2007-04-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

You are here: home > my Brasil > My Fernando Noronha

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And finally the good surprise turned out to be true.. I am on my way to Fernando Noronha, supposedly the best place in Brazil, which is actually used synonymously with the words a paradise on earth among brazilian folks. My expectations were sky rocketed by what every single brazilian told me throughout all my trip and the place was absolutely nothing short of my expectations.. The place is an Island that is in the atlantic ocean 400 km away from the mainland. It is absolutely a paradise on earth.

Going there by plane and coming back costs around 500$ normally, and there was no way to avoid it until a few months ago. Recently another flight company got a permission from Brazilian government and now it is possible to fly there for half the price twice a week. I was in Natal just one day before the flight and there were no tickets left presumably. I did not give up, and went to office of the BRA (the company with cheaper flights) 2 hours before the flight, and guess what?? Actually they had a flight for me... So one of the best parts of my trip starts thus.. I was running fast into the hostel getting my stuff and immediately running for airport.. Unfortunately I forgot my guidebook in the car of Guillerme and it is going to arrive one day later, so this is the first time I am going to a place to visit without the guidebook and I will really regret forgetting the book as you will see. Another problem is that I will be visiting the island with only a pair of shirt and one short because all my other stuff I gave to laundry as I did not expect to find the flight... But this is the smaller of the problems as the last thing I need is clothes once I have a swimsuit in this paradise...

The island is really amazingly beautiful, and so the government gets a preservation tax from anybody visiting there. Tax is 15$ per day for up to 7 days, and after 7 days every day the tax increases. To give an example the tax for staying there one month is around 1000$!!!!
That place is the best place to dive in Brazil and has absolutely the most beautiful beaches in Brazil. After that much of basic information I guess we are ready to dive in to a place which fell down to earth by a mistake from the heaven...

P.S: My special thanks to Rodrigo, a warm and sympathetic friend who helped me a lot in Fernando Noronha, he sent me his beautiful pictures and I decided to put 10 of his pictures into my blog as a supporter for the paradise.

Of course I am so excited that I will start taking pictures beginning from the flight.. First we will have to say goodbye to Natal, as you can see even the goodbye gives us a clue that we are leaving for something good...

And finally after more or less an hour of flying up all the way we are getting closer to the heaven... Fernando noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands and is home to 2 bird species who don´t exist anywhere else in the world.

I guess even just the colors you see from the plane give you a better idea that we are arriving to somewhere no less than spectacular.

There are a few mountains inside the island, the mainland is easily explorable in 2-3 days, it is really not very big. And it contains various small hills close to the shore around which are also home for the protected coral reefs.

And finally after all this beautiful flight from mist we land directly onto the middle of beauty in a clear sky... But I am not lucky that day, it immediately starts raining and I am also tired because I spent my last night drinking and partying in Natal as I really did not hope that I would be able to come here... So I spent my first afternoon resting through the crazy rain... Yes, I know I shouldnt have done that when I am in paradise, but it rained anyway, so it wouldnt make sense to try to go anywhere... At least it is my excuse...

Yes that was the excuse for my resting in Noronha, and of course after resting , I needed to drink in order to be able to sleep =))... I should admit that Fernando Noronha is definitely not the most spectacular party place on earth, but still it is better to work with what you have rather than trying to complain all the time isnt it =)

Yes, after partying the night, I decide to mess myself up even further and decide to go for the sunrise in Fernando Noronha. After talking with the locals I learn that the best place for the sunrise is the Capilla close to the porto.. It is a church on top of a hill on the northern part of the island.

And of course the locals are always right.. Just watch how the rays of sun radiate through the heavens gate...

OK, of course I should be a little objective and at least admit that it is definitely not the sunset on isla del sol, but still this is definitely the best island I have seen in my life and the sunrise here is beautiful too. And another interesting point is that this will be the first time I will be fully seeing the island from the north part as I was sleeping the first afternoon and has not seen the beauty of the island yet.

So actually this sunset is opening the beauty of fernando noronha to my eyes, in other words it is also the rise of fernando noronha in my heart and memories =)

Yes the as the light starts filling in the island starts revealing itself.. Slowly... I just love it... It is one of the perfect examples in the world proving how patience pays off in the end...

And of course we are still in the sunrise quarter. Dont believe me? Ask the clouds and water...

And definitely we are coming to daylight and this is a much different daylight from others, normally daylight is the point where the dreams are buried into darkness and you are awaken to the real life, this time daylight is the one that awakens you into a dream when it illuminates!!!!

Yes finally the sun is awake, and time for me to wake up too.. I have a paradise to explore!!!

Another view of the forto and in the second picture morro do pico (the big mountain) and ilha dos irmáos (2 brothers islands, the islands in the far end). The other island on the way is ilha de Conceicáo.

