After the long party night we managed to get to the breakfast at some minutes before 10:00 a.m. when the breakfast finishes. After breakfast Cigdem went straight back to bed and Silke was reading on the pousada porch. When the sun was getting more obvious Silke got nervous about getting to the beach on our last full day on Fernando de Noronha. So Silke woke up Cigdem and they started to the beach. We were nearly the only ones at Praia da Conceicao so we had our own beach. There were just four more people there (some surfers included).
We were relaxing on the beach and watching what was going on but nothing really happened there.
We were watching the sunset at the beach and took some nice pics.
The guys were playing soccer on the beach...
When it started raining we started walking back to the pousada and took a look at the other beaches on the way.
Back at the pousada Cigdem went to bed again ;-) Silke started working on the blog and Cigdem went on.
So finally we are in real time for the first time of this holiday now :-)
We were writing some postcards - finally ;-)
Now we will go and look for an ATM machine at Projeto Tamar information centre (this is a turtle saving project) in another village on the island. We walked around there, took a look at the exhibition and bought some cloth there.
Later we had our last dinner on the island: some nice seafood pasta - yummy... :-)!!!
02.03.2009 – Walk to the big aquarium at Praia Atalaia
We decided to do a walk to the eco-saved Praia Atalaia where it is only allowed to go with a guide and for the low-tide. We booked the tour at our pousada because we didn´t want to book with the agency again. We had a local guide for the two of us – fantastic group size :-) The guide picked us up at the pousada and we were driven to the starting point. It was a walk over many big rocks, parts were really slippery. At the first beach we met some guys who had caught some big fish. They gave them to us for taking a pic and we pretended running away with them ;-)
Our guide took some small fish of them and fed the birds with a two meter span from his hands. Unbelievable and he offered us to feed them, too. But NO, thanks!
We went for the first snorkel close to there and saw some nice fish. We met another guide with two tourists so we went on together and we got to know Daniel and Patricia from Sao Paulo – some nice Brazilians :-) We went on walking for ages in the midday sun and got into some bad rain on the way. But it was one of the few times when you absolutely love the rain because it was too hot on the way.
Finally we arrived at Praia Atalaia and went snorkeling again. It was really like swimming in an aquarium: the water was shallow, warm like in a huge bathing tub and an unbelievable amount of colorful fish. We also saw and swam behind a small shark. The guide showed us some moraines, langustas etc.
Being the last ones in the aquarium for that day we had to leave the eco-area and walked back to the pousada with our guide. At the pousada we were quite lazy and chatting to our German pousada neighbor Jens. We were really lucky because Jens has a small laptop with him and offered us to use it for working on our blog – so we could sit on the pousada porch and type for hours.
In the evening around 8:00 p.m. Jens and us left for dinner on the search of a restaurant where we could pay by credit card. We found a nice place and besides the dry fish the food and our first Brazilian wine were very tasty!
After dinner we were chilling in bed for some time but we decided to go out to the local bar. We met Patricia and Daniel from our tour again and had a fun night at Bar Cachorro with many drinks and some dancing. In the bar it seemed that we are already knowing every second person on this island: we met the singer & guitar player that Cigdem met the other night, the internet guy, our boat captain etc.
On the way back to the pousada around 3:00 a.m. Cigdem somehow managed to hurt her toe at one of the many rocks on the way. In the room Silke nearly had to take her to hospital – but in the end a plaster was enough ;-)
01.03.2009 – Boat trip or the nightmare being with 30 bored Brazilians in a nut shell
The day started a bit confusing. The boat trip we had booked a night before had been cancelled when we arrived at 8:00am at the meeting point. The tour agent who wasn't able to speak any English passed Cigdem the phone and someone on the other end of the line told her that the trip was cancelled because of a rough sea but they could book us for the afternoon trip. We were not happy about this and told them that we don't want to go later in the afternoon. Cigdem passed the phone back to the agent. Little while later another phone call and Silke answered this time. The voice on the phone was telling her that the trip is cancelled because a cruise ship arrived and all local boats are needed to get the 600 passengers off the ship. We were quite pissed off the agent because he lied to us. Idiot! We were about to leave the office when a car arrived and a hectic woman told us to get on the car because the boat was waiting for us. Totally surprised we got in the car. It came out that this was the voice on the phone and that the agent had told her to tell us the lie about the rough sea.
