Jan 23, Sat Recife/Olinda Brazil
Today was a great day of exploration for us and two friends. We decided to DIY to Olinda, a small town about 7 kilometers from where our ship was docked in Recife.
View from cathedral square
Cathedral
We bought a carving of a city street from this vendor
We disembarked, got on a free shuttle that took us to the port terminal, and then another free shuttle took us from the terminal to downtown Recife where we could get a taxi to Olinda.
We found a taxi that used a meter rather than a negotiated fare and after a short ride were taken to the Cathedral du Se, which is on the highest point in Olinda....good for those who don't like to climb up cobblestone walkways.
Olinda is perched on a hill overlooking the harbor and is old and beautiful. Founded by the Portuguese in 1530 Olinda became wealthy on exporting sugar. In 1630 the Dutch arrived and wanted a piece of the sugar business, took Olinda, and destroyed most of the town.
Approximately, 25 years later the Portuguese reclaimed Olinda and rebuilt it but by that time, the area around the harbor, Recife, had become the powerful business center, and Olinda lost her status. Today it is a lovely, small village high on the hill with glorious views.
We walked the streets, took pictures, bought a couple of small items for family members and were pleased to note that everyone, including the taxi drivers took US$ since we couldn't find a bank or ATM.
We visited a convent that wasn't open to tourists but we just happened to be at the right place at the right time and were invited in. We saw the lovely painted ceiling and each floor was laid with different Portuguese tiles.
We visited churches, artist shops, took pictures of small side streets, admired the Royal Poinciana in bloom, and bought a great souvenir from the wood carver!
We finished our lovely day in Olinda by watching young people carrying drums coming from all different directions walking into a tree shaded square. How wonderful to hear their music and see their love of drumming! Awesome day!
Puppet Museum
Practice for Carnival
Today we leave for our 5 day sea journey across the Atlantic to Tome on the west coast of Africa.
Obrigado, Brazil....c
Today was a great day of exploration for us and two friends. We decided to DIY to Olinda, a small town about 7 kilometers from where our ship was docked in Recife.
View from cathedral square
We bought a carving of a city street from this vendor
We disembarked, got on a free shuttle that took us to the port terminal, and then another free shuttle took us from the terminal to downtown Recife where we could get a taxi to Olinda.
We found a taxi that used a meter rather than a negotiated fare and after a short ride were taken to the Cathedral du Se, which is on the highest point in Olinda....good for those who don't like to climb up cobblestone walkways.
Olinda is perched on a hill overlooking the harbor and is old and beautiful. Founded by the Portuguese in 1530 Olinda became wealthy on exporting sugar. In 1630 the Dutch arrived and wanted a piece of the sugar business, took Olinda, and destroyed most of the town.
Approximately, 25 years later the Portuguese reclaimed Olinda and rebuilt it but by that time, the area around the harbor, Recife, had become the powerful business center, and Olinda lost her status. Today it is a lovely, small village high on the hill with glorious views.
We walked the streets, took pictures, bought a couple of small items for family members and were pleased to note that everyone, including the taxi drivers took US$ since we couldn't find a bank or ATM.
We visited a convent that wasn't open to tourists but we just happened to be at the right place at the right time and were invited in. We saw the lovely painted ceiling and each floor was laid with different Portuguese tiles.
We visited churches, artist shops, took pictures of small side streets, admired the Royal Poinciana in bloom, and bought a great souvenir from the wood carver!
We finished our lovely day in Olinda by watching young people carrying drums coming from all different directions walking into a tree shaded square. How wonderful to hear their music and see their love of drumming! Awesome day!
Puppet Museum
Practice for Carnival
Today we leave for our 5 day sea journey across the Atlantic to Tome on the west coast of Africa.
Obrigado, Brazil....c
3 comments:
We are really enjoying your blog. That day trip sounds awesome and your photography really caps it off.
Chris Acton
chris,
the day trip WAS awesome! I encourage anyone to do as we did. All of us who took the taxi up were very pleased with their day. If you've never done a taxi before it might be a little stressful the first time, but it is well worth being on your own---especially after you've been on a cruise ship for a while!
As i said, frommers.com does a great job of publishing diy walking tours with explanations of what you're seeing and the accompanying map...we're big fans and have used them everywhere we've been. Every place we're going we've tried to use frommers walking tours and/or hop on hop off (HOHO) buses...they're also great and work well with frommers.
good sea day...gentle seas and sunny skies! c
We really enjoy DIY'ing small towns on our own or with a small group. Olinda seems like just the place to do this.
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