North eastern Beaches of Brazil- Natal, Pipa and Frances

North eastern Beaches of Brazil- Natal, Pipa and Frances

Incredible, lucky me! The following beach towns would truly make up a great vacation!

These have to be some of the best beaches I have ever seen!!

The first stop after Canoe Quebrada was Natal.

Natal is quite a large city full of high rise condos and a large vibrant strip along the beach full of Posadas & restaurants that make up the nightly entertainment.
Across the main hwy there are more Posadas and night clubs. This area is a little far for me to walk as I still have a large limp due to the broken leg and the tight muscles from lack of use. the bikes are simply to large to be scooting around on as well we have the issue of drinking and driving those big beasts in steep, twisty crooked hills on cobblestone.
They also light the beach strip up at night to give the area a Miami feel to it, no real night life on the strip, pretty but not that exciting.
This area is much better during the day, the sidewalks are done quite nicely with colour stone designs, clean up crews are there daily, and of course this could not be Brazil with out the itsy bits’, tiny weenie bikini and banana hammocks.

After our stay in the big city we were off to Pipa

Pipa was not to disappoint, this is a great place to come and chill, party and or do the earth friendly visit and see the bay of dolphins, watch the turtles out in the ocean surf or even go to the turtle conservation national park.
Pipa is not just a stop on its own but there is another town that appears to be large, Tuibau do Sul. I think that maybe Pipa is the beach and Tuibau do Sul is the town.
Anyway Pipa is hip. Stone streets full of modern cars and dune buggies.
Lively at night full of well dressed tourist (international and local Brazilians alike) with the local artisans, shop workers and average joes looking on. Daytime brings a different feel. One of laid back days with an undertone of ensuring you look your best in your bathing suit (or should I say Thong da thong thong thong)
There are numerous beaches around this spot. The beach that Brent and I came across was down the main entrance to the beach and to the left. You need to pass over three spots where the rocks jut out from the mammoth rock walls. During the walk you will first pass vendors and a few beach bars, then off to a more secluded location. The second part where the rocks stick out and the waves are a little rough where you can see large turtles swimming and eating.-that is really exciting to see how large they are and how close they come. I must say quite elusive to photograph though, much easier to view and take it all in.
Third part of the beach tour was the dolphin bay. Out around a peninsula you enter into a bay where the waves coming in from all directions, white soft sand and a grand rock wall as a backdrop finish this secluded seen. However that is not all. After a few moments walking to the centre of the bay beach we noticed all the dolphins. At one point while standing looking out at these beauties one almost beaches itself to catch a fish; exceptional!! This beach was so secluded there was a total of twenty people on about 3kms of beach and just a few vendors walking though selling pastries, ice cream etc.. Well worth the journey. There are so many beaches around this hip area that you could easily spend two weeks exploring them.
Finally in this area there is great boating, snorkelling, scuba and they also have turtle conservation park about 3 km square that costs $3.50 pp to enter and takes a few hours to walk through.
You tube video:YouTube - Brasil - Natal - Pipa


Praia Frances (frenchmans beach)
High priced beach town just south of Maceio.
Nice town but we wandered around for hours looking at all the Posadas in the scorching heat and the best price we could get was at a sex motel for $15 US but you could not check in before 7pm and you had to be out at 6 am (More to come on this subject in the next blog). The only other choice was a room for $30 US a night a little out of the budget at this time.
So we paid $1.25 and parked close to the beach but had to run cables through our stuff to prevent theft and Brent carried his top case with him.
The beach was absolutely packed with about 50,000 people, asses hanging out everywhere, short Speedos, vendors galore and garbage floating up out of the water from people discarding their cups and wrappers.
We talked with a bar keep and secured a table, chairs and an umbrella. Drank beer, Cuba Libras, ate freshly cooked corn on the cob and skewers of freshly grilled steak- yum all for $12.50 US. Coming close to the end of the day the surf was very high and taking over our portion of the beach (as the bar was closer to the water than others) so we decided we still had time to kill before we could check into the kinky motel.
Still hungry, off we went in search of a pizza joint we had seen on the way in. We secured a local drink (cacacha), a 600ml beer, vodka and mango juice drink, bottle water and a large calabrese pizza for $13 US- Can I hear a Hell yeah good deal.
With still more time to kill we decided to walk the beach. First thing we noticed is that the white powder sand actually squeaked under your feet as you walked. Second was the most incredible sunset over a small hill peppered with sand spots and green bushes topped off with tall swaying palm trees. The sun was adding hues of orange and red to the ever mellowing sky. Brent and I took time out to truly enjoy this marvellous moment, looking up at the beauty I found myself wondering if this could be a pinnacle turning point in our trip, one for the better and signs of good things to come- lets hope. As the sun went down the glory of the moon appeared adding a purple glow to the now dark blue sky. With a full moon low in the sky casting its warm glow across the ocean adding yet another magnificent site for viewing.
Finally we are off to our sex motel, yet one more surprise is in store for us. It is now dark and we are the only ones left parked in the field, as we start to get the bike ready to go I feel a tremendous burning bite on my foot and then more and more. Below us were ants that left a nasty sting. Brent rolled the bikes over to another area and we quickly brushed them off and put on our bike boots.
You tube video:
YouTube - Praia do Frances - AL - Brasil

Now we arrive at the sleaze inn motel- for more details see next blog :0