We arrived at the harbour and it was very busy. We could see the big cruise ship. Our tour guide named Pirata (very obvious why he has this name) walked us to our boat. It seemed to be a relaxed day on the boat because there were just the two of us, Pirata, the captain and another guy whose function we didn't really get. Anyway the boat was moving now and we started our long awaited boat trip. Just some meters from the port Pirata started showing us a point not too far away and we didn´t know what to expect. He told us to lay down at the front of the boat and he started taking pics of Silke. She didn´t know what was behind but Cigdem started shouting out for the dolphins.
There were about 20 dolphins just playing and swimming next to the boat – that was a fantastic experience :-)
Unluckily the next thing was us picking up around 30 passengers of the cruise ship – our tranquil cruise was suddenly over :-( 30 Brazilians with really unhappy faces got onboard and took our places. We first were exploring the secondary islands and then went cruised down all the beaches southwest from the port.
Silke asked the captain for an assistant job for Cigdem and she managed to cruise all the tourists to the right spot.
At Baia do Sancho we went snorkeling again and Cigdem lost her mask while jumping into the water. Pirata could get the mask back and we finally did some snorkeling in between all the crazy Brazilians.
By the time there were the first Brazilians being seasick already. One woman vomited on her beauty shoes and afterwards they were showering her with the water tube.
We were happy when we got back to the cruise ship and gave the Brazilians back to the ship and cruised back to the port.
In the afternoon we were lazy and went to Praia da Conceicao watching the surfers and having a drink at the beach bar. We watched the sunset there and the Brazilians playing soccer on the beach.
For dinner we went to the local pizzeria with our German pousada neighbor Jens from Langenfeld.
28.02.2009 – Exploring the island – trip to Praia da Sueste & Leao
Our first excursion on the island took us to Baia do Sueste where we rented snorkel equipment and went to see the turtles and fish. Cigdem was little scared at the beginning because it was her first snorkeling adventure. The water was crystal clear. It was amazing to see so many varieties of fish. It was possible to get really close to them. The play of the fish was like a underwater rainbow. Very beautiful. Little later we saw a turtle swimming just next to us another one was having a break on the ground. In the end we also saw a sting ray and Cigdem was holding Silke´s hand even stronger.
Afterwards we did a walk to the the other side of the bay called Praia do Leao that nearly took our lives:-) The way was longer that we had guessed and the sun was burning. But it was worth it. We had an amazing view from the top over the whole crystal blue sea with dramatic rock formation. Just a couple of people were there. We left all of our stuff behind us and jumped into the beautiful water. This was so refreshing. Unfortunately Silke was taken away by a huge wave and she did some underwater spinning and injured her shoulder a little bit.
While we were chilling at the beach we discovered that behind us the couple are nudists when they passed us to get into the water. It got funnier when two young boys arrived at the beach. They walked straight to the couples place. They got both completely naked and passed us with a bright smile towards water. We were smiling too because Silke was taking pictures of them and they did not know. And of course we enjoyed also the naked fact.
We were lucky that a girl, her name Dr. Tamara gave us a lift back in her buggy car.
27.02.2009 – First experience in Brazilian hospital & getting better
Next day nothing was better so we took a taxi to the local hospital which turned out to be right around the corner. For around 500 meters the taxi driver took ten reais...
Arriving at the hospital we could walk through to the doctor straight away as there were no other patients. They decided to give some transfusions and medications as Silke was dehydrated. The first doctor´s assistant managed not to get to Silke´s vain and make her hand swell as a ping-pong ball :-( Luckily the next assistant was more experienced and better in what she was doing. Cigdem went exploring the hospital and found out that the ambulance is a VW kombi van. So we decided next time we will need to go to the hospital that we will call the ambulance ;-)
After the second transfusion Silke started to feel better and could leave the hospital with doctors sister Cigdem´s help – this time walking and no taxi!
