Recife, Brazil

 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014 Recife, Brazil

We are in Brazil...OH MY GOSH! Fifth largest country in the world...larger than the 48 contiguous United States and largest country in South America covering three time zones... Home of the infamous Amazon River. The capital of the country is Brasillia and the country is divided into 26 states and 1 federal area (capital of Brasillia). Brazillian Portuguese (different from European Portuguese) is the official language with more than 180 native languages spoken in Brazil....we did find some young English speaking natives....

 

Recife....What a sight from the ship...hundreds of modern high rises with a population of close to 2 million. Around 9:00am we left the ship to board a bus that took us closer into the Maritime Terminal where first we exchanged money ($1 US dollar= 2.2 Brazilian Real) and then we walked about a half a mile down Avenida Alfredo Lisboa into the "old town" of Recife. The temperature outside was warm, in the 80's with nice breezes off the ocean. The area was in a total reconstruction mode...Sidewalks delapadated, buildings being torn down... a real mess.

 

 

 

We found this unbelievable because the Atlantic Ocean waterfront was totally blocked from an enjoyable view for pedestrians. We wandered a few blocks into the city center and found lively Carnival displays and streamers hanging from power poles marking the area of the parades.

We passed three stages set up for the Carnival celebration so there must be plenty of music.

 

 

Carnival celebration this year is February 28-March 4. This street was lined with nicely restored and brightly painted colonial buildings...very pretty. This area is noted for its old churches and monasteries dating back to the 16th century. We found a post office to purchase Brazilian stamps and then walked to the first bridge built in all of Brazil back in the 1500's.

Portugese were the first to settle this area; however, the king had very little money so he allowed private rich Portugese settlers to come to the area. Spanish and Dutch also came to the area bringing war to the area. The Rio Capibaribe river historically was used to carry sugar cane from the rich soiled plantations that lined the waterway. Competition of the Antilles Islands and West Indies threw this thriving industry into decline.

 

 

 After finding the post office...they would only sell stamps in sets of five.

Recife is often referred to as the Venice of South American with numerous islands and waterways throughout the city. Recife is known for textiles and chocolate. After walking along the waterside, we ducked into a very modern mall that sold mostly Carnival Costumes...shop after shop of boas, feathers, masks, and sparkling costumes.

Here we had lunch and spoke with a young man about the area. Wifi was good at this mall so after lunch we, updated the blog and emailing replies to family and friends as well as making arrangements to visit the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio. As noon approached the temps rose to 85 outside and a cool 75ish inside.

 

 

 

Me and my man in the mall.

Oldest Bridge in South America

 

Larry and I noticed that many of the sidewalks had the white and black inlaid stone patterns that were prevelent in Lisbon, Portugal, the Canary Islands, and the Azores. The European ones were much, much nicer.

 

We were surprised to see a barred cage set on many street corners with a police observation deck on top...we are guessing that the rowdy and out of control partiers are placed inside the bottom half of the cages to help keep the area peaceful.

 

 

 

We passed through Ground Zero Plaza, the Sinagoga Kahal Sur Israel (first Synagogue in the Americas) as well as many museums, cultural centers, and  statues of dignataries....Antonio Maria (1921-1964).

                                                                  Ground Zero

We were surprised to see a barred cage set on many street corners with a police observation deck on top...we are guessing that the rowdy and out of control partiers are placed inside the bottom half of the cages to help keep the area peaceful.

We walked back to the ship around 4:30 and then went to the stern to watch the ship leave the dock at 5:30. Nice sunset over the Recife high rises. We enjoyed watching the lights of the big city twinkle while talking with a couple from Buenos Aires. Dinner, movie...
"Pacific Rim"(too much sci-fi) and then a show...an excellent Italian violinist sent us back to our room ready to zzzzz. What an excellent day!

 

                                                              Adios to Recife!