As we were in Porto de Galinhas for one week, we decided to make a tour to get to know Recife and Olinda in the same day, since it takes only one hour of driving to arrive there. We booked the visit with a travel agent and they picked us up at the Resort and took us there, together with a full van.
Recife is the capital of the Brazilian state called Pernambuco, and it's the most important city in the northeast region. Its name comes from the Portuguese word arrecife, which in English means reef, they form a big barrier of sandstone rock that extends throughout the cost, forming natural pools.
Our first stop in Recife was at the famous beach called Praia da Boa Viagem. It seems to be one of the most sought after places to live, as there were many nice high buildings facing the ocean, where flats must cost a fortune. The ocean level was high and we couldn't see the famous reefs.
Praia da Boa Viagem
It's highly recommended that people don't swim or surf at the Boa Viagem
beach (after the reefs), as there were many cases of shark attacks in the past.
The next stop was at the city center, where we walked a little bit and saw some old buildings from the earlier times. Recife was founded in 1537 by the Portuguese and it's one of the oldest cities in Brazil. It remained Portuguese until Brazil's Independence, except from 1630 to 1650, when the dutch colonized a part of the Brazilian northeast, which brought lots of prosperity for it.
In Pernambuco, they have a sort of traditional dance called frevo which is normally associated to Carnival and it's characterized by the extremelly fast rhythm and the dancers hold a small umbrella. You can see more about frevo on this video bellow:
source: BandFolia
Our tourist guide took us then to the former prison that today works as a culture house with shops everywhere where they sell all kinds of hand made stuff.
These weird dressed characters are a reference to the cangaceiros, people belonging to the Cangaço, a form of reaction against the domination of the land owners and the government, when many men and women decided to become bandits, roaming the hinterlands of the Brazilian Northeast region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking for money, food and revenge.
As the last stop in Recife, our tour guide took us to the Instituto Ricardo Brennand, a sort of museum/art gallery/collection place. Basically, Brennand got an antique pocket knife as gift from his uncle when he was a child and he loved it so much that he started to collect similar objects and after many years, he turned into a big collector. He is a very successful business man and got really rich. As he was fascinated with European history (like me, he was also a castle freak), he decided to build two castles and put all of his collection there, such as paintings, armory, sculptures, documents, etc. At some point he opened it to the public.
Pinacoteca Exhibition of the Fouquet Trial with
wax dolls representing each character
OLINDA:
Recife has its origins closely connected to the ones of its neighbour, Olinda. Olinda has nearly 500 years of History and is one of the
best-preserved colonial cities in Brazil. In the first 100 years of Brazil, it
was one of the richest cities in the country. The Dutch occupied it for 24
years, adding to the already rich culture, mixture of Portuguese, black and
Indian elements. When the Dutch left, the neighbour city of Recife took
the role of commercial and political center. The proximity with Recife kept
Olinda in constant cultural, political and intellectual movement; on the other
hand, the signals of progress (skyscrapers, shopping centers, wide avenues)
preferred to establish in Recife, allowing Olinda to grow at their own pace.
The city culture is expressed in every house, street and church. It was
declared World Heritage by UNESCO, and changes in the architecture are very
restrict. Few cities in Brazil open so much space to the musicians, dancers,
handcrafters as Olinda is.
Olinda in the near back and Recife in the far back ;)
Oh Linda!!
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and all the others about Brazil. Brazil is a beautiful country, with so many different things to see and do, so alive, so welcoming. I hope I was able to make you feel like travelling to that sunny country on your next vacations!!
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