That day we stayed at the pousada for another time because it didn´t stop raining anymore.
In the evening we managed to go to the internet café with a really slow connection where we got to know Anne-Sophie from Sweden. We decided to have dinner together in a cosy restaurant. There was also Andrea from Italy with Anne-Sophie. Silke had her first food: rice with vegetables and went to bed afterwards. Cigdem went out dancing with Anne-Sophie and the Italian guy to the local bar.
26.02.2009 – Silke´s turn to be sick & Cigdem exploring the beaches
Somehow (no real wonder) Silke managed to take a bad diarrhoea from Olinda to the island. In the first night she nearly slept on the toilet :-( Nothing: no drinks at all stayed inside her.
Cigdem had to explore the town beaches all by herself and came to visit Silke at her malade bed. Nicely she showed some pics from the beach so that Silke had something to look forward to and get better quickly.
25.02.2009 – Carnival is finally over & our travel back to Fernando de Noronha
On our last day the party in front of the pousada was still going on. There was a car coming with some guys singing karaoke...
On our way to the airport with a funny taxi driver who was playing carnival music in the car very loudly we had a chance to take a glimpse at the carnival decoration in Recife, too.
Finally and happily it´s time to say good-bye Olinda – thank you! We had our own good-bye committee at the airport in Recife and took a last dance there. The women were really nice and offered us to take some pictures with us. They were also very interested in where we are from.
From Recife Olli left to fly back to Salvador and then on to Germany and we had to catch our flight to Fernando de Noronha. We realized another nightmare as we were told that our flight to Fernando has left the airport ten minutes ago. Somehow they had changed the flight times without letting us know about this change. These were the worst ten minutes ever as we were afraid that we should have to stay in Olinda for another night. Luckily the TAM assistant managed to get us on a TRIP flight one and a half hours later. We were soooooooooooooo relieved to get to the island. We were arriving at Fernando de Noronha airport when it was already dark. The landing of the airplane was quite adventurous because the landing strip was really short and we were doing a 180 degree turn there.
After checking out our pousada in Vila dos Remedios we went to a relaxing beach bar with amazing clear night sky with millions of stars and had Caipis and a delicious pizza. In the Bar Cacharro there was a gecko relaxing in the lamp as you can see in the pic.
24.02.2009 – Carnival Day 5
We are trying again to escape the daily madness on the streets. This time we had chosen a half island called 'Ilha Itamaraca' 44kms up far north. The bus ride turned into a nightmare because 100.000 Brazilians seemed to have the same idea like us. The bus is crowded it's hard to breath. It's getting even worst we got stuck in a traffic jam for hours. It seems that thousands of people are on their way to the beach. We fried on the bus for hours.
Arriving at the beach we realized that we are in the middle of Carnival at the beach again! Never seen so many guys dressed as girls before – weird! Finally we managed to go to Forte Or ange – a tiny island close to Ilha Itamaraca. There we enjoyed some Caipirinhas and a sunset. On our way back we got accompanied by a Brazilian family who was also on their way back to Olinda. We felt more safe within this family but at the same time it was our most exciting trip we ever had. With around 30 people in a VW kombi van we managed to get to the bus interchange station where we had to get some cash from the bank to get on traveling. Happily Rachel and her brother Diago spoke little bit English and Rachel was very keen on learning English swear words. We tought her some and her favorite one became “Fuck you”. She said it a couple of times to the money collector guy in the kombi and also when she said good-bye to Olli ;-)
23.02.2009 – Carnival Day 4
We have enough of Carnival that starts every morning at 6am in front of our door. So just after breakfast we made the decision to go to the beach.
The tourist information recommended us 'Maria Farina'.
Long funny bus trip. Big disappointment when we arrived. The beach was so crowded and incredible dirty, full of rubbish. We stayed for an hour and tried to enjoy the beach with some drinks.
