Paco On Tour

Buses & the South

I just left the state of Bahia little more than two days ago, so not all that much to describe as yet, but I simply wanted to register my impressions of the longest bus journey I have made to date – a little over 40 hours – from Puerto Seguro to Foz de Iguaçu, from where I am writing. I wasn’t very sure how well I would withstand the trip. It hasn’t been too bad, but I think 30 hours is probably a healthy maximum. After that your joints start to hurt a little and the A/C gets just a little too much. Porto Seguro to Rio was quick enough, your usual night-ride, scenery starts to change a little as you get into the state of Rio de Janeiro – less tropical somehow, more hilly too – and being in Rio for a couple of hours was a little strange, I felt like I should stay (this being initially my planned destination) but feeling that Foz was a good place too. In fact what made me finally decide to go all the way to Foz – which is in the border with Argentina and Paraguay – were several reasons. I really wanted a change from the “tropical beach” scene I had been visiting during the last month, and Foz was certainly a change to that; I had intended to go to Foz from Curitiba but just realised that instead of the 2-3 hour bus ride it was a 10 hour bus ride there (and another 10-12 h to anywhere else) which made it a far-off destination whatever I did; I wanted to solve this camera issue presto, prices in Brasil are 2-3 x higher than the USA and Argentina, although a little better, was also very pricey. The best option was to try Ciudad del Este – a Paraguayan city on the other side of the border from Foz, renown to Argentineans and Brazilians for its shopping opportunities and especially prices. The border-crossing and possible tax issues were the only concern (unfounded, it would turn out). I didn’t want to wait too long to clear that up; and finally I had a friend coming over from Porto Alegre (further south) and we could spend the next 5-6 days seeing the sights up to Rio – which I still need to visit of course – making great company and fun for this leg of the trip. I arrived in Foz, Saturday midday, a little dazed after all those hours in the bus – it really does make you realise the immensity of this country – had a shave and brushed my teeth in at the bus terminal (I wasn’t looking my best at this stage :-) ) and found a hotel to leave my things. Since I wasn’t going to visit the Falls today – too late and too tires – after my shower and set of clean clothes I decided to try out the Ciudad del Este run. And run it was, I got on the back of a motorbike-taxi which agreed to take me to the other side, the city itself, for US$ 5 straight to a “reputable”- important this ! – camera shop and bring me back. I knew exactly what I was looking for, so it was a question of seeing whether they had it and fixing the price. The bike trip over was “fun” shall we say, certainly a lot more efficient and probably safer than a car-taxi. The border was absolute chaos – although the biker told me it was very calm, mayhem scheduled for midday on Saturdays usually, 2-3 hours wait to cross – we made it in 10 minutes. Witnessed a couple of motorbike riders scrambled across the “Puente de la Amistad” (Bridge of Friendship) obviously victims of an accident a few minutes before (they were gone by the time we got back). No passport formalities at the border at all and straight into bustling Ciudad del Este... really looks like cowboy country out here, and I was glad to have a quick in-out visit, not really the place to hang around – or at least that was my first impression. Luckily enough the shop had the camera I was looking for (a Nikon D70) at a more or less reasonable price – given the other options – so with that and a few necessary accessories (case, memory cards and what have you) I was ready to leave after 20 minutes discussion/bargaining – nice to be able to use my Spanish once again! I was a little concerned about the return – controls being stricter to get into Brazil rather than into Paraguay – but the quantity of motorbikes and cars was such, that an anonymous motorbike with one passenger – wearing helmets and a cheap rucksack (which I had just bought to put all the stuff in) seemed to be pretty inconspicuous and we went threw without a hitch. And that is the story up to now. Expensive addition to my gear – will have to build up a little confidence to learn how to use it and actually get it out of its case – and looking forward to seeing the famous waterfalls soon. Will keep you posted, of course.

