Recife

In Recife, we stayed in a hotel that was right close to the beach.  I was able to see the sand from my hotel window.  However, we didn't go to that beach because there were also signs, clearly visible from my window, with pictures of sharks and attack warnings.  So we stayed away from there.  Instead, we went to the Porto de Galinhas, which was a nearby beach that apparently the sharks simply didn't go.  I accepted that.





The one-hour-drive there was a little depressing because as soon as we hit the road, it started to rain.  I can't really complain though because we had great, beautiful weather on almost all of the rest of our 31 days on the beaches.  But this day wasn't a really great beach day.

The picture below is a picture of me and two other exchange students, each of them from cities only 2 hours away from my town in the US.  It's a small world, folks.

Like I said, we went to "Porto de Galinhas," which literally means "The Chicken Port."  So there were some pretty deluxe carvings of chickens throughout the small, touristy city.  This was my favorite.

Next, we went to a part of Recife called Olinda.  Olinda is a very European part of Recife, similar to the south of Brazil, and highly influenced by the Dutch colonization.  The pick up line of the day (it seemed that every male habitant of Olinda knew and used it), used on my and several of my friends, was "Voce é mais linda do que a Olinda." This translated isn't quite as cool, but means "You are more beautiful than Olinda."  "Linda" in Portuguese means "beautiful."  And Olinda was very beautiful indeed.  

Olinda is popular for their Carnaval parades and parties and therefore, we prepared for our own premature and private, carnaval by learning the basic dance steps of the dance of their Carnaval.  While you can find hundreds of different kinds in Brazil, Olinda is famous for their dance called fervo.  This dance includes a lot of jumping up and down and kicking.  I tried my best.

 

Here are some pictures from my first Carnaval.  Basically, we had a band playing trumpets and other brass instruments marching down the street in the front, playing the rhythm of Frevo, and we followed then, dancing and laughing.  A few of the Brazilians in the street joined us on our dance around the city.

 

And then I'd like to end my sum up of Recife with this picture of a wall.  We were walking by and I saw John Lennon's 'Imagine' lyrics, in Portuguese, written on the wall.  I fell in love.