Brazilian Atlantic Islands

Fernando de Noronha is one of the few islands in the South Atlantic – other notable ones are Gough Island, Tristan da Cunha, and St. Helena. That apparently makes it special enough to be considered a TCC ‘country’ and have its own Nomadmania region (though it is part of the state of Pernambuco), and about 70% of it is a WHS as well. Whether it is as good as Northern Atlantic ones such as the Azores, Cabo Verde, or even the Canary Islands, is questionable. It needed to team up with the more outstanding, more scenic, but inaccessible Rocas Atoll, 150 km away, to reach WH status. They are jointly known as the ‘Brazilian Atlantic Islands’.

I stayed on Fernando de Noronha for 3 nights and allotted a day to its marine features and two to its land surface. On the first afternoon, I walked from the town of Remedios to the northern tip of the island. A first beach, the remains of two Portuguese fortresses and offshore volcanic islands can be seen. At one of those islands, I spotted my first noteworthy bird: the masked booby.

The next morning I took a 3-hour boat tour along the western coast. We first circled the Secondary Islands, the same ones I saw yesterday from the shore. Visually the most attractive one is Cuscuz Island, shaped like a bowling ball. Black lava flows are a common sight as this archipelago is of volcanic origin. The phallic volcanic plug …

Visit January 2020

My short visit to Fernado de Noronha was probably one that I should have skipped, but now that it is in the past I am happy to be able to include it to my visited Sites count. One reason that I should have changed my plans was that I have not been in perfect health for a couple of weeks, which, not surprisingly, cut down on my level of enjoyment. A more important reason, however, was that a visit to this island is significantly expensive, and, since I have been routinely exceeding my travel budget lately, I really didn’t need another costly addition to my route.

When I first checked the airfares to the island several months ago, the costs seemed reasonable. Daily flights depart from Natal and Recife, but at this time flights from Natal stop at Recife first, so there is no good reason to start from there. Of course, as frequently happens to me, when it came time to book the flights, the fares had nearly doubled. I should also have also done more research into accommodations, because their costs are really off the charts. The place I eventually booked was around ten times more expensive than similar accommodations I had recently used in the Brazilian interior, and perhaps four times more than those in the more touristy coastal areas, with a generally similar, and fairly basic, level of amenities. There is also the Environmental Protection Fee, based on the length of …

I spent a few hours on atol das rocas in April 1999 when we anchored our yacht offshore. We offered the researchers on the atol a bottle of whiskey and they allowed us to surf a small wave nearby and walk around for a few hours.

This is undoubtetly one of the most remote and beautiful places i have ever been !!!!!!!!!!

Would love to go back someday.

During 1979, while sailing from south Africa to Brazil on my yacht, I and 3 crew were shipwrecked and stranded for 20 days on Atol das Rocas. With little food and water we miraculously survived. We were spotted by a passing Brazilian Airforce aircraft, reporting our mishap to the Naval base in Natal, Brazil. We were rescued the following day by the corvette 'Iperanga' which I believe had since sunk off Fernando de Noronha after running aground. When we were on the Atol there was only 1 palm tree, a recent TV documentary showed about 10, I would love to return to the Atol someday.