Feb 17, 2013 - Recife and Olinda

We docked at Recife in the early morning and disembarked to music and dancing from some locals. Recife is the 9th largest city in Brazil and the capital of Pernambuco state. It has the nickname “the Brazilian Venice” because of the rivers and the natural pools formed by the coal reefs that run along its coast. There are many lovely beaches. One of the areas in Recife is Olinda set on a hill. It is a UNESCO world heritage site as it is one of the best preserved Portuguese colonial towns. It was built in the 1500s and has narrow cobbled...

Feb 4, 2013 - Recife,Brazil

Today, Monday Feb 4th, we arrived in Recife. This is one of Gerry’s old haunts from his S. American visit in 1959. Luckily it looks a lot different today. It is a big modern city of 1.8 million people, with an old city centre. We took an excursion from the ship because we wanted to go to the nearby city of Olinda and thought that was the best way to go. A highlight was the old prison that has been turned into a tourist market with the cells being individual shops and decorated ready for carnival. One disappointment in the old part was that...

Feb 1, 2013 - Churches, colour and carnaval: Recife and Olinda

A Dutch fleet finally gained control of Olinda on February 16th 1630, after the Dutch had tried unsuccessfully since 1625 to gain a foothold on the Brazilian coast with an eye on the sugarcane production. The Spanish and the Dutch were still engaged in the 80 Years War and since Portugal was in that period occupied by Spain, the Dutch could no longer trade with the Portuguese, hence their interest to establish their own territory. It was under the governorship of Johan Maurits of Nassau (1636 - 1644) that the colony expanded and flourished....

Oct 1, 2012 - Recife - Olinda

Nous voilà maintenant à Recife chez notre couchsurfeur Joao. Recife aura été la ville de la culture car nous avons vu 4 musées grâce aux conseils de Joao. Il nous a préparé un programme avec les choses qu'il estimait les plus intéressantes pour nous selon le temps que nous avions à disposition. C'était encore mieux qu'avec un guide ! Nous avons vu le musée de la monnaie, c'est un passionné qui a collectionné différentes pièces de monnaie du Brésil et en a fait des œuvres d'art. A une certaine période, le Brésil changeait très souvent de...

Jan 16, 2012 - Recife, Brazil

Recife is known as the Brazilian Venice. Several rivers run through it and it is dotted with islands and mangroves. We take a complimentary shuttle into town to the Casa da Cultura. It is an old prison that has been converted into a handicraft market. Each cell houses a small shop selling clothing, wooden carvings and jewelry.

Dec 4, 2011 - Olinda

Hi All, After the last few days on the beach I decided to spend a couple of days in Olinda, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a city much much bigger than the last couple of places I´ve visited! Olinda is an old colonial city which has colourful houses painted in different colours and various old churches scattered around the city, the main one being Alto do Se on top of a hill from which you have great views of the coast, Olindas larger neighbour (Recife) over the top of Olinda. On my first evening I went to watch some Forro (a type of...

Nov 27, 2011 - good luck with that

As we crossed the Equator on the final day at sea we became accompanied by an ever growing flock of birds. They looked like extra large gulls with black tails and black outlines on their wings. They cruised along side us effortlessly and dropped like bombs into the water to catch fish. It was great fun for us to watch, but the crew had a big job ahead after we docked since the beautiful views from our windows was obscured by layers of bird poop. Recife gets its name from the reef which protects its harbor and was founded as a Dutch colony....

Jan 19, 2011 - Recife

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 We had a full schedule today as we combined the towns of Olinda and near-by Recife, (pronounced Hay-see’-fay; the R has an H sound) guided by Leonardo who spoke beautiful English. We are not losing any of our Road Scholar travelers yet, but we gained six, plus our new lecturer, Rodrigo Maia, who all joined us today on our excursion. When we got to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Olinda, which means “Oh beautiful”, we moved into three smaller vans to negotiate the narrow and hilly cobblestone roads that took us...

Feb 12, 2010 - Carnaval 2010, Olinda

On February 12 we flew back to Recife and from there found our way back to Olinda a day before the true start of Carnaval. 6 days of partying from dusk ´til dawn. I won´t give you a day by day account....it all blends together anyways. Olinda appears to be the most traditional of all Carnavals in Brazil. Everyone is allowed to join in the free party in the street. Carnaval is meant to be rebellious, and every sort of debauchery and bad behaviour is permitted within reason. That is to say that they have taken measures to ensure it is clean...

Jan 30, 2010 - Olinda, Our First Visit

So we decided to pay a visit to the town in which we intended to spend Carnaval to scope out places to stay. Olinda was said to be more traditional and it takes place in the streets and everyone is free to join the party. Unlike in Rio and in Salvador where you have to pay huge amounts to sit in a stand and be a spectator or follow a popular rock group situated on top of a truck with giant speakers around, each group competing to drown the other one out, of course. So we made our election via Brad´s innovative idea of searching on line. He...

Aug 2, 2009 - FR : Un petit mot sur la Colombie

Au moment où nous décidions d´aller en Colombie nous savions déjà que le temps allait nous manquer mais nous étions persuadés que ce pays allait créer la surprise. Un peu comme les Philippines, la Colombie a mauvaise presse et a pourtant tellement à offrir. Nous ne disposons que de 15 jours et passerons 62 heures dans les bus soit 2,6 jours. J´ai l´impression de voyager ¨à la japonaise¨, d´une destination à l´autre sans pleinement profiter. En quelques mots : Bogota, Tunja, Bucaramanga, Santa Marta, Taganga, Parc National Tayrona,...

Mar 22, 2009 - Via Viagem

We arrived in Recife around 2pm today. There wasn't a whole lot to see so the tour was only 4 hours. Our first stop the pretty village of Olinda which is not surprisingly full of Portuguese churches. After a quick run through we were taken to Boa Viagem beach. Finally we ended the tour at (you guessed it) a handcraft center! There was nothing worth buying but it was housed in a really cool old jail. The shops each occupy a cell. I probably won't post anything for the next few days as we'll be crossing the Atlantic. Next stop Cape Verde!