After an artistic pose reminding of that I had in Uxmal mexico, I go ahead walking back to my hotel...

My first day, I will be passing through snorkelling with a boat (central sub) and also taking a boat tour of the island... Before I leave I take the picture of another beach close by on my way, which is enseada de caieira.. And after getting a little bit more rest on top of my two hour trip I go back for my tours to the port, which is close to the same beach... And ???? What the ....!!!!!! This is the exact same beach, what the hell happened here.. It looks much more amazing than the regular beach I just had seen 2-3 hours ago!!!! It is ,,, unearthly!!!!! In the very least... There I have my first surprise... Really... Apparently around the midday is the best time for seeing those beaches... I am simply amazed... Actually the colors are much more beautiful than what I have seen in the early day.. Fernando noronha is apparently at its best in the direct sun from the top...

Another last look to this unearthly enseada de caieira before I leave. And the map of fernando noronha for a little bit more clarification...

And finally I go for my boat pulled snorkelling, it is a snorkelling in which a boat pulls you constantly for seeing under the water, you use a board similar to a surf board that is tied to the boat that you can use to dive more downwards with your snorkel holding your breath or just simply being pulled by the boat throughout the surface. It is an interesting experience to have for the first time in my life.. But I definitely would not recommend doing this stupid activity to anyone anywhere in the world, it is one of my big regrets that I did it in Fernando Noronha, I paid for something definitely not worth seeing at all. The problem is that when you dive with the boat, the boat driver does not see what you are seeing. So he just constantly pulls you, and the fishes and other species underwater they are not always distributed all over around, they are mainly focused around certain areas that need more serious exploration... And with this stupid boat, whenever you notice one fish group you have approximately 5 seconds until you lose them out of sight.. If you ever find some tour like this, definitely avoid it.... After that tour I really felt like Fernando Noronha was going to be some disappointment under the water... As Kim Wilde says with her song,, I will never be soo wrong...

Then I go ahead with the island tour with the boat, which travels through the southern end of the island... I tried to make the tours I would not be able to do myself... But I definitely dont suggest this to anybody either... Other than the very lucky observation of the dolphins (apparently they are not always there and you need some luck to see them for sure) which was real beautiful, this tour really offered nearly nothing.... The island itself and the views are much more beautiful from inside when you can actually see the sea from the beach and also from the upper parts. For the snorkelling, you dont need a boat to take you to some point in the sea if you are a good swimmer like me... If you ever go to that island, just rent a snorkel and dont even rent pallettes (they are just a hassle to carry all around, you do not need anything if you know how to swim good and fast)... And jump around the island by yourself, I made the most stupid mistake there by spending my money on those tours rather than renting a buggy or a motorcycle (and the only reason I did not do it is that I did not know that I could rent a motorbike, and apparently my guidebook actually had written about it. The tragedy resulting from having your guidebook one day late).

Anyways, after those guiding tips we can return back to the beauty of the island =)... Just tell me if you have seen water as beautiful as this before =)... One other point, apparently I am in Fernando Noronha during the low season, it is why the prices there were low. Normally in the high season the prices double at the very least. The difference between the high and the low season is the water of the atlantic.. During the low season the part of atlantic that contains Fernando Noronha is a windy place, high season takes out the wind and water of Fernando Noronha becomes totally silent and totally calm without any waves, this increase the visibility in the water to near perfect which is closer to a feeling of swimming in the air with all the fishes flying around you.. Diving around the high season is definitely better, I would personally prefer to go there in the high season if I could, actually I think this is the second place south america I would prefer to go in the high season, but I didnt have the choice.. (The first one being Carnaval in Rio obviously) ... All I can say for now is that, if it is that beautiful during the low season, I really can not even imagine the high season...

Yes two little brothers are trying to hide the morro de pico...

There was a movie called breaking the waves, I have no idea why I remembered it all of a sudden =)...Yes the only good part of this boat trip other than the dolphins was that I was able to take those photos from a different angle...

Another picture from the brothers, and finally we see our dolphins... The beauty of this part of the tour is that, when you close the motors of the boat when the dolphins are close by, they actually come and swim with you to see what is going on there around the boat...

Yes, I was taking as many pictures as I could, and I had absolutely no idea how close by those beautiful creatures were going to come...

Definitely closer than I expected =)

Actually may be I should have touched them a little bit =)

Yes, definitely my closest time to the dolphins in the wild in my lifetime...

Me with the island giving a boring pose... =)

Isnt the island more beautiful by itself, rather than with me =)... And this is the beach where our boat decided to rest and we were left to snorkel on our own... Then I realized what a crap that other central sub tour was, the area around the reefs are simply nothing but amazing, you can see all kinds of different fishes with the reefs around in their own environment floating with the waves, it is simply perfect... And I absolutely had not even an idea....

