Vacation in Brazil

One of our team members has visited Brazil in 2004. Here is his travel diary:

In Natal! (Feb 27)

Finally I’m in Natal, Brazil. The Hotel in Ponta Negra is just ok. Unfortunately the weather is really bad so far, hot about +30c but not much sun and a lot of rain showers. The weather reports say that its going to get better. On Monday I will go to Praia Da Pipa for a few days. Hopefully I will get to see some dolphins. I have already noticed that it is much cheaper here than home in Sweden. A beer here costs about 7sek (aprox $1). Food in the restaurants is also very inexpensive.

On the beach! (Feb 28)

Finally, the sun has arrived!  Have been spending most of the day on the beach in Ponta Negra. Really nice! Of course, I have managed to get a sun burn and look lika pink pig! The Brazilians almost seem like they live on the beach. The water is hot and the waves could have been a little bit smaller.

Dolphins in Pipa (March 3)

Now I’m back in Natal, after three days in the paradise of Pipa. On Monday after lunch we took a walk to Praia Da Golfinos (Dolphins Beach). A beach that you only can reach when the water is low in mornings and evenings. After a long and tough walk we got our reward. The dolphins arrived after just a few minutes and came really close to us. It was a really cool experience to see the Dolphins and see how they chased fish in front of us.

On Tuesday it was a kajak trip, on our program, on the lagoon in Tibau Du Sul about 8 km from Pipa. We went there by local bus, a mini bus that picks up and drops off people where they want and the cost was just 1 real per person. One time we were 22 people in the small bus!

We did not see any dolphins in the lagoon, but we did see a lot of crabs in the Mangrove trees. In Pipa there was almost nobody that spoke English so our Portugese dictionary was really useful. I noticed that there isn’t many European toursists here. No Germans, no Enligshmen, and not even any European newspapers to buy. That real makes it feel like I’m on vacation and can relax.

Shopping in Natal (March 5)

Today we didn’t spend much time on the beach. Instead we went to Natal to try to do some shopping. We visited Natal Shopping (shopping mall),  Alecrim (market place) and Hiper (gigantic department store). I didn’t find what I was looking for, which is a really nice Brazilian soccer shirt. I’m actually too big and it’s hard to find big sizes here in Brazil. We ate at McDonalds, a Big Mac Meal is cheap here just 21sek (aprox $3) I also bought some suger cane liquor for 8sek (aprox $1).

Soccer and beach buggy (March 9)

A lot has happened the past couple of days. On Sunday, it was soccer, a local derby between America FC and ABC. In front of a crowd of 25 000 fans, 'little brother' ABC won the game 2-0. The arena was very old and worn with bad flood lighting. But, on the upside, there was a lot of music, song and fireworks making it an experience in a class of its own.

On Monday we took a Beach Buggy tour. We had booked our own car and driver for the cost of 220 Real. So it was a whole day with sand dunes, beaches, lakes and some small villages. Really worth the money.

Soon time to go home (Mach 10)

Now it’s just hours left until it’s time to go home and leave the lovely sun. In total, a really nice trip the only bad thing has been that it rained for two days and the stomach disease that has tortured me for the last days. Today I was surprised, more like disappointed, when we were eating at a restaurant called Cactus and they had a menu in Swedish. In my opion, that belongs in the Canary Islands and not here.

Notable things in Natal:

The weather changes quickly

It can be hard to make change for bigger bills. One day we had a  50 real and it took two hours to get change for it.

The portions of food in restaraunts is really big. Anything from one portion being enough for 2-3 people.

The Brazilians are very friendly. Even though most of them don’t speak or understand English they would still try to help you.

Written by Johan@journeyreport.com