interested in us & at one point it had a good old look at And & gave us a bit of a scare as it came within a couple of inches of Andrea so they were literally nose to nose. Eventually he swam of into the depths but as it did another turtle appeared & we followed that to a place where four turtles were feeding on seaweed together just below us.

Back out of the water, back in the bug & back down the bumpy muddy road (this time it was my turn to drive so of course we had a much smoother ride!!!). Back into the pool at Atalia & back to the hole of the octopus but this time there was no Octopus there & no sign of the shark. We were quite disappointed but as the tide was slightly higher we were able to swim into more of the pool so we were soon distracted by all the beautiful sea life. I was staring at the spooky sight of the legs of a brittle starfish curling & unfurling from under a rock when I heard the familiar cry of "Fwark, mmmm fwark!" Sure enough Andrea's favourite fish was back, we followed him to the other side of the pool where to my delight I saw a familiar pare of moody eyes scowling at me. We floated over our Octopus friend for a while giggling at him as he moodily flicked out a tentacle at any fish that dared to come to close to him. All too soon our time was up (even though we had been there nearly an hour again). We were soon bouncing back along the track heading back to the Praia Bode where there was hardly any sign of the turtle antics of the previous evening. We spent the afternoon there sun bathing feeding the black lizards who fearlessly come right up to you begging for scraps of cake or a crisp & mucking about in the sea. That evening we went back to our favourite Bistro for our last dinner on the island.

The next morning we whizzed around the island getting every possible minute of fun out of our time with the Bug. We first visited the Scottish end of the island than we whizzed up to the tropical end to visit a view point. We had become very attatched to the HugBug so felt really sad when we finally had to give it back. We hitched a ride (there is no crime on Fernando de Noronha so hitching is safe) down to the beach where we had great fun jumping & body surfing the large waves for a couple of hours then we hitched back to our Pousada showered & were soon on the bus back to the airport.

Our few days on Fernanado de Noronha had been incredible, one of the best of our entire trip & we were so sad to leave we almost cried . You´d think we´d be used to moving on by now but some places just get to you & this place certainly did. Oh & as an added bonus we´ve managed to top up our tans nicely too. All in all not a bad birthday present I think!!!

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