Fernando de Noronha: Thursday

We just got back from Fernando de Noronha - a fantastically beautiful, tiny island off the coast of Brazil. 

Same pattern as my Amazon posts, I wrote while I was there, and I'll transcribe most of it here by day.

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So at the end of our first night in Fernando de Noronha. This is a beautiful place.

The flight approach to the island was so beautiful. I couldn’t even see it until we were on top of it. The water is so clear and blue! 

Andrea and I got to ride in the back of a pick-up to our pousada (hotel), which was a fun, pretty drive. Our driver told us they have very little crime here because everyone knows everyone else and their business, so you can’t easily get away with anything. We saw the evidence – everyone was so friendly all the time – honking and waving at everybody.

We are staying at the Solar de Loronha – very nice. The room’s are way more posh than I expected and the view is great. You can see the ocean and we’re right in the shadow of a…tall…mountain. 

I relaxed, reading, for a while in a hammock on our front porch. Around sunset, we went walking to explore, buy some bug spray, and maybe find a beach. The walk toward these things was very pleasant – this island is so cool. It feels so small and everything is cute and rustic. We found bug spray, which we can already tell will be absolutely essential. We never found a beach, but we got close to the ocean and could tell the sunset was beautiful.The walk back to our pousada wasn’t quite as pleasant because it was steep uphill the whole way.

Once it was full dark outside, we could see the stars – I’ve never seen anything like them before. They were so twinkly! It was crazy. They weren’t particularly bright or visible but they were twinkling so much. It was so distinct they almost seemed to be blinking on and off? Why? Does that happen on islands?

We got back to our room after dinner and got ready for bed, but the lock on our door broke and we couldn’t lock it from the inside. We tried for a long time. But what was awful was that in the midst of our fiddling with the door, the cat that hangs around the pousada (who we’ve named Claude) came up crying for us to let him in out of the rain. So we couldn’t open the door much to see what the problem was. He was so sad. He even put his paws up against the glass. But the door is well and truly broken. I rigged something with a laundry cart and a chair to prevent the glass door from sliding.