Pipa and Natal seen by Jean-Paul Delfino
When, in the 16th century, the Portuguese navigators discovered the foaming jagged coasts that extended 85 kilometres south of Natal, they were petrified with admiration. When the look-out announced he saw a rock in the shape of a wine cask – pipa in Portuguese – the obvious name chosen for these beaches had to be Pipa. Just Pipa.
Nowadays that famous resort which attracts all the surfing enthusiasts in the world has forgotten the wars that for a long time opposed the Portuguese and the Dutch. But now, the sea-side resort extends for miles from Tibau do Sul and offers the traveller a series of beaches like so many blonde pearls making up a wonderful necklace: Cacimbinhas, Madeiro, Praia do amor or even Dolphin Bay.
Not far away, stands the city of Natal, in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. Protected by its Reis Magos fortress, a 16th century Portuguese legacy, Natal has owed its wealth for a long time to salt-harvesting, until it became, at the very beginning of the 20th century, the first stage of the glorious, world-famous “Aéropostale”epic, from Dakar to Natal. Yet nowadays Natal has become a large city with more than eight hundred thousand inhabitants, a city that has succeeded in emphasizing its innumerable riches. A famous tourist attraction for its craftsmanship that offers to the newcomer hundreds of shops dedicated to that art, Natal also provides innumerable tours that show to advantage the “jewels” of the colonial period and of the subsequent New Republic. Here, there are countless theatres, cinemas, museums and remains of ancient foundations that testify a will for architectural preservation of the past. As for the historical town center, it is just a leap in the past, a real journey back in time, a complete change that from time to time dresses up in fine array during the festivals.
Natal? The town, founded on the 25th of December 1599, bears the perfect name: a gift from Brazil just for you!
Written by : © Jean-Paul Delfino (This text is subject to copyrights protection in accordance with existing laws)
Our description of Pipa is on this web page : terra-nordeste.com/en/destination/fernando-de-noronha-pipa-en/
Other texts by Jean-Paul Delfino are available here: Travel Diaries - Jean-Paul Delfino
Jean-Paul Delfino is a French writer and screenwriter so passionate about Brazil that he has taken on the writing of a major novel fresco entitled "Suite brésilienne" which covers three centuries of great Brazilian history.
Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Delfino
