Praia do Sonho Verde (Green Dream Beach)

If you are looking for a quiet place where you can almost have a “private” beach just for yourself and family, Praia do Sonho Verde (Green Dream Beach) can be a great option for you.

Most of the popular beaches in Maceio are crowded in the summer no matter which day you go in the week. From December up to the end of Carnival in February there are a lot of people in Brazil traveling to Maceio and also local people are on vacation and they would normally go to the local beaches as well. So, no wonder most of the beaches are crowded.

Given all the tourists visiting the city and its beautiful beaches it is hard to find a place where you can just hear the ocean waves and the summer wind... Also, it would be almost impossible to spend 5 minutes on the beach without somebody come to you and offer something to buy, drink or eat. There are so many people selling all different kind of things on the beach that sometimes you may feel that there may be one tourist for every single person selling or offering you things at the most popular places.

So, if you are in the mood to just relax and go for a really quiet place, you don’t need to drive 2 hours and go to Japaratinga for example. Sonho Verde is just around 18 miles or 25 minutes away from Maceio. When you compare with other places in the high tourist season, Sonho Verder looks like a desert beach with only couple people there and few people serving drinks and appetizers.


Below you can take a look at Sonho Verde beach and check how it looks like. You will note that the sand is a bit covered by algae which are common this time of the year in the low tides. The ocean is very calm due to a protective reef offshore which is very common in most of beaches in Maceio. Also, and most importantly, you get to hear the sound of the ocean waves and wind for almost the entire video (towards the end you get to hear my wife's voice calling my attention).

Carnival in Maceio

This time of the year in Brazil everybody is partying like crazy. So, it is impossible to write about any topic other than Carnival.

Since this blog is about Maceio, I have to talk about how is Carnival like in Maceio. Well, I only spent one Carnival in Maceio which doesn't make me an expert. However, that was last year's Carnival and arguably it is relatively fresh in my memory.

Carnival in Maceio is a bit different than other cities in Brazil. Maceio's Carnival is not as popular as in Rio, Salvador, Recife, and other major cities in Brazil. Most local people there actually travel to other places in the Northeast like Recife and Salvador. Also, a lot of people like to spend the whole Carnival weekend not in the city. They spend Carnival amongst friends at some local residential places like Barra de Sao Miguel about 20 miles from Maceio for example. As for tourists that decide to spend Carnaval in the city of Maceio, there are a lot of activities in hotels, bars, and nightclubs.

In reality, as far as I know, I feel that people who spend Carnival in Maceio just want to relax a little bit and are not totally crazy about Carnival. With so many options, so many places to go to like near by cities or other places in Brazil, it is hard to think Maceio would be your first option if you are into Carnival.

So, what was the solution that local people came up to have some big Carnival thing in the city? They replicated a major block parade but this one takes place exactly one week before the actual Carnival. By this way, they were able to attract a lot of people in the city to participate in the city's parade and enjoy Carnival in Maceio through this pre-event. People do not need to compromise or miss any big plan for the actual Carnival weekend.


The name of this pre Carnival parade in Maceio is called "O Pinto da Madrugada" (The Dawn Chick, translating word by word). This is a funny reference to another Carnival block parade in Recife, the largest block parade in the world with more than 2 million people. This parade, is called "O Galo da Madrugada" (The Dawn Rooster). Maceio's parade is tiny compared with Recife's one, it is young and just getting started but it is a lot of fun.


By the way, not that I am crazy about Carnival (my wife is) but I had the opportunity to go to both "O Pinto da Madrugada" and "O Galo da Madrugada" last year. I know, I know, that means that I didn't actually spend the Carnival weekend in Maceio. I have to agree with this conclusion but as I mention before, the big Carnaval party in Maceio kind of happens one week before the actual Carnival weekend. So, I can say that I sort of spent Carnival in Maceio last year.


Above the big rooster, Recife's "Galo da Madrugada" mascot with its famous yellow and red colors.

Tapioca

Inspired by Matt's blog, Gour-Matt, I decided to talk a little bit about the local food in Maceio. The first thing that comes to my mind is Tapioca, a stable food in Maceio.

Tapioca is kind of a Brazilian crepe or pancake made of Tapioca flour. It can be filled with anything from ham and cheese to even chocolate but people normally order salty tapiocas as opposed to sweet ones. They generally are filled with a little bit of cheese and coconut but you can really order as you like and there are plenty of options.

