Fernando de Noronha Pt 1: Private Island Tours

If I had to use only one word to describe Fernando de Noronha (FDN) it would be easy- PARADISE. Its crystal clear water and spectacular landscape this island is considered one of the most stunning places in Brazil, if not the entire world. With little more than 200 plane seats per day available to Noronha, the island is never overwhelmed by tourism. We continuously saw many of the same faces on our plane, at dinner, the bars, beach etc... We made "friends" with some people simply by running into them everywhere. We arrived to the island in the late afternoon, after spending a few hours dealing with some bank issues (see prior posting) we were ready to go out and have a fun night! We headed to Bar do Cachorro "Dog Bar" for its nightly forró. Forró is a couples dance to syncopated music centered on the acordian, triangle and the zabumba (a bass drum of sorts). Mads loves dancing forró but due to her injured ankle she was a little weary of hitting the floor, so at first we sat and watched the other couples dance. After a while a man came up to us trying to get her to dance. She explained that she couldn't but that he should teach me how to. I was a little creeped out by this guy and didn't want to go - but Mads insisted saying she had been watching him and he was really good. After a few awkward moments of me stumbling around the dance floor to the fast paced 2 x 2 dance beat I got the hang of it. When we returned to our seats Mads was about to heard to the dance floor herself with a hunky local. So she stuck me with the creepy middle-aged man while she waited for a better option to come along...I saw her ways hehe.

My dance partner, Ze Renato, actually ended up being really nice. Though he barely spoke any English/Spanish and I barely speak Portuguese we managed to have a conversation while Mads danced. He told me he was a local born and raised on the island. He now was a scuba instructor and tomorrow (Sayurday) was his only day off and he wanted to take us on a tour around the island. I told him we had already booked a tour and wasn't sure we could cancel and get a refund. This was part lie as we had booked one but hadn't paid any money. He insisted we cancel and told me he'd be at our pousada at 8:30 am. Mads and I went back and forth deciding if this was a good idea. On the one hadnd it would save us $140 reais on the other we could be stuck with a strange guy who could try to make passes at us all day (this is very common with Brazilian men). Saying "no" to the question "Do you have a boyfriend?" means you're live bait...note to self: lie to creepers and say "yes".

We decided to risk it anyway (remember- I'm poor for the time being). This ended up being one of the best calls of the trip. Aside from a little arm/back touching to both of us girls Ze was harmless. He picked us up in his buggy and took us to several amazing beaches. He was also so careful with Mads' foot and helped her as we hiked through cliffs and down a really gnarly ladder/rocky path to our favorite beach Baía do Sancho. We would definitely not been able to do this on a big tour. The next day we took a boat tour in the morning and then met up with Ze in the afternoon for more sight seeing. He brought along a co-worker, aptly named, Ze Gustavo (to Mads' dismay). This new addition made our tour even more harmless. The highlight of day 2 was a stop at Cacimba do Padre, this beach is famous as it holds the ASP World Surf tour every March. You could tell this spot gets huge just by the epic womp there at this time of year.


That night Ze Renato invited us to a peixada (fish dinner). I explained that I did not eat fish, but he insisted I would love it the way he prepared it with salt and lime. The two Ze's picked us up and took us to the deserted beach where they set up a table that they had "borrowed" from the closed restaruant next door. Ze Renato grilled the fish wrapped in a bannan leaf and lo and behold he was right, despite how nervous I was to eat it, I thought it was really good!! When it came time to leave the buggy, which he had driven onto the sand, we discovered it was stuck. We could have told him that would happen when he drove in. After about 20 min of the boys trying to handle it on their own, Mads' stick-shift driving skills came in handy. The two boys pushed the front as Mads reversed out of the hole. Success! We did not have to spend the night on the beach. All in all the decision to hang out with the random from the forró was awesome!

Dangers & Annoyances

Every travel book has the section that warns against local risks. I pride myself on being a pretty savvy traveler- however sometimes bad things still happen. The Thursday we arrived in Fernando de Noronha was NOT my day. It all started when we landed and got our luggage. My backpack- though locked- arrived open with some items sticking out of an inside zipper pocket. At first I thought nothing of it assuming the main zipper had just popped open as the lock was still closed and the zipper was open from the middle. Glad to see it wasn't broken, I fixed the zipper and went on my way. As we were sitting on the airport waiting for our ride I realized my blackberry was in that inside pocket that had some clothes sticking out. I also know I had closed that pocket and there was nothing poking out...SHIT. That is what immediately went through my mind. Sure enough I checked and it had been stolen. Sometime between checking in at Recife and picking up in Fernando de Noronha someone had opened my bag and taken my phone. Already upset by that I went online to discover an email from my bank saying I had insufficient funds in my account. I signed on to discover numerous fraudulent withdrawals. I immediately called my bank and canceled my card. So for the time being Mads is my sugar mama until I get my new card. They say bad things happen in 3 so hopefully with Mads ankle we are done with any bad luck for the rest of the trip (knock on wood!)

Ivete

On our first day in Fortaleza Mads saw a billboard for an Ivete Sangalo concert for the coming Saturday. Mads was super excited because she loves Ivete. She had gone to one of her concerts three years ago in Rio and had an amazing time. Ivete is one of the most popular musicians of Brazilian Axé (music from the state of Bahia). We were able to get tickets for R$50 (~USD$27). We were given these shirts called "abadás" which we were required to wear in order to enter the event. Celina (our "Fortaleza mother") took us to her seamstress who turned the ugly over-sized tanks into cute little tops.


The concert was suc h a fun experience!! Ratherthan performing on a stage, Ivete played on top of a trio elétrico - a semi-truck equipped with a high power sound system and the musicians on top of it, playing for the crowd below. The truck started outside the concert grounds and made its way into the center of a huge outdoor plaza. As it drove, the crowd followed behind/beside screaming, dancing and signing. Once in the center, everyone crowded around the truck signing and jumping around the entire time while Ivete put on one of the most high-energy shows I've ever seen. We didn't bring a camera as we didn't want it to get stolen, but I have included some pictures I found online from some of her other shows so you can get an idea.

It was such a great night until Mads tripped and fell onto the ground. It was so crowded I needed to have some random guys help me pick her up. Mads attempted to play it off as if she wasn't too hurt and tried to continue enjoying the show. However after a few minutes she could not pretend any longer that it did not hurt and we had to leave. We decided as the show was pretty much over anyways as Ivete had already been playing for over two hours. Outside the venue several taxi men waited. I tried to get a few to carry Mads to the car, but no one would. I am not sure if it was because they were too lazy/weak or because they couldn't understand what I was saying. My guess is it was probably a little of both, but more of the former than the latter.

The next morning we woke up to find Mads ankle completely swollen and black and blue. Sure enough she'd sprained it pretty badly. Celina and her husband Rodrigo took charge to make sure Mads was well taken care of. They wrapped her foot in an ACE bandage and made her walk around in a boot with crutches all day. Anytime she tried to walk without either of the two they would start yelling at her. They even made her sleep in the boot!

It is all pretty funny but also sad. It's kind of put a damper on the end of our Fortaleza trip. Mads was unable to enjoy the fun surf at the beach and had to sit sedentary with her leg elevated during the entire Brazil v. Ivory Coast game. Regardless, we were able to enjoy the day as best we could and the win was definitely a silver lining to her day. GO BRASIL!!!!!

Hopefully her foot will heal quickly as we're about to go on two trips to Jericoacoara- a beautiful beach town about 4 hours outside Fortaleza and Fernando de Noronha- these beautiful islands off the coast. It will definitely suck of she can't play with me.