Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state, Brasil
Natal is awesome…its a smaller-sized city located in Northeastern Brazil, in the Rio Grande do Norte state. It’s a coastal town, lined with beaches, and as been a great place to wrap-up my trip. I’ve been staying in Ponta Negra, two blocks from Ponta Negra beach, in a hostel that looks like its straight out of Harry Potter. Its called Lua Cheia, check out the link. Overall, the hostel is pretty mellow, which is a nice change from some of the party hostels I ran into in Rio and Ihla Grande, and the town is mellow too. Ponta Negra is basically a vacation destination for Brazillians from other parts of the nation.
The beach in Ponta Negra has a boardwalk lined with shops, hotels, restaurants, bars, and tons of street vendors: food, art, sarongs, souvenirs, even CDs (these guys walk around rolling this barrel out which comes blaring music of all types, I even heard some country!, they have the individual black market CDs for sale on top of the cart).
The beach is super nice. Not the most picturesque idealized beach, but the water is a great temperature, the sand is clean, and being surrounded by sand dunes, its really pretty. Its also very windy, but the wind is actually pretty nice because it cools you off from the heat of the sun; that way you don’t sweat when sunbathing. The beach is also overrun with people, and vendors (although some days are busier than others-Sunday was a particularly crowded day, while Friday was really pleasant). You can literally buy ANYTHING on the beach: sandals, jewelry, souvenirs, sunglasses, bathing suits, sun block, corn on the cobb, meat skewers, crab, and shrimp, crepes, beer, mixed drinks, water…whatever you may need, they will have it. The beautiful part is that you can rent a lounge chair, a table and an umbrella for around 5 Reais for the entire day, and be catered to. The guys renting out the chairs will come by and ask you if you want anything to eat or drink, and bring it to you. Best of all, things are cheap: meat skewers, 2 Reais each, corn on the cobb, 2 Reais, beers 2.50 Reias, caipirinhas 4 Reias, Coconut water (straight out of a chilled coconut) 1 Reai. I think I had about 5 chilled coconuts during my four days in Natal.
Unfortunately, I failed to meet anyone new during my stay. The only English-speaking person I met from my hostel was a guy from Holland who I met the night before he left. The two girls I shared my room with at the hostel only spoke Portuguese, and no English; between my knowing Spanish and them speaking slowly, we managed to communicate a bit, but that was pretty much it. In other words, my time in Natal was mellow, I spent three days lounging by the beach and reading a book, while sipping on coconuts and and caipirinhas. I did, however, really like the bar attached to our hostel though. It was called “Taverna Pub,” and had live music every night. The first night, there was samba, the second there was a crazy band that dressed up as characters and did covers (check the Michael Jackson impersonation…too funny), and the third night there was a Portuguese rock band who sang music that I wasn’t particularly into, but apparently the whole rest of the bar was into it, cause they were singing along the whole time. My favorite night was my first night, when they were playing samba, the place was packed with Brazilians, and there was some pretty impressive dancing going on. Its always pretty nice when you can go out, and have fun, and yet your bed is only a mere twenty steps away, upstairs, in a quiet room. Overall, Natal was a great destination choice for the end of my trip.
Some minimal Portuguese that I’ve manage to pick up during my two-week stay:
Obrigada/o-Thank you, -a ending is for women; -o ending is for men, unfortunately, I didn’t know there was a difference in the ending for different sexes, so I had been saying “obrigado” for about a week – typical, haha.
Bom dia – Hello/Good day
Bom Noite – Good evening
Moito Bem – Very good
Belleza – an expression for something like “awesome” or “great.”
Franga – Chicken
Peixe – Fish
Cerveja – Beer, pronounced “Sher-veh-shja”
Praia – Beach
No comprendo – I don’t understand (they say comprender here, instead of entender)
Disculpe – I’m sorry/excuse me, pronounced “deesh-cou-pe.”
Portuguese is actually a really beautiful language, so similar to Spanish, yet so very different. While in Brazil, I basically spoke Spanish with a not so authentic Portuguese accent, and I got by. I could also understand a fair bit, if spoken slowly. But, a lot of people (shop salespeople, or random people at the airport) would just immediately speak to me in Portuguese. I would look back at them doe-eyed, shrugging with an innocent smile on my face and say “no comprendo.” I guess Portuguese will have to be my next language, once I master Spanish.
Brazil favorites: the music (samba, bossa nova), the beach!, the coconuts, the açai with granola!, the bikinis, and the happy people.
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| My hostel - Lua Cheia, "the little witch hostel," medieval themed |
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| Ponta Negra beach |
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| The boardwalk in Ponta Negra |
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| The famous sand dune backdrop in Ponta Negra |
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| My set up for three days |
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| This is all I did. |
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| I ended up buying the tile this guy was painting...he was really amazing. He painted it in about 5 minutes. |
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| Down the street from my hostel, not much to do...except for the beach |
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| A very busy Saturday |
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| Practical way of making sure ur stuff doesn't get stolen |
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| This was the most recognizable guy selling music on the beach...he was always dressed as a woman. Kind of reminded my of Selaron's self-portraits (the guy that made the Lapa steps) |
