Recife to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil 11 - 14 April 2006

The most beautiful beaches in South America

Thanks to Lena and her contacts on Fernando de Noronha, permission had been granted well in advance for our flight and stay there. It was simpler this time compared to 2002 when we had to ship fuel out there for the Atlantic crossing and get special permission to leave the country from there. This time, we were going to continue north to Belem after Noronha and cross the Atlantic from Canada.
First we made a 3-minute flight from Recife, Encanta Moça to Reçife, Guarapes to fill up the wings of Honey Mooney with tax-free Avgas (US$ 0.95 per litre). To our surprise, the Infraero 'tarifador' was fast and efficient, and we only had to wait 5 minutes after finishing the flight plan.
It was a smooth flight above the cumulus tops at 9000 feet with a slight headwind. This was Honey Mooney's fourth landing on Fernando de Noronha. We were quickly installed in our Pousada Dodó where our beach buggy awaited us, and we finished the afternoon with sunset caipirinhas on the praia da Conceição.
 

12 April. Enjoyed the very beautiful beaches of Fernando de Noronha. Flemming went for two Scuba dives in the afternoon while Angela went snorkelling off Praia do Sueste.
A minor catastrophe happened while Angela was in the shower. It started pouring with rain from the ceiling of our room onto the bed! Fortunately, our clothes were out of range so it was just the bed that was completely soaked. Our host, Domicio (Dodó for short), was most apologetic. There had been an electricity cut but when the power came back on, a water pipe leading to the reservoir on the roof of our chalet received a pressure shock and a joint opened up. Dodó, who incidentally was the former governor of Fernando de Noronha, had the problem fixed while we were out for dinner. Somehow he got hold of a dry mattress – we suspect his own.
 

13-14 April 2006. We discovered even more beautiful beaches. Angela likes Praia do Leão while Flemming prefers Praia do Sancho.
As for restaurants, our favourite is Trattoria di Morena while Ekologicus near the airport serves excellent seafood muqueca.
At breakfast in our Pousada, we met a charming Italian/Portuguese couple (Sofia Vallecorsa and João Correia Fernandes) who not only live in Geneva, but also both work at CERN!
We went to the airport to pay the fees and file the flight plan for a sunrise departure on 15 April. Lucky again, Infraero no longer runs the Noronha airport so the calculation of the airport fees was very quick.