THE ROAD TO NORONHA
BRAZIL TRAVELOGUE - DAY 3 - FERNANDO DE NORONHA BRAZIL

BEEP...BEEP...BEEP...The alarm sounds at 3:30AM - time to get up and get to Foz Do Iguacu Airport to fly to Fernando de Noronha, a tiny island off the northeast coast of Brazil where we'll scuba dive for the next couple of days.  Eddie picks us up at the hotel at 4:30AM and takes us to the airport.  He helps us with our bags through customs (a matter of sliding them through an x-ray machine just like you do with your carry-on baggage), and shows us where the departure hall is for Varig (just around the corner - the airport is very small). 

We get checked in, and fly out at 6:00AM sharp - on our way to Curitiba, where we make a pit stop before continuing to Sao Paulo, about a 2 hour flight. 

 In Sao Paulo, we change planes and after standing in a giant departure line at security, we fly out to Recife at 9:45AM.  Sandra tries to make us miss our plane by insisting that the plane that is leaving is not ours - luckily I complain loudly enough we go over and ask - sure enough it's ours! 

After a 4 hour flight to Recife, we land again - the skies, heavily overcast at Sao Paulo are now a brilliant blue. A quick jump over to another plane and we're on our way to Fernando de Noronha, a small island off the northeast coast of Brazil, where we'll stay for three nights and do some scuba diving.  The flight is a quick one, just about 55 minutes from start to finish - the waters are a brilliant aquamarine and our mouth waters as we think of scuba diving.

The booking through Karitas is a total pain, however, as instead of reserving us times for our tours, they made reservations for a date range and we were supposed to call the tour companies when we arrived and set up a time and date. I'm thinking (and vocalizing quite loudly) "Isn't most of the reason to book in advance so I don't have to do this when I get here"?  Sure enough, as we feared, we arrive at the Pousada da Morena and the hotel desk clerk speaks no English (she is very friendly and helpful though - we just don't know what she is saying).  She explains to us how to use the telephone to call, but we again don't have a clue what she is saying. 

When we get back to the room, we attempt to call the tour operators but can't figure out the telephone system.  After much frustration and cussing Karitas, we finally make contact with LocBuggy who is to be our tour operator for an Island Tour and a LocSub activity where you get towed behind a boat with scuba gear on, but what do you know?  Nobody there speaks any English.  So, unable to communicate, we give up and decided to ditch LocBuggy.  Besides, we'd e-mailed them before we left and never got any response, and even though we have reservations and they knew where we were staying, they didn't try to contact us to confirm either.  Plus, if they speak no English, how will they give us a fun tour anyway?

We have better luck with Atlantis Divers who is our dive shop.  They have one person who speaks English, but we have to find a way down to their dive shop to fill out paperwork for the next day's dives.  So, we ask the hotel desk to arrange a rental dune buggy (the vast majority of the transportation on the island, though there are taxis and a bus).  She is happy to help, and within about a half-hour, a guy shows up with our buggy.  Of course, he doesn't speak any English either, so we have to try through hand gestures and drawing to negotiate a price.  We settle on $50USD per day.

The buggy is a total heap of crap - none of the gauges or seatbelts works, the seat is held in place by a block of wood, it barely starts or runs, the gas pedal sticks and you have to kick it to get it to engage.  The emergency brake is covered in grease, and the seatbelts stain our clothes with red goo.  But, since he is now gone, we can't very well tell anyone about this, so we decide to make the best of it.  We sputter and backfire our way down to first the Airport to take out cash out of the only ATM on the island, then to Atlantis Divers to fill out our papers.  Luckily the one person who speaks English is still working there and she is very nice.

We stop "downtown" and have dinner at Restaurante da Edilma, a restaurant that seems to be run by 12 year old girls who don't speak English.  We order a shark steak (a house specialty), and a shrimp dish - both of which are fairly bland and uninspiring, similar to other Brazilian food we've have so far.  A Swedish guy comes in and says in Swedish "This is a restaurant?" and quickly leaves, but there gradually trickle in a few more people.  We are in a room with three tables, two internet kiosks, and a television, about six feet by 10 feet. The restaurant is fairly expensive, but we are served a fair amount of food.

Afterward, we head back to our Pousada to check out the place.  As with most of the Pousadas (small, government run inns) on the island, it has about five rooms, including one room that is it's own little separate apartment. Each of the rooms has it's own hammock and chair on the porch, and our room has air conditioning, a pretty nice bathroom, a television (with four Portuguese-only channels) and even a wireless internet connection!  It is a decent sized room with 110V as well as 220V outlets.  I hop in the shower to find out that there will be no hot showers this trip.  The "solar heated" water runs cold, but I suck it up - better get used to it now - we're here for three nights.

The Pousada has it's own restaurant, the Trattoria di Morena, an Italian restaurant, which is quite pleasant.  We go in for appetizers and drinks and order a Carpaccio Beef dish - we had no idea what it was, but figure what the heck.  We are unpleasantly surprised to find out that Carpaccio means raw meat.  I try one piece, and almost heave right there.  Sandra doesn't even want to try it.  We send it back and order some Bruschetta, which is average at best.  We finish up our drinks and head for bed - tomorrow will be a busy day.