  A combination of recent observational results has given rise to what is
currently known as the dark energy problem. Although several possible
candidates have been extensively discussed in the literature to date the nature
of this dark energy component is not well understood at present. In this paper
we investigate some cosmological implications of another dark energy candidate:
an exotic fluid known as the Chaplygin gas, which is characterized by an
equation of state $p = -A/\rho$, where $A$ is a positive constant. By assuming
a flat scenario driven by non-relativistic matter plus a Chaplygin gas dark
energy we study the influence of such a component on the statistical properties
of gravitational lenses. A comparison between the predicted age of the universe
and the latest age estimates of globular clusters is also included and the
results briefly discussed. In general, we find that the behavior of this class
of models may be interpreted as an intermediary case between the standard and
$\Lambda$CDM scenarios.
