Today, I woke up as we entered the port of Recife, Brazil. I went on a short coach tour to see Recife and Olinda and had my first taste of Brazil.
When we docked in Recife, I was ready for my pre-booked tour. I was pretty excited about my first experience in Brazil. I got up around 6 am, took a shower and then went to get myself a coffee in the restaurant. The restaurant buffet was, as usual, busy and unorganised, with people pushing and shoving to get either food or a seat, so I went to the atrium bar and got a coffee there instead.
After having my coffee, I went to deck 9 at the back of the boat and watched as we approached the dockside. I chatted with Tony, another passenger on the cruise, as the ship was tied up, and then I went towards the departure point on the lower deck of the ship. I bumped into Gail, who was going on the excursion with me, and as I approached the lifts, they opened, and I stepped in to go down to the departure point. Unfortunately, Gail didn't see the lift and missed it. When the lift opened, I walked out just as they let people off the ship, and I was one of the first off.
Escorted coach tour of Recife and Olinda.
As I walked off the ship, I was guided towards the area where the coach I would be taking the tour on would be. I walked past a small band playing Brazillian music and dancing for all the visitors. While this is a nice touch, I can't help but think it would be easier to leave the ship and join the tours if these displays weren't directly at the point where everyone left the ship. It creates a bottleneck of people all stopping to watch the show as they get off the ship. In my opinion, it would be better if they moved the show further away from the ship exit so that people who didn't want to watch or who were in a hurry could get off with no delay. This would not hold up any tours, and people could get to their waiting coaches in time for the excursion to leave on time.
I climbed onboard my coach and was soon joined by Gail. The coach left about half an hour late, but we were soon being driven through Recife to our first stop, Pina Beach. Recife seemed to be an impoverished city, and I was struck by the number of people we saw downtown who were sleeping rough in the streets and begging.
We stopped at Pina Beach, a lovely beach, for a quick photo stop. The expensive-looking tower blocks along the beachfront were great. The views from these opulent homes must have been fantastic. Our guide told us that each floor in some of these buildings was one apartment. How true this is, I don't know. We were soon driving through downtown again, and the guide pointed out Republic Square and a government building to us as we passed by. I must say most of the buildings he pointed out looked derelict to me and seemed to be boarded up.
Next, we stopped at the Casa da Cultura, an old penitentiary building that had been turned into a cultural centre. The cells downstairs had been transformed into small shops selling what can politely be called artisan goods, but which I prefer to call tourist tat. We were given around 40 minutes to look around the building, and Gail and I quickly looked around as much as we wanted. As we passed one cell, we noticed Marcus and two other German people from our cruise inside a cell that had been turned into a small bar. We joined them for a bottle of beer before going back out towards where the coach had dropped us.
As we went outside, a band had just set up and started to play music. They were shortly joined by people in cultural costumes performing a small show. Unfortunately, no one explained to us what it was about. It looked like a wedding Ceremony of sorts, but it could have been anything. It was very colourful and fascinating, and as soon as it finished, we all got back on the coach to go to Olinda.
When we arrived in Olinda, we had to leave our large coach to get on smaller minibuses to go through the streets. This is where the tour started to fall apart. We were shepherded towards minibuses and asked to climb aboard. After sitting on our minibus, we watched as the people on the minibus in front were first asked to board, then get off the minibus, and then reboard it. It seemed that people from a different coach had got on the wrong minibus, and we had to wait for everybody to be seated on the right bus even though we were all going to the same place.
We drove through the small streets and stopped close to Olinda Catherdral. Our guide got off, but before we had all got out of the minibus, he shot across the road and began the tour. We had to chase after him, but as soon as we caught him up, he went to the next place, and I didn't hear any of what he had said.
The tour around the Church and the small area we visited continued like this, with most of the people whom he was supposed to be showing around not hearing anything he said or getting lost and left behind. I watched the direction he was leaving and followed behind after taking some photos of the area, but not knowing what I had been taking photos of. Google would have to tell me when I got home. Gail and I managed to find the coach and reboard it with a couple of others, but around 20% of the people were left behind by the guide.
The guide then spent around 40 minutes searching for people, removing people from one mini-bus and putting them on another. This confused everyone before we took the minibus back to the main coach. When we all got back on the coach, we headed back towards the cruise ship. We arrived about 30 minutes late, but because the excursion had been organised by the ship, it had waited for us. We all got back onboard the ship, and almost immediately, the cruise ship pulled out of the harbour, and we left Recife and Olinda behind us.
We had seen a few interesting places, but the tour was poorly organised and not worth the money we had paid to go on it. If I were to visit again, I think I would take the free shuttle into town and look around on my own, but I wouldn't advise this for people who are a bit nervous as it was an impoverished area with many beggars in the streets.
Back on the Costa Favolosa.
When I got back on board, I took a shower and went to the restaurant for dinner. At dinner, I had the beef and chips that were available every day, followed by a milk flan. I sat chatting to Ann and Rosa about my excursion before I left to go to the piano bar for a drink. The show in the theatre tonight is a singer that I have already seen, so I decided to have an early night. I went to bed around 11 pm to get some sleep as I have another excursion planned for tomorrow in Salvador.