Recife & Olinda

I’m melting! I’m melting! I’m pretty sure I left a puddle everywhere I stood today. It was THAT hot! Based on the direction of our travel, it’s likely to get hotter. Yikes! As we awoke this morning we could see yet another large modern city on the horizon, this one being Recife, pronounced Heh–say-fay. Our Oceania tour today was a morning one and we didn’t get far before being stopped by a road race. This annual affair certainly bunged up the flow of traffic from the port.

After about 45 minutes we got to destination one, the beach - a curious stop given that there wasn’t time to swim. It is a beautiful beach, if you don’t mind the sharks.

While we were slowed down, our guide Leo took us through the history of Brazil. Did you know that Brazil, at 170 million people, is the largest Catholic country in the world? From Recife, we drove inland to the World Heritage Site of Olinda. We were transferred to mini buses for our ascent over the really rough cobblestones to the historic heart of the village.

They gave us some time after the obligatory church tour to do some shopping. There are some interesting local handicrafts here, but by enlarge, there’s not much we were interested in purchasing. Throughout Brazil the wooden ladies in this photo have been prominent. They are quite unique but we’re not seeing a place for them in our décor. I’ve included a photo of a group of young Brazilian ladies because they represent today.

We visited, as well, a functioning monastery and we caught a fraction of what is normally a private service.

One of the prominent features of Olinda is its view to Recife. There were numerous lookouts with views extending from the docks to the commercial heart of Recife.

Like Salvador, there is a colour element to the homes, but the African presence was noticeably missing here.

As our tour lead us back to our ship we paused in a central park with courts on one side of the square and the Governor’s Palace on the other. In this park was a 170-year old baobab tree. These trees can apparently grow for one thousand years so this already historied tree was a mere babe in arms.

Referencing back to the beginning of this article, by the end of our tour we felt like this dog.

We ate in the Grand Dining Room again tonight with Albertans, Peter & Lois and I experienced a culinary first with a main course of ostrich. It was more like beef than fowl and it was delicious. Thank you Oceania!