Oh Recife!! Swimming with sharks and dolphins (but not on the same day)- Oh my!! LOVE BRAZIL!!!

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So I arrived in Recife, late around midnight. I was a little concerned only because I wasn’t sure if my couchsurfer confirmed that it was ok to stay with him and I didn’t have a phone card to call him. Luckily I had made friends with a lovely lady, Cida, that had sat on the plane next to me. She lived or rather worked in Manaus, living there 3 weeks out of the month and visiting her son and husband in Recife one week out of the month. I told her about coushsurfing as she had never heard of it, and about my dilemma of not knowing weather my host was coming to the airport or what. She very generously offered me to use her cell phone. She also generously offered me to stay at her house in Manaus when I arrive there in a few weeks. An offer I will probably take her up on.

Luckily Almir, my host, along with his three beautiful neighbours, a trio of sisters, were there to pick me up.
My first night I didn’t do much except sleep. The next day I slept in. Almir had college in the morning, a final presentation before his winter holiday, so I took the time to go shopping and make a fantastic pasta lunch with his roommate Gabriel. I love Gabriel, terrific guy!!! Also, a couch surfer, Gabriel was divinely warm and intelligent. Anyways, Gabriel actually prepared the pasta and I the salad, and Almir came home just in time to join us.

That afternoon, the sunny day turned cloudy, as was customary lately in Recife, but at least the torrential rains hadn’t begun to poor yet. Taking advantage of the dry and comfortable afternoon we took a stroll down the beach, which was only 4 blocks away. We also met up with Almir’s friend, Junio. He was a riot with a curse word flying out every 3 seconds. He was the type of guy that loved to complain about everything, but it wasn’t tedious or serious, but rather hilarious and amusing. We hung out for a bit, but didn’t walk far, as Almir, despite appearing young and fit was one of the laziest people I have ever met, nice, but lazy, generous with his time, but lazy.

That evening I didn’t do much except hang out with Almir, getting to know each other at the bakery over beer and delicious ham and cheese delights. He was surprised to hear about my phd, and the fact that I was actually interested in artificial intelligence, physics, and computers -and why the hell not! I love learning more about stuff, especially when it’s interesting or useful, or both. We also discussed the how guitar pick ups work and the difference between analog and digital signals, and how synthesizers work.
The next day some polish girls arrived. The feisty, fiery, seductive, and hard but easy polish girls. I was happy, being sort of a pol myself to receive them. Anyways, we went to see Olinda that day, a delightful old colonial town only 30 minutes from Recife. We ate aracaje and tapioca with chocolate, banana and cheese. Ya I m losing weight now! It was delightful despite the cloudy weather that turned to rain as the evening began. We returned to Almir~s to get ready for a couchsurfing party (back in Olinda again). The CS party was also a Foro party (brazilian folk music), and I was apparently instructed in the ways of this dance. Several guys hit on me but I wasn~t interested.

The next day we went to Porto de Galina~s, a beautiful coastal town, me Almir, the three Polish girls, and one of their ex-boyfriends, a brazilian but all living in London. It was interesting because him and Aga (his ex) were constantly at each other’s throat- a very bad idea to travel with your ex….. We arrived at Porto da Galinas around 4 pm and the sun sets at 5:30 so that only gave us time to see the sun set on the beach and have a very nice all you can eat picana dinner.

The next day the girls left early in the morning back to Recife to catch their plane. Almir and I stayed for the day. Gert arrived to join us, a CS Dutch dude that was apparently staying at Almir~s house while we were away. He was an interesting entrepreneur who had been living in Bolivia for the last 10 years, and decided to now go across south America by motorcycle. I really enjoyed talking to him, and he gave me a lot of tips. We all spent the day on the beach before returning late to Recife.

