Day 49
Today I'm in: Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
With a suitcase full of (very expensively) cleaned clothes, I hopped on a plane this afternoon and bid farewell to Recife. The flight to Fernando de Noronha took just over an hour; about twenty minutes in, the coastline of mainland Brazil curved away from us, and we flew over open ocean for the remainder of the trip. We landed on Fernando de Noronha just before 4pm. I'm now more than 500 kilometers from the Brazilian mainland on one of the most isolated islands in the Atlantic, closer to Senegal than I am to Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro.
Technically, Noronha is an archipelago of several dozen islands, but the largest (and eponymous) island is the only inhabited one. It's about three miles long by one mile wide and is punctuated by a series of morros, which are steep rock outcroppings that have been eroded over milennia by wind and water. Morro do Pico, the largest one, is really striking and is visible from just about anywhere on the island. Smaller morros are everywhere - the airport runway runs between two of them (is that safe?) and everything is covered in dense jungle.
At no point in its history has Noronha been joined to the South American mainland, so it's developed a very unique ecosystem. Many of the bird, plant and fish species here aren't found anywhere else on the planet. Brazil, which doesn't have the best environmental track record overall, is VERY serious about protecting Noronha - airlines are limited to four flights a day (three to Recife and one to Natal) which keeps visitor arrivals down to about 400 per day. All tourists pay an environmental tax upon arrival that gets proportionally larger the longer you stay. I'll be here for three days, so I had to pay 86 reais (almost $50). Everything here comes with a price - the cost of importing from the mainland is high, and I'm still trying to not wince every time I pay a bill.
There are also no large resorts here; everyone stays in pousadas or small villas that aren't allowed to exceed a specified number of square footage (or meters, I guess.) I'm staying at the Pousada Algas Marinhas, a very pleasant place on a hillside above the main town - more on that in a minute - with a big hammock-filled veranda, mango trees out back and simple but nice rooms. The only catch, which I just discovered, is that the electric water heater in the shower shocks me every time I try to turn it on. I took a cold shower tonight, but I'm going to have to tell them about it tomorrow. Neither death by electrocution nor a cold shower in the morning sounds very appealing.
The closest thing to a definable center on Noronha are three interconnected villages - Vila do Remedios, Floresta Nova, and Floresta Velha. I'm staying in Floresta Nova, but there's no real way to tell where one ends and the other begins. Vila dos Remedios is ostensibly the seat of government and the de-facto capital, but it's a very quiet place - just a single cobbled street leading to the island's small port with a few stores and restaurants and the odd pousada here and there.
Since I arrived late in the afternoon I didn't have much time to explore, and what little time I did have was spent finding a set of wheels for tomorrow. I did walk down the hill from Vila dos Remedios to the Praia do Cachorro, one of the island's 16 beaches. It's not particularly noteworthy as Noronha beaches go - I'll be visiting some really spectacular ones tomorrow - but it was still pretty awesome, with a great view of Morro do Pico and one small quiet restaurant with tables set up on the sand. It's low season here and that, coupled with the cap on visitor arrivals, means that the pace here is just a level or two above comatose. Naturally almost nobody speaks English (as far as I could tell, I was the only non-Brazilian on my flight) but the cadence here is so easy and understanding that I haven't had any issues communicating so far.
Most of the vehicles on the island are electric or run on liquified natural gas. By far the most popular way to get around is by buggy; there are far more buggies here than regular cars. I did some checking around before I got here, and unfortunately all of the buggies are standard-transmission, which I essentially don't know how to drive (I've done it once and it wasn't very pretty.) It's a bit more vehicle than I need anyhow, so once I got settled at the pousada I started asking around for a bike or a scooter. Eventually I found a shop called Sol e Mar (Sun and Sea) with a friendly owner named Augusto who spoke a little bit of English and very good Spanish. He's renting me a small electric motorbike - I'll post pictures of it tomorrow once I've had a chance to ride it. It's definitely an odd-looking vehicle.
That's the story for today - I'll be heading off on my funny-looking motorbike to visit beaches, do a few hikes and hopefully get some snorkeling in. I've wanted to come here for years and years, and I'm really excited to see more of the island tomorrow.
Today I'm in: Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
With a suitcase full of (very expensively) cleaned clothes, I hopped on a plane this afternoon and bid farewell to Recife. The flight to Fernando de Noronha took just over an hour; about twenty minutes in, the coastline of mainland Brazil curved away from us, and we flew over open ocean for the remainder of the trip. We landed on Fernando de Noronha just before 4pm. I'm now more than 500 kilometers from the Brazilian mainland on one of the most isolated islands in the Atlantic, closer to Senegal than I am to Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. 
Technically, Noronha is an archipelago of several dozen islands, but the largest (and eponymous) island is the only inhabited one. It's about three miles long by one mile wide and is punctuated by a series of morros, which are steep rock outcroppings that have been eroded over milennia by wind and water. Morro do Pico, the largest one, is really striking and is visible from just about anywhere on the island. Smaller morros are everywhere - the airport runway runs between two of them (is that safe?) and everything is covered in dense jungle. At no point in its history has Noronha been joined to the South American mainland, so it's developed a very unique ecosystem. Many of the bird, plant and fish species here aren't found anywhere else on the planet. Brazil, which doesn't have the best environmental track record overall, is VERY serious about protecting Noronha - airlines are limited to four flights a day (three to Recife and one to Natal) which keeps visitor arrivals down to about 400 per day. All tourists pay an environmental tax upon arrival that gets proportionally larger the longer you stay. I'll be here for three days, so I had to pay 86 reais (almost $50). Everything here comes with a price - the cost of importing from the mainland is high, and I'm still trying to not wince every time I pay a bill.
There are also no large resorts here; everyone stays in pousadas or small villas that aren't allowed to exceed a specified number of square footage (or meters, I guess.) I'm staying at the Pousada Algas Marinhas, a very pleasant place on a hillside above the main town - more on that in a minute - with a big hammock-filled veranda, mango trees out back and simple but nice rooms. The only catch, which I just discovered, is that the electric water heater in the shower shocks me every time I try to turn it on. I took a cold shower tonight, but I'm going to have to tell them about it tomorrow. Neither death by electrocution nor a cold shower in the morning sounds very appealing. 
The closest thing to a definable center on Noronha are three interconnected villages - Vila do Remedios, Floresta Nova, and Floresta Velha. I'm staying in Floresta Nova, but there's no real way to tell where one ends and the other begins. Vila dos Remedios is ostensibly the seat of government and the de-facto capital, but it's a very quiet place - just a single cobbled street leading to the island's small port with a few stores and restaurants and the odd pousada here and there. 
Since I arrived late in the afternoon I didn't have much time to explore, and what little time I did have was spent finding a set of wheels for tomorrow. I did walk down the hill from Vila dos Remedios to the Praia do Cachorro, one of the island's 16 beaches. It's not particularly noteworthy as Noronha beaches go - I'll be visiting some really spectacular ones tomorrow - but it was still pretty awesome, with a great view of Morro do Pico and one small quiet restaurant with tables set up on the sand. It's low season here and that, coupled with the cap on visitor arrivals, means that the pace here is just a level or two above comatose. Naturally almost nobody speaks English (as far as I could tell, I was the only non-Brazilian on my flight) but the cadence here is so easy and understanding that I haven't had any issues communicating so far.
That's the story for today - I'll be heading off on my funny-looking motorbike to visit beaches, do a few hikes and hopefully get some snorkeling in. I've wanted to come here for years and years, and I'm really excited to see more of the island tomorrow.
Sounds like a really interesting place!
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