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