After our stay at Marina’s friend’s house in Maceió, and a night in the picturesque colonial town of Penedo we set out south, across Sergipe, Brazil’s smallest state. (The Federal District around Brasilía is smaller, but like Washington D.C., it’s not a state.) So between 9.50am and 4.12pm on March 25th, we sampled the delights of Sergipe, and all it has to offer.
Well, to be fair, it’s difficult to see everything in one go, given that it’s still about the size of Slovenia, but we did stop for lunch in Aracaju, the state capital.
Aracaju is famous for it’s oceanarium, a branch of Projeto TAMAR, well known in Brazil for their Sea Turtle conservation work. The oceanarium itself is actually the shape of a Turtle, when viewed from above! At about R$16 / €3.90, it’s cheap, and well worth the visit. We have heard, however, that the one in Praia da Barra, south in Bahia, is a bigger, better Projeto TAMAR!
What next? Lunch. A few minutes down the seafront, south of TAMAR, is a spot called Passarela do Caranguejo. All the restaurants here specialise in seafood, and you can’t miss it since a giant crab sculpture marks the spot. We picked the restaurant right in front of the crab, which seemed good value until the service was incredibly slow. (R$22 / €5.50 each for food and drinks) Still fun to watch people take their silly selfies from.
And we took some of our own.
You might think there’s a sea view here, being on the beach, but the smart people of Aracaju have set their promenade waaaay back from the ocean. Presumably to build dykes in the future when the sea rises in front of them… You’ll be walking for a while in the blistering sun, if you want to go for a swim.
We drove on, south, out of Sergipe, crossed into Bahia, and camped by the beach for a few very relaxing days. Stay tuned…
Louco Barato 🇧🇷 🇮🇪 