Sunny Brazil: Recife + Olinda

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

                                                      Castelo São João                               Armour

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!! 

Sunny Brazil: Porto de Galinhas

Porto de Galinhas  is a major tourist destination in Brazil, located 60 Km south of Recife, the capital of the Pernambuco state. The beach is famous for its bright and warm water and the natural pools. It has been voted "Best Brazilian Beach" for many times in a row by the Brazilian magazine “Viagem e Turismo” because of many factors combined: the beauty of the natural pools, the ecological trails, the hotel infrastructure and the proximity to a large city and the airport in Recife.

During the period of the slave trade and especially after its abolition in 1850, slaves were illegally smuggled from Africa and hidden under crates of guinea fowl and brought to the country. The arrival of these slaves was announced using the expression "there are new chicken in the harbour". The region eventually became known as "Porto de Galinhas" ("chicken harbour") and continues to be known as such until today.

Of course the first thing we did after arriving at the hotel and cheching in, was to go to the beach and feel the warm water of the northeast coast (average temp. 28°C).

Our hotel was located a little bit far from the village center, so we had to take either a bus or a van and drive a few kilometers (all the resorts are located in this farer area). It used to be a fishing village and it continues to be so. The typical boats (a fishing raft with sail) they use are also what makes the place famous and they're called jangada. In the aternoon, the beach is full of them.

One of the places we've visited was the Pontal de Maracaípe. It's the river Maracaípe's Estuary. On one side a beautifull blue ocean can be seen, and on the other side, the mangrove. The mangrove is the natural habitat for many species. We took a ride with a jangada and could experience the wild life there! 

                                               Seahorse                                          small crab

mangrove

The beautiful beach at the Pontal de Maracaípe

One of the things I first told Sven about, was the fact that Porto de Galinhas is located much closer to the Ecuador, therefore, warmer and the sun hits it directly. It means that a person can get a bad sunburn really easily, even with sunscreen. And that was the lesson that Sven learned, as one can see the sunburn right on his face, making the exact shape as where the sunglasses were!!

Sven's Sunburn

As I mentioned the story with the village's name before - "chicken harbour" - it's not to wonder why the chicken is a motive you see everywhere you go: in a bar, the hairdresser, talking on the public phone, you see chickens everywhere!!

The next day we did a typical brazilian thing: we went to the beach in the morning and sat under the umbrella, drank some delicious coconut water, enjoyed the sound of the ocean, the beauty of the place and -of course- tryed to ignore the many people passing by selling all sort of stuff to the tourists. Sven liked one thing in special though, the small bottles of cachaça with stuff inside (crabs, fruits, etc). 

When the level of the ocean is low, many natural pools are formed by the coral reefs and they are so close from the cost that tourists can take a ride in the jangadas and in little under 5 minutes from the beach, they can relax in a natural pool of crystal clear warm water and photograph the small tropical fish and the many hidden sea urchins. 

the coral reefs                                  sea urchins

One thing that also deserves comments was the hotel. Well, it was actually a really nice resort called Enotel. It was huge and right in front of the beach. There were so many pools and you can really spend the entire day swimming or doing some gymnastics in the water with an instructor, or drink something by the bar (being still inside of the pool). Really cool place!

                                       The pools at the Resort and the ocean in the back

So my friends, I know many of you have seen those pictures already, but I'm sure it was worth the explanation. What is also worth is a visit to Porto de Galinhas! If you like visiting beaches, that is the right place for you!