Day: 117
Location: Pria de Pipa (North East)
Temp: A hot 31c
Hostel: Posada Piranha (R$40 per night plus breakfast) and Posuada Veriea (R$50 per night + breakfast)
Links: www.natal-brazil.com www.pipa.com.br www.praiadapip.com.br
Books: reading the excellent Pearl again by Steinbeck.
Am now chilling it out after the last few hectic weeks in a beach resort 90km south of Natal. The place is buggy heaven with colossal sand dunes surrounding a sea bay. Pipa is very lively and theirs loads of young people hanging out on the beaches, in the bars and restaurants and on the streets. Its got one main street with loads of interesting jewellery, clothes and paint shops. Its also got its fair share of international restaurants and street vendors. Interestingly, it has two very popular bars, right across from each other, called the Blue Bar and the Yellow Bar. Everyone goes to these bars up to 2am and then they very quickly close down and everyone makes the five minutes walk up the hill to the one open-air disco that they have. Last night was mostly techno music and some local Brazilian tunes. I enjoyed it and ended up staying there until the sun came up.
The entire resort has a very mellow feel to it. It seems as if the hands on the clock move slower here; maybe something to do with the beaming sun. People generally are very haphazard with everything they do: getting to the beach, eating, drinking, talking. It’s just what the doctor ordered and I’m now tucking into a few books, working on the tan, studying a little more Portuguese (which is coming on in leaps and bounds) and drinking a few “agua de cocas”, which I can’t get enough of for 20 euro cents a pop.
Getting here was fun! First the plane in Noronha was broken so we had a 5 hour delay. The plane company, after busing us all to a restaurant for free food and drinks got us on a plane which they had to rent in from Manaus. Luckily we hitched a free ride with a crazy codeine taking Dutch doctor and a Dutch Soap Opera writer down to Pipa for free. Fun guys. Since then we’ve hitched to all the beaches or took the 1 real bus everywhere. The people here are very friendly and everyone hitches. Bizarrely the place only has one taxi driver. A deaf dude that drives around a 70s banged up Volkswagen. Seen him twice now and he seems to be doing a roaring trade. For the life of me I can’t understand why there isn’t any competition.
Overall Pipa was well worth the visit. Some of the most spectacular beaches i`ve ever seen. There is a lovely feel to the small town, the people are very friendly, the food is good and at a reasonable price and the quick trip to Dolphin Bay to see the daily appearance of the somersaulting dolphins is unforgettable. Definitely worth making the effort to get here from Natal for at least two or three days.
