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Nexus - Fernando de Naronha is great! Leaving for Grenada today.



Well, Fernando de Noronha has been a great place to visit. The people are friendly and landscape beautiful, and both are quite a bit more attractive than in Salvador. The island is small but really caters to vacationing tourists. There are no big resorts here, only small guest houses and small restaurants and shops. There is one major road that crosses the island to the airport, the rest of the streets are mostly cobble stone, with emphasis on the "cobble". The beaches are beautiful and very controlled as national parks, and there is a vibrant beach bar establishment as well as a very active surfing community here. At least one major surf competition is held here, and it appears to be a very active pastime for locals and tourists alike. Things are fairly expensive here, which seems to support the local economy being this remote. Our check in fees were r$200 per day for the boat, and r$50 per day, per person to stay here, and the paper trail and bureaucracy were as slow and difficult as you would expect from a small island. The captains spent most of the first day checking in, and 4 hours of the last day checking out. They won't let you check in and out simultaneously unless your stay is one or two days. It is true you can check in and out stating one day, and you have 48hours to leave, but if you don't pay the proper per person stay charges for your actual stay, there are heavy fines and a person in the harbor office with a large telescope keeping track, so it's actually a trap to overstay your welcome. It's well worth the visit though, we had a great day yesterday celebrating Laurie's birthday, driving our dune buggy from beach to beach with a borrowed surf board for Finnbar, and ended up at small beach bar built on a rocky outcropping with a beautiful beach and sunset view and great music. It was set up with little cabanas you could crash on pillows in with great views, and they served us a large platter of the best sushi I've had in a long time! Laurie had a special treat holding small sardines up in the air on a short stick on the beach, and letting the HUGE frigate birds dive down and take them from her without flinching! This place has a great vibe, and we will treasure our memories here. Unfortunately the Internet sucks, so we haven't been able to upload any pictures or receive email in our regular accounts, but we hope to catch up in Grenada. We begin our 2000nm voyage this afternoon!

Russ and Laurie on NEXUS 2/27/2015


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