Oh, Natal!

Natal, Brazil turned out to be a wonderful way to spend two relaxing weeks. Natal, City of the Sun, is the capital city of the State of Rio Grande do Norte and we managed to achieve a nice balance between kicking back and relaxing and pulling ourselves away from the beach house for excursions and activities. Our friend Butch had been nice enough to give us two thriller books in English and I hadn't had my hands on a book in English since we got here. So my plan was to completely veg and read by the pool or on the beach. Don convinced me to leave the house and have some fun so our first adventure was to the sand dunes. Natal is full of sand dunes in the hills overlooking the beaches and we took a dune buggy tour that was amazing. We went up and down the slopes of sand at top speed in this cute little red buggy.

We also went sand boarding, which was fun but a complete disaster! Don didn't bother trying to understand the instructions from the Brazilian guy so we were covered in sand and falling everywhere instead of gliding down the hill smoothly. But, it was hilarious.

The much more successful activity was a simple zip wire that Don did where you end up plunged in the river. If only there had been bungee jumping or diving off a cliff he would have done that too, for sure.I have to admit that I was nervous about the next adventure, our ATV trip along the hills and to see lagoons and rivers. I had never been on an ATV and I was sure that I'd be left behind. My hand was almost crippled from gripping the handles so hard! Well, no major mishaps occurred and so I settled down and even sped up pretty fast a few times. All I will say is that it's a good thing no one had their camera out when I accidentally drove into the river! Yes, that's right. Instead of following the path along the river, my ATV went crazy and I went right in. Oh, well. I guess it was pretty funny.

One of Don's favorite things to do, as I've mentioned before, is to take private boat tours whenever we're on vacation. I've struggled with sea sickness but gotten better over the years much to his happiness. Somehow, of course, whenever we take a boat on the ocean it happens to be during the roughest periods! On our way to Anguilla from Saint Martin, for example, we were caught in the most outrageous swells that only happen 1 or 2 times a year. Brazil turned out to be no different. We woke up at the crack of dawn to have a "calm" sea and we were caught in the biggest waves and violent rain storm ever. I felt bad because after 2 1/2 hours on that boat I just could not wait for rain to stop so that we could snorkel in the natural pool in the ocean. I may be smiling in this picture, but I'm screaming inside! Not to mention a big wave knocked Don off the boat while he was climbing on. I'll stick with relaxing by the pool with a book and a drink any day.

We already miss Brazil. The people and sights were amazing and we'd love to return one day.