Rest and Recuperation in Maceió

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After the week of abuse my body had suffered in Salavdor, I decided that it was only fair to let it recover a bit and I don´t think I could have picked a better place to do that than the seaside town of Maceió. As soon as I stepped off the bus I was amzed by the colour of the sea. I have seen many beautiful beached since being in Brazil, but nowhere has been able to rival the Alagoas coastline so far. The sea is a beautiful emerald green colour and the presence of natural reef barreirs prevent the formation of the strong waves which dominant the Bahian coastline.

After finding the hostel where I was going to stay (more out of luck than judgement!), I headed straight to beach to cool off. I was staying in a dorm with a 70 year old lady and an aussie stripper....takes all sorts lol! The next day we headed out on a trip to see three famous beaches in the area - praia de francês, barra de são Miguel and praia de gunga. Although everyone raves about praia de francês, for me the one that really stuck out was Praia de Gunga which was definately the most beautiful beach I have have seen so far in Brazil, and probably in my life. A natural barrier separates the sea off, so one part if the beach has salty water and the other part has...uh...less salty water. The beach is covered in palm trees and the sand is a brilliant white. The day was spent enjoying the sun and listening to stories from my companions. The German lady cycled around New Zealand just a few years ago, so there´s hope for you yet dad! lol

A few days later I went on a boat trip with a couple of Israeli guys, a Belgian guy and an English guy (sounds like the start of a joke) to some natural reef pools out in the sea. We were expecting some sort of a boat with a motor, what we got was a very primative sailing boat. But it was great fun and when we arrived at the reef pools there were all sorts of amazing fish to be seen. Then we headed out to a bar for lunch and a beer. Except this was no ordinary bar. It was in the middle of the sea! There were several fishing boat-restaurants and the waiters swam over to your boat to take you orders. So we ate freshly prepared langoustine and prawns in the middle of the sea - in their home so to speak!

All in all a brilliant place to recover from the chaos of Carnival!

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