On our way back on the bus Olli's camera got stolen while he was taking a movie out of the bus window. All the pictures of the last two days were gone:(
For Ali it's time to depart again for Rio de Janeiro.
The evening we had our first caipis in Brazil in the garden of the pousada together.
Then we were celebrating in our pousada VIP area from where you had a fantastic view but needed go through the crowds.
22.02.2009 – Carnival Day 3
Cigdem is sick the whole day, hopefully from the alcohol and not from the drugs that the prostitutes might have dropped her in her drink!
Silke, Ali and Oli exploring more of the town and getting lost. Dinner at the beach and doggy bag for Cigdem.
21.02.2009 – Carnival Day 2
We woke up around 6am by the first parade that walked in front of our pousada. After breakfast we made a walk to discover the town and the mad people all over the place. Thousands of little shops selling drinks, food and accessoires. Around midday we decided to have some cocktails at the market place. Very heavy mixtures by 36 degrees!
Late afternoon we fought ourselves again through the crowd to get back to the pousada to meet Ali again.
Ali arranged a mattress without any sheets on the doorway of our pousada for himself on the floor for 100 Euros for two nights:-) We had some more drinks after we headed into to the street party. Our second night was kind of dancing through the streets, having lots of fun and meeting the towns prostitutes. It started to rain and the stinky smell of alcohol, sweat, piss and dirt seemed to be away for a while ...
20.02.2009 – Meeting with Ali & travel to Recife / Olinda
Pretty drunk and with dirty feet we arrived around 4am in the hotel where Ali was already waiting for us. After a quick chat we all went to bed. We missed breakfast later in the 'morning' so we made our way to Rio Vermelho for lunch.
Back at the hotel we made a little good-by hotel party in the hotel room and took the taxi to Salvador airport to catch our flights to Recife. Ali had another night in Salvador before he would arrive to Recife/Olinda to celebrate with us the Carnival on the streets.
Arriving with the taxi in Olinda was a little adventure. We got stuck with the car in the streets of Olinda because of the crowd. We had to leave the taxi because there was no way to go further on or back. Very embarrassed we popped out of the car took our back packs and fought our way to our Pousada. We lost probably two liters liquid before we arrived.
Our room was scarey small and had no window. It was terribly hot.
Anyway we made our first night of Carnival in the streets of Olinda. Cigdem went to bed quite early because she was so tired but Olli and Silke met some friendly locals close to our Pousada: Panta, Leonie and Alex. We had a fun night together - sharing some SKOLS (Brazilian beer sponsor of Carnival) so that they couldn´t get warm so fast ;-)
19.02.2009 – Back in Salvador & meeting our friend Olli from Duesseldorf
From Salvador bus station we took a taxi to the IBIS Hotel in the suburb Rio Vermelho because Olli was staying there. We managed to get another double-room – just one day before the huge carnival start. It was a very nice and clean room with an extra bed and the best shower we had in Brazil so far.
After breakfast, chilling & chatting with Olli in the hotel for a while we checked out the neighbourhood and the beach. Then some beers for lunch and getting ready for carnival.
In the evening we went out for party, party, party... The start in Barra was really good and we were watching the blocos passing by from different spots. Then we ended in Ondina where it was far too crowded and we felt uncomfortable and started our way back to the hotel.
18.02.2009 – Horse riding and wellness day
We decided to go on a horse ride for the day. We hadn´t really been riding since childhood but managed to walk, trab and galop the horse. We went swimming in between so that the horses could rest, too. It was a great feeling – just us, the guide and the horses in the beautiful nature.
In the evening we got spoilt by having a massage. It was soooooooooooooooooooo good! Afterwards we had manicure & pedicure – even more spoilt.
After all this luxury we had to take another bus ride to hell: the night bus to Salvador. We couldn´t open our eyes because it was looking like in a horror movie or on a rollercoaster.
17.02.2009 – One day tour to waterfall, caves and mountain
We booked an all day tour in the pousada. First we visited a waterfall after a short walk over many rocks.
