Recife, parte 2

    In between the three games we attended, since we were there for nine days, we did some touring of Recife and the surrounding area.  Frankly, the city itself does not have a lot to offer, without much historical significance or geographical points of interest.  The beach was right across the street from our hotel and it did have an almost eight kilometer promenade walkway we utilized numerous mornings. Recife actually began as a port for nearby Olinda, but just grew into a big city without a ton of culture. 

      We had a couple of beach days when it was sunny.  The beaches here are pretty expansive and the sand is pretty soft.  Unfortunately, the surf is rough and this is the place that warns of sharks.  Although there are some protected pools during high tide, we never really ventured in the water.  Instead, when we weren’t just walking up and down, we rented chairs, read, watched local kids play soccer and just relaxed.  I tried a bowl of fresh shrimp with lime from some guy carrying a huge bowl up and down the beach-they were a little hard to peel but worth the effort. 

         Since we didn’t always want to just eat downstairs at Maxime’s (and we did more often than not, especially if there was a game we wanted to watch), we asked for other nearby options.  The young man at the desk, who had just moved back to Brasil from the US, suggested a place just down the street, emphasizing that it didn’t look like much but was considered some of the best seafood around.  Indeed the delicious moqueca (fish and shrimp stew) was amazing.  It was served with a salsa that smelled so hot that my craziest Mexicano friends might not been able to handle it and we had to keep it on the other side of the table.

He also recommended the local churrascarria, or I as like to call them, “meat-arias”.  The general idea is an all-you-can-eat set price plus drinks and dessert are extra.  But the basic charge (~$30 here) includes a huge buffet with all kinds of salads, side dishes, fruits and vegetables, quail eggs and other local delicacies, cured meats and cheeses, even sushi nowadays, and more (you could easily fill up here), and then, while you are at your table, they bring you meats. Giant skewers and platters of all types of beef, lamb, chicken, pork (even boar).  There are numerous waiters just walking around ready to give you more meat.  I usually tried to ask what it was, but would always take it regardless of if I understood or not.  There was a huge table of a Mexican family that was there before us and still there when we left taking it all in.  It is a fantastic idea and I’ve got to try the one in Denver (Rodissio’s?).

       One day we took a taxi to Olinda, a much smaller Colonial style town 12km to the north and the original settlement in the area.  It was a gorgeous sunny day as we started at the top plaza that overlooks the town, beach and Recife in the distance. There are local guides there who are all supposedly former street kids who were taken in by the church, educated multilingually and now make their living showing tourists around.  We were adopted by one and shown the various beautiful old churches, monasteries and other government buildings still in use with a little history of the area.  It was a nice little tour, but at the end the guide really tried to gouge us for the tour, asking for $100.  I should have negotiated up front and ended up sending him away pissed off with $40.  The interaction left the experience with a sour aftertaste, but it was a “must visit” site and got us out of the generally boring city.

        Another day we headed to the old section of Recife where there was a lot going on, even though the Fan Fest was empty and locked (we never really got to check it out, but it didn’t sound like the greatest site).  In the main plaza was a huge drum and dance group playing for a large crowd, many of whom were proudly wearing their Mexicano verde.  We wandered around, bought some local art a big fair, and then took a boat across the bay to the “Sculpture Park”, which was a man-made isthmus, lined with various bizarre sculptures, fishermen and drunk vagrants, and even a restaurant. A local couple stopped to ask us if we spoke English, in order to practice a little and they informed us that the road we were on would eventually lead back to the beach area near our hotel.  Against our better judgment, we decided to walk back, since they said it was only twenty minutes on bike.

An hour and a half later, after walking through the edge of a favela along the far end of the beach, and running into the couple again drinking a beer, we eventually made it back to our hotel.  

       We had enough time for a shower and went downstairs to Maxime’s to get a good table for the USA-Portugal game.  We got there just in time as the place really filled up by the time kickoff rolled around.  And it was rowdy with every table packed with a few groups of Americans, a lot of Mexicans of whose allegiances were mixed, and numerous others.  It was loud throughout but when the US scored it felt as if we were at the stadium.  We did our own chants including some “I believe…” and of course, “USA! USA!! USA!!!”.  The entire place went dead silent as Ronaldo made his one play of the game with his cross to assist the tying goal in the waning seconds of a ridiculously long five minutes of additional time.  Everyone quickly paid their bills and the place emptied out.  

       To be honest, although they hosted some excellent soccer games, the city itself just did not have a lot to offer and was a little disappointing, although we did still have a great time.  If we were to do one thing differently on the trip, it would have been to stay farther down the coast at a smaller beach town like Porto da Galinhos, which we heard a lot about.  It would have been lower key, more vacation-like and the transportation would have been feasible as numerous people did so.

