Praia do Sancho

— On our first full day at Fernando de Noronha, we did an island tour. We enjoy these guided tours at the start for a variety of reasons. It’s always a good start to get acquainted with the main attractions at a location and get all history about it. Then on another day, we can always return on our own and enjoy those particular places we liked.

The Sancho Beach (Praia do Sancho), located on the Sancho Bay, is considered by many as the most beautiful beach on the island (some say in Brazil, too). As with all the beaches in Fernando de Noronha, it is really hard to pick one as the most beautiful. The scenery is breathtaking anywhere you look. Accessing this beach is not very easy. From this lookout point, one needs to do a short hike and go down two series of metal steps through a very tight crack between two rocks. I was able to go down the ladder with my backpack on, but it rubbed against the tight rocks in a couple of places. If you’re concerned about that, you can always lower your backpack using a rope at the top of the steps. After those two ladders, there are still several steps until you get to that soft, sandy beach.

From the lookout point, the color of the water was striking. Near the shore, the water is mostly turquoise green, and as you go deeper, it becomes a deeper blue. Also here we were able to see a couple of sharks swimming around near some rocks. The sharks in Fernando de Noronha do not seem to be of the dangerous kind. When snorkeling here or anywhere else, people often talk about close encounters with sharks without any danger whatsoever. This was our first swim on the island. The water was very clear and at the right temperature: not cold nor hot.