Salvador & Bahia

De vuelta a Salvador, esta vez para quedarme un par de dias después del campo de Lençois. Llegué un poco sobre aviso. Me habían hablado del 'acoso al turista' y posible inseguridad, pero aparte de una ciudad muy grande y los típicos plastas en los lugares más turisticos tampoco me pareció nada del otro mundo. Me quedé cerca del Pelourinho - en una calle llena de casas antiguas que están siendo compradas y restauradas (lo necesitan!) en su gran mayoría por Europeos. La pousada en la que me quedé era especialmente bonita, y aunque gasté algo por encima del presupuesto, por sólo un par de noches decididamente mereció la pena. En cuanto a la ciudad, noté - como dicen la mayoría de las guias - que es con diferencia la más africana a este lado del Atlántico. La gente, los olores, los ritmos, los comportamientos me recordaban, lo poco que conozco, el Africa negra. No tuve demasiada suerte con el tiempo - muy nublado y lluvioso a veces - y tampoco tenía demasiadas ganas de pasar mucho tiempo en una gran ciudad. Lo justo para llevarme una primera impresión, pero no lo suficiente como para empezar a conocerla. Si se respiraba mucho ambiente por la noche, gente y música en la calle, unas bandas de percusión bastante buenas tocando, practicando... en fin, me imagino que aqui se reunen muchos de los tópicos sobre Brasil, al menos los que se tienen en el extranjero. Después de un par de dias salí rumbo a una isla al otro lado de la Bahía de todos los Santos - a un lugar llamado Morro de São Paolo. Me habian hablado bien de él, y al llegar la verdad es que me encontré - de nuevo - un beach resort para turistas , bonito, pero habiendo visto ya unas cuantas se vuelve un pelin monótono. Curioso como uno se acostumbra a lo bueno tan rápido e incluso puede llegar a cansarse un poco. El tiempo seguía regular por lo que sólo pude disfrutar a medias. Había pensado en seguir el curso de buceo iniciado en Noronha, pero las condiciones meteorológicas no eran buenas y no se podía salir al mar. En fin, que decidí probar mi suerte más hacia el sur. En realidad creo que de alguna forma, y aunque suene un poco raro, creo que he llenado mi cupo de 'playas tropicales' por algún tiempo. Tengo ganas de algo diferente, algo de variedad me imagino y sobre todo otros ambientes. El lugar donde esperan a todos los turistas y la vida parece reducirse en muchos casos a vivir de ellos es un poco monotemático, ignorando por un momento la belleza natural de los parajes en los que se encuentran. En fin, antes de ir hacia Rio y más al sur pensé que probaría un último pueblecito de la costa de Bahia antes de salir del Estado. Tomé la última lancha rápida de Morro S.P. a una ciudad llamada Valença y desde allí un autobús nocturno - no muy comfortable - hasta Eunápolis donde llegué sobre las 5:00 para enlazar con el primer autobús a mi destino final - Troncoso. Un precioso pueblo junto al mar, con una parte antigua muy pintoresca y una nueva bastante menos... el lugar parece ser fue 'descubierto' por la ola hippie de los años 60-70 y ahora está asentada por muchos extranjeros - por lo que oigo, españoles y argentinos sobre todo - con albergues, hospedajes, tiendas 'artisticas' y sigue atrayendo a muchos artistas de la calle, como se les denomina aqui. Tranquilo y bonito, aunque el tiempo sigue sin acompañar demasiado. Una mañana de lluvia torrencial al llegar y aunque salió el sol por unas horas, el cielo se nubla con bastante rapidez. Ayer di un largo paseo en bicicleta por la reserva natural que acaba en la playa, llena de aves y animales varios, para volver por la playa durante un par de horas. Precioso, si no fuera porque la bicicleta se hundia demasiado en la arena blanda, haciendo el pedaleo un árduo trabajo y muchas veces teniendo que bajarme y caminar, pero tampoco me voy a quejar por pequeñeces... :-) En estos momentos estoy pensando en dar un golpe de timón a la ruta programada y cambiar un poco de rumbo. Ya tengo mi billete para ir a Rio esta tarde - 18 h desde aqui - pero no quiero pararme en esa ciudad ahora mismo, dentro de unos dias volveré - y pienso seguir hasta Curitiba o quizás Foz de Iguaçu que está bastante más lejos. La ventaja del segundo es que puedo aprovechar para comprar una nueva cámara digital - ya explicaré porque si sale la jugada. También tengo intención de pasar por la segunda Oktoberfest más grande del mundo - después de Munich - en la ciudad de Blumenfeld cerca de Curitiba en la primera mitad de octubre. En fin, ya os tendré al corriente, pero creo que mi visita al "Brasil tropical" acaba hoy...