Yess, that is exactly where the reef with thousands of fishes was hidden, and second picture is to give you an idea about how clear the water is =)

Let me explain this way about the underwater life as I did not have an underwater camera with me. In my overall Fernando Noronha trip from the pictures above, I have seen raia xita (stingray), tubarao lixa (shark), tartaruga de pente (tortuga), polvo (octopus), hordes of sardinhas, peixe agutha (sword fish), coló ou Falso-veador, cangulo azul, Frade-juvenil, pirajica, sabere ou sargentinho, donzela-de-rocas, xira, badeja ou sirigado, and some others whose pictures I cant see here.

After the underwater adventure, and a few more poses from the beautiful dois irmaios, I am finally back for a final dive, from where I will head up for the sunset on another part of the island.

Moment of sensory satisfaction: After the boat trip, I made another snorkelling by myself around the area of porto, which is apparently the best area of island for snorkelling. As soon as I started my snorkelling trip, I jumped over a stingray, it started swimming, of course I did not give up, following after 2 minutes, he was far gone, and it was not the best part of the day for following stingrays, after I left the creature, 3 minutes after that, there was a shark, and I was able to follow the shark for 3 minutes, after that I just left the poor creature to his own destiny and went ahead for the shipwreck, that is available for viewing even by snorkel as it is not deeper than 10 meters down... After examining the shipwreck throughly turning back to the beach, I saw a tartaruga, following for a minute, but it was swimming really fast,, gave me a hard time... After all this crazy diving trip which lasted for more or less an hour, I was back for going ahead with the sunset, exactly at which time a crazy rain started pouring buckets all of a sudden... I was under a gazebo enjoying my views of the island under the rain, while thinking when would be the next time I would see that crazy of an underwater view in my life?? 5 years? 10 years? 25 years?? It was definitely a moment....

And of course I will head for the sunset.... I told you how beautiful that island is.. There is simply no excuse for missing a sunset in a place like this....

And dois irmaos is the place to see the sunset from if you are in Fernando Noronha for only a few days...

And of course I watched the sunset too =)

And I gave a pose in front of the sunset area... Yes, it is always more beautiful without me, I know... =)

And this is exactly how one crazy day in Fernando Noronha ends... Now get ready for the craziest of all!!!!!!!

Yes, the next day is definitely the most crazy of all, I start from baia do Sueste... It is this exact morning, where my second camera broke down!!!!! I was way too pissed, when there are all those places on earth, why did you decide to break in the middle of the paradise... Anyways, luckily the problem was a problem of LCD screen only, so I will be still able to take pictures, but I will not be able to see the results immediately, in that sense it is more of a analog camera rather than a digital one from now on....

Baia do Sueste is beautiful,,,, but it had definitely even a more beautiful surprise for me... When I arrived there it immediately started raining heavily, I did not care that much as I had my plastic bag for my camera and did not really care that much more for nothing else... But the surprise rain brings to me was another beauty by itself, the legendary full semicircle rainbow... This is the second time I am seeing him... twice in 4 months... What can I say, I am as lucky as hell in the heaven... After the lucky moments in amazonas, I really did not hope to see it again in my life,, but as you can see it is there, waiting for me...

And interestingly this time it was originating from the water.. And stupidly I was not able to see the results in my camera and was also scared of finishing my cameras memory too fast so did not take the picture of this origin.... Another point to the list of regrets in my life... The area you see around is a area full of fishes.. Apparently it was prohibited to move beyond a certain point in that baia for seeing the fish... And luckily I did not know it =) (Really, apparently there was a signpost somewhere where I did not see).. Soo, I was the only one diving around there, I dived for more or less an hour, went to the island you see in the far rightmost in the second picture (getting there was not easy, because most of the road is dangerously closed with deniz kestanesi (porcupine like structures in the sea)).. Somehow I was able to snorkel until there, it was the most spectacular snorkelling of my life... Anyways, once I went back, the national park guard stopped me and explained me that I should not have done this... And I apologized, and I am really sorry, but honestly it was one of the best mistakes I have done in my life although I would never have done it if I knew it was not allowed.... I want the preservation of this beauty there obviously...

Yes, after this trip, I definitely have doubled all the snorkelling, diving etc. I have done in my life... And I definitely decided for sure, before my next crazy trip, I will be learning to dive properly with all the licences to learn the underwater world better in the countries I visited too..

After all this hassle there, now I am on my way to Praia Atalaia, which is a little bit more north than baia sueste. It is another area with a natural swimming pool (piscina natural), where you can see some quite interesting fish around when you snorkel.. To preserve the place there are only 4 groups of 25 people allowed on the area. I did not know that you needed to register in order to get there and although I was the first to arrive baia sueste, where the cars stop for going there, I was not even going to be able to see it with the second group if it was not for my friend Rodrigo, who helped me. Apparently in their group of 4 the other guy was sick because of sinusitis and he had to go to hospital, and so they had one free space in their car, where they happily gave me the extra seat and his registration order.. Thanks to them I was able to explore that part a little bit faster... As you can see praia atalaia does not miss its share from the beauty of the island either...

