I Have Been to Paradise, Part II

Capping off our three weeks of adventure (seems so long ago), were five days spent on the idyllic islands of Fernando de Noronha, 525km oceanward from Recife. Since its founding circa 1500, the islands have been under French, Dutch and Portuguese control and have served as a prison, a refuelling point for mail carriers from Europe, and a US military base during the Second World War. It's current function is as a National Park and divers' paradise. The archipelago consists of 21 islands, the largest of which is 17km².

In Fernando, we spent our days kicking back, snorkling, and bathing amidst abundant marine life -- fish of all colours, shapes and sizes; moray eels; manta rays; turtles; octopus; crabs; and ... SHARKS! Yes, Sharks! Apparently [and it is hard to totally trust this advice] the sharks in Fernando live in a fully balanced eco-system and therefore don't need to chomp on divers, as do the ones in Recife. So, did we swim with the sharks? Of course! We have a morbid fascination with danger the same as the next person! We also woke up very early one morning to hike to Dolphin Bay, where we were treated to the ritual sunrise return to the bay by a large school of dolphins [some days there are estimated to be 600 dolphins]. Swimming with the dolphins has been banned for a few years now, but even just watching them dive and play was neat.

Our second day in Fernando we managed to find a cheap, disposible underwater camera which was a lot of fun to take on our dives. While the first day of diving was the clearest and best (Murphy's law hard at work), we did get some pretty good shots of our marine friends on the subsequent days.

My friend the turtle:



My friend the turtle fleeing for his life:



SHARK!!



One of millions!