Intercity Premium Natal Hotel

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After my last entry becoming a bit of a rant about the men of Brazil all being massive sleazeballs, it seems they set about trying to prove me wrong. From Jericoacoara I decided to power straight through the nearby (5 bus hours) big city of Fortaleza, and head a little (8 more bus hours) south to the city of Natal where I planned to spend one or two nights. I arrived to Fortaleza bus station at around 9pm and found a bus that left at 11pm which would ...

... of up to 5 at a time.

So yesterday we moved on to a small beach place called Pipa. We took 3 local buses and arrived here at about 4pm. On our last bus we met a really nice Israeli couple called Ruby and Gilly who are also on their honeymoon having got married 2 days before us.

Pipa was buzzing when we arrived.. so much more life than Genipabu.. restaurants that are even open in the evening!!! We settled into our guesthouse Xama for the night and went for dinner ...

... hammock on the porch, not a bad little spot I have found myself to spend a few days unwinding. I don't have a definite plan but I am thinking 3 or 4 days here and then onto Olinda, Recife, Maceio, Penedo etc and make my way to Salvador for the 13th Dec when my placements commences. So by now it is about 3pm and I just canīt keep my eyes open so I decide to have a little disco nap, why not? It turns out to be more than a nap and I wake up 6 hours later only to get up ...

We arrived in Natal after a flight from Fernando de Noronha at about 4:30, without a place to stay, so we find the nearest internet café and pay 4 bucks for 15 minutes online. After a brief search, we find one of Natal's two hostels, Albergue da Costa in Ponta Negra. We take a 45 minute cab ride for $30 (thank goodness for list prices, honest people, and no rip offs) and arrived at our quaint little hostel just as it began to ...

... sharks that we were able to pat in a pool, turtles, alligators, eels, octopus, anacondas, strange fish species like puffer fish, sea cucumbers and also some monkeys native to Brazil. We sat on the rear end of the buggy feeling like we were extras on Beverly Hills 90210. We were asked if we would like our sand dunes tour īcom emocaoī (with emotion). We agreed and were treated to many thrills as the driver ripped up ...

... Frederico, what an awful name, he actually has people call him Fred, I donīt blame him) who I think pulled in an extra helping. I make my first caipirinhas which by the way is made with cachaca (ca-cha-sa), limes, ice and sugar. Cachaca is made from sugarcane like rum but it is made from sugarcane juice where rum is usually made from molasses. So, I really donīt do much at night, just hang with Sid and Fred mostly and share tales of whatever it ...

... havenīt pasted it here because I canīt get to it, be sure to look for it in future blogs, Iīm sure people are really looking forward to it). This one dude Thiago, who I totally did not like at first because I thought he was anti-american is starting to win me over. We actually end up becoming pretty good friends by the end of the week. People can definitely surprise you. The old adage "never judge a book by itīs cover has never held more true ...

... buildings to facilitate the tourists. The people in the North-East are mostly African Brazilian or very dark skinned. Generally speaking, the men wear peaked caps, flip flops, long basketball style shorts and singlets while the women wear denim skirts, sandals with a wedge and a sleeveless top. Many of the women are overweight. This is something that I have observed on my travels in Latin America. Because there is such a strong body culture and ...

... back on to the arrival time in Manaus where we only had 20 minutes to catch the next flight and found they had changed the gate to an obscure one with no signpostin. Then I managed to get locked in the loo! After a bit of panicking and shaking the door I got out but it was a bit stressful to say the least. Caught the flight, only to find it went via Recife - we only knew that ...