Praia da Pipa - beach of the kites

Anna an I were getting bored of the rainy season in Brazil. Yes, we knew it was the rainy season before we left and we knew it was their winter but we still wanted some sun and so far there wasn´t much. So we decided to head north up towards Natal, to, allegidely lovely place called Praia da Pipa.

When we enquired about the bus transport to Pipa from Recife, we got several different and somewhat confusing pieces of info. Basically, we needed to take any bus heading to Natal (of which there are around 10 and not 2 or 3 as we were told initially), buying a ticke in advance was not necessay and all we needed to do is ask the driver to tell us when we reach Goianinha. From there on there were supposed to be numerous vans, waiting to transfer tourists to Pipa at R$2.50 each. However, this wasn´t quite true and we ended up sharing a cab with an Australian couple. When you arive to Pipa spend some time looking for accomodation. We found a pousada that was much better thanthe hostel and acualy a lot cheaper too. There is more accommodation than needed at this time of the year so you should find what you want fairly soon.

Pipa is nice place, but it´s not more than a town that grew around the beach (similar to Buzos it was once a fishing village that was descovered). The guide book describes it as a global village, but it´s more global than village now. There is a surprising number of dutch surfers, argies and english people. I even met a guy here who went to my college and knows the same people as I do. If you visited lhabela or Buzios in the southeast, yo will have a good idea of what this place is like. There is the main street with boutiques and shops selling some really hideous stuff (little sculputeres of old people having sex etc.) that make you question the sanity of the people that made them and the ones hat are buying them.

Pipa is all about beaches and it certainly doesn´t lack them. My favourite is Praia do Amor (used to be beach of the drowned). On the way here we passed an amuzing sign in even more amuzing english (Who likes garbage is the pigs). Got to the right hnd side, away from the bars as the high tide comes much later, there is no wind and send everywhere and it´s more private. There are warm shallow pools to sit in and savour the scenery made up of fine sand and palm trees. It is a perfect stop for a couple of days to recharge the bateries and spend some time in the sun (which is very strong here). There is also Baia dos Golfinhos, which also has calm water for swimming (it´s much better for swmming than the other ones), but no palm trees. However, you will be able to see dolhins that come here (usually low tide but we saw them in high tide) and play in the water and do the jumps.

Finally, Pipa also has an ecological sanctuary, which has some ver good tails for walking but the real gem is the lookout point from which you can see giant turtles thatcome here for feeding at high tide.