Fernando de Noronha

We’re approaching the final leg of our trip through Pernambuco, and we hope to end it with a flourish, as we’ll now visit one of the most beautiful places in Brazil: the Fernando de Noronha archipelago.

To reach Noronha, as it’s affectionately known, you’ll need to fly from Recife or Natal, traveling 375 km from the Brazilian coast, and enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery on our Atlantic Coast.

There’s a sailing regatta that, in one of its legs, departs from the mainland and heads to Noronha. However, the only means of transportation to the island is by plane, with flights departing from Recife or Natal.

Fernando de Noronha, isle in the Northeast of Brazil

Formation of the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago

The archipelago, of volcanic origin, is made up of six larger islands and 14 inaccessible rocky islets, surrounded by crystal-clear waters — part of one of the cleanest seas on the planet — with visibility of 30 metres or more, and teeming with colourful fish. The endangered sea turtles have chosen Noronha as a nesting and feeding site (it is one of the main bases of the TAMAR Project), and spinner dolphins have claimed a bay — appropriately named Dolphin Bay (Baía dos Golfinhos) — as their private resort for resting and mating. And it truly is private: no boats or divers are allowed to enter the bay.

History of Fernando de Noronha

First sighted between 1500 and 1502, the island’s discovery is attributed to an expedition led by the explorer Fernão de Noronha, who later received it as a grant in the form of a hereditary captaincy. Curiously, however, he never took possession of the land across the ocean. Imagine that — being the legal owner of Fernando de Noronha and never even setting foot on it… Because of this, the island was occupied by the English, French and Dutch between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was only in the mid-1700s that the Captaincy of Pernambuco was tasked with populating the island and expelling the invaders.

Between 1938 and 1945, during the Estado Novo dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas, and again from 1964 under the Military Regime, Fernando de Noronha served as a political prison. In 1942, it became federal territory — Brazil was in the midst of World War II — and the Americans were authorised to use the island as a military base. They built the local airport as a stopover point on the Natal–Dakar air route. With the end of the war, control of the airport was returned to the Brazilian government, and in 1988, the island once again became part of the State of Pernambuco.