Lençois - Chapada Diamantina

The bus trip from Maceió to Salvador was quite an eventful one. The least remarkable fact being that it was a night bus leaving at AM 12:30 on a trip of, initially, 9 hours or so. Travelling by bus is a lot better than it initially may seem – being a kind of transport of last resort in Europe for long trips especially. Buses here are more comparable to train services really. Almost all buses that travel for more than 2-3 hours have a pretty good level of comfort, with good seats, A/C, and thankfully rarely a TV to be seen or more importantly heard... There are three levels of service, “convencional”, “executivo” and “leito”. In executivo the seats are significantly better and above all, there is space for lying ¾ of the way down, allowing a good rest. Leito – which I have yet to travel on – has fully extendable seats and sometimes only 3 seats to a row instead of4. The service to Salvador was Executivo, I was pretty tired by the time I boarded – so I put my sleeping mask on, iPod providing the music for the trip and spent some time falling into and then out of the netherworld. At around 1:30 AM when I finally seemed to be getting a little sleep we entered a town with booming music in the distance which gradually got louder as we approached it. We had left the main road and had ended up on a secondary one full of potholes that even the proper suspension system of our bus couldn’t effectively absorb. We hit something just before arriving at the bus terminal (rodoviaria) and when the driver tried to start up again there was no way to get the beast going – we were stuck. The music was coming from some kind of concert just by the bus-station and we could, literally, feel each of the beats in the music. Not an ideal environment to catch some sleep! After almost 3 hours they managed to fix the bus up enough to limp for another hour or so and get another bus into which we all switched into. We arrived at Salvador’s rodoviaria around 13:00. I barely had enough time to grab a sandwich and a drink before jumping into the next bus, this time to Lençois, a further 7 hours away... Just as I was packing my things to get on the bus I suddenly realised that the bottom of my small bag – which contains my most precious things like my diary, documents (most) and camera – was completely soaked. I tried drying it up as quickly as possible but it was too late... these modern things are way too technological and sensitive to withstand full immersion in water – which effectively is what it was. So it looks like a 0,30 euro bottle of water effectively drowned my 500 euro (!) digital camera... my most expensive item was the first one to die. Although the financial cost is considerable – for me on a trip like this. I have become so used to taking photographs in the last six months, enjoy doing so – happy at the thought of having a graphic memory of the places I visit (so many it is difficult to keep them all in your head sometimes) – and especially being able to share them with all of you. I will most definitely have to get a new one, but after thinking about it for a couple of days (writing after the event of course :-) I realise that what I initially took as something of a tragedy – breaking down after 3,000 photos, you cannot but become a little attached to the beast... – could in fact be a good opportunity to dramatically improve what seems to be a slowly growing passion, take improved photographs and share the (hopefully) improved results with all of you. But in order to do this I would have to spend significantly more on a good digital camera, which have just started to become almost affordable. My main fear is that I lose it/break it (again!) or get it stolen, I am not really that keen to carry expensive things around the world. On the other hand the quality of the photos should improve substantially – especially since I should get better with time – and it is unlikely that I will spend so much time taking photos as I can on this trip ever again really, making it a unique opportunity to learn and practice to the craft of photography. I am still a little undecided. Yesterday my current camera seemed to get a little “better” and can actually make photos, although the screen is almost useless, the flash doesn’t work and it is unclear how long it will really last. In any case I would be grateful if any (ex)photographers / (ex)travellers / anybody else would give me their opinion on whether it is best to stick with the current type of camera or upgrade to a digital SLR, with the higher costs risks this will entail. All comments to this entry or emails directly to me welcome! I arrived at Lençois late in the evening to find a small village – rather than the larger town I had expected. After a good night’s sleep in a bed –which I certainly needed at this point. I spent a relaxing Sunday looking around the village, writing, reading and meeting a few people – including Arnaud from Brussels who had come to South America for six months, had fallen in love with Patagonia (and a lady there...) and had ended up here for a year, half of which in Patagonia itself, and was going back home in ten days. He had decided to return to Patagonia and settle there permanently as soon as he had made enough money (in about 6 months or so) in Belgium. A “usual traveller” – essentially worked back home just enough to save the necessary money to travel the rest of the time, he certainly had some good stories to tell a lot of the time related to his need to travel particularly on the cheap (12 euros a day – everything). Lençois drew its wealth essentially in the mid XIX century when diamonds were discovered in nearby rivers and, as was to be expected, a large influx of prospectors came to try their luck. The discovery of richer diamond fields elsewhere, especially South Africa in the 1870s, initiated a steady decline of the town, down to its present state. Today, after the creation of a National Park in the surrounding area in1989 the town seems to live mainly off tourism and as a base for excursions into the Park itself. Natural cascades all over the place and caves are some of the attractions of the area, but unfortunately the main cascade – Fumaça – hasn’t got enough water to show off its famous effect, no water actually reaches the ground because it is all blown away by a constant air current at the bottom of the fall. Instead I booked a place in a 3-day trek around part of the Park. Doing a little walking back in nature proper after so much sea and beaches has actually been quite refreshing. The trek went very well. Missing my camera, which I didn’t bring of course, I bought a single use one – not the same thing :-) Weather was a little poor, cloudy and rainy in the morning getting better as the day advanced, but the walking was good. Only four of us on the trek itself, Fernando – the guide, 25, 3 children and divorced once (they live life fast here sometimes...); Amenio, a friend of Fernando’s, 39, artista da rua for the last nine and a little bit on a quest of self-discovery, if you see what I mean; and Matthias, the only other “tourist”, 28, from Basle (Switzerland) travelling for 4 months in Brazil and then Argentina. Nice to be off the more “classic” tourist areas for a bit, although there are certainly quite a few foreigners here still. The landscape is certainly quite different to the coast. Green, hilly, much less ‘tropical’. Lots of little rivers in which to bath in and a good trekking pace give way to calm days. Had a more classic tourist tour of some of the main attractions on my last days- in a van and with a number of others- but at least managed to take a few photos, which means I can still survive with my current camera for at least a little longer. Off to Salvador tonight (night bus again...) and will only spend 2 or 3 days there. Although apparently quite attractive in places, it is a little bit too oppressive (the people mostly) for the tourist. Many touts, children offering things, the usual. I am prepared, but lets see what the reality is.

