After another night bus journey, I arrived in Natal, well Ponta Negra in the south of Natal to be exact early in the morning at around 7am. I read in the Lonely Planet (my travelling bible), that most backpackers stay in this area as Natal itself is more of a city central location and the best beaches are south of Natal.

Ponta Negra itself was quite a hilly place with plenty of pousada's to choose from. There were the ones right on the beach front, to the cheaper mid-range ones further back from the beach. After exploring a few options, we decided to splash out a little and book into an amazing castle looking hostel about 5 minute walk to the beach (downhill) and a 10 minute walk back from the beach (some serious hills)!

The hostel was called Lua Cheia and had a draw-bridge across a moat to enter, on the side of the hostel was their medieval Taverna for late night drinks - bonus. Due to it being low-season we managed to get a separate room and bathroom, although I did have a look at the dorms and they were without a shadow of doubt the best dorms I have ever seen. This place really does put a smile on your face and to top it off the hostel staff speak English...so I book in for 2 nights.

After a bit of exploring, I managed to ask for directions in Portuguese to the nearest lavanderia (Laundry) shop and banco (bank - easy one!). If you are thinking of coming to Brazil, bear in mind the banks are not as easy as you would expect to get money out of, so far the only ones that work for me are HSBC and Banco24horas. Banco Brasil, Santander and a few other smaller one that I can't remember the names, never work.

Its a Monday and the beach was at low tide so myself and Lee decided to send a little "I love Mondays" message to you all back home...it did amuse me even if it didn't amuse anyone back home! So the first day was literally getting some 'more' chilled out time on the beach. The whole area was built on big sand dunes and to the left and the right of the beach you can see them for miles. Nothing much else to report really, as you can imagine I was getting myself tanned and Lee was getting himself red. I ended up leaving the beach before Lee, I can't remember why but while I was gone a stray cat pissed on him and a local drunk tried to knick his ipod....poor gringo!!!

In the evening the main restaurants are on the beach front, most restaurants are also the local boozers too. Managed to find a place called Cactus which totally reminded me of one of my favourite bars on Koh Phangan in no other way except the name...anyway back to Brazil! The beach front seems a safe place although tourist police are few and far between here. In fact I would say in general the further north I go and the more remote/smaller places I visit seem much safer, although here in Ponta Negra there are still a few dodgy looking people around, so be on your guard.

Booked a day trip to get driven (by Dino the driver) around the nearby sand dunes on a beach buggy, this is where we met Sophia, a Brazilian from Sao Paolo. Dino was a f***ing maniac on the dunes, I think he wanted to be compared to Arton Senna...but those buggies seem impossible to roll despite his attempts! Went down a few slide things, one sand and one a water slide called the kamikaze.

After an awesome day on the dunes, we all went to the local bar attached to our hostel for some Caipirinha's and Samba music. All in all quite a relaxed couple of days which was nice, tomorrow I'm off to the very exclusive island Fernando de Noronha.