THE PLAN: Arrive in Natal, catch a bus to beach a couple of hours south to eclipse party-what could be simpler right?? WRONG!!! Natal = first unexpected stop off of many on our ill fated journey to an eclipse party.
Our flight to natal was not pretty- sally was sick and the rest of us were sleep deprived and hungover!! After a 3 hour wait to meet joey after her flight was delayed we left Natal airport well aquaited. We arrived in Natal city as night was falling- it was too late to continue on our journey. We amused a few locals on our search through the residential area of natal for the cheapest hostel listed in LP.... the description of Meu Canto hailed " aunty helena will welcome you into her international family" and was not wrong. All five of us (Sal, Kel, Elysa, Matias and Joey) arrived on tia Helenas doorstep totally bedrageled after our first real trek around with all the backpacks etc. An hour later we had been informed of the entire history of tia helena and Meu Canto in broken english spanish and portugese and there without any metion of rooms or beds... Luckily for us rooms were available- even if joey and elysa were sleeping in the laundry.
At meu canto we met three other foreigners destined for the eclipse party- Ludo (french) and Axel and Olaf (swedish). To our dismay Ludo told us that the eclipse party had been cancelled.... but then was back on in a smaller form- 5 days insted of 8. After this news, a bit of rain and tia helenas hospitality easily convinced us to stay anouther day in Natal where we whittled away the hours playing mexe mexe- tia helenas favourite card game.
We left meu canto to Tia Helena´s sobs- her self proclaimed title of "Crazy aunt Brazilia" really was a perfect desciption- and arrived at the bus stop one hour too late and 5 hours too early for the bus to Pipa beach!!! However we managed to make the best of a bad situation and jumped onto the next bus to Ponta Negra- a lush touristy beach just south of natal- where we swam in tropical warm waters, indulged in cheap drinks at a beach bar and slept in airconditioned apartments.
2 votes 