Maceio

Ya estoy de vuelta en el continente después de la gran delicia de Noronha, de camino hacia Salvador, decidí acortar un poco el viaje y hacer una parada en la ciudad de Maceio, a unos 300 km al sur de Recife pero tardando unas cuatro horas y media para llegar. Desafortunadamente, no esta haciendo muy buen tiempo en el litoral el último par de dias y las playas sin sol no son realmente lo mismo, sobre todo después de la magia de Noronha – perdonar que siga dando la lata con eso, ya se me pasará :-) – se me ha quitado algo las ganas de seguir en las playas. He decidido por tanto aventurarme hacia el interior, para lo cual ya tenía planes, pero acelero solo un poquitin. De aqui tomaré un autobus nocturno esta noche hasta Salvador y cambiaré directamente para la ciudad de Lençois a unos 450 km de la costa. Al parecer es una joya del periodo colonial y tiene el famoso parque natural de la Chapada Diamantina cerca que me apetece bastante visitar. A usar mis botas después de tanto tiempo con sandalias! He podido ver un poco de Maceio, pero lo mínimo en algo menos de un día – esta mañana encerrado porque seguia lloviendo. En lugar de pasearme todo el tiempo por la playa, después de pasarme por la terminal de autobuses para sacar mis billetes, me fui a descubrir el centro y dar una vuelta sin direccion particular como me gusta a mi de vez en cuando. Más que nada para ver como vive la gente su día a día y tener una mayor impresión, aunque no puede ser mucho más, de la vida cotidiana en los sitios que visito. No me había orientado demasiado bien en los autobuses que pillé para ir al centro y en lugar de dirijirme hacia mi hotel, como pensaba mas o menos, resulta que me estaba encaminando en la dirección opuesta – claro que esto no lo supe hasta que abandoné la caminata, vencido, y cogí un taxi de vuelta. Entretanto veía que me metía en lugares menos desarrollados y desde luego nada turistas de la ciudad – las favelas vamos. Siempre hay niveles de pobreza, hasta en eso las cosas son relativas, pero creo que me lleve una impresión más veraz de lo que hay en las ciudades medianas de Brasil, al menos aqui en el Sudeste. Hay que estar un pelín alerta me imagino, pero no me sentí en ningún momento en peligro o nada por el estilo. De noche sería algo diferente, pero pasando por el Estadio de Fútbol, llamado “Rei Pelé” tal cual, los pequeños negocios, los cementerios, las escuelas, la calle de la reparación de coches con muchas “borracherías” que yo al principio creía que, con típica naturalidad brasileña, eran lugares para beber mucho y barato – pero resulta que son lugares para recauchutar neumaticos (borracho=goma) – por la carretera se ven todo el tiempo. Después de tres horas dando vueltas y viendo que no llegaba a ningún sitio, volví en taxi... más o menos. Me dejó en la playa donde pude observar, a la tarde, las pequeñas escuelas de samba en la playa practicando me imagino toda la coreografía para carnaval. Lo más salado fué ver un grupo de niños y niñas de unos 5 a 9 años todos practicando bien en serio, las niñas los pasos de samba y ellos a la percusión y instrumentos de viento, con una gracia y salero increibles. Me gustan estos momentos de sorpresa, uno se alegra por las cosas más simples. En fin, poca cosa más por ahora, preparandome para muchas horas de autobús, aunque para algunos compañeros de viaje anteriores – como Julio de Sao Paolo – 15 horitas en el bus es un paseo... El se tragó 60 horas de Sao Paolo a Santiago de Chile, o sea que pensaré en eso cuando se me atasquen las rodillas esta noche :-) Más desde el interior pronto y en cuanto pueda cuelgo las fotos de Noronha, que algunas son más que bonitas...