Then we visited a cave with a walking length of 1,8 kms.
At one point we stopped and sat down, turned off the torches and saw and heard nothing. It was unbelievable dark and silent.
Next destination was a lake where we used a swing to slide down on a rope to the water. Our cloth and “equipment” was transported on a different rope.
Next to the lake swing there were some small monkeys eating some banana.
We had a short break and some beers and then went to visit Grota Azul where there was a small lake with unbelievable blue color. You could see everything in the "pool".
The end of the tour was on a mountain peak with a fantastic view.
In the evening we went out with local Diego and other pousada inhabitants. We had some beers at a funny bar – it was just a small tunnel like room. Diego showed us a special dance performance, great fun. Afterwards we had some dinner together when the restaurant finally was open.
16.02.2009 – Bus ride to Lencois & arriving in chilled out paradise
We took the morning bus to Lencois at 7:00 a.m. Arriving there we found a place to stay in the very nice Pousada Dos Duendes.
Bindiya, Cigdem and Silke took a stroll through town and watched the locals doing their washing in a river. In the evening we had a nice dinner in the pousada.
15.02.2009 – Good-bye to Luiz and our travel to Salvador
There is not a lot to tell about this day. We left Rio and were sad to say good-bye to our new friend Luiz. After arriving in Salvador we took the bus instead of a taxi to the bus station with Bindiya from Australia and Zakir from GB. The bus was driving in circles and after 30 minutes we were at the airport again ;-) Because of this it took us one and a half hours to get to the station and we missed the bus at 16:30 p.m. to Lencois by ten minutes :-( The night bus was already full so we had to take a room for the four of us in the old part of Salvador. Quick dinner in a food court and then to bed.
14.02.2009 – BBQ at Luiz flat with some locals
After getting to bed quite early and only two hours of sleep Luiz picked us up again at the hostel. We had already checked out because Luiz had offered us to stay in his guest room after the goodbye BBQ he had planned for us. He took us to his flat and just around 2 p.m. We started having beers and pizza on his balcony again... Oh no, forgot the special shot whose name we forgot but it contained cachaca, limao and honey and it was yummy and gave us some new energy :-)
Luiz and his friend Marcelo did work on their VW beetle in the garage and Cigdem and me chilled and laughed on the bed for a while.
Some time and beers later we were still sitting on the balcony more friends of Luiz arrived for the BBQ.
It was a table BBQ and Cigdem had some great meat for the second time (many thanks to Luiz ;-)!).
We had a fun night with some locals and an Australian “husband”;-) who made us our first Caipiroska.
Unfortunately had to realize that all Brazilian men have some problems with their wifes :-( In the morning we had the idea to meet Jesus before our flight to Salvador but in the end it was cloudy again.
It was a great experience to spend some time in real Brazil – many thanks to Luiz again:-)
13.02.2009 – City walking tour
In our guide book was a walking tour that we did on this day because the weather was rainy again. That´s why it was another day without meeting Jesus on the hill. On the walking tour we saw many churches, old buildings and a great and very old library.
In the evening we had a party night in Lapa with a bunch of the hostel girls: two more girls from Slovenia and Denmark had arrived. First we went to an outdoor party at Arcos de Lapa and later on to a nightclub Lapa 49 Graus.
12.02.2009 – Personal non touristic Rio Tour with Luiz
The next day our „soccer“ guide and new friend Luiz picked us up around midday and took us for a personal tour of his Rio de Janeiro. First he showed us the Parque Nacional da Floresta da Tijuca with a nice waterfall and lake.
It was a shame we weren´t lucky with the weather but at least we had rain in the rain forest ;-) After that we went to a so called kilo restaurant to have lunch. It was such a great choice of different food that we had difficulties to make our choice! Cigdem had her best meat in Brazil in that restaurant. One funny thing happened and Luiz and Silke had exactly the same weight of the food – very strange!
