Chasing Summer –

March 15 to the 18th

Recife

Recipe is a smaller city in the north of Brazil. Small being relative, there are 4.2 people who live here.

The Odyssey arrived early in the morning, and we were able to disembark by 830 a M.

Steve, Angela, JR, Shelly, and I headed out to explore two sections in this town. The port terminal is on its own little island, so that is what we looked at first period

Right in front of the port terminal is a large sign with the name of the town receipt on it. There is also a giant fiberglass lion with a curly mane that has significance for the region.

About 5 minutes away, we came to the main square or park of this small island, the Arsenal Park. At this park, there is the Malakoff Tower, which was built between 1835 and 1855 to be used as an observatory.

The square itself is called Arthur Oscar Square, and it’s a popular place for people to hang out . The Carnival is also celebrated in this area. There are several restaurants, cafes, and then club

Walking down a side street, we passed many souvenir shops and interesting buildings. Many buildings appeared to be freshly painted in this area with pastel colors like lavender, yellow, and blue.

We came across a small museum with giant parade heads from carnival and decided to pop in to see them. They had another small museum with parade costumes back at the square. We decided to buy tickets for both, which cost about $5 for both.

Another five minutes of walking brought us to Marco Zero Square. This is where Recife started because it was the most suitable spot to construct a port, so it’s ground zero or the heart of Recife.

We could see them taking down a huge platform and stands, probably from Carnival. Later on in the evening, another parade began here: the Parade of the Bulls.

From this square, you could also look across to see the breaker, and on the breaker, there are a variety of statues. It is the Parque de Esculturas (Sculptures Park) by Francisco Brennand.

From there, we added a cross to the main section of town on the bridge, Ponte Buarque de Macedo.

Immediately across the bridge, there are two large park areas. The first is Praka de Republica. The second is the minivira park. Avira Park was inaccessible and fenced off, but surrounding this park are several interesting buildings.

The first notable building was the Tribunal de Justica de Pernambuco or Palace of Justice on the left-hand side. The Palace of Justice, built in 1930 in a Renaissance style, has several levels and a beautiful dome.

Directly across the park from the Palace of Justice is the Princeses Court Palace (Palacio do Campus das Princesas), which was built in 1841. This building is where the royal Treasury was kept.

On the far side of the park, between these two government buildings, is St. Isabella Theatre. It is a pink building where social and cultural events are held and is home to the Recife Symphony Orchestra. Sadly, the front has several homeless people sleeping in it.

We walked away from that section towards the Franciscan Museum of Sacred Art, which was closed. It is adjacent to the Convent of St. Anthony. The Convent of St. Anthony is a baroque church built in 1697. It also was closed.

We continued on our way for a few blocks until we came to a new park area, which had several statues and was surrounded by markets, stores, and very graffiti to buildings. It seemed like a popular hot spot for locals.

On our wanderings, we came across the Basilica duo Carmo and the Church of St. Theresa of the Third Order of Carmel.

We headed back across the street to visit the Co-Cathedral of St. Peter of the Clerics. It was built in 1759. It was here that two police officers stopped Steve to ask or tell him to put his backpack in the front rather than on his back as he was carrying it.

We were heading towards the Mercado do Sao Jose and passed several crowded streets of shops including barbers working with mirrors on the wall.

The Mercado was under reconstruction, and it took us a while to figure out that the shops were in another building in front of the closed off structure. After wandering around the markets, we decided to head back to the island and find a restaurant for lunch.

After lunch, we visited an artisian mall and avoided most of a rainstorm.

As the morning was completely hot and humid, we were all tired and decided to head back to the boat in the afternoon to cool off and relax after stopping by the second museum of Carnival costumes.

Olinda

On day two, Steve, Angela, and I headed off on a 15-minute Uber ride to the community of Olinda.

Olinda is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site due to its historical buildings. It is also built on a hill, so we got dropped off at the top and made our way down mostly.

It seemed like every road and walkway led to yet another church or religious building. There were many churches, several convents and monasteries, and other religious sites like crosses.

Another church that we can see in from the top is Church of Our Lady of Carmel and hidden somewhere in the foliage is a San Francisco convent.

At the top, there is a lookout next to the cathedral. There are also several vendors selling cart food and some souvenir shops.

The streets are cobblestone, so one must watch their footing. It was another hot and humid day, so we did not want to spend too much time out in the open.

After visiting the utmost top of the hill we made our way down one road when we should have gone down a different one, so this meant we actually did a little bit of a square and had to climb back up our way to see the next sight.

Olinda offers the best views of the coast as well as the city of  Recife that you can see over top of orange roofs.

It is best known for its colourful houses.

One of the best districts of the historical center is Embato Largo. Here there are the colourful old houses, as well as some covered with street art.

In our wandering up and down streets, we ended up at the Mercado. Here, there were many colourful flags over the parking lot dancing in the wind.

The Mercado has a sordid past as the location that slaves were brought to and sold.

After our sweaty hot morning, we decided to head to the mall to finish off our day in air conditioning.

Fortaleza

The Odyssey had 1 short day in Fortaleza, and there seemed to be two choices of activities in this city. Either a beach/waterpark or shopping.

This is definitely not your typical port stop. The terminal (shipping port) is about a 15-minute drive to the beaches or a 30-minute drive to the city center.

One of the best things about Brazil is the cheaper prices for goods and Uber rides. Taxis parked immediately outside the terminal and wanted to charge $25 for a ride to the city center, while an Uber was only 27 real or $5.

Angela, Steve, and I decided to head into the city center and visit the largest Mercado I’ve ever seen. It isn’t a mall, so there was no air-conditioning, but it is covered, so there was shade. The Centro Mercado has five floors of stores. Like most markets, there are plenty of products repeatedly sold from multiple vendors.

Directly across from the Mercado is the cathedral. It is the only touristy building that we went to.

From the center, there is shopping as far as we wanted to walk, which wasn’t that far. It was just too hot and we were too sweaty to want to try on clothes and I don’t need anything else. So, after a few streets, we decided to return to the Odyssey for lunch.

In the afternoon, I was watching dolphins play in the harbour beside us.

Now we are off for two sea days before our final Brazillian port of Belem.