Day 19 - Recife, Brazil
Woke up way before 4am. We had a full moon last night and I couldn’t sleep.
We had to meet up for our excursion at 7:15 am. We left the ship shorty after, which was nice. On the day we were in Fortaleza, we had to wait in the theater for over an hour before we left on excursion.
We had a tour called “Recife and UNESCO site of Olinda”.
Recife is the fourth-largest city in Brazil with a metro population of little over 4 million people.
Olinda is a tiny town on the outskirts of Recife.
We visited both places in one day.
We started with the colorful, picturesque Olinda. This little town has many well preserved Portuguese-style, Baroque buildings in its historic town center. It is a very tranquil town with palm trees lining the streets, and beautiful views out to the ocean. Too bad we didn’t have more time to walk the colorful, hilly streets.
As we were leaving there were preparations for the carnival that evening.
Recife has been called the Venice of Brazil because the city is crossed by waterways and has many bridges.
The water is dirty though, and it smells bad. We have seen the favelas, lots of unkept buildings covered in grafitti. Armed police patrolling the streets on every corner.
In general Recife was a better experience than Fortaleza. We loved the arts and crafts shops with their wonderful offerings but did not buy anything. With 174 ports of call, we would need an extra 2 suitcases just to bring back the souvenirs.
The next two days we will be at sea, and on New Years Eve we will be in Rio de Janeiro. I’m looking forward to finally visit this famous city, and go and see the Christ the Redeemer.
Fun fact: Olinda means ‘Oh Beautiful’
