Recife - June 23-27

I love traveling!  I love being in new places, meeting new people, trying new things, and having adventures which will keep me laughing and smiling forever.  As my time in Brazil is quickly (too quickly for my taste) coming to a close, I wanted to take one last mini-vacation before starting the next big move.  My manager, and good friend Tatiana was recently promoted to a new role here in Brazil as the supply leader of our other powdered laundry detergent factory.  Her factory is located outside of the amazing beach city of Recife in the northeast of Brazil.  So I decided to take advantage of having a friend to travel with, and headed off for a long 4 day weekend to celebrate Festa de Juninha (Festival of little June).

The bright colorful balloons and flags (on the walls behind) that are typical of this holiday.

Forro is the typical dance for Festa de Juninha and the typical story of the dance always has a bride and a groom.

Tatiana and I in Caruaru - the Forro Capital!  It was about 3 hours from Recife.  We ended up spending all night, not getting back until almost 4AM!

The flags, and illuminated balloon of the festival - very fun!

We took a bus from Recife along with about 18 other people.  Tatiana and I made friends with a very sweet couple, Andrea and Lairson - here are the girls.  Tatiana and I are drinking what appears to be grape juice, but is really chopp vinho, draft wine.  It sounds strange, and is strange, but delicious.  It is wine (super sweet, almost juice wine) with a splash of the foam from a beer tap.  Basically it tastes like alcoholic grape juice that is foamy, we liked it!

After our adventure to Caruaru (and arriving back in Recife around 4AM), Tatiana and I slept in only to get up to explore the near by city of Olinda.  Olinda is maybe better described as a suburb than another city, but its charm and vibe is completly unique.  Recife is actually a Dutch settlement and Olinda still boasts a lot of Dutch architecture and city feel.  It is said that had the Dutch colonized Brazil, Brazil might be a contender for world leader.  Why is this?  Because unlike the Portuguese who came to Brazil and took the Brazilian goods and sent them back to Europe, the Dutch invested in their Brazilian colonies.  Thus, Brazil would have had a much stronger start and probably would have developed much faster (or at least be much further along in its development).  I imagine the Dutch would have liked that also, because at least then there would be one other country that speaks Dutch making their language not entirely useless... (just kidding!) 

View of Recife from the high hill in Olinda

 

Olinda is also famous for its many historical churches.

Tatiana and I in Se, the top of the hill in Olinda.  All other churches are built with their entrances facing this hill (and the large church on top)

Being silly in a traditional Festa de Juninha hat

Recife is also famous for its Carnival party.  While not as well known as the Rio samba parades, Recife has street blocos that would rival the best in Rio.  In the blocos people walk around wearing these GIANT doll costumes, Tantiana and I are sitting with one sure costume and you can see the other off the the left.  The waist of the doll is about where the head of the person wearing the costume would be.  Inside is a support system that reminds me of a giant drummer vest (think marching band) with the weight of the doll being held on the wearer's shoulders. 

Being silly

No one should be drunk alone, so I sat down with this poor guy to hear his worries, got a little tipsy myself (j/k)

Pretending it is Carnival - wearing another traditional costume head dress.  You can see the bodies of the giant dolls behind me, they are enormous!

Tatiana and I outside one of the famous Olinda churches

 After Olinda and another much needed nights rest, we headed to Porto de Galinhos (Chicken Port) which is a beautiful beach town about an hour and a half from Recife.  It is a delightful stretch of beach filled with beach bars, chairs, umbrellas, and cute B&Bs.  The town itself is very sweet, albeit a tad typical tourist beach town with souvenir shops and nice restaurants. 

Tatiana and I took what I would call a Porto de Galinhas gondola ride (think Venice, not Steamboat).  It was really pleasant and our "driver" managed to catch a sea horse for us as the area is being preserved for their protection.  We of course let him go again after getting a good peak. 

Tatiana and I

After a nice day in the sun, I was ready for a rest in a hammock!  Thankfully Brazil is full of them, and no beach town is complete without an abundance!

A chicken, at chicken port..... lol

And that wrapped up a wonderful few days with Tatiana, and my last Brazilian mini-vacay (at least for now!) Such fun!!