Another example for the variety of the creatures you can find in the island... And another view to the beautiful praia atalaia, and obviously you can see that we are even getting closer to the midday from the gorgeous view in front of our eyes in the second picture,,,...

And of course there is definitely one destination to go with this beautiful time of the day... It is definitely one of the best parts of this island. It is Dos Irmaos area... The baia dos porcos area which looks at the dos irmaos has one of the best views of the island...

Just look at the color of the waves, am I not right? Is this not the most colorful wave that I have seen?

And I am near the brothers...

Look at the view in the first picture... It is simply unbelievably amazing... (No not the ass of the lady there,, the color of the water... Please =) )

The brothers from a different view...

Morro pico is jealous that I did not take that many pictures of him, and he also gives a good pose that deserves to be taken anyway... But sorry boy, you have no way of winning if we compare to the dos irmaos there....

Yes, this part is definitely one of the loveliest parts of the islands, no comments, the pictures speak for themselves already.

One of the brothers... None of the brothers =)

Saying goodbye to the brothers for another amazing beach... It is called Praia do Leao...

It took me some real hard work in order to come here... Because it rained heavily just before reaching there and it caused a lot of mud on the road... I was definitely not prepared for this and as I did not know that I could rent some motorbike I had to really work my way to come here.. If I had a second chance in Fernando Noronha, the first thing I would do would be to make sure that I rent a motorbike at the very least...

But all this mud for what?? For one of the most amazing beaches I have seen in my life only... No kidding... It is unfair to compare beaches in Fernando Noronha with the beaches in Brazil... They are simply of different leagues... Among the best beaches in Brazil, only Lopez Mendez and Praia do Gungas would be able to get a rank among the beaches in Fernando Noronha... Others,, simply no way... Among all beaches I have seen in my life, Praia Leao and baia Dos Porcos definitely get the two best positions...

Moment of sensory climax: Soon after I enter Praia Leiao I see a weird bird going out of the waves area, running in a weird manner like a penguin.. I am sure I have never seen that bird in my life, it is cute.. It suddenly shits some crystal in front of me (i have absolutely no clue about the composition, and no I did not taste it... ).. As I watch the bird flying towards the back my eyes are suddenly locked into the sky, god damn moon,,,, what the hell is wrong with you people, what the hell is wrong with me, what the hell is wrong with this south america... It is the largest moon I have seen in my life (the second largest also was in Rio, just before leaving for Ouro Preto), just looking at me and telling "you kid, you have come a long way, haven´t you? What do you think was I worth it? ",, and my reply is without a blink... It was , it definitely was... I have never seen you that amazing... It is so surprising to me to come to a continent of mysteries and being absolutely amazed most by the sky at that continent!!! Yes I have come a long way, and yes I have come it to see you and thank you for showing yourself... I look again down to the beautiful Leao, it has my huge footprints on it... Apparently I am the only one it has seen for quite some time.. The beaches, the beauty and the loneliness here. All at the same time... This is where the paradise is this is where the silence is... This is where I am.... This is Umut I am in Fernando Noronha, my paradise.

Praia Leao does its best to accentuate the beauty of the moon too... My only regret in all this paradise... Not having a better camera to show you what I really have seen there..

I can definitely say at the very least something about Fernando Noronha... It is definitely a place where to see the beauty you do not need to look!!!!

Anyways, time to say goodbye to our pretty Leao. Chaw, and thank you for showing your best only to me...

And now I am headed for ponta das caracas, from where a beautiful view of the natural piscinas (swimming pools) (it is how they call smaller ecosystems formed by lakes on top of the sea) can be seen. The views were amazing as usual, but this time the camera problem accentuated even more.. Sorry but this time I will only be showing a very minimum fraction of the beauty I have seen there....

And of course the ones that enjoy this beauty the most and always are definitely the birds...

A last look to the natural piscina makes me follow my way through to my final phosphorescence in Fernando Noronha in Baia do Sueste.

My last night in Fernando Noronha? Of course it will not be an ordinary night!!!! =)

Meet my friend rodrigo and his friends, warm people of brazil....

The next morning I head for Praia Conçesáo, which is the beach nearby the Morro Pico. On my way I really feel like Fernando Noronha is showing his sweet little finger to the rest of the world saying you can do what ever you want you mortal world, I will stay here being the paradise =)...

Yes I will spend my last morning in Fernando Noronha here... You can see the island of Conçesáo in the second picture..

And of course my last looks to this beautiful paradise on earth in the early morning light...

Goodbye My Fernando Noronha... Goodbye my Paradise...

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