Pipa

Pipa is paradise.

After a 9 hour bus/ metro/ bus/ collectivo ride to Pipa we were happy to have arrived. The journey was quite funny actually as the guy in the collectivo was trying to stuff our big back packs into the boot and then as we were driving he realised the boot had opened and the bags had fallen out, so they had to go back to find them.

When we arrived at our hostel, Lagarto na Banana, we accidentally walked right into a yoga session not realising and were saying 'why is it so quiet here??' really loudly whilst everyone was in deep meditative trances haha. Everyone at the hostel is super friendly, it's a really great atmosphere here and we've met loads of nice people.

On our first full day we went on a day trip with the hostel to an island. It was about an hour's drive in this retro little Volkswagen campervan and the scenery was beautiful and so remote. We got a boat to this little island and spent the day under this tree, sunbathing, swimming, and eating grilled vegetables. It was so relaxing and when the boat came to pick us up and take us back I really didn't want to go. After we drove back to the centre of Pipa and had some acai (yum) and then drove to this huge sand dune to watch the sunset. It really was the perfect end to a perfect day and it has definitely been one of my favourite days of my trip so far.

That night we went out for dinner to a really great Japanese restaurant and then had some drinks and played cards and ended up at a traditional Brazilian dancing event. I even ended up dancing with this Brazilian guy and actually I wasn't as terrible as I first thought.

The next day I was quite hungover but we just went to the beach and I sat in the shade on my own haha and read my book. I quite enjoyed being alone as I've been with people 24/7 for the last two weeks and sometimes it's nice just to have a bit of space. In the evening we chilled, played more cards and socialised with everyone from the hostel.

In the morning I got up for the 8am yoga session which was relaxing but really difficult at some points! After we ate breakfast and fed the leftover fruit to the monkeys, they are adorable. In the day we got a group of us and went to what is known as 'dolphin beach' because dolphins swim there and we even saw a few jumping out of the waves. It was a really amazing day and we played heads up and tennis on the beach. After I tried to smash out a 5km run but was pretty exhausted.

In the evening a group of us from the hostel went out together to a few bars and also a salsa dancing event. I ended up going to bed at 3am which was great as i needed to get up at 7am to catch my transfer to Natal airport.

I was really sad to leave such a great group of people behind, especially Lizzie as we get on so well and have had a such a good time together. We are definitely going to meet up once we are back in London though for some drinks, and hopefully I will see some of the others in Rio for Carnival.Read more