Ever heard of the state of Espírito Santo?
I know, me neither—which is why I decided to go.
Well, that and a very cheap plane ticket bought at the GOL airline counter at the Shopping Recife mall.
It all started in Recife, when I was brainstorming potential travel routes. I wasn’t sure where to go next. Sure, Maceió…. But after that? Once you’re in the Nordeste, aka “end of the world, Brazil,” getting out of here is neither cheap nor easy. There are few direct flights options except to São Paulo or Brasilia. I considered busing to Salvador but I didn’t feel like going there again this year—it’s a complicated city and the state of Bahia has been plagued by floods this year, so busing south from Salvador sounded very complicated.
I had to fly south, somehow. So one evening, I spotted the GOL airline counter and I asked for cheap flight options—eh, sometimes talking to people is easier than doing research online.
“Oh, we have a great deal, wait… Here it is, Maceió to Vitória.”
“Vitória, Espírito Santo?”
There’s another Vitória in Bahia, things can get confusing. But yes, Vitória, Espírito Santo, the state stuck between two giant neighbours—Bahia and Minas Gerais—and a very famous one, Rio de Janeiro.
The ticket was $60. I didn’t know anything about Vitória but for this price, I was willing to take a chance.
I bought the ticket on the spot.
And here am I, at Maceió’s airport, waiting for my flight. I have no idea where I’m going to end up. In fact, from now on, I’m in uncharted territory. It’s both scary and exciting.
Maceió’s airport is packed and lively. I couldn’t really remember the airport until I stepped inside—I flew Maceió- São Paulo last year just before catching my flight to Paris, but it’s a bit of a blur because I was stressing out about taking my COVID test and boarding the only available flight to France. Brazil was shutting down again and I felt I was running away.
I’m actually glad I came back to Maceió and got the chance to erase the weird memories from last year.
As usual, I’m nervous before travelling—yes, even if I’m technically already travelling and even if I’m used to travelling. It’s a step-by-step process with some luck involved. Catching a taxi to the airport and arriving on time, step one. Checking in, step two. Getting to São Paulo, step three. Making the connecting flight to Vitória, step four. Finding the Airbnb, step five. Arriving early enough to find food, step six.
And along the way, a million little things make me nervous. I’m always afraid to misread a time or date, for instance. I couldn’t check in online with GOL because the system claimed I was an unaccompanied minor—was there something with my ticket? I’ve just asked why at the GOL counter and the guy shrugged, apparently the online check-in process is a work in progress with little chance of going through despite the numerous emails telling me “Lembrate de check-in.”
I gotta go. I don’t have the time, energy or luxury to go through the “what ifs”—what if I miss the connection, what if I get to Vitória in the middle of the night because the flight is late, what if I made a terrible decision.
The three-hour flight from Maceió to São Paulo was smooth. Turned out an hour was plenty of time to make the connection—Congonhas isn’t a huge airport.
People look different in São Paulo. I’m used to the Nordeste beach culture, most of us walk around in a swimsuit or just with a sarong or shorts over it and we all smell of sun screen. Suddenly, I’m surrounded by very stylish folks—edgy haircuts, tattoos, fashionable outfits. It’s much cooler—freezing with the air con, actually—and it’s cloudy.
Second plane of the day. I land at 6:40 p.m. in Vitória. It’s dark and rainy but not as “cold” as I thought it’d be—it’s so hot in the Nordeste that anything below 35⁰C feels cold.
The airport is efficient and spotless. I grab my backpack and head out, looking for a taxi. I’m not actually staying in Vitória but in Vila Velha, another city just across the bridge from Vitória. Deciding where to stay was a headache, it’s tough to pick the right neighbourhood when you don’t know the city and when there isn’t much info available. Vitória is not a tourist destination and it’s a city of bays, hills, jagged coastline and islands, much like Rio de Janeiro.
It’s already 7:30 p.m. when I type the access code on the keypad and discover my new Airbnb. I wash my hand and my face and head out. I have to find food somewhere. It’s been a long day. I’m not hungry now but I will be in a few hours.
I underestimated how hard it is to go for a quick grocery shopping trip at night, in a city you don’t know, under the rain and when shops are closing soon. I find a bakery and a supermarket, lucky me. Eggs, pasta, onion, zucchini, garlic, bread, ham, yogurt, broccolis, water… Then I haul it back to the Airbnb. Wait, will I be able to find the street again?
A couple of hours later, I’m making an omelette in a pot because there’s no frying pan—a detail I should have checked before buying eggs, aka the easier protein to cook. Never mind, it turned out perfect thanks to a flexible silicon spatula located under the sink.
Holy shit, I’m tired.