You can have tapiocas every afternoon at one of the several stands that are built on the beach, Jatiuca, Ponta Verde, and Pajucara. They stay open until late in the evening. So, you can have a Tapioca as an early evening snack, as a light dinner or a late evening snack depending on what time you stop by. Also, you can have a tapioca to go and have it anytime you want. Most regional restaurants offer tapiocas and some hotels have them for breakfast.



These stands are very simple and rustic. They are not fancy but the tapiocas are simply great.

JAPARATINGA, a beautiful place to relax

Japaratinga is a tiny city (less than 7 thousand people) located 115 Km (72 miles) north of Maceio. This year was my first trip there and I liked very much the place.

You can still make a day trip there but I would strongly recommend staying there for one or more days. There are some good hotels options there (nothing fancy though). Some hotels offer a variety of options like bike/buggy tours, horseback riding, boat trips, and even ultra-light-plane flights.

However, what I liked the most there is the fact that there are very few tourists. There is only a hand full of hotels/hostels there and all of them have only few rooms. So, even in the high season you will not find this place crowded like any other seashore city in the Northeast. You get the feeling that you have your private beach just for you, friends, and family.

The reason for that is because not everybody knows about Japaratinga and also the fact that it is far away from any major city in the Northeast of Brazil. You need at least 90 minutes to get there by car from Maceio and more than 120 minutes from Recife, the next closest big city.

So, if you are looking for a quiet place to relax and enjoy untouched natural beauties this is the place to go.

Praia do Gunga, one of my favourites places on earth

Maceio has several beautiful beaches, I decided to start with my favourite place. It is Praia do Gunga.

Praia do Gunga is located about 20 miles south of Maceio. You can get there by boat from Barra de Sao Miguel or by car driving through a private property to get to the beach.

It is really hard to describe this place in words. I selected few pictures to show how it looks like.


This first picture shows how this beach looks like. From this picture you can see that this beach is surrounded by palm trees.



This second picture shows the other side of the beach. Using google map you can get a better view from the top of this unique place below.


View Larger Map

Besides the natural beauty of the place, I like Praia do Gunga for its magic energy. There is something about the energy in this place that makes you feel good the minute you get there. I know this is very subjective but this is the best way to describe the what you feel there. If you spend a day there you will probably leave the place free of any worries and feeling that your batteries are fully recharged.

Please note that this is a very primitive beach with a fraction of infrastructure and service that you will find in any other beach in Maceio. Also, there has been some recent tourism expansion and sometimes you may find this place a bit crowded. So, service that has never been stellar can get even a bit worse than normal on those days. Despite those recent changes, it is still one of my favourites places on earth.

There are couple things to do there if you are not into just sun bathing like myself. You can go for a long walk, I am not sure but you can easily walk probably couple miles from one extreme of the beach to the other. There are some boat trips from the beach to a nearby ´natural aquarium` or nearby beach, Barra de Sao Miguel. You can also rent a kayak and stop at one of the sand banks in the middle of the lake in front of the beach.

Anyway, no matter what you decide to do there, the energy of the place simply embraces you and you forget about everything.

Why this blog

This blog is about the city of Maceio, a small town in the Northeast of Brazil and capital of the state of Alagoas.

My objective with this blog is to share a little bit of my knowledge about Maceio and close by cities in the same state of Alagoas.

Chances are that you never heard about Maceio unless you have done some extensive travel in the Northeast of Brazil or know somebody from Brazil. Most foreign tourists are familiar with Rio de Janeiro (famous for its Carnival parties and beaches) or Sao Paulo (largest and major business city in Brazil). In my opinion Maceio is an unknown paradise with unparallel natural beauties.

I certainly have a biased view of the city, Maceio is my wife´s hometown and I am also from Brazil. However, I have been living in US for the past twelve years and I am actually originally from Sao Paulo. Arguably, I can say that I have an outsider perspective of the city.

Please note that I am not part of any tourism company and I am definitely not part of any brazilian city or state agency. I was fortunate to visit dozens of time this beautiful place. Also, I had the opportunity to spend sometimes weeks there.

Thanks to these travels (and certainly my wife, her relatives, and her local friends) I had the chance to travel a lot there and get to know the best in the area. By the way, as I write this first post in my blog, I am currently on vacation in Maceio.