Cruising Down Old Chico

Taking advantage of the fact that I was in Aracaju at the end of last week, a city that if it weren't for work, I probably would have otherwise never visited [the Lonely Planet calls Aracaju the Cleveland of the Northeast. Since I've never visited Cleveland, I can't really comment....], I delayed my trip home by a day so that I could visit the Xingó Canyons on the Rio São Francisco, some 200km north of the city.


The third most important river in Brazil following the Amazon and the Paraná, the São Francisco starts in central Brazil and crosses five states and close to 3,000km before carving out the border between the states of Sergipe and Alagoas and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The São Francisco has a mythical status in Brazil with many referring to it as Velho Chico or Old Chico [Chico being the nickname for Francisco] or even the River of National Integration, as it played an important role in terms of communication and transportation between regions and states.




The Xingó Canyons -- essentially a cross between the Grand Canyon and the St. Lawrence River -- were flooded in the 1990s when the Xingó Hydroelectric Dam was built near the city of Canindé de São Francisco. The depth of the water ranges from 15 to 160 metres. On the downside, the flooding caused the loss of several ancient archaeological sites dating back 9,000 years. University teams were fortunately able to excavate the sites and preserve the remains prior to the flooding. On the upside, the dam generates a quarter of the Northeast's electricity and makes for a fun day trip, especially the chance to swim in one of the narrower parts of the canyon. Overall, it was a long twelve and a half hour day [3 and a quarter hours to get there; six hours to visit the Xingó Achaeological Museum, go on the river tour and have lunch; and three and a quarter hours to return], but I am glad that I did it and had the chance to experience some of the grandeur of Old Chico.