The next day Almir accompanied me to old downtown, which was nice, and downtown, which was terrific, but I suppose shady. But he was extremely lazy and kept complaining to go home. I refused, enjoying each minute of the bizarre bustle of the downtown streets. It was about to pour and the dark sky looked brilliant!! It was a luminous grey in stark contrast to the bright punch of exotic tropically coloured walls of various shops, snack stands, and everything Brazilian. I couldn’t help but whip out my camera and take pictures, even in shady parts, because the vivacious colours of flower stands, and colourful phone booths just burst with life, brightly lit in the midst of torrential rains beating down on the broken cobble stone streets. The puddles grew, and rivers of rain began to flow. Umbrellas of all colours danced about like women’s skirts, and flip flops splashed about with serious hurried faces. Store awnings crowded with tropical women in shorts, crossing their hands on their chest waiting for yet another storm to pass. Everybody was in paused movement. It was beautiful.

The next I wanted to finally go to the beach. Recife beach. I went and swam in the shark infested ocean at, where the signs warned against swimming with the sharks (with shark pictures!!), but mostly it was bad to swim at high tide, and it was low tide, so it was totally safe for me swim. I had a great time, but Almir dislikes the beach and hates sunshine so I don~t think he was too thrilled. I told him to go but he refused, wanting to be a good host. Eventually we both returned, and I went to swim in the roof top pool in his posh building (with a beautiful view). Anika, another couch surfer came, and Almir began hitting on her, as he did with all his couchsurfing women- but in his harmless im a brazlian addicted to sex kind of way. Anika, was delightful, with interestingly beautiful eyes and a pleasant face. She was from Germany, but lived in Bella Horizonte, Brazil on an interexchage program, so she was fluent in Portuguese.

That night despite being very sick from a cold flu thing I contracted I went out with them for the St. John festival downtown. After a shower, two paracetamols, and a beer I was as good as new. I ve adapted the hardy attitude of my sister Margaret who doesn~t see sickness as a horrible affliction where you must do nothing but lie in bed, but rather continue your life and cope with your discomfort- of course resting when you need to, and taking care of yourself- but why should I miss out on everything just cause i~m sick??
Anyways, the festival was tremendous in size, in old downtown, spanning several streets and several blocks, with foro and heavy metal bands. Beers and caipereina~s everywhere. It was pleasant. Our dutch friend from Bolivia, couchsurfer/motorcycle traveler, Gert, also joined us. All in all it was a good night and we came home early at 2am.

The next day, I mostly organized myself to go to Pipa for the following morning, a beautiful coastal town 4 hours north of Recife, 2 hours south of Natal. Ok well actually, I spent most of the day talking to Gabriel and his fantastic boyfriend by the pool side on the roof. It was beautiful but then rainy, but we still stayed. His boyfriend told me about how he played these special drums, and how he did business with Canadian and had been to Canada many times, and about his father who was a toxicologist. He invited me to meet his family and practice drums for next Sunday- Ill try to alter my plans to do that.

That night me, Gert, and Almir, went to see a fantastic movie. I really had a good time, but I only got two hours sleep, leaving my packing to the last minute and having to wake up at 5 am, to travel 2 hours to the bus terminal. Almir was kind enough to accompany me to the terminal - thank god!! Cause it was really confusing to get there. Maybe my attitude was that of a baby or a naïve traveller cause I kept bugging him about where was I going to pipa, where should I stay, how should I get there. The truth was nervous. Why? A now-seasoned traveller, who could also speak Portuguese, why had I regressed? It was easy to be afraid. I was going alone, and eventhough pipa was a safe place, Recife, I had learned was or rather is the MOST dangerous city in Brazil, with the highest murder rate, higher than Rio!! Its true I had survived it without incident, and I felt safe, even if it was an illusion. But now travelling the Brazillian coast, between big dangerous cities began to intimidate me.

