Update Five: Praia de Saco

As I already mentioned, the second half of last week was characterised by an awful lot of worrying on my part about the potential BA strike and how I was going to get back to England. By the end of Friday we had decided that I would be getting my flight as originally planned, so by the weekend I was feeling a bit more relaxed. We had a BBQ on campus on Friday afternoon which also helped to cheer me up a little bit.

Saturday was a nice lazy day - I had a lie-in, and after lunch me and Polly went to the swimming pool which belongs to the apartment block where I'm staying. I managed to judge it just right and not get sun burnt, which was quite impressive considering my track-record so far.

Sunday was the day I had been looking forward too for almost the entire time I'd been in Aracaju - a boat trip to see the famous 'Praia de Saco' - which apparently translates literately to Beach of the Bag, weird. At 8am Sunday morning we got up and drove to Estancia, where we caught a the boat. The trip began by
taking us to a small stretch of sand forming a temporary island, only there when the tide was low. It was stunningly beautiful. I looked like one of those beaches you see in the holiday brochures - perfect white sand with palm trees dotted along it, deep turquoise water and blue skies. The beach curved round to form a sort-of crescent shape, and at the far end were two small huts with grass roofs.

 After an hour or so on the beach, we set sail again and headed for the main land, where we stopped at a small sea-side town where we were offered a buggy ride across the sand dunes for just 15 reale each. The buggy ride was fantastic - we sped across the dunes, dipping down steep slopes and turning sharp corners. We stopped a couple of times to take photos and, miraculously, I managed not to get sand in my camera!

We finished the buggy ride and got back onto the boat where we had lunch, and had a few hours to sun bathe or swim in the sea, while some of the people on board played Brazilian music on an acoustic guitar.  There was one older guy who had one too many caparinhas on the boat and spent the journey back to land wobbling about the boat and occasionally falling over.

After the boat tour, Mirella took us to her god-father's house in a very exclusive set of houses called Porto Bello, and we sat at the bar overlooking a river, having some dinner and a few beers and watching the sun set. Unfortunately the very drunk guy from the boat came with us, and was the source of much entertainment for the rest of the evening. The rest of the evening was largely a long Portuguese lesson, because one of the girls with us spoke English pretty fluently, and so provided a good opportunity to learn a few new words and phrases, although a worrying percentage of them were rude!

Since Sunday, life here in Brazil has been fairly uneventful. I've been spending my days watching my ants, and trying to collect as much observational data on them as possible before I head back to England. My evenings have been spent with my housemates watching Brazilian soap operas, which are actually slightly more entertaining than English soap operas, probably because I don't know what they're saying! Today was a holiday in Aracaju because it is the 155th anniversary of the city being founded. I thought that might mean we went out and did something interesting, but we've ended up spending all day at home watching films and generally being lazy, which is nice.

As I already mentioned, my trip here has been extended by a few days, so instead of coming back on Friday, I'll be leaving next Wednesday, so expect another update before I leave!

Claire xx