It was a quiet day, partially due to the fact that I could not arrange a dive with Águas Claras (nobody answered the phone), nor the hike along the beaches with Atalaia (this hike has already left that morning and they didn't know when they would have it again). Independent tourism here is a bit complicated... So I decided to relaz at some beaches, starting with Conceição Beach, about 15min far from the inn, through a trail that begins nearby.
The day started sunny, then it rained while I was on the trail, then it cleared again, then it rained during the afternoon, then it stopped...
The beach, dominated by Peak Hill, was empty when I arrived, it was just the boobies and me. Some were sitting on the rock at one end of the beach, others flying and diving in the waters teeming with fish. Conceição island, next to the beach and having a natural pool, can be reached by walking over the rocks on the low tide. On this rock path there is also the Pião (Top), a rock incredibly supported on a small base. When I saw that the path to the next beach was easy and did not depend on the tide, I decided to spend the morning at Conceição.
Then sun slowly came out, I took many photos, then I entered the inviting sea. The water was delicious and full of fish. The color of the water was marvelous, in the most diverse shades of blue and green. A diving boat stopped afar, where the sea bed goes down more abruptly. A few people started arriving at the beach. While I was chatting with Daniel, an islander that has diven 65m only with the air in his lungs, a huge fish swam between us, chasing sardines, which were so many that they were making noises in the water. I also met a couple from Rio - a rarity, as most of the tourists I had met were from São Paulo or from the south.
It was past noon, the sun was strong, and I stayed under a shade for a while before continuing to the Praia do Meio (Middle Beach), which also has a wonderful sea, but the sun was too hot for me to stay there. There is a bar between the two beaches, but I decided to continue to Praia do Cachorro (Dog's Beach), passing through the ruins of the Arsenal of Santana, where I stayed for a while under the shade of the trees, admiring the beaches from above. I met Bioni there, he is a guide and was taking his day off at the beach with a tourist friend.
Cachorro was more crowded, as it is just next to the Vila dos Remédios, former capital of Fernando de Noronha, where it is still the administrative building. I waited under a shade until the sun went down a bit. The I went snorkeling and Bioni "towed" me, as I did not have fins, along the rocks. As we moved away from the shore, I saw many big fish and also some flounders, but they were too far to be photographed. At a certain point, I decided to return, as the sea was a bit churny. When we were close to the beach, Bioni lent me his fins. While he was at the beach with his friend, I stayed in the water for a bit more. But soon the weather started to change. It rained and we went up to the Bar do Cachorro, a bar that at night is the meeting point at the island, and we chatted for a while.
It was about 3pm when I decided to walk back, as the rain was gone. On the way, I stopped at Loja de Mãezinha to buy postcards and magnets, and I also bought an icecream. From Vila dos Remédios to the inn it takes about 15min walking through BR-363, the country's shortest federal road, only 7 km long. After the shower, the sky was clear and I decided to try the Forte dos Remédios for the sunset.
My hopes of seeing the sun setting in the sea vanished when I arrived at the fort, as there were many clouds at the horizon. I met Bioni there, who took me through a trail outside the walls of the fort, from where we could sit and watch the sea and the beaches. But there was no splendorous sunset, so I went back to the inn. Nobody from Águas Claras had called me, so André arranged with Atlantis my dive for the following morning.
I had dinner at Mirante, across the road to the inn, an a la carte restaurant. Each portion is sized for two and they don't make half portions. I could not eat all the beef, rice, beans, manioc and salad. Curiously, beef was the only dish available and it wasn't that late (not 8pm yet). On the first night, before I had dinner elsewhere, I took a look at one buffet restaurant and they also had little left. I don't know if this is due to the reduced number of tourists or if most of them are in half-board plans, so they don't have dinner out.
I glanced at the items in TAMAR's shop, then I sat down to write postcards before the lecture, that today was about marine birds, given by an inspector of IBAMA. Before talking about birds, he mentioned something I did not know: it is forbidden to use sunscreen when swimming at the natural pools of Atalaia, because the concentration of this substance - that always leave off the skin - may affect the ecosystem.
