Maceió – Brejo Grande
Maceió, as with many other cities in the north east, is famous for its beaches but I didn’t go to see them on my day off. I mainly caught up on some sleep, and got my bike organised. It was a little strange staying with a host who wasn’t there, but I was still grateful that Vitor had let me stay. I was up by 6 and out by 6:30 on my way out of town and south, with about 600km or so between me and Salvador. There was one more capital
Recife – Porto de Galinhas
Having enjoyed the pre-carnival, there were suggestions that I should stay for the real thing and I really would have liked to – being limited to 180 days per year in Brazil is just unfair! As it was, I was out and on the way to my next capital city – Maceió – which was about 3 days away. I hit the bike path on the way out of town, which involved a 2 minute boat ride from Recife Antigo which I shared with a cycling dentist on his way to work.
The
Juliana believes that 2014 is a year of parties here in Brazil, and it definitely does feel like it. A late carnival (the Brazilian year doesn’t really start until after it), followed by Easter, then the World Cup and you’re more than half way through the year and closing in on Christmas! She’s making the most of it, and took me out on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Even though she barely slept, she was up and out by 9am on the Sunday too but that was beyond me.
Saturday
Day off in João Pessoa
I just had a single day off, but there wasn’t that much to see in the city so it was enough. The main highlight downtown was the Church of Sao Francisco, which is definitely worth a visit. In the evening I met up with Paulo from Couchsurfing and we went to the Estaçao iCabo Branco, which as well as being designed by Oscar Niemeyer was full of interesting local art.
Roney & Dama are full of life and love to talk, Roney in particular loving to debate. We got to
In Natal
My host Jac and Moab, her boyfriend, were active hosts who did their best to make sure I got to see the most of Natal in the couple of days I was there. This included visiting the Fort of the Wise Men, named because it was founded on the 6th of January, a huge number of different beaches, the historical downtown area, a toy museum, a space museum and the world’s largest cashew tree. They were also certain I had to try a variety of local foods, which meant