Recife and Olinda

We are enjoying Recife.  There is an active fresh market which is a $4 bus ride away and a large mall that is also $4 by taxi.  The passion fruit and tangerines are the size of softballs and juicy and sweet. We can get shelled Brazil nuts for about $7 per pound that are as big as my toe and have been trying the local products like custard apple and guava.   

We saw small spotted eggs for sale but never identified what they were or how they were eaten.

Olinda was the original capital of Pernambuco, founded in 1535. Sacked and burnt with all its Catholic churches by the Calvinist Dutch in 1631, it was rebuilt but lost its ascendancy to Recife in the 18th century. Although many buildings were originally constructed in the 16th century, most of what you see today dates from a later period.

 

Picturesque Olinda, set around a tree-covered hill, is the historic and artsy counterpart to the big-city hubbub of Recife. It’s full of galleries, artisans’ workshops, museums, lovely colonial churches,and music in the streets. With twisting streets of colorful old houses and gorgeous vistas over trees, church towers and red-tile roofs, this is one of the best-preserved colonial cities in Brazil.

 

Some of Olinda's churches are among the richest representatives of baroque and rococo style in colonial Brazil, with impressive gold leaf, carved noble woods, painted ceilings and Portuguese tiles.

At the São Bento Basilica and Monastery (1582), we saw the ornate altar in carved cedar and gold leaf. The Benedictine monks still sing Gregorian chants at church services here.  Tom’s Spanish came in handy as we learned about the church from a Portuguese guide.  Apparently the rich folks sat in the balcony, the locals sat in the pews and blacks viewed the service from outside.  They had placed one Jesus high that could be seen by the blacks through a large window.

 

Other outstanding churches in Olinda are the São Francisco Convent, famous for its Portuguese tiles; the Sé Church, the oldest in northeast Brazil, with a fantastic view of Olinda, and the neighboring Misericórdia Church, also with a great view.

 

We saw the Mamulengo Museum, which showcased hundreds of traditional puppets (mamulengos) that are used in the Carnival parades. 

 

At the Sacred Art Museum (Museu de Arte Sacra de Pernambuco), we saw an amazing collection of religious items that spanned four centuries and depicted the crucifixion of Jesus in all its gory detail.

 

They also had a eclectic art and crafts market and we saw several fine embroidery examples but found them too pricy for us.   

The buildings were painted in vibrant colors and marmosets scurried in the trees as we passed by.   

 

 

We ate lunch in a typical Brazilian restaurant where it was a buffet style but we paid for our meal by the Kilo (weight) after loading our plates. Lunch for 3 with drinks and 4 deserts (EACH) was about $40.

We enjoyed exploring Olinda with the crew of Mojumbo but were tired at the end of the day.

Tom

Passage to Recife, Brazil

The passage from St Helena to Recife Brazil was the most comfortable 12-day, 1700 mile trip we have taken thus far.  Winds were mostly 10 knots and less and always from behind and seas were small.  We had a few minor drizzle type rain storms and most had no extra wind at all.  We had one day where the winds piped up to about 35 knots but only for a few hours and then it calmed right back down.  

None of us took any sea sickness meds and Emily did school on more than half the days.  She and Mom watched movies during their shared watches and managed to watch about 15 movies during the trip while Dad read his e-reader.

We only caught two small Dorado and we threw the second one back to grow a little bigger.  We adjusted engine speed only slightly to make landfall at 9:00AM.  We dropped anchor in 4 meters just off a small yacht club next to friends we know on a boat called Theis.  We also soon heard from Mojumbo and worked out logistics to get into the Cabanga Yacht Club at high tide.   

The people at the yacht club were nice, if a little disorganized.  We were assigned a slip, and then another and then another before they figured out where we should be.  The power voltage is marginal and we sit in mud at low tide, but overall it is OK.  They have a nice pool and expensive restaurant and we will do a few boat projects while the kids play together.

 

Tom