Fernando de Noronha

It has been a little longer than usual for this entry, but I was enjoying another world for a few days and didn’t manage to interrupt it for long enough to stop and write about it! After the day in Olinda it was time to discover the island of Fernando de Noronha (Noronha for short) for seven days and six nights. Whenever I told any Brazilian I was going to the island I would get a look of (healthy) envy mixed with a smile, plus after having talked with Simona, Fede and Giordana – who enjoyed their time on the island immensely – I knew it would be something a little special, although as usual I didn’t want to rise my expectations too much and was simply open to whatever was there to see, enjoy and experience.

The flight over from Recife was not too long, about an hour and a half or so, but terribly hot – little AC – and in a small propeller plane, full to the brim though… the island, only 17 km from tip to tip, appears suddenly in the middle of the ocean, about 500 km from Recife apparently, and looks a little like those you see in the Pirate films – great place to hide and recover – on the location see here.
The island has a long history, longer even than Brasil and was celebrating its 500 years since their discovery until the end of August. Some more info can be found here on the history. Since WWII it was used as a military base and only really open to the public from 1988 when it became a national park and it was designated by the UNESCO as a site of natural world patrimony a couple of years ago (more on the environment here ). It is a particular type of tourism on the island, a maximum of 400 people can enter on any one day, so the total population is limited. It has about 2,000 residents and tourism provides all the wealth of the little island. There is one asphalted road which covers only half the length of the island and almost all cars are beach buggies, a few motorbikes and bikes here and there.

