Aracaju and surroundings - SE
(April, 2001)
Waiting to take off...
Angélica and I woke up early and got to the airport way before our flight.
This was good, since it gave us time to look for new batteries for our camera (it
"died" on us the night before!). We flew around eleven o'clock and landed in
Salvador (capital of Bahia) around 2:00PM.
Our bus to Aracaju (capital of Sergipe) was supposed to leave at 5:30, so we killed
some time at the mall right in front of the bus station. From there we made arrangements
for a tour to Mangue Seco. We only got to our hotel past 10PM.
We woke up early on Wednesday, 04/25, and took a van to Mangue Seco, the border of Sergipe and Bahia.
At the end of the road (literally!), we had to leave the car and we took a small boat. There is
only two ways to get to Mangue Seco: by boat or by buggy (and only on the low tide).
Mangue Seco is incredibly beautiful! We rode a buggy, we went swimming, we ate some freshly caught fish,
I took a nap, we rode some more, we ate some more (moqueca, a typical dish). We got back to Aracaju at
night, tired and happy.
The same agency that took us to Mangue had a tour to the São Francisco basin. Since we were tired (and
we wanted to save some money) we chose to spend the day in Aracaju, getting to know the town. We
walked all over it (more then 10 miles!). It is a nice town, but nothing special about it...
On Friday, we were scheduled to leave for Praia do Forte, but we decided to postpone it so we
could go to the São Francisco canyon. After all, it was this canyon that made us want to go to Sergipe
in the first place...
It was raining hard in the morning and some streets were flooded. Lucky for us, we headed
inland (a really dry environment) and three hours later we were at Canindé do São Francisco, a little
town near the Xingó dam. The rain from Aracaju turned into a shy sun. At the lake, we embarked in a
boat, which would take us to the canyon.
The boat ride was very pleasant and I even got to go into their "natural jacuzzi"!
The ride ended inside the canyon. Amazing place, very peaceful, with water so green...
When we got back to the pier, we had some lunch and went all the way back to Aracaju. We went to sleep
with smiles in our faces (as we did every night!). On Saturday, we took the bus back to Salvador.
We got off in the middle of the road, since we were going to Praia do Forte, where my AFS friends were
already expecting us.