Tag Archives: arraial d’ajuda

From the beaches of Arraial to those of Maceiò

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Hello everyone! Right now I am in Olinda, a beautiful colonial town near Recife. I arrived last night and it was a very lively night because there is already an air of carnival, I met several locals and in particular three beautiful girls, but I’ll tell you about this next time.

From Arraial, I arrived in Maceiò after 24 consecutive hours by bus. My original plan was to make a stop in Salvador, but once there I felt quite rested since I had taken a very comfortable (and expensive) bus with a seat that turned into a small bed for the night.
So, when I woke up the next morning at the arrival in Salvador, I decided to directly look for buses to Maceiò, and to save money, since it was “only” 8 hours of travel, I took the less expensive bus, with the ambiguous name “TransBrasil”, shabby, broken seats, water dripping from the air conditioning duct which anyway didn’t even work. But on the other hand, it was populated by warm people who took a liking to me as Italian, surprisingly, since many Italians are traveling here in Brazil.
At a certain point, I had become a sort of attraction. On my right people asking about my trip. From behind a guy periodically emerged as a bad luck owl to remind me of the football World Cup final lost on penalties against Brazil back in 1994. The lady opposite on the left, once she found out that I am not married, insisted on letting me know her sister who is still unmarried and perhaps even untouched. In front of me her daughter, about 13, with straightens teeth device, who made the entire journey turned towards me to make a mockery of everything I said, laughing and repeating it. Of course, she did it without malice but, after a while, I started to feel in awe, I felt no more such confidence about my mix of Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, and Neapolitan, which anyway, incredibly, works for me to communicate.

When I arrived in Maceiò, I met an Italian guy, on vacation for a few months, and together we went to the beaches around there, amazing, like almost everywhere in Brazil. Three days after I came here to Olinda.

 

The view from Arraial d’Ajuda with the stretch of beach going towards Porto Seguro.

 

The main beach of Arraial.

 

Few km southwards there is a little lagoon.

 

Sand stripe between sea and river.

 

Waves on the beach.

 

Abstract (sky, sea, earth and river).

 

Keeping going towards Trancoso, there is a long stretch of beach flanked by cliff.

 

A little south from Maceiò, in Praia do Frances.

 

A flying rubber dinghy.

 

By popular demand… a Brazilian girl in the sea! ;-)

 

The same girl going inside the water with a friend.

 

A little north from Maceiò there is “La praia Sirena”, so called for the Siren statue on the right.

 

As you can see, the Siren, being Brazilian, has a more rounded body comparing with her Danish colleague :D

 

A river flowing near the beach.

 

Again, the Siren beach.

So, as you can see, Brazil is really a place “Abençoado por Deus” (blessed by God) as their famous song says, with more than 8000 km of coast kissed almost entirely by hot and idyllic beaches!

In the next post, I’ll put pictures of Recife and Olinda and maybe Praia da Pipa.

Comments welcomed! :-)

Just another journey…

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Hi! My name is Dekaro, Giovanni Dekaro and I’m a video games tester. But since I think life is not just games, often I quit the job to travel, and this time I just started a journey in South and Central America. I’m in Brazil now, I landed 10 days ago in Salvador de Bahia and now I’m in a lovely small town called Arraial d’Ajuda, near Porto Seguro.

I plan to go north until the Amazon River, then, through it, arriving in Ecuador, then Colombia, and finally all the little nations of Central America (Panama, Costa Rica Nicaragua, etc…).
So, follow me :-)

This is the English version of my Italian blog. I will write more in the Italian one because I still don’t feel very comfortable with English, but the photos will be the same.

Salvador de Bahia, as almost all Brazil, is embraced by wonderful beaches. Here is near Forte de Santa Maria, in the beach of Porto da Barra, the most famous of the city.

 

The elevator connecting the lower area of Barra with the upper area of Pelourinho, the historical center.

 

A typical street of Pelourinho, with cobblestones and painted houses.

 

I had already visited Brazil 10 years ago and 5 years ago. The first time I visited Salvador, 10 years ago, since I had problems finding a place to stay, I randomly arrived in that hotel: Ibiza Hotel. Soon after I had rented the room, I discovered that was a kind of prostitute-hotel, with rooms usually rented by hours instead of days. But in the end was ok, and also the girls working there were always nice and good with me (just platonically, of course).

 

A bahian woman selling typical local street food.

 

Inside St. Francis church.

 

Bahian and police women.

 

Gabriela is the first person I have met through Couchsurfing, a travellers network where I just registered. She is a very kind and gentle girl and explained to me a lot about the city.

 

Playing and dancing under Farol da Barra, one of the symbol of the city. The original lighthouse (in wooden) was built in 1696, and was the first of the American continent.

 

Just before sunset local people gather behind the lighthouse to watch it.

 

And this is the sunset.

 

In Arraial d’Ajuda, a small town that from the hill goes down to the sea. Some of its beaches are very beautiful, especially when walking south from the main one for about 20 minutes. Next time I will put some photos of them.

 

The church of Arraial d’Ajuda, built by Jesuits already in 1549, so just 57 years after the “discovery” of America. The near city of Porto Seguro is the place where the Portuguese arrived in 1500, starting the colonization of Brazil.

 

Wishes-ribbons attached to a grid behind the church. These ribbons can be brought also as bracelets. When they broke or untie (by themselves) the wish becomes true.

 

A girl attaching a wish. And let’s hope it will come true.

 

Hug under the cross.

 

Stalls for cocktails with fresh fruit in the center of Arraial.

 

This is my preferred stall, with this magic woman creating delicious and very alcoholic cocktail using several different fruits and mixing them perfectly.

Ok, that’s it for now. In two days I will go back again to Salvador (about 200 km north from here) and after, maybe, Recife. Follow me and, of course, all your comments are welcomed! :-)