Recife, Brazil
We disembarked this morning at 8:30 am and had to take a shuttle outside of the port area if we didn’t have a tour scheduled. When they dropped us off, we were surrounded by van and taxi drivers. Today we had 8 thinking we might have to take two cabs. We wanted to be taken to Olinda so we started negotiating. They started at $35 each just to take us there but we finally found Carlos who couldn’t find his group from our ship. He agreed to give us a 4 hour tour of Olinda and Recife for $25 each and he spoke excellent English (most of the others spoke NO English!). At 9 am we were off in his air conditioned van (this is REALLY important!). We saw Marco Zero Park, which is the actual center of the city.
While we were there, the group Carlos was supposed to meet called and told him where they were so we had to go pick the 8 of them up. We told Carlos we were not happy about this so he agreed to drop the price to $20 each. By now we were thrilled with Carlos and wouldn’t have traded him for anything but he didn’t know this!
We drove to Olinda, which has been appointed a world cultural Heritage City by UNESCO. The architecture of the colorful colonial houses and the steep, narrow streets give Olinda a quaint atmosphere. We parked and walked around the center of town for a fascinating hour. During this walk, we all joked that we didn’t realize we had so many sweat glands! It was extremely hot and humid.
Carnival is only ten days away so in both cities we saw viewing stands, stages and decorations being erected. Many people rent their home for a week. Carlos said when he was young and single 40 – 50 guys would get together and rent one of these homes and just party the entire time – scary! Carlos is now 44 so I asked him if he would ever rent out his house to kids and, of course, he said “NO WAY!”
We piled back in the van and drove up a long, steep, winding street to the highest point of the city to the Alto da Se Square where we had incredible views of Recife and the beaches and walked among the many vendors to the Se church.
We drove back to Recife along the coast and decided these were not the best beaches to swim. Yet, Carlos said if you go out to the reef, there is plenty of food for the sharks so they don’t bother the divers. Carlos is a scuba driver and he said the diving is excellent because of the warm, clear water and the reef has loads of different fish.
Recife, which means reef in Portuguese, is known as the “Brazilian Venice” because of its many canals and waterways and innumerable bridges that span them. There are actually three main islands. We spent 45 minutes in the Casa da Cultura, which used to be a prison. It is in the shape of a cross and all the cells are now little shops. They had a lot of hand-made lace products as well as arts and crafts.
Like Barbados they have Baobab trees. It took 8 of us women to encircle the tree standing finger tip to finger tip!
From here we drove through the city. We saw the Kahal Zur Israel, the first synagogue in the Americas. Carlos, who is Jewish, told us that in 1654 twenty-three Dutch Jews went to New Amsterdam (New York) to start a new life. When they arrived, they saw there was a natural wall like they had in Recife so they called it Wall Street. In 2004 they had their 100 year celebration in NY, and his mother was selected to go to represent Recife!
Five hours later we sadly had to bring our tour to an end. Carlos dropped us all off at the shuttle that brought us back to the ship. Everyone went back but LuAnn and me. It was only 2:30 pm and we didn’t have to be back till 5:30 so we took H. Stern’s (the jewelry store) free shuttle to their store at the other end of the beach so we could see more of the city. Bobby gave me the copy of our passport because he just knew we wouldn’t make it back in time. We were back by 4:30.
After dinner, we went up to the pool at 10 pm to watch the movie Casino Royal on the big screen under the full moon and stars. It is wonderful – they give you a big soft blanket so you can curl up on your lawn chair. Yes, it was still 80 but when you are sailing there are little breezes so that blanket feels really comfy, cozy!
 |
| From Recife & Olinda, Brazil |
February 11, 2009
We love these days at sea, especially after a day in port! The women all try to go to the 8 am aerobics class followed by breakfast. They have a restaurant on the ship that is optional at $30 p/p – we all think this is a little much! But, today they had their second cooking class where they make an appetizer, entrée and dessert that they serve. Of course, we get large samples of everything! After this, we went to get a bowl of soup for lunch and saw they had a Chocolate Buffet for dessert! We just couldn’t pass this up!
No comments:
Post a Comment