Pips

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Leaving behind the modern city of Maceió I planned to catch a bus to Praia da Pipa, a hip beach town boasted as one of the coolest in the country. Again, the bus had other plans. On my Maceió-Natal bus, I had to get off at a small town an hour or so from Natal and grab a taxi to the coast. (Busses have a main route, but stop at many cities in between, or whever you ask them to drop you off on the road.) Unfortunately, we passed my stop quite early in the morning, aaaand, I slept right through it. No worries, I got to Natal and figured I´d the city before backtracking to Pipa. (It was actually cheaper this way anyway.)

Natal (meaning ´Christmas´) was supposed to be a fun city with good beaches. I didn´t care for it all that much and found it somewhat boring, although there was a very cool part of town where I was staying, lots of very nice restaurants and bars. The coolest (and oddest) part of Natal was my hostel, Hostel da Lua Cheia. It was a castle. Not a real one, just a made-up castle. It had a drawbridge and everything, and in the morning around 7:00 they would start playing enigmatic music, like from Phantom of the Opera or something. It really felt like I was staying in the scenery of the line for a Disney ride.

After breakfast in ´the Great Hall´ I was off to Praia da Pipa. I ended up meeting an Italian guy and Swiss girl at the bus stop that I had talked to at breakfast, and we decided to get accomodations in Pipa together.

The town was rather small but set on one long road, full of nice bontiques and hip restaurants. Really, we didn´t do much of anything for the six days we were there except lounge at the beach and get pummelled by some very strong waves at the surfing beach. One cool thing to do in Pipa is swim with the dolphins. At the Baia dos Golfinhos, there is a small bay where wild dolphins congregate. You can see them jumping out of the water and even catching waves like surfers. If you go out and stay still, you can get within a decent distance of them (15 meters or so).

In Pipa we met up with two British guys who Raffael (the Italian) knew from earlier, and we decided to check out the northeast´s other hip beach town, Jericoacoara together.

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Photos

Praia do Amor
A surfing beach that floods when the tide comes in. We spent at least a few hours every day there.

Overlook
Right before sundown, the city got an amazingly beauty glow to it.

Boate?
Perhaps one day this will be the coolest club in Pipa?

Hostel da Lua Cheia
I stayed in a castle.

Comments

[Laura]

King
Dear Andy, Wish I could have stayed at the funky castle with you. I hope that you are having the time of your life- we are all thinking about you every day! ~LES