Today I woke up as we entered the port of Recife, Brazil. I went on a short coach tour to see Recife andamp; Olinda andamp; had my first taste of Brazil.
Recife & Olinda, Brazil.
When we docked in Recife, I was ready for my pre-booked tour. I was quite excited about my first experience in Brazil. I got up around 6 am, took a shower & then went to get myself a coffee in the restaurant. The restaurant buffet was, as normal, busy & unorganised with people pushing & shoving to get either food or a seat so I went to the atrium bar & got a coffee there instead.
After having my coffee I went to deck 9 at the back of the boat & watched as we approached the dock side. I chatted with Tony another passenger on the cruise as the ship was tied up, & 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 & as I approached the lifts they opened & I stepped in to go down to the departure point. Unfortunately, Gail didn't see the lift & missed it. When the lift opened I walked out just as they let people off the ship & I was one of the first off.
Escorted coach tour of Recife & 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 & dancing for all the visitors. Whilst this is a nice touch I can't help but think it would be easier to leave the ship & join the tours if these displays weren't directly at the point everyone leaves 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 then hold up any tours & people could get to their waiting coaches in time for the excursion to leave in time.
I climbed onboard my coach & 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 a very poor city & I was struck by the number of people we saw downtown who were sleeping rough in the streets & begging.
We stopped at Pina Beach, a very nice 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 wonderful. 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 where the guide pointed out the Republic Square & a Government building to us as we passed by. I must say most of the buildings he pointed out looked derelict to me & seemed to be boarded up.
Next, we stopped at the Casa da Cultura, an old penitentiary building, which had been turned into a culture 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 & Gail & I quickly looked around as much as we wanted. As we passed one cell we noticed Marcus & 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 & 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 & quite interesting & 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 onboard smaller minibuses to go through the streets of Olinda. This is where the tour started to fall apart. We were Shepherded towards minibuses & 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, & then reboard it. It seemed that people from a different coach had got on the wrong minibus & 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 & stopped close to Olinda Catherdral. Our guide got off but before we had all got out of the minibus he had shot across the road & 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 to a couple of people who had managed to follow him as soon as he got off the minibus.
The tour around the Church & 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 & left behind. I watched the direction he was leaving & 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 & I managed to find the coach & reboard it with a couple of others but around 20% of the people had been left behind by the guide.
The guide then spent around 40 minutes searching for people, removing people from one mini-bus & putting them on another & generally confusing 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 & almost immediately the cruise ship pulled out of the harbour & we left Recife & Olinda behind us.
We had seen a few interesting places but the tour was badly organised & 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 & look around on my own but wouldn't advise this for people who are a bit nervous as it was a very poor area with many beggars in the streets.
Back on the Costa Favolosa.
When I got back on board I had a shower & went down to the restaurant for dinner. At dinner, I had the beef & chips that are available every day, followed by a milk flan. I sat chatting to Ann & 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 tomorrow in Salvador.