Spacious Apartment

After our little house in Pipa Beach, we moved into a ridiculously large apartment just outside of Olinda and Recife. Olinda is the historic, somewhat rundown part of the larger region of Recife, while Recife is the central business district. The area we stayed in didn’t have a lot going on, but was only a couple of blocks from a nice seaside path and had lots of stores within walking distance. A walkable suburb of Recife more or less.

Being our last stop before flying to Fernando de Noronha, the rather remote and expensive island, having a large place to sort our luggage and all the groceries we wanted to bring was perfect. Really the only downside to the place was the lack of air conditioning which meant we had to open all the windows, which was fine except we were right on a main street and the floor and our feet would be covered in black dust, presumably from the cars. And the terrible internet of course. Not ideal, but it was nice having so much space to stretch out for a while. Especially when it rained, which was often.

Historic Olinda

Olinda itself was an interesting place. Beautiful colonial buildings on narrow, steep streets and the preparations for one of the most famous Carnaval celebrations underway. Other buildings though were completely dilapidated which was a shame as you could see how great they would be with restoration. A place still stuck in the past but not gentrified for tourists outside a small season it would seem. Picturesque and we enjoyed exploring the streets and watching the sunset from the lively hill with street vendors, but also glad we didn’t choose to stay there and wouldn’t have felt comfortable at night. Strange to say but it almost needed more tourists- parts of it felt a bit neglected. As did some of the Carnaval dolls in the museum…

Suburban Shopping Mall

The awful internet at our place was compounded by the fact that our data had run out in Pipa. Jon and I both tried renewing online and by phone multiple times with no luck, which was not surprising considering the hassle we had to get sim cards in the first place. Nothing could be as bad as that, right?Well….after a considerable amount of time spent in the Claro store in a shopping mall, and multiple lovely clerks who tried their best to help us, Jon walked out with another month of data, and I did not. Turns out whatever the clerk in Petropolis managed for me was not by the books and was not replicable. We will never know. Still, we had data to order Ubers and get directions, so we celebrated by finding a cheap buffet lunch. Like the Claro store, it was bittersweet and it was all going well until we discovered we had all chosen liver for one of our meats. Not an acquired taste, I left mine and focused on the rest of the great meal.

Downtown Recife

Out of the suburbs and into downtown, Recife had a similar vibe to Olinda, while it looked very different. A couple of busy streets were pedestrianized and full of workers going out for lunch during the day, while other streets felt deserted, while others were choked in traffic. We wandered through the downtown looking for snorkels we were hoping to buy at a reasonable price to avoid the hassle of renting in Noronha, but without much luck other than some children ones that would not have worked out. We did find a couple of old churches open though and enjoyed a great meal with others on their lunch break.

Bizarre Art Exhibit

Highlight I’m not sure, but we did take a short boat trip to a jetty with a somewhat bizarre art installation on it. One of those destinations you explore because really there is nothing else to do.