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.