However when I got on the bus I was fine. I wasn’t scared and even though the bus driver didn~t tell me where to get off I still managed to get off in the correct middle of nowhere, to ask around to find the small vans behind the church to whom which I could pay 3 reais to get to Pipa 40 minutes later, after passing through 3 or 4 some odd remote beach villages. It was good to kill the time in the van as it was raining cats and dogs, luckily the rain broke just long enough for me to ask a women in some store if she heard of ~vera my house^ the hostel where I was to stay, and to navigate the cobble stone streets there. The hostel was amazingly fine. I got a super good, cozy room, with room for 3, HOT water, a tv, and a FULL FULL breakfast for 12 bucks all to myself- cheap for brazil!! I was however starving and the rain began to return. The threatening sky was not going to let up. But the good natured women at the hostel of her own volition lent me her umbrella to go have lunch. I had a deliciously cheap and hearty lunch, tasty self server, meat beans, rice, macaroni, salad, etc, for 4 dollars. I met a dutch couple and their brother (the girls brother), of which I would periodically bump into over the next few days (everybody is Dutch here. hehehe). Absentmindedly after lunch I checked the beach as the rain has let up for a moment. It was a beautiful looking bay filled with fishing boats. I forgot to mention there are several beaches here swarming with dolphins, a main attraction. After the beach I walked along the streets. I probably checked everystore in the town, I was so utterly happy to be alone and relaxed. Able to do anything without care or consideration for anything or anyone. Although I should have returned the umbrella because when I returned, the lady had already gone home. I would give it back later but felt bad.

Later that evening I wanted to go have a delicious Acai, my new passion, but got distracted at the artisan market by a lovely women who convinced me to buy a headband- not an easy task!! I spoke to the aritisans and came across one with an unusual accent. I immediately picked up he was Peruvian, so we spent the next 30 minutes talking about why he had moved to Pipa, and his two sons, and my portunol that was starting to flourish in his presence. Killing all that time the acai shop along with many others closed forcing me to look in bars for some sort of nourishment. I was looking for a fruit juice. So Rogerio, the bartender in what I think is the nicest bar, made me a lovely banana chocolate milk shake. The next one had Amurula, and then our friend from Rio but who lives in Brasilia, who’s name I can’t remember bought me a beer. He was a lawyer, and not particularly good looking but made for interesting Portuguese conversation. We later went to what was suppose to be a festival at another bar but the festival was cancelled because of the rain. So we had one beer before I left him to drink his next beer. He wanted to make plans with me to see the beaches the next day but I wasn’t interested in scheduling anything so off I went to have a magnificent sleep in my large and luxurious bed.

The next day I awoke to have my beautiful egg with cheese and ham, and papaya and pineapple and fresh buns and guyaba marmalade and butter, with fresh mango juice breakfast. I took my camera and snapped a few picks before jumping into a small van for one reais to hit the most heavily dolphin populated surf beach called Madera beach. I asked the fruit stand lady to watch my bag, which was unnecessary in this tranquil place, as I jumped into the ocean with the powerfully splashing waves that liked to play games with my unreasonably small Brazilian bikini.

Later being a little bored I decided to talk to the reasonably good looking German, Felipe, who lives in Barcelona, that was sitting next to me, who thought I was Brazilian for speaking to him only in Portuguese. I tried to switch to Spanish but failed. He was an mechanical engineer, and I found his explanation of gear boxes in windmills and how they covert 15 rmp to 1500, to power a reverse motor to move magnets to generate an electrical current, very interesting. Of course I pushed him into this discussion, but he didn’t mind.

I spent the rest of the day swimming and mostly in the shade as I was still quite sick. Before I left the beach I had a refreshing open air shower on the beach and dripped dry watching the sunset over the ocean and drinking a cold beer from the veranda of the beachfront bar. Felipe joined, and despite my protest picked up the tab, which was nice. We split a cab back to pipa and when back to our respective hostels. We agreed to meet at the praca later that night, but he stood me up, which was too bad because eventhough I was totally not interested in him, he did make for really nice company. So I just had a drink with my friend Rogerio and caught up on some internet and turned in.

