Fernando de Noronha
Summary of a wonderful trip in a magnificent island in Brazil. The beaches and diving were amazing. The highlight for me was the Corveta Ipiranga, a beautiful wreck dive at close to 60m deep and my first ever technical dive.
Fernando de Noronha is a small archipelago off the coast in the northeast of Brazil, pertaining to the Pernambuco state. Most of the island and surrounding ocean is a protected marine park which turns this area of the world into a real paradise! It’s pristine, with beautiful clear waters, gorgeous sandy beaches and full of life. It is designated a UNESCO heritage site due to its importance for a lot of marine life that use the islands as breeding or feeding ground (see wikipedia).
This trip was particularly interesting to me because I was guiding 5 friends visiting Brazil for the first time. I’m fascinated with the idea that one never really learns something until they teach that to others. During this trip I realized I was “teaching Brazilian culture” and, therefore, learning it on a level that was new, surprising and super interesting to me. And I mean “teaching” in a very loose way, from the language, music, history etc. to the food (quite important as in the photo below) to how we share beer in a bar and the kinds of silly jokes we usually make. I learned that Brazil is richer than I usually take for granted. And also learned that it’s not so different from the rest of the world after all, given how my friends, so many times, felt heartwarmingly “at home” (they come from Tunisia, China, Romania and Lithuania and all live in Amsterdam, so quite a diverse bunch).
Noronha is known as a scuba diving paradise and is also known for its beautiful beaches. The dives were the main activity we planned for and they did not disappoint. We dove with Atlantis in quite comfortable boats and very good service.
We saw a lot of life in all dives. Big turtles and rays were common as in the photos below.
One of my favorites was a big Eel Garden we saw in the site “Cabeço das Cordas”. This “garden” has hundreds of eels that pop out of the sand and retreat as we get close to them. It’s beautiful and mesmerizing to see but unfortunately I don’t have photos for that. We also saw many many fish from the local reefs, such as big Barracudas, Red snappers, Jacks, Surgeons, Parrot, Box fish, Flying fish, Moray eels, Lobsters, Reef and Nurse sharks and many more. And apart from the dives, we could also see a lot of life just snorkeling around the island, such as big Nurse sharks right off the port beach. The video below shows a quick thrown-together compilation.
But to me the highlight was the Corveta Ipiranga! That’s a wreck of a battleship that sank ~40 years ago (see description in Portuguese). The boat is whole, sitting at a depth of more than 60m, with the cabin and deck quite preserved. There is still a cannon in the bow and even a phone hanging in the cabin. And apart from the beautiful wreck itself there is a lot of life around it, making it one of the most beautiful dives I’ve done so far.
However the Corveta is way below the maximum depth for a recreational dive (40m) which makes it a technical dive. I’m not a certified technical diver, but the dive shop allows people to go with a certified tech instructor, as long as they have a Nitrox certification and at least 50 logged dives. They also ask people to dive a few times with them before, so they can evaluate. In order to avoid narcosis I dove with Trimix, an air mixture with helium, which helps to greatly reduce my nitrogen intake. I also had to carry a second tank under my arm with a mix of 50% oxygen for the decompression. At about 20m we switched gases and started decompressing, which took about a third of the diving time. It was all worth it! Here are some photos.
As much as we enjoyed the diving, the beaches and the trails are a big attraction as well. In fact, soon before our trip we saw in the news that Tripadvisor’s users elected the Sancho Bay as “the best beach in the world” whatever that means 🙂 The expectations were high and yet we were not disappointed! Below is a photo of the Sancho Bay beach seen from above.
We reached if via a trail overlooking the “Dolphin Bay”, which was also stunning, and allowing us to see some of the island’s flora and fauna. The access involves some scrambling through improvised stairs.
Snorkeling at Sancho was amazing! We saw a lot of life, including much of the usual coral fish plus two large “Xareu” (Horse-Eye Jack), stingrays and quite a few large “Dentão” (I think “Red Snapper” in English) feeding on a large school of sardines right before the crashing waves. I could just watch that for hours! Unfortunately I have no images for those.
But Sancho is only one of the many gorgeous beaches and, if you ask me, is not even the “best” in Noronha if you’re willing to spend more time, grab a drink and watch the sunset. We had an awesome time in the Conceição beach, including watching fisherman catch sardines and attract opportunist boobies and frigate birds as below.
In the south side of the main island we have the Sueste beach which is beautiful. It was closed for swimming because of a threat by Tiger Sharks (about 3 years ago there was an attack and a girl lost her leg) but we could walk along the beach watching crabs and young Lemon Sharks swimming in their breeding waters.
Right next to Sueste is the Praia do Leão (Lion's beach) with a stunning view and amazing snorkeling.
My favorite beach was Caçimba do Padre. From there one can see the Two Brothers, these iconic rocks which are a symbol of Noronha, in a closeup like in the photos below (we call them titties for obvious reasons 🙂). From this beach we can also reach Baia dos Porcos (pig’s bay) with a short hike.
Caçimba do Padre is a gorgeous beach, with amazing snorkeling (we saw turtles, a moray eel, many fish including flying fish, a huge school of sardines etc.) and with a breath taking sunset as in the photos below.
And we also went for an amazing trail in the South side called “Capim Açu” trail as shown in the photos below (including a free fish spa).
And last but not least, Noronha is famous for the large amounts of rotating dolphins who call it home. We saw them when going out for diving a few times, but the best way to see them was with a canoe tour. Apart from the dolphins it took us for stunning views and snorkeling with big Nurse sharks. Here are a quick video, including some awesome jumps which the dolphins are famous for.
A note on transportation and general sustainability in the island: I rented an e-bike during all the time I was there and thought it was amazing! The bike has good autonomy and makes it quite easy to go anywhere. Here’s a photo of the bike station, with solar panels in the top. To the side one can also see a sign for a campaign “zero plastic” trying to reduce the use of single-use plastic in the island and the ocean pollution.
Seeing this photo gives me hope. But unfortunately much of the transportation in the island is still done with old, very loud and very polluting buggies. I’ll admit that the bikes are not for everyone, because there’s a lot of dirt roads around the island and if you’re not used to biking in rocky off-road it’s probably better not to try. But I do hope that eventually the buggies will also be replaced by electric ones.
There’s still more to this amazing island, we had good food (though a bit expensive) danced Forro, did some shopping and had an awesome time. There’s also things we wanted to do but couldn’t because we failed to book in advance, particularly the trail to the popular Atalaia beach, so if you’re going be sure to book that one. It’s not the easiest/cheapest destination to choose, but highly recommended!
