Lyn's Log, 8th January 2006
Fernando de Noronha

Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.
S3º50', W32º24'
6,346 miles.

Fernando de Noronha appeared as expected and we picked up a mooring around 9a.m. on Thursday 5th January. Time for a celebratory drink and a proper sleep.

We arrived in the port area with a dolphin escort, several of which spun right out of the water. In the afternoon we went into the port office where two very friendly and helpful men took us through the paperwork, taking the equivalent of £140 in mooring and park fees for three days, and then volunteered to drive us to the airport where we could get some cash from apparently the only ATM on the island. We took a bus back. The island reminded us of the Caribbean. It struck us as being a rather pleasant, laid-back sort of place, a military base until recently but now given over to Brazilian tourists. There are lots of boat trips for fishing or diving, beautiful beaches with areas for snorkelling and possibly seeing turtles, palm trees, trees full of bright red flowers, and lots of buggies. There is one proper main road across the island which the bus takes, and the rest are dirt tracks. We had a lovely time snorkelling off some of the beaches, amongst a huge variety of colourful fish. With it being so warm, I felt I was swimming in a tropical fish tank. The reef fish were fabulous, parrotfish, angelfish, basslets, grunts etc, sometimes in huge glistening shoals. Most were varieties we had not seen elsewhere. They weren’t at all timid. Several changed colour to match the background, so Andrew had fun chasing them back and forth from sand to rocks. One type would flush bright pink in the fins after it had been made to change from yellow to mottled green/brown and back several times.

There's more about our stay here.