The next day was EXTRODINARY!! I went to the most gorgeous beach called praia do amor. It was surrounded by red rock cliffs and it was very large and expansive. I had to descend the cliff to reach it and there were dozen of lovely, free, padded, beach chairs with umbrellas, but not too many people. Paradise!! (brazil in the winter!!!). I was apprehensive of swimming at first as there were massive waves, of about two meters high and I was worried about the current. But I them I met another Feilipe (hahah) from Soa Paulo, who told me there was no current and the waves were mild. So we hit the waves, and they were amazing. Big beautiful, and surprisingly gentle. Sure they crashed, and smashed, and swirled you around, and you could ride them 20 m to shore body surfing no problem. But they didn~t suck you violently in unpleasant ways or directions. So it was just the time of my life, and the only thing stopping me from swimming ALL day was the sun, but I did swim and tan a lot. I had my daily ACAI for lunch, mmmmmm. Then Felipe and his friend, and wonderful daughter, a small girl of 12 or so named Giovanni, invited me to accompany them down to the beach of dolphins. We stopped for them to lunch and passed by the natural low tide swimming pools situated between rocks of the central beaches. They were warm, beautiful, calm, and divinely refreshing. I had a quick dip and then we continued around two more cliffs to a bay, the bay of the dolphins, where typically dozens jump around (but today was the exception). It was maybe an hour or two before sunset and beautiful. The water had calm waves, but not a harmful thing or current to disturb my floating. I could swim backwards with my eyes closed not worrying about hitting a rock or person or boat or anything except maybe a dolphin. Lol. I swam underwater for meters and meters with my eyes open in the sea. I did underwater flips watching the sky from the oceans bottom shimmer like a magical air filled secret of unknown events. It was so divine. I swam until the sun was starting to set and tide come in. We had to leave because we had to make the walk back without climbing the cliffs in the dark.
I didn~t want to leave this place, but was I suppose to leave in the morning…..

Felipe and I parted ways, and I had my shower, then dinner in my typical cheap self-serve restaurant. By coincidence we ran into each other on my way back and agreed to maybe meet up later. I returned to my hostel, where some Brazilian named George kept trying to make plans with me, but I preferred to watch my novella, carras e bocas, its stupid but I love it and its really helping me learn Portuguese. It on every day at 7:20 pm, except Sundays.

Later that night I went out with Felipe, his friend Tiago, and daughter Giovanna. We just had a couple drinks and they smoked a j under the bridge - kind of a bad influence for the ten year old, but it was not my place to say much (although I did). Nothing much happened and I went to bed. We made plans to meet the next morning at 9:15. Giovanna was a doll, holding my hand and hugging me.

The next morning was cloudy, but I had fun walking around the cliffs to get to Praia dos Golphinos. I went swimming for about two hours and they I rushed back to shower, change, get my things and catch a bus to guyanina to catch my bus to recife. I was rather lucky because when i got to the the hyway to catch the bus i had to was very far from the bus stop and the bus had already left but luckily i was in the direction it was heading, so basically i just had to flag it down as it came. Gotta love Brazil!

So when I got back to Recife Almir wasn’t at home, but the doorman gave me a key to his house so no worries.

So the next morning I took a taxi to the bus station only to discover my 1130 bus was full and that I would have to wait until 2pm and take the really slow common bus. I called Almir just to tell him, and he asked if I wanted him to come keep me company and I said, really?? Yes! So he did. That was nice.

So I got on my bus which took forever to get to Maceio, a costal city south of Recife.

Read next blog, tchau baby!

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Comments

[Gabriel]

Miss you!
Hey baby!! I loved your post. Thanks for the good adjcetifs. You are also an extraordinary woman! Seriously, you were an amazing couchsurfer that stayed in "our" place. Thanks for the talks and laughs. Take good care ans let's keep on touch! Good luck!