Penedo

A long day today. Not only do I switch directly from a night bus to another long distance bus but I make two more changes afterwards. I had originally planned to overnight in Aracaju, the capital of the smallest state of Sergipe, but as usual, I would have to get a local bus to get into town and none of the listed accomodations looked like good value. I would miss out on the crabs of this region, but knowing the Brazilians, they would probably ruin it with too much salt. Aussie mud crabs will have to do me. In compensation, I can spend two nights in Pontal de Coruripe, a small seaside village with some resort facilities before the last night in Olinda. This would be my last beach in Brazil and a suitably low-key finale.

So the plan was: get to Aracaju, change to a microbus to Neopolis, opposite Penedo on the São Francisco river, the only major waterway in this region, then catch a ferry (turns out to be just a launch, for foot passengers) across the river to Penedo, which has some specimens of colonial era architecture.

I arrive by mid-afternoon, not bad for a few hundred kilometers covered. I have to ask to find the pousada as the guide has no map. The room is somewhat dumpy and there is no fan but at R30, it'll have to do for a night.

It turns out that I have arrived at the end of a week of sesquicentenial celebrations of the visit of Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, to this region. This sounds like a rather anachronistic reason for celebration given that Brazil has become a republic in form of government, and after some pain has arrived at a democracy of sorts, but I suppose any excuse will do. That explained the martial band down by the waterfront earlier in the day. There's supposed to be a open-air music party featuring serresta starting at 2300 just outside my pousada, and in fact the owner had put his chair and table on the pavement awaiting the start, but by 0100 nothing had happened so I guess it was cancelled. The only music that night came from car boom-boxes, so common in Brazil.

The next day I visit the Saturday markets where the region's residents bring their produce to trade. I'm probably the only foreigner in town so I get a quite a few gawks.