Recife, parte 1

[Note:  It has taken me while but I am finally catching up with my all of my Brasil reports, which, not surprisingly, have become much longer than I originally intended.  This is the first of what has turned out to be four posts about Recife, there will be one (or possibly two) about Rio, as well as a couple more about Brasil and Portuguese in general.]

    We had to get up ridiculously early to catch our 6:20 AM flight from Salvador to Recife and after a short, hardly scary at all cab ride, we were at our hotel by 9:00 AM, with the whole day ahead of us to get the lay of the land. We explored the local neighborhood and found a cool little deli/market/cafe down the street and had some of the best coffee I have ever tasted, once we figured out the “system”.  Many retail places in Brasil have slightly different processes for purchasing, many times needing to pay a different person or at a different place, often first, from where you actually get your merchandise.  However, at “Diplomata” (and I think a local even tried to tell us it was different here, even for Brasil), whichever area (coffee, deli, bakery) you started at would give you a lanyard with a barcoded card that they would digitally scan prices into for you. Then, when you were ready to pay, you just present it at the cash register up front to pay when you are all done.  Each place you go tends to have their own set-up so you usually have to observe and ask.

     Later, we went to the main high end shopping mall to get tickets for the Arena Expreso bus (ahead of time because you couldn’t just buy them on the day of the game because that is the system here) and of course, it was only open certain hours.  So we wandered around the gigantic Rio Mar Shopping mall until they were ready.  This enormous labyrinth was full of every store imaginable, including many customer-less American and European designer labels.  Most of whose employees, no matter what type of store it was (except maybe the high end ones) were dressed in the familiar yellow and green and the storefront windows were often decorated the with that same color motif.  The busiest spot was the tiny FIFA kiosco filled with mostly Fuleco crap. We did find a really cool “retro” soccer jersey store.  Eventually, we were able to buy our transport tickets to and from all three games, which turned out to be a great decision as this bus was the most efficient thing we encountered in Brasil. 

     After relaxing back at the hotel, we took the easiest choice and went to the restaurant right next door, Maxime’s Boteco, another fine decision as it became a favorite place to eat and watch games, when it was open.  The pub/tavern has six big screen TVs, three inside and three outside and an extensive menu, from full entrees to a variety of bar food, much of which is brought around on trays for you to sample.  You never knew what was going to be passed or when the next one would come, but it was usually something delicious, like crab or shrimp cakes, little pasties pastries and pies, or grilled meat or chicken skewers.  You could fill up without ever having to order anything but more cerveja.  You can order “chopp” a small draft beer, or they also had large ~40 ounce bottles that are brought to your table in an plastic insulating container (similar to a tailgate beer can holder) with small glasses to share, usually the “Original” brand (yes, that is the name) but also with Bohemia or Heineken when they ran out of the original.

    The next morning we were treated to an extensive breakfast buffet, with even more choice than the impressive Salvador spread, including fruit, breads, hot entrees, eggs, pastries, cereal, juices, cheese, meats, egg and tapioca (they use tapioca for everything including this crepe-like dish) station, so you could something different every day if you want and we were there 8 days without really getting tired of it.  The breakfast room was packed with Costa Rican red jerseys, although the atmosphere was quiet and reserved as everyone readied for the crucial match with Italy.

    The bus ended up being an excellent, efficient mode of transportation sine they never completed the planned subway or public bus lines and the stadium is way outside of town.  We had to pass the stadium before we parked and it looked really cool out there in the middle of nowhere.  We still had to walk a little ways to get to the actual stadium but for the walk up anticipation has always been a huge part of attending any game.   While they had been pretty mellow at the hotel, the Costa Ricans were starting to get loud.  We hit all the stations in the Fan Zone and headed inside to watch the crowd and warm-ups. 

     The Ticos had a huge section behind one of the goals and they rarely stopped singing and chanting from an hour before kickoff to well beyond the last whistle. And they (we) had a lot to cheer about as the team proved their victory over Uruguay had not been a fluke, flustering and all but shutting down Andrea Pirlo in the middle.  Since he had trouble getting the ball, and was harassed by two or three bodies when he did, he could not get it to Mario Balotelli, who was quiet the whole game.  Each Costa Rican goal was greeted with a roar and made me realize how cool it was to be part of it.  The walk out of the stadium and back to the bus was quick and merry, serenaded by the victorious Ticos.

    Afterwards, as we were waiting for a taxi to get back to the hotel, I wondered out loud about what was going on in the next game.  Just then, a taxi pulled up and as we got in, we noticed that the driver had a small TV mounted into his dash and had the game on!  When we got back to the hotel, we ran across to the gas station to grab some water and they had a TV set up outside so workers and customers alike could check the game; it turned out that this TV was almost always on with whatever game was currently playing. That night the celebration continued back at Maxime’s with numerous Costa Riquenos and a generally fun multinational crowd, including a bunch of crazy Mexicanos who were already started to show up for the approaching Mexico-Croatia match.