After lunch we drove through Barra and took a stroll on a peer in the rain. We saw some nice houses there. Then we decided to go to a local bar because it was still raining. At Bar Oswaldo we had our first batidas with different flavours. The barkeeper let us try different tastes and we decided that the peanut batida was our favorite. Cigdem stayed with this drink for a while and Silke went back to beer after two batidas (too sweet).
Us being quite drunk Luiz had to pick up a guy from NZ called Gareth Clark. We decided to accompany him to the airport because we were quite close to it already. On the way to the airport at a petrol station we saw a very interesting dog.
We were running late because of a lot of traffic but Gareth Clark was still there and quite surprised about his welcoming committee.
11.02.2009 – Our first day at the beach: Ipanema Beach
We decided to enjoy the famous Ipanema beach on our first day in Rio after three days in the huge city Sao Paulo. We took the bus to Ipanema and the first thing we watched there was a helicopter rescuing a guy from the water. He was caught behind the waves and couldn´t get back to the beach. After that amazing „Welcome“ we bought some Havaianas and a Brazilian flag sarong using as a beach towel. When we arrived at the beach and laid down the stress started. Every 15 seconds there was somebody passing us and trying to sell something (e.g. food, sun lotion, drinks, sarongs, bikinis etc.). We pretended to be asleep so that nobody was coming anymore. We went playing in the waves for a while. We couldn´t understand why everybody keeps on telling that Ipanema Beach is such a beautiful spot. There is a four lanes street and many skyscrapers behind the beach and people are disturbing your personal freedom and relaxation...
We started our travel back home and had difficulties to find the bus back to Lapa from where we could walk to the hostel. Finally we arrived at the hostel at 19:15 pm and we wanted to start to a soccer match at Maracana stadium at 19:45 p.m. We managed to book the tour and luckily Luiz (the guide) came later to pick us up so that we could take a shower :-) We were a small group and went to see Flamengo playing against Boa Vista. Before the match we stopped at a local bar because Luiz told us that at the stadium they don´t sell any alcohol and that you need to have a beer for a soccer match. So each of us got a 600ml beer bottle and suddenly after five minutes Luiz told us that we are about to leave and not allowed to take the bottles with us. So we had to fill in the beer to plastic cups or finish quickly and go on with the car to the stadium. Cigdem had three cups to carry and Silke somehow managed to have only one. Probably she was thirsty from the beach ;-) Before the match we met many other travelers and we had the chance to buy some tricots of Flamengo team. Cigdem bought one of the famous number 10 player named Petrobras and Silke of the number 1 keeper. Unfortunately the soccer stadium was quite empty because it was the seasons start but anyhow it was fun to experience the Brazilian fans and atmosphere there. Later we had some pizza at a bar in Lapa with Luiz and the next day at a petrol station we found out that our famous player Petrobras is actually standing for Petrol Brazil. We were laughing a lot because in the stadium we were cheering for Petrobras the whole time and nobody was complaining about this ;-)!!!
10.02.2009 Deluxe bus ride from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro
Actually the bus ride was more comfortable than the KLM flight ;-)! We had sleeping chairs, a lunch paket with different sweets, crisps and a Guarana drink. There was also a TV and after a classic Brazilian movie they showed „The Break-up“ synchronised in Brazilian but at least we could persuade the bus driver´s assistant to change to English subtitles after not convincing him to show the movie in English with Brazilian subtitles...
Arriving in Rio after six hours we had to take another bus to the hostel with one change in town where we nearly got lost. The driver of the last bus ride up to the suburb Santa Teresa was bringing us directly to hell – at least he was driving like this and shouting at many people on the street and using the horn very often. Somehow we survided the ride and found our hostel. We had a really messy room with eight girls – later at night we found out that they were great and very messy „hippie“ girls ;-)
Because we were really hungry we walked up the hill to Santa Teresa and found a nice fish restaurant with some great live music. There we had our first moqueca (a kind of fish curry with prawns and Brazilian vegetables) – it was very delicious. Cigdem met and started chatting with the first local guy from Rio when she was smoking outside.
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