Jonalyn's Watercolor Blog

We were only on the island of Fernando de Noronha in Brazil for 2 full days, but the satisfaction I got from seeing so many negative myths busted apart is worth sharing.

I had heard plenty:

No one speaks English.
The grocery stores are crap.
I don’t want to go ashore.
I’m afraid I won’t feel safe.
We are going to see a lot of butt cheeks.

We heard (or said) all of these statements about Brazil and this small island, Fernando de Noronha, the furthest eastern point of South America before we landed.

Within 15 minutes, the Brazilians shredded the myths. I couldn’t stop myself from trying out my Spanish even though I knew it was only slightly similar to Brazilian Portuguese. Everyone I spoke to stopped, listened carefully and tried to make out what I was saying. I didn’t even have to pull out Google Translate until our beach buggy broke down (more on that at our latest podcast episode “A Day in Brazil”).

We found three well-stocked grocery shops with mountains of produce. I loaded up on papaya, passion fruit, kiwi and pineapple. I found lettuce (a luxury in this part of the world), cilantro, beautiful scallions and watercress. And all this on an island, we would soon find out, that had no source of natural water. There are no wells or cisterns on Noronha, just rain water (which is rare) and the expensive alternative: de-salination. The only crop these islander Brazilians grow for commercial purposes seemed to be coconuts and bananas.

I’ve never tasted a sweeter banana. I have a cluster here on Lady Grey, safely accompanying us up the Brazilian coast, past the Amazon River and on our way to Grenada.

Marcos

Within an hour or arrival, Marcos (the port’s immigration agent/unofficial tour guide) oriented us, partially processed our passports but not without bringing us delicious sweet Brazilian espresso. Then, Marcos offered us R$20 Brazilian Reals (~$5 USD) so we could catch the public bus and ride to the ATM and first grocery store.

We all sprinted up a red dirt hill to catch the sweaty crowd in the rattling public bus. We bounced our way into the first smattering of commerce, hopped off, found a bank and our first grocery store where we got enough cash to see us through our two days on this island. Marcos’ seed money meant we never had to take a taxi on Noronha.

Zuzu

The next day, we rented a rusty and rumbling beach buggy which promptly broke down in the first 10 minutes. So, I hiked around and found some shopkeepers to help. Before I could even complete a call, a government employee walked over and offered to take Dale up the road to get fuel. This good Samaritan sped Dale to the port (the only fuel station on the island), drove him to the gas station, cobbled together a funnel (out of a large, plastic water bottle), then returned Dale back to our stranded buggy. When Dale tried to offer him some Real as a thank you the main held up his hands in horror. He simply wanted to help us.

The gas wasn’t sufficient to revive our buggy which soon broke down on the side of the road again.  Now we had piles of produce in grocery bags and the sun was hot on our boys in the unshaded backseat. As we blocked traffic and cars had to go around us, no one swore or gave us dirty looks. I ran to find another shop owner who called the buggy company. The owner, Zuzu, zoomed over within 5 minutes and tried to start our buggy up. No good. Without question Zuzu handed over his buggy and swapped us out. We were on our way, groceries piled high with two dozen eggs on the Mount Crumpet top. (You can hear Dale and I share more of this adventure at our newest podcast “A Day in Brazil”. Subscribe with Apple here). 

In fact, the only myth that panned out was the one about the butt checks. Thongs seem to be the clothing of choice here on these beaches, regardless of age! Consequently, we looked entirely over-dressed no matter what bathing suits we chose.

Regardless, we enjoyed our two days on Fernando de Noronha and would highly recommend a visit, if you can handle the thong and speedo factor.

News, Events and Paintings

By Christmas, we will have travelled over 4000 miles from South Africa to the Caribbean aboard our boat Lady Grey. You can watch videos from our daily lives at Facebook or Instagram @sailingladygrey. But if you’d just like to hear more about our sailing life, subscribe to our “Lady Grey Podcast”.

I’ve managed to paint while on passage two more paintings of South Africa, both 4 x 6”. Together they make a lovely side-by-side couplet. Both showcase scenes of the laundry hung up on a sunny day in the Knysna Township, South Africa, where the native Africans and black immigrants live.

I’ve always noticed the way laundry looks on the line, the bare humanness of it waving in the wind. I love it because it reminds me that all of us, no matter how meek or grand, wear pants and socks and undergarments. And we all get scared when we try to do difficult, new things.

It’s the vulnerable places that I love to paint most. This is why it is such an honor to paint for friends like you.

This piece is simply titled “Laundry” and measures 4 x 6”, watercolor on paper, painted with the waters from South Africa. The second pieces is “Yellow Dress” and also 4 x 6”

Next Zoom party in late January!

I am looking ahead to our Zoom party in January where I will be sharing about my cross-Atlantic crossing and some new paintings. Keep an eye out for Zoom details in the next month!