The first couple of hours after landing were not really the best. First thing is to go through the bureaucracy of filling out a detailed form and paying a eco-tax which is not particularly cheap, daily rate, and increases exponentially after a couple of weeks, strongly dissuading you to stay for too long. After that, since I had bought a package I was taken to the “tourist” centre to be given a talk of the various organized tours of the island and the possibilities for scuba-diving… not what I like normally anyway and certainly not after traveling most of the day ! Everything was optional, and in the end I didn’t even end up going on the only walk included in the trip… My plan was to rent a bicycle and discover the island on my own, go to the relatively inaccessible places and explore, which is what I did the next day.
My bike wasn’t much in terms of quality but it got me around OK. After all those “touristy” days on the mainland I really wanted to get away from it all and wanted to do my best to avoid the only road on the island. The basic geography of the island is a long, thin stretch of land going from Northeast at the top and Southwest at the bottom with the ocean hitting the eastern side – called the Mar do Fora – and the Mar do Dentro on the western side. This gives the island two quite different settings he great majority of beaches are on the Mar do Dentro, which is calmer and much more protected, whilst the coast on the Mar do Fora is more forceful, wilder even, and the coastline is covered with cliffs and volcanic rocks.
For the first day I decided to see as many of the beaches as I could on the Mar de Dentro and make it to the end of the island if possible, always avoiding the road of course. I would learn that whilst indeed showing me not very used tracks, the island was a lot hillier than I had at first imagined, so the exercise was pretty tough in the tropical sun, but healthy and invigorating too. The beaches here are pretty much out of this world. The water is clear, transparent, light blue going to turquoise everywhere, regardless of location. There are so few people on the island with respect to its size that it is very difficult NOT to find an empty beach. Sometimes, three or four other people on some part of it or a few more in the most beautiful beaches just before lunch, but if you wish you can always go to a quieter place. I was still getting used to the bike and in mid-morning as I was going down to Praia do Americano I was stuck behind a relatively slow going buggy – normal given the terrain. As usual my energy got the better of me and I decided to overtake (!), just as I did my front wheel caught a nasty bump and down I went, looking a complete fool as the driver of the buggy passed me asking if I was OK… cuts on the palms of my hands, elbow and knee – nothing terrible, but a reminder to take it easy when traveling alone! Got down to the sea to wash it all up properly and continued with the tour. Lunch time was approaching but I really wanted to get as far along the island as I could. As I advanced, the dirt track became more of a path, getting steeper, closing in, passing a couple of gates indicating I was entering the natural park proper and leaving the coastline – in fact going through the middle of the island. Vegetation increasing, I was sweating more and was only wearing my swimming trunks. At a certain point I decided to just leave my bike on a side and continue walking, unfortunately I was too succulent a dish for all the little insects in the forest – lots of vegetation now – and I couldn’t wait to get to the sea… It was a couple of km, but felt like more until I reached a viewpoint of almost the whole island and descended to the Mar do Fora violently crashing into the volcanic coastline… didn’t look like I could swim or even approach the water, but my luck was such that at the end of the path there was some natural baths kind of carved into the rock fed by the spray and overflow of the crashing waves as they hit the rocks a few meters ahead. I was all alone, dying for a wash – dirt, blood (I managed to trip and fall again walking!!), sweat and above all the itching insect bites – and it was just blissful to sink into this small pool, watching the impressive waves crash and rise just in front of me, without actually touching me, at the most renewing the water in the pool. All this of course in complete solitude, not a soul to be seen anywhere… I went back up the path admired the view properly from the top, took the required photos and decided that the day’s exploring was accomplished. On my return I stopped in the main beach of the Mar do Fora and met the three Swiss – Daniela, Caspar and Corinne – I had had dinner with in Olinda and agreed to meet that evening for dinner (again :-)
The next day I decided that I had earned my rest – I set out to enjoy this time some of the beaches I had seen the previous day and have a good lunch at a barraca by the beach – a great one at Praia do Boldro which I would be visiting again. I also re-discovered what was probably my favourite beach of the island – Praia da Sancho -a good introduction to the beaches on the island can be found here - and having rented some snorkeling gear I spent some of the day venturing out to the underwater life, which is extremely rich here.
A “big” decision was to do my first scuba dive – and the truth is that it took little to convince me. It was all pretty straight forward and my only slight worry was that the pressure would be uncomfortable for my ears. There were only five of us on the boat the following morning for the dive – Caspar and Corinne (Daniela didn’t really want to try) and two Brazilian girls who were staying at the same pousada as I – one of the instructors, Omar, turned out to be Argentinean, so it couldn’t have been easier for me. The dive itself went incredibly smoothly. So much so that I forgot that there are actually some inherent dangers in all this – down at 14 m (shouldn’t have been more than 12 really, but it went very well) and learning the basics. Omar indicated that we had to turn back – or if I wanted I could continue for a little more money –I decided to continue and a few minutes later was amazed to see three rays swimming (although they are so gracious they look like they are flying) a few metres above me… only that image was worth the whole dive, but we saw a lot more. The waters are at 26-27° C so little question of getting too cold and the sea itself is like an open aquarium. Coloured fish everywhere, many different sizes, red and yellow corals here and there. Magic.
After thinking about it for a few minutes and on hearing that they would discount the full price of the “baptism” dive off any course I wished to make I decided to do half the course to get a certification allowing me to dive anywhere in the world. A two day course to be complemented by another couple of days and I am off… The course would be with Omar and didn’t sound too difficult. What can take anything from 3-5 weeks in Europe, with swimming pools, boring classes and much more expensive, I could do in ideal conditions here. Not to be missed, so you might see a bit more of me scuba-diving now and then on my travels from now on.
The last three days on the island only got better, I finished my diving course successfully with another couple of dives, a theoretical test and exam. Got a three underwater photos – taken by a photographer that dived with us – but might take a little time to develop the negatives and get them on-line, in any event a really great experience to be continued in future. Saw a little more of the three Swiss (two of them also decided to take the course, but the full version since they were staying for longer) and I just gave in to the wonderful pleasures of the island – going to the remaining beaches I had not visited at first, loving the sunsets on the sea (not many of those on the mainland, and I have become a little addicted to the beautiful sunsets) the star-filled night sky – not much light pollution here – and the heavenly beaches. Sumptuous sea food in the barracas, in generous helpings and with great samba music in the background will not be forgotten any time soon. The fact that there are so few people around, relative to what I had become used to, the freedom to go wherever, whenever – for example leaving the bike everywhere unlocked and unattended - not needing to worry about my security at all… it all seemed to bring together the best of Brazil without some of the more negative parts.
Noronha is most definitely one of the most beautiful places I have visited. It is a little like a Caribbean island, but better kept, with greater wildlife that is preserved much more carefully – the island is for them and tourists are kept out and in low numbers rather than the other way round – with a welcoming people who have, fortunately for them, a relatively good standard of living, all of which made everything "come together" somehow here.
I, like many others, also return with a big smile on my face and from now on should somebody tell me they are going to Noronha I will look at them with (healthy) envy and a smile on my face… Go if you can, all Brazilians try at least once in their lifetime and they should know if it is worth it, given the fabulous places they already have on the mainland.