Regarding the birds, he showed slides and talked about the habits of atobás (boobies), viuvinhas (widows), fragatas (frigates), among others, from Noronha and Atol das Rocas (an atoll not far from Noronha that is a marine reserve). The lecture ended shortly after 10pm and I went back by bus. It isn't bad nor dangerous to walk, but I am often tired at the end of the day...
Day 4 - What a wonderful day! I saw so many beautiful things and everything was so perfect!
At 7:30 I was ready and still had time for a light breakfast (fruits, a slice of cake, juice) before being picked up by Atlantis. After picking up others, it was about 8:30 when we departed aboard Alquimista II, the same one of the boat trip on the first day. The group had both certified divers and people, like me, who would have the so called "baptism", a dive escorted by a guide. On the way, we received instructions from the diver Edilene.
We released the certified divers at a point, so they would reach the boat at a diving site called Buraco do Inferno (Hell's Hole), on Rata Island. Some people that were already a bit scared about diving for the first time did not like this name... But the place has nothing scary. While some were diving, others waited at the boat or took the time for bathing at the sea or snorkeling.
My guide was José Renato. Still at the surface the guide checks if we are breathing well, if the mask is not leaking, etc. Of course the fact that I had dived before made things easier. Edilene took a digital camera to register the dive (about US$12 for two images in a diskette) and the first minutes of the dive were dedicated to take them, stopping at corals that had fish for a nice touch.
But then things got better! I saw huge fish, lobsters, corals. Many fish were the same I had seen in the Caribbean, like the parrotfish. The dive too 35 minutes - though it seemed much faster! - and we had reached a depth of about 40ft. My frustration was not having seen a ray nor a shark, like others did.
The certified group met us there and had a second dive before we went back to the harbour, where we arrived at about 1pm. On the boat I made acquaintance with other two tourists traveling alone, Felipe and Evaristo, both also engineers. We agreed in spending the afternoon together, but before we had lunch at Anatalício, a pleasing per weight restaurant on Vila do Trinta.
We were going to the Bay of Pigs, a place both hadn't been to, but we took the wrong road, what ended up being good: we reached Sancho Bay, simply dazzling from above, too beautiful.
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Photos and more photos before we initiated the descent of the cliff. First, two vertical ladders in gaps inside the rock - I knew about these ladders and imagined something terrifying, but it was easy. The worst part was descending through a path, leaning on the rocks, following what must have been once a handrail. The beach was almost empty, gorgeous, gorgeous, with transparent waters in which we saw many fish, flounders, a moray, snails and crabs. When the boats making the dolphin tour arrived, anchoring near the beach (the small ones get really close), we went away.
We found the way to the Cacimba do Padre Beach, almost empty, with only a few fisherman. We walked to the Bay of Pigs, where they swam. Then we stayed at Cacimba do Padre for a spectacular sunset - maybe the most beautiful on the trip, with boobies gliding above us.
Back to the inn, then after a shower and writing my diary, I had a snack at a kiosk nearby, Linda Lanches, where I had a cheeseburger, with a bread baked there, and a delicious cajá juice, while I wrote postcards.
Evaristo and Felipe picked me up to go to IBAMA. I did some shopping at TAMAR's shop: a t-shirt, a postcard, a poster and a turtle cloth toy. I also adopted a turtle - part of a campaign to collect money for the project - and I chose my childhood nick, Tutuca, for her.
The lecture was about dolphins, presented by the coordinator of the Center for Studies of the Spinner Dolphins. These dolphins have this name because the spin around their axes when they jump out of the water. They don't do this everytime, but frequently. Unlike whales, dolphins don't have individual marks, but anyway it is possible to identify them through scars or defects on their bodies - about 300 have already been catalogued this way. Their population is estimated as anything between two thousand and two million individuals, that don't live only here. Every morning, very early, they arrive at the Dolphins Bay, observed by the researches, and stay there for most of the day, leaving it in the middle of the afternoon. There are boat trips with the researchers, but that week they were busy with a film crew.
Evaristo and Felipe left me at the inn and we arranged to meet on the following afternoon for some more touring, as both would be diving again in the morning.
Comments? Suggestions?