Maceió

Maceió is the capital of Alagoas, named after the lagoons formed by reefs a ways from the coast. We got up about 3:30 am to get ready for a 5:30 am flight on a small prop plane to Maceió, João Edwards, the FM for Maceió met us at the airport. On the way to the hotel we stopped by the Farol chapel where they were pruning bushes.

The pruning forest

 We then went to the FM office where we gave a presentation to João and his assistant, Estevão.

João and Estevão

 We went to another chapel then checked into the hotel about 12:45 pm.

View from our hotel room

 We had lunch then went to visit other chapels.

House across from a chapel

One of the big chapels

Common transport in the city

 We got back in the evening and walked around the beach area and through some crafts booths.

Filé lace common in Maceió

Palm tree along the beach

 On Wednesday morning we took a city tour with one other couple in a small car. The tour guide spoke in the local unintelligible language at the rate of 60 mph in a 40 mph zone. I´m sure he had a lot of information, but I only got about 20% of it.

Old historic building

Independance square

Landing site for pigeons

Old church

 We stopped at a vista looking at the ocean from across the city.

Look out for these two

 He then took us to a neighborhood where the filé lace is made.

Lace shops

Diane buying lace

Nick-knacks we didn´t buy

Interesting store corner

 We got back about noon and had time to walk along the beach.

Horse cart on the beach

"I Love Maceió"

Lighthouse on the point

Clothesline

 We went back to our room to change for our training meeting.

A moose left in our room

 We had training for Jobil, the CTS of Maceió in the evening. They were having a church activity at the chapel where we had the training.

FM and Jobil (on right) for training

Christmas activity at the church

 We didn´t have to leave for Salvador until this afternoon so we had time to walk along the beach again Thursday morning and purchase a few gifts.

Boats in the lagoon

Boats on the shore

 We were able to go back to the hotel to clean up and pack before leaving about 1 pm.

Unusual plant in the hotel

We were only in Maceió for a couple of days, but we enjoyed it and feel like we were able to accomplish a lot in the training.