Recife, Brazil - Churches, Brazilian BBQ, and Art
We traveled as far east as one can travel in Brazil, and enjoyed the hospitality and food in Recife.
Discover Colonial Brazil in Recife and nearby Olinda and step back in time along narrow, winding streets amid meticulously restored homes, churches, and lovely plazas. — Regent
We docked at Porto do Recife Cruise Terminal at 0900 on a partly sunny Sunday (January 19th). Recife is the fourth largest metro area in Brazil with a population of about 3.7 million, so we are talking big city. Lots of skyscrapers lined the coastline and many more are under construction.
Once again we booked a Regent-sponsored tour, and once again we had a police escort as we traveled throughout the city. Since Portuguese is the national language, and since Sherpa and I have a vocabulary of three — hola, obrigado and cerveza — we stayed with the organized group today.
We took the included tour, Recife, Olinda, and the Brennand Institute. The highlights included:
Explore the 16th Century colonial town of Olinda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its period architecture.
Browse the Sé Catedral.
Then travel to Recife to visit the baroque-style Golden Chapel, named because it is covered in gold leaf.
Enjoy Brazilian Barbeque at a Recife restaurant.
Visit Instituto Ricardo Brennand, a cultural complex with a castle, weapons museum, art collection, and gardens.
After a thirty minute bus ride and a transfer to smaller vans to negotiate the narrow cobblestone streets, we arrived in historic Olinda. (Oh, beautiful!) We began our tour with a walk through Se Catedral. Our guide was friendly, knowledgeable, and provided us with a thorough understanding of the places we visited — always much appreciated! The cathedral was built in 1586 and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
The cathedral has an extensive patio with expansive views of Recife and the Atlantic coastline. We added a few birds to our life list while there — Sayaca Tanagers, Rufous-bellied Thrushes, and Social Flycatchers. Of course we also saw Black Vultures hanging out on the cathedral’s steeple — they are everywhere, everywhere, everywhere!
This colorful decor definitely caught the attention of my camera. We stopped across the street fom the cathedral for a bit of shopping and refreshments.
Fresh coconut water. We were grateful to quench of our thirst! And this coconut water was …delicious — nothing bottled compares to the flavor of a coconut whose top has just been lopped off and handed to you.
We didn’t purchase anything at the little shops, but I did find two tablecloths at street vendors — a colorful loosely woven cloth in the traditional style — renda de bilros — and a slightly coarser, white cloth made from the fibers of coconut. Both unique samples to add to my international tablecloth collection.
We left Olinda around 11:00 and returned to Recife for our next stop, the baroque-style Golden Chapel. We walked through a small museum, then a well-maintained courtyard, and finally entered the…
…the Golden Chapel! Wow! Built in a time of great prosperity, the chapel is rich in decoration. Practically every space on the church’s walls, altars and ceiling are covered with paintings and gold. Quite the effect! The church dates from 1588 and is a visual wonder.
In an odd way, it reminded me of the Sistine Chapel — small, opulent, art everywhere and neck craning required.
If you look around, there are plenty of interesting paintings with usual scenes. I rather liked the combination of heretics, gold leaf, and Portuguese tile!
Mid-day, we stopped at a Recife restaurant, Spettus Steak House. The Brazilian style barbeque was magnificant. Seven or eight varieties of grilled meat and shrimp, cheesy bread puffs, salads, rice and beans and more. It was a never ending parade of food - a truly amazing experience.
Brahma Chopp, a 4.8% abv pale lager, is Brahma's main brand in Brazil. Sherpa ordered this beer to accompany his meal. It was the only local beer available — he vigorously refused the offer of a Stella. The Brahma Chopp was, in Sherpa’s opinion, a “light-bodied mediocre beer” and though it satisfied the “destination beer” requirement, Sherpa would not purchase it again. 4.5/10.
Next post: our visit to the Instituto Ricardo Brennand and our bird of the day.
Another beautiful day!!
That Golden Chapel! Amazing! Thanks fie sharing.