Recife - and then Goodbye to the Americas - Jan 23

We took a boat tour of Recife, Venice of the Americas, with many islands, rivers, canals and 40 bridges. Highlight was the art of Francisco Brennand, the most renowned person from Recife and a contemporary and kindred spirit of Picasso and Gaudi. His sculpture graces the stone breakwater (or “reef,” origin of the town name) that protects the harbor:

We visited an old prison, below is a wooden model. It’s now shops and boutiques but still has the prison walls (we saw the same in Natal and Fortaleza). Brazil has high crime and old prisons that used to keep bad guys in now keep them out and busloads of tourists safe from getting into trouble.

Recife is a major city with a metro population of 4 million. It hosts the most famous Carnival in Brazil after Rio but rather than samba they dance “Frevo” (fever), an active and frenetic Capoeira. Recife is where sugar cane was introduced to the Western Hemisphere and capoeira and Frevo come from the West Africans forced to work growing sugar cane.

Despite the Portuguese fort at Fortaleza, Recife was taken by the Dutch West India Company and held from 1630 to 1654. Parts of the old city have a Dutch influence similar to Curaçao. Modern Recife:

Good-bye to the Americas!!! Here we are leaving Brazil, heading across the South Atlantic towards Africa, and we will not return to the Western Hemisphere til June. Joani is wearing a beach cover-up that she bought at the prison boutique. Bob is wearing a polo shirt that he bought at Walmart.

At Sea

We will be at sea for the next 5 days. This is not a hardship. The gym is well equipped, the restaurants superb, and our favorite piano player Alexei performs each night. At sea Bob takes a bridge lesson each morning and plays duplicate each afternoon with a guy named Glenn from Chicago. Joani has joined a needlework group (aka “stitch & b*&!$”), and a Mah Jong group, and plays ping pong and team trivia for “Big O” points. Points are redeemable for Oceania merchandise and it’s like corporate golf events, everybody always wins something by the end of the cruise.

Until Africa!