Blogs from Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, South America - page 8

Last week I made my way down the Northeastern coast of Brazil from Natal to Recife. Traveling has occasionally been tricky, due to some bad luck with scheduling tours and my inability to speak portuguese. Tudo Bom(its all good), although Ive not seen everything I planned. There were 2 dune buggy tours that I was supposed to take to look around the 2 dozen or so beached near Natal, but unfortunately my driver never showed up for either scheduled tour. Oh well, that just left more time at the other beaches. Heres where I have been: Natal - Ponta Negra Beach. This is pretty, urban beach that has been overrun with tourist targeted commercialism (a theme common with most of my stops in the northeast). It seems this is a major area for European tourism, and ... read more

In addition to sightseeing, another unfortunate yet inevitable circumstance of traveling is falling ill. While well-equipped with antibiotics, my insight into Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte, has been limited to transiting between the bus station and my accommodation, and from the front balcony of my guesthouse to the toilet. I have had one uneventful night out. In my two days, I confess to know nothing of Natal except its lackluster downtown and a package tourism scene that attracts as many single men from Northern Italy as it does hordes of local prostitutes. The best result I could wish for in Natal was to wait for the Cipro to take effect and keep moving north to Ceará. In winter, non-Brazilians flock to Ponta Negra, eight miles or so south of downtown, to enjoy the hollowness ... read more

sodeli, via en naechtliche zwueschehalt und em usscheide vo brasil, wommer hend doerfe in recife mitverfolge, simmer etz huet in pipa acho. wiedermol hemmer uf uesere fahrt dohi die tuuere prise vo de brasilianische busbetrieb doerfe gspuehre. obwohlmer noed uf natal gfahre sind und oeppe e stund fruehner usem bus sind, hemmer muesse de ganzi priis uf natal zahle. aber jo. chammer leider nuet degege mache. pipa isch e herrlichs chlises tourischte oertli, mit jeeenes vilne reschtis und pousadas. alles sehr modern und halt so wuerkli noed brasilianisch. sogar dschulechinde sind agleit wie mir europaer. isch krass. aber schoen isches do wuerkli und dstraend wos do ide umgebig het sind eifach de hammer. so hemmer do au vorallem sstrandlebe uskoschtet und sind jede tag chli go bade. spezielle am ganze sind delfin gsi, wommer i sichtiwiiti ... read more

We have made it Praia de Pipa, just south of Natal and when we were told that people come here for 2 days and stay for 2 months we scoffed a little.. we intended to only stay 2 nights.. we stayed for a week!.. ! .. it would have been longer if we didnt have a time limit to get to peru!.. Pipa is a beautiful place and after wandering the main street which is a tourist mecca and our first night making buddies with the guys that run the 'Blue bar' - a cool little bar on the main strip we settled in pretty well.. the main beach in town (that can be seen from the high street above) has a great reef break that when at high tide the locals take advantage of and ... read more

It's a tough life, lying on the beach, drinking cocktails and dipping into the nice warm sea to cool off. We are now heading round the coast with another two weeks of beaches and colonial towns before we hit Rio for the Carnaval. Went to Jeriocoracoara, no cars, laid back, slightly hippy place and now in Praia de Pipa, again very laid back, beautiful beaches. It has to be said this bit is not real overlanding, the tough way, it's just all too nice. We were supposed to be camping here, but they'd turned it into a building site so our super leader found us a cool pousada with a BBQ and a swimming pool - we're going soft, but after the boat we deserve it! ... read more