Update Four: Boats, Birthdays, Buses and Beaches

On Thursday morning, a biology student here called Tiago offered to take me out for a tour of Aracaju city, so we went out and drove around a bit, and he showed me parts of the city I hadn´t seen yet, which was quite a bit since all I had seen so far was the beach! We drove past the huge market in the city, which sells mostly food, in particular fruit and cheese, but also meat including live Chickens! We also saw the new bridge which joins the city to a neighbouring city across the Rio Sergipe.

After the tour of the city, we went and sat in a small bar / restuarant by the beach and had some lunch before heading back to the lab. The beach is pretty much what you imagine (or what I imagine!) when you say Brazillian beach, and from where we were, appeared to stretch on infinitely in both directions.

Friday was the first day I had found myself without a lift to university, and so was forced to brave the Brazilian buses alone. It didn't go well. To get from Lorena's house to the university I needed to take one bus to the nearest bus station (Terminal D.I.A) and then a second bus from there up to the campus. I made it to the D.I.A safely, but then, after several brief and confusing conversations with some locals, managed to get on the wrong bus. After about half an hour on the hot, cramped bus I decided that it definitely wasn't going the right way, and got off at the next bus station. I decided the best plan was to get a taxi from there to the university, which did work, but cost me £5. In the end it took me about 2 hours to get to campus, when it should have taken about 45 minutes. My second encounter with the buses was on Monday, and it was even less successful. I had found out by now that I needed to catch the no.60 bus from the D.I.A, so I thought I would be OK. I managed to get on the 60 without too much trouble, but halfway to campus it broke down, and everyone on the bus got off and immediately onto another bus which was just in front. This, however, was not the number 60, and about half an hour later I decided that it definitely wasn't going the right way, and got off at the next bus station. Failing to find any buses from there that went to campus, I decided to cut my losses and get a bus back to the D.I.A and start again. *Sigh*. About 2 and a half hours later, I finally arrived at the university, hot and very very disheartened.

On Friday, Lorena and Mirella took me to a neighbouring town called Estancia, where their family lived, and we attended the first birthday party of their dog, Vicky. We had cake and party snacks with Lorena's Mum, Uncle, Grandparents and brother, and they even made a tiny party hat for the dog. The next morning we went for a look around Estancia, and went to the market there where they had lots of very cheap cloths and shoes.

Saturday evening Polly invited me to a concert in Aracaju called "Forro de Antigas" which was an outdoor concert of traditional Brazillian music. It was very much like a festival in that the toilets were porta-loos, the ground was muddy and the drinks were expensive. Or, expensive for Brazil anyway. I met lots of Polly's friends there, and everyone was quite interested and confused by my presence there - I think I must have been the first tourist ever at Forro de Antigas, because some of the locals tried to touch my hair as I was going past, as if they had never seen anything like it before!

Polly tried to teach me the traditional Brazillian dance, Forro, and I gave it a go, not very well though. I got home as early as I could that night because I knew that I had to be up at 6am on Sunday morning to go on a boat tour to see the Canyon San Fransico. Unfortunately, early turned out to be 1.30am (Polly didn't get home till 4am!) and I got a lift back with Polly's sister, Luana.

On Sunday morning I dragged myself out of bed and hurridly got ready for my boat tour, which I was being collected for by the tour company at 7am from Lorena's house. I managed to be ready on time and, bleary-eyed, I got onto the minibus. I thought that it would be a short drive to the boat where we were going to travel up the Rio San Fransico to the canyon, but clearly I had misunderstood the half-Portuguese, half-English conversation I'd had with Mirella about it, because it turned out to be a 3 hour drive before we reached the canyon, where we then got on a boat. It was worth the long drive though as the canyon was stunning and we stopped off along the way at a small jetty from which we could get into a small canoe and be taken closer to the steep cliffs. It was a beautiful day and the waters were deep turquoise, contrasting against the deep red and orange cliff faces.