The river Potengi is beautiful, seen at any angle from Natal, the city that it saw growing on its right bank. Natal has a landscape that is transforming every day, as seen from the estuary of the Potengi. The small city today is a metropolis. And the river Potengi is witness to more than four centuries.

Tourists are discovering a new angle of Natal, so far unknown to the majority of its 800 thousand inhabitants. The vision of various angles and quarters of the city, as seen from boat tours, from the river Potengi. Accustomed to day-by-day of its streets and avenues, by car, bus or walking, they have notion of some of Natal that grew up on the right bank of the river.

The tourists are enchanted with the trip (passeio), an initiative of a couple of entrepreneurs who decided to offer a service of boat trip, in the evening, leaving at 16h (4 pm) to 17h30 (5:30 pm), every day, from the Yacht Club of Natal and it covers the area from the mouth of the river (the bar) until the mangroves of the Guarita, in the popular quarter of Quintas, neighborhoods close to the Ponte (bridge) of Igapó, on a trip (passeio) that lasts almost two hours.

The first surprise is to pass under the Forte-Redinha Bridge, in its conclusion phase, when the true notion of its dimension is understood. The yacht seems so when the boat approaches to the suspension and no one can resist taking photos of the iron and cement giant that is practically a division between the Potengi and the Atlantic Ocean.

The lighthouses that also indicate the ways of the vessels and inform them that they are correct well to our side, on the end or point at the mouth of the bar, are to the right the Fortaleza Dos Reis Magos, a construction built in the time of the Portuguese settling and that served as a barrier to defend lands coveted by other empires, beyond giving origin to the city of Natal: to the left is the beach/quarter of Redinha, living its last moments as an old fishing village combining to the global village, with arrival of the new bridge. It is the historic side at the beginning of the passeio.

Respecting the limits of the sea, the boat starts the return and enters the pilasters of the new bridge construction. A city is presented in the distance. The first is the quarter of Santos Reis, where the distinction is the church that shelters the devotion saints that arrived here to protect Natal. Between the church and the river, the building of the Rampa, the old North American military installation, built during the Second World War and that served as a base to the sea planes that landed in the Potengi.

The fishing boats anchored in Canto do Manque remind us that the popular quarter of the Rocas is next and the distant buildings signal the luxury apartments of Petrópolis. The port "to see ships" indicate that the city has grown to reach its status as exporter of fruits, salt, ores, fish and shrimp, and also to receive the transatlantic passenger ships with tourists.

And the panorama is moving. As the boat goes up the river, there appears the wharf of the Tavares de Lyra, at the center of the City, Alecrim, the Naval base and its dry-dock and the marginal area of Quintas, until arriving close to old bridge to Igapó.

The Nautical Tourism company of is who promotes the passeio for the estuary of the river Potengi, where the tourist has the chance to see up close the mangroves, on the left edge, and some tourist points of the city such as the Pedra do Rosário, the Fortaleza Dos Reis Magos, the bridges of Igapó and Newton Navarro. ToaToa also complements the boat trip with new sound track in English and Portuguese, who besites bringing historical curiosities of the river and the city, is composed in its majority of music from of potiquares artists, as Pedro Mendes, Valéria Oliveira, Manassés Campos, Galvão Filho, Babal, Sergio Groove and Rejane Luna. For reserves and information the telephones are (84) 3088-1833, 3219-6471, 9999-4488 and 9115-0973.