Recife and Olinda – The Last of South America

10th & 11th March, 2023

We had a very pleasant day at sea (we are heading back to the Equator) and then arrived at the eastern-most city in Brazil, Recife and Val and I headed off on a tour organised by the ship around Recife and nearby Olindo. The former is bit unremarkable, a city of about 1.7 million, founded in 1537, with a number of islands close together and linked over the rivers by bridges. We were first taken to see the presidential palace (or possibly the local governor’s abode), which is a fine building in a nice enough square where there is also located the Palace of Justice and a theatre.

It was then off to a rather unusual church or chapel that apparently is not usually open to the public, but to which we were admitted. It is called the Golden Church (or Chapel) and it was pretty obvious why!

It was then off to a very remarkable market, not from what they sold, but from where it was located, which was in a converted prison. It would seem that they moved the prison from the centre of the city in the 1970s and converted the prison into the rather delightful arts and craft market it is today.

Off again, we headed about 6 kilometres away to the town of Olinda, an artsy, colonial counterpart to the big city hubbub of Recife. I would not put it in the same category as Salvador, but it was a nice, colourful hill with stunning views and an unusually plain church (for South America).

We were due to visit a monastery (or as one wag on the trip described it, an ABC (Another Bloody Church!), but the monks decided to close up for the afternoon, so instead, by way of contrast, we went to the nearby Casa dos Bonecos Gigantes, or House of the Giant Puppets, which houses the puppets used in Olinda’s annual carnival. They were definitely quite lifelike (I think they represented local celebrities and dignitaries).

There was a nice shady bit nearby (very welcome in the 32 degree heat) with a few interesting sights..

It was then back to the ship, but the day was by no means over yet as we had a Sailing Away Deck Party since we were now leaving South America. It went very well probably due to the free drinks offered (70 bottles of rum were consumed apparently) with live music and lots of singing and dancing. It was really sad as we realised that we really were on our way home, but mixed with very happy memories.

12th March – Parque National Marino de Fernando de Noronha

Technically we had only left mainland South America the day before as we did sail past the very attractive-looking 21-island archipelago that makes up this sea-turtle sanctuary. It was only open for tourism in 1988 having been a military installation and prison before that. There are major restrictions as to who can live there and it is very protected, although we were told that the population was about 2,100 (including a very expensive luxury hotel). It certainly looked nice!

There were a lot of birds flying about at a very photographable height and speed.

There was still time for some darts though….

We had sailed about 3 to 4 hours from Fernando de Norunha when the Captain announced we had to turn around and go back to evacuate a passenger who was very ill. No news as to their situation, but they were lowered into the small boat that came alongside in a wheelchair, which was encouraging. We are now steaming at full speed to try and arrive at our next destination, Cape Verde Islands on time.