Recife & Olinda with the JICA Girls

A quick, 4-hour bus ride took me away from Natal and into Recife.

I'll be using Recife as a base to explore the surrounding area, including Olinda.

Since I was at the bus terminal already (quite aways from the city center), I pre-booked my overnight bus to Salvador in 2 days time. Hope it's a decent bus.

Then, an expensive taxi ride (as expected?!). My hostel is in Recife's commercial district, and is conveniently located above a Citibank (possibly a strategic decision on my part). Once I got checked in, a Japanese girl showed me around. I thought that she was a backpacker like myself, but had decided to settle down in Recife for a while by helping out at the hostel. As usual, Waru's intuition was wrong. Sawako was on a JICA assignment to teach Japanese at the local college and often came to hang out at the hostel with her "boyfriend". He was the one working at the hostel.

(FYI - JICA is the Japanese version of the American Peace Corps)

Sawako was quite surprised to see me; I guess not a lot of Japanese tourists come here. Which seems strange given that Olinda is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and you know how Japs luuuuuuuuv covering that list. Yes, myself included. But I suppose if they come, they'd rather stay there than in Recife.

Anyways, Sawako mentioned that her friends and fellow JICA-mates from Sao Paolo were arriving in Recife that night and suggested I hang out with them tomorrow to visit Olinda. Safer that way. (She was robbed at knifepoint the first week of her arrival when walking alone. That was the one and only time though.)

For the rest of the evening I was lazy and stayed in the hostel, catching up on my readings. I was so busy for the past week in Natal, that I needed some down time. I did, though, end up going to a nearby Subway (yes, the sandwich shop) with a couple of my dorm-mates. One guy, Leandro, was from the Japan town in Sao Paolo. He invited me to stay at his place when I got there. Will consider.

The next morning (April 7th), I met Sawako and her friends at the hostel and took the bus to Olinda. Affordable at 2.85BRL. Took about 30 minutes.

Such a beautiful day to explore the colonial city! Which mainly involved a couple of churches and taking in the local architecture and street art.

One monastery had some beautiful tiles which reminded me of Portugal:From the viewpoint:Cool street art:At the tourist mercado, there was an exhibition of props used during carnival. Like this guy here:Since I avoided coming to Brazil during that season (February) and never saw the carnival, I'm glad I at least got to see some of the parade ensemble here. Even though it was in a dark, dingy building and had absolutely NO carnival atmosphere.

We decided to splurge a bit on lunch at the famous Oficina do Sabor restaurant. It's in all the guidebooks - Great view and great food. The coconut shrimp stew was yummeroooooo!!!

With Olinda done by mid afternoon, we headed back to Recife and to the Casa de Cultura. I assumed that it was some sort of museum due to the naming. But it's actually a prison, now turned into shopping stalls for tourists. Basically, each prison cell has been converted into a small store selling trinkets and other local crafts.And no, I didn't buy anything. Except a glass of fresh sugar cane juice. Refreshing : )

From there, we needed to head back towards the hostel. But we got sooooo lost getting to the bus stop - going around in circles in the commercial/market district. Hmm… One of the woman we stopped to ask for directions was worried about us, I think, so she took it upon herself to walk us to the stop. So nice.

Really, I'm so awed by how nice people are in general. Strangers that just help out, even in the smallest ways. I need to be like that myself. I hope to be like that when I settle down.

We had some time to kill before meeting Sawako at her apartment, so we headed to the mall. Recife mall was much, much better than Natal. Huuuuuge shopping center with various Brazilian brands. OMG. I love their clothes. Cute. Cool. Weird cuts that Waru likes. I can't wait to go shopping!!! Scary thought, considering my bank account hasn't been fed in over a year now. Another OMG.

Later, we grabbed a quick dinner of beef skewers on the sidewalk and headed back into Recife old town for a night out. Yes. You read it right - A NIGHT OUT. Surprising, huh?! Well, not clubbing or drinking. Just listening to some concerts and dancing in the plaza. With some beer. Loads of fun. Good rhythm! I don't think I've been out this late in a long, long time.

So, time to sleep in!!!

And head to the beach to meet the girls again. Hopefully, I can see them again in Sao Paolo.

The beach in Recife wasn't nearly as nice as those I've been to in the past week, but it's good enough for people watching, coconut sipping, and chatting and reading underneath the parasol. Not for swimming, as I don't think the water here is that clean. And there were shark warnings too...