Beach Hopping in Brazil

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Natal - 24th April

We wake up very tired as our flight landed late in Natal at 2am. We had finally got to bed at 3am and needed to be up early as we are going to explore the sand dunes today.

We are picked up by George in his open top beach buggy at 9am. There are already a couple in the buggy so its a big squeeze on the back seat to fit 3 people in! This couple are very sweet and are on their honeymoon, bless! We speed off towards the sand dunes, there are several kilometres of them stretching away from Natal. Today we explore lots of them and visit several beaches.

Once out of Natal we have to cross the river on a ferry. After this someone can sit on the back of the buggy so its much more comfortable and not dangerous at all! George hoons over the dunes and we take it in turns sitting at the back. Its a hair-raising experience up there when he goes fast and twists and turns as you have to hold on very tightly or risk falling out. We drop down over a few stomach churning dunes! En-route we stop at a fresh water lagoon formed by rain water. The table and chairs here are actually in the lagoon so you keep cool. There are thousands of fresh water fish here and they like nibbling at your feet, its quite a horrible sensation especially when the bigger ones bite. We also swim in the lagoon and try to ignore the fish!

We continue along the dunes. At one point we have to cross another small river where the buggy is driven onto a small ferry (more like a floating plank of wood) and floated across by 2 men with large poles that push us across the river.

We stop at the top of a huge dune were there are several death slide swings into the lagoon below. Kate and I go on these a couple of times, they are great fun. At the end you catch a rickety chairlift back up the dune - these are probably the most scary things!

We have a great adrenaline filled day and head back to Natal feeling exhilarated.

Praia de Pipa - 25th to 29th April

In the morning we catch a bus to the local shopping centre where we catch another bus to Praia de Pipa. Pipa is another beach resort south of Natal. It has one unpaved main street with a few more branching off. The streets are filled with bars and restaurants and boutiques selling beachwear and jewelry. We really like the place and it has a good atmosphere. Bizarrely enough, when we arrive we see George, our buggy driver from Natal. He has taken the other couple to Pipa. He´d offered to take us but it was too expensive and our luggage wouldn´t have fitted. It was probably a good thing in the end as it poured with rain on the way so we would´ve got soaked!

We stay in Pipa for 5 days, we even extended it by one day as we like the place so much. We stay in Pousada Rivas which is lovely. There is a large pool and a green tree filled courtyard. We have a private apartment with a large balcony and hammock. Again its very quiet here as its off season and there aren´t many people staying. The owners are pleasant and the breakfasts are great. There are also small monkeys in the trees here so we have fun spotting them and watching their antics - they are also interested in us too. The owners have a baby money called Kong (!) as it was rejected by its parents so they have saved it. Its a very cute thing that we have fun playing with and holding and feeding it. It was so sweet and would fit in the palm of your hand. Kate was particular taken with it and used to get him to sit on her shoulder.

We manage to watch the champions league semi-final between Chelsea and Liverpool, leaving me slightly nervous as Liverpool lose 1-0. The quantity of caipirinha´s we drink helps to relieve the situation!

We spend a couple of days on the beaches here and another one relaxing by the pool. There are 3 beaches in Praia. The nicest one is the Praia de Amor where there are sun loungers to relax on and a few bars. The waves are great here with lots of surfers. We also spent some time building a sand castle! One day we walk to the Bahia de Golfinos where you can see lots of dolphins if you´re lucky. We didn´t see any and had to come back as the tide was coming in. The beaches are all cliff backed and this one gets cut off by the sea in high tide. We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the main beach drinking coconuts.

On our first night at the hotel we had a huge thunderstorm. I´ve never heard one like it before. The claps of thunder were so loud that they wake you up and you think something is happening in your room. At one point I went out to watch the lightning and all the lights went off as we had a power cut. Poor Kate was left alone scared in the room! It was actually quite frightening.

We discovered a few great restaurants in the town and had some good steak and a great prawn moqueca (stew/curry thing) at a bar called Hazard.

Canoa Quebrada - 30th April to 4th May

Finally we left Pipa and caught a bus back to Natal where we transferred to another one to get to Canoa. We were very lucky as we pulled into the bus station at Natal as our bus was about to leave. We ran to get it - the next one wasn´t for 4 hours and its a 6 hour journey to Canoa. We stopped in a town called Aracati where we caught a taxi to Canoa.