Olinda

Dejé Porto Galinhas con un pelín de tristeza después de haberlo pasado en grande en compañía de Simona, Giordana y Federica, esperando que hayan tenido un buen regreso a Nápoles. A veces el viajar con otros abre ventanas a otras perspectivas sobre el viaje en si. Algunas malas lenguas ya me han ido pasando su opinión, pero me temo que es realmente el sitio para relevar cuestiones personales que no me conciernen solamente a mi – que no viene de todas formas a cuento en esta ocasión – o sea que siento decepcionaros si os esperabais textos más tórridos… :-)
En fin, el último día del mes de agosto volví a Recife y decidí que al final era mejor pasar la noche en Olinda – a unos 8 km de Recife mismo – para visitar el centro histórico a la mañana siguiente antes de acercarme al aeropuerto para pillar el vuelo a Fernando de Noronha. Ya la entrada a la ciudad me demostró lo turístico que es la zona por aquí. Niños y jóvenes ofreciéndose a llevarte a una pousada aquí, un restaurante allá y alguna cosilla más deshonesta… en fin, el mundo del turismo. Esa misma noche conocí a otros viajeros - 3 suizos y una italiana - durante la cena en una simpática creperie. Los suizos, como yo, salian al día siguiente para Fernando de Noronha y acordamos compartir un taxi para ir al aeropuerto.
La mañana siguiente intenté ver la ciudad por libre, pero el atosigo por parte de los guías oficiales y no oficiales era tal que al final caí y por lo menos el resto te deja tranquilo.
El tour en si la verdad es que era bastante interesante. Olinda fue hasta mediados del siglo XVIII la primera “capital” de la colonia, destrozada durante la invasión holandesa – que fueron los que de hecho fundaron Recife un poco más abajo como asentamiento alternativo – y después reconstruida pero que nunca volvió a su época de esplendor anterior.
Uno de los problemas también es que es muy difícil conservar los edificios en un buen estado en condiciones tropicales. La humedad y el calor hacen estragos con la pintura de las fachadas he incluso con la estructura original, o sea que mientras Olinda podría ser preciosa – y en partes resalta algo de su belleza original – en su estado actual uno tiene que usar un poquito de imaginación para “mejorarlo”. Lo disfruté, pero con una mañana creo que tuve suficiente. Pena que no pueda ver Recife bien – aunque algo pude observar desde el autobús que cruzaba desde P. Galinhas – pero no se puede hacer todo. En fin, esa tarde salí hacia Fernando de Noroña acordándome de todas las buenas cosas que me habían dicho las tres napolitanas en los días anteriores, a ver cuanto tenían de cierto!