Week 10: Alagoinhas, Aracaju, Maceio, Margogi 
Day 64: (March 6th, 2016) 

That morning we had no idea what we were doing. We all had breakfast together then were told that we were speaking at a church! It obviously took us by surprise but we were ready for it! I have never hugged, shook hands with, and prayed with so many people in my life. They created a line to meet all the Americans and receive prayer. It was a humbling experience to think that these people believe in our prayer. After that, we went to lunch at the hotel and then we prepared for that night. Turns out we were going to be split into two groups and all of us had to speak! The church Luke and I went to was amazing. They were a small church but had great singers and a lot of enthusiasm. There was one particular woman that shocked us a little but we found out after church that she was exactly like she worshipped – full of energy and completely open. It was awesome. Then we took even more pictures with everyone (we totally felt famous that week).That night, we had to say goodbye to some of our friends and then we went to bed.*

Day 65: 

This was the last morning that we would spend together so we ate breakfast, then went back up to our rooms to plan our week. Luke and I had a miscommunication which had me waiting in my room for him for two hours – which obviously didn’t make me super happy. After a great lunch, we spent more time apart. We had a hard time figuring out what we were going to do about the buses because it showed that there were no seats available. We took a chance and went to the bus station anyway to see if they had tickets anyway. We lucked out and ended up catching an earlier bus to Aracuja than we planned (if we couldn’t get that bus, we would have needed to either stay one more night or go back to Salvador and take an even longer bus to Maceio). After getting to this city, we went walking around to find some food. We found this acai restaurant that had some pretty good burgers and even some barbecue sauce! After that very filling meal, we went back to the hotel and crashed.*

 *written by Sarahi

Day 66:

After a solid hotel breakfast we walked around the beach for a little while. We walked back along the road and saw some cool statues and parks. We stopped at an aquarium type place for about an hour. We got to see some awesome turtles, sharks, fish, sea snakes, and more. We returned to our hotel and quickly showered and packed. We took a taxi to the bus station and barely made it in time to catch our bus onward. It was a beautiful 6 hour ride to maceio, a large coastal city with reef protected beaches. It was dark by the time our taxi dropped us off at our lodging for the night. It was simply an older couple who rented out a couple of spare bedrooms. We wandered around the road next to the beach and eventually settled on a restaurant. We ate some nice fish with shrimp sauce for only $10 for two people. We were exhausted by the time we returned to our room. 

   
    
 Day 67:

We woke up fairly early and stopped by the grocery store. We bought some milk and cereal and continued to the beach. Shockingly we were the only people eating cereal for breakfast on the beach that morning. We swam and relaxed for awhile and then Sarahi asked me to teach her accounting. I started explaining the basic principles of debits and credits and how every entry needed to balance to zero. Sarahi soon became frustrated and accused me/accounting of “making up numbers” in order to balance an entry. But I was determined to teach her and after another hour or two of sand drawn journal entries, balance sheets, and income statements, she admitted the numbers were not made up. It was now one o’clock and despite our newfound skills in teaching/understanding accounting, we were severely sunburned. We returned to our room and slathered on after sun lotion. We ate lunch and then returned to our slightly cool, but thankfully sunless, room and took a nap. We tried to go see the sunset but waited too long and had to turn around halfway. Once it was dark we took a taxi to the mall hoping to catch an action movie in English. The movie was cancelled and our next best option was Kung fu panda three in Portuguese. It was pretty good and we understand more now than we did earlier in the trip. We ate McDonald’s for dinner and returned to our room. We watched a little Netflix and went to sleep. 

   
 Day 68:

The next day our skin felt even worse. The woman of the house made us a great breakfast. We stayed out of the sun in the morning and checked out of our place at noon. We followed the map from booking.com and thought we only needed to walk a few blocks south for our new hotel. After wandering around for quite some time we flagged down a friendly taxi driver. He called the property and it turns out it was only one block north of our previous accommodations. This property had a pool in the middle and looked like an old motel in the States. We really liked it and used the kitchen that night to make a pizza and some green beans for dinner. We watched some Netflix and enjoyed the pool area before bed. 

  
Day 69:

After breakfast we packed our bags and left them at the front desk. We walked across town in the heat of the day to see the museums. Unfortunately most of them were closed and we were not impressed with the cultural scene of the town. We did succeed in checking out the museum of image and sound and taking a nice walk along the coast. We returned for a great lunch at our favorite restaurant that was cheap and delicious. Then we took a taxi to the bus station and boarded a bus headed for Recife. After a few hours the bus stopped on the side of the road and we hopped out in a small town called Maragogi. We walked through town and eventually found our hostel. It was my first time in a hostel but Sarahi is a big fan. The difference between a hostel and hotel is that hostels have shared rooms and bathrooms and are much cheaper. Our room had 2 bunk beds and we snagged the top bunks. One of our roommates was an English speaking guy from southern Brazil, and the other was a trilingual Argentinian. Sarahi and I headed out for burgers at a cheap restaurant on the coast. Our pousada was adjacent to the beach and from the front door to the ocean was only 100 feet or so. It only cost $8 per person per night and breakfast was included. Our room had no air conditioning and it was a rough night sleep but it was worth it. 

Day 70:

At breakfast our Brazilian roommate invited us to take a trip out to the natural pool. The pool is formed by coral reefs at low tide and we had been planning to go. We went to get on the boat with our roommate and another Brazilian from the hostel named Mateus, who spoke a bit less English but loved to learn it. The water was beautifully colored, warm and clear. We stopped in two spots and spent awhile swimming in the natural pool in the second spot. Finally, it was worth lugging around the snorkels and goggles in my backpack over the last couple months. We saw a lot of small beautiful fish, sea anemones, a conch, and a sea snake. We took some pictures on the ride back and had fun. The four of us went out to lunch and paid $3.50 each for a huge plate of steak or chicken, rice, beans, spaghetti, french fries, and salad. We returned to our hostel, our roommate left, Sarahi took a nap, and I talked with Matheus. The three of us went for a walk on the beach and then headed to the grocery store. We bought pasta, sauce, sausage, peppers and onions. We were caught in a rainstorm on the way back but eventually returned. We watched batman with some other guests and Sarahi made some great spaghetti for the three of us. Our Argentinian roommate left that night so we had the room to ourselves. We were soon fast asleep.