We had made reservations at a Pousada called Tranquilandia but when we got there the two teenage boys on reception had no record of it! We weren´t best pleased but as it was low season they had another room available. We were lucky as this one had air con and was cheaper that the original price they had quoted. It was another lovely Pousada with our own private chalet set in a grassy courtyard. We had a private balcony slung with a hammock. Again there were only 3 other people here so it was great for us. The pool was huge with great views of the sea and we spent a few days relaxing on the sun loungers and we were the only people here!

Canoa is a pleasant place and has a hippy feel to it. There is one main beach with bars and sun loungers. Its is backed by red sandstone cliffs - the Lonely Planet describes it as having a mystical feel but I wouldn´t go quite that far. However its nice enough and there is one main street with restaurants and shops. Its smaller than Pipa and very quiet as well.

On 1st May we managed to catch the second leg of the Liverpool vs Chelsea champions league semi-final. I was a bit nervous about it as Chelsea won the first leg. The bar was full of local Brazilian´s supporting Liverpool and had a great atmosphere. Liverpool scored in the first 30 minutes and then my nerves were a mess at the game went to extra time and then to penalties. Liverpool eventually won it with a good display and Kate and I were fairly chuffed at the outcome!

On 3rd May it was Kate´s birthday and I was woken early by an excited Kate demanding a present! Luckily for her I had got a few presents so I spread them out during the day (some jewelry, a t-shirt, a photo album and other stuff - of course we had already been to Fernando de Noronha and that was her main present). Family from home were very generous and had given her lots of money. We spent the day relaxing by the pool and went out for a sunset walk later. In the evening we went to a nice restaurant called Costa Brava where we had some great steak and cocktails. I also surprised Kate by getting the waitress to bring out some ice-cream with candles and singing Happy Birthday (not sure if Kate was surprised but the thought counts!). Kate later feel asleep in the hammock.

The next morning we had one last walk around Canoa and then back to the chalet where I gave Kate another cake and a small bottle of champagne.

We then caught the bus to Fortaleza (3 hours), waited there for 2 hours at the bus station and then caught another bus to Jericoacoara (7 hours). For the last hour of this journey you have to transfer to a large 4 wheel drive open top bus. The roads to Jeri are pretty bad and sand covered as Jeri is in the middle of a national park of sand dunes and lagoons. It was a fun and bumpy ride but I was glad when it only rained a little at the end! We finally arrived in Jeri at 1.30am where we were met by our pousada owner. He transferred us in his beach buggy to the hotel. We sat in their lounge drinking beer and watching a movie in Portuguese, not sure why but we enjoyed it still!

Jericoacoara - 5th to 10th May

Jeri is exactly the type of beach resort we have been looking for. Everywhere else has been nice but Jeri has a very relaxed feel to it. The beach is a large flat sprawling affair backed by bars and palm trees and a huge sand dune. Everyone climbs this dune to watch the sunset. The streets are lined with sand and people drive beach buggy´s. At first the place doesn´t look like a typical beautiful beach but after a day it catches you unawares and you start to love it.

We couldn´t resist staying here a few extra days as it is such a nice place. We´d originally only booked 3 nights but after the first day we knew we wanted to stay longer.

We stayed at Pousada de Renata run by an Italian man and his wife. They were so helpful and pleasant. They would always give us lifts into town as it was a 10 minute walk! They also had a young baby so we were happy to give them our business after negotiating a free night for staying longer!!

We spent a few days on the beach and catching up with our blogging. We played in the sea and relaxed by the pool in our hostel. We also fitted in a few games of scrabble! We built sandcastles and played bat and ball on the beach until it got dark.

Again it is so quiet in Jeri, for the first few nights we were the only people at the Pousada which is great. We lounged in the hammocks and relaxed loads.

Our last full day was typical of the time we spent there. We'd get up around 9am and have a filling breakfast, then we'd have to relax in the hammocks for a couple of hours to let our breakfast go down! We then climbed the local hill, there is only one if you exclude the sand dune. From there we had great views over the town and of the surrounding land. Finally we'd stagger into town and pop to the internet before grabbing some lunch. After we'd head to the beach for the afternoon. We wouldn´t normally relax for too long before one of us would want to play bat and ball (we´ve renamed it Opaball - opa is the Brazilian equivalent of whoops - luckily we got better at it over a few days).

We also climbed the sand dune - it wasn't too difficult. At the top we bought a couple of beers from the local salesman! We sat at the top waiting for awhile waiting for the sunset, unfortunately it wasn't that great as it was very cloudy and the sun sets very quickly this close to the equator. Still we had great fun running as fast as we could down the steep part of the sand dune and climbing back up (not such great fun!!). After 3 times of doing this we were very tired so decided to head to our favourite beach bar for a pina colada! En-route we stopped to watch the capoeira. Every night at sunset the locals come to practise their capoeira and its great fun to stand in a circle watching them whilst they leap and do somersaults at your feet! It also has a slightly dangerous feel to it as you wait to get kicked by accident!

We went back to the hotel to clean up and then came back into town for dinner. We went to a restaurant where we could sit outside and the ground was actually sand - you have to be careful not to lose your flip flops by the end of the evening! Later on we walked down to the beach where a couple of inventive locals have set up stalls serving cocktails. We have a couple of caipirinha´s which are incredibly strong. We walk along the beach and sit on a couple of sun loungers and sit back and look at the stars. They are amazing here as there is no light pollution. Finally we decide we're tired so we go back to the Pousada.

The next day we leave at lunch time to go back to Fortaleza. We spend our final morning walking around town savouring the place before our Italian owner takes us to catch the bus. We've loved staying in Jeri and are sad to leave. We have to catch the same open rickety bus for a hour to the local town and then the 6 hour bus to Fortaleza. We must have been very tired on the way out as this time the journey is seems extremely bumpy. I don't normally get travel sick but even this ride leaves me feeling queasy! However it is a great way to see the coast some more so we do enjoy it (really we do!!). We´re also slightly worried that our luggage will come flying off the truck at anytime as the seats are so slippy and there is nothing to hold them in so we grip them tightly.

Fortaleza & Boa Vista - 10th & 11th May

We arrive at Fortaleza at 8.30pm where we check into a local hotel. The Italian owner in Jeri had booked us this place so we didn't know what it would be like. It was a fairly standard hotel in the beach area of Iracema in Fortaleza.

We decided to go straight out and walked to the local plaza where there was a cinema. It was more like an old art house with really bad sound! In the end we watched Marie Antoinette and enjoyed it! There were only 6 of us in the cinema and Kate managed to get shushed by someone and she only said one thing! After the film we went for dinner in the plaza and sat outside people watching. We were pretty hungry as by now is was midnight! We then walked back to the hotel, which left us feeling a little nervous as the streets were full of prostitutes and there weren't many people around. Luckily it was a short walk back.

The next morning we were lazing and stayed in bed all morning watching Sense and Sensibility! We finally ventured out for lunch as we were hungry and found somewhere nice on the seafront. After we went to the local craft market where we hunted high and low for the perfect hammock (we've already got 2 at home but decided we would like another!). We found one we liked and bargained hard to get a good price!! We then had to rush back to the hotel to get our taxi for the airport.

We made it with plenty of time to spare. We were taking a long route of 3 flights to get to the border town of Boa Vista - taking us nearly 10 hours in total. Our first flight was 3 hours and was slightly late. We were nervous about getting to Brasilia on time to make our connecting flight with enough time to spare for our luggage to make it as well! In the end we were fine as our flight at Brasilia was very late as the co-pilot was suddenly taken sick. Good old Gol airlines, they do have an excellent excuse every time. We´ve caught lots of flights with them and all of them except one has been late! The flights were quite tiring as we had been on a bus most of the day before. Also we were sat in front of a woman that snorted and sneezed constantly the whole flight. The Brazilian´s have the most disgusting habit of snorting instead of blowing their nose. It makes you feel sick, no other country in South America seems to do it.

Eventually we landed late at 3am. We caught a taxi to our hotel. We knew the bus left at 7am to cross to Venezuela and weren't looking forward to only having a few hours sleep. We were relieved to learn from our taxi driver that you could also get a taxi across the border and although it was double the price it still reasonable. We decided to do that instead so gratefully fell into bed knowing we would have a few more hours sleep........

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Comments

[Mum & Dad Aburrow]

Lovely B'day Cake Kate!!!!
Sounds like you two have been having the time of your lives and your cake looked yummy Kate, how many candles ??????