19.1.11 Recife Brazil Davids Birthday and Dresses 12,13,14,15

19.1.11 Recife north East Brazil, Viva Las Vegas and David’s Birthday dresses Number 12,13,14,15

On board the Aurora on the 18^th was black and white formal night with a show from the entertainment team.  So the 12^th dress is me in Black and White and a cocktail hat, many others dressed in the theme so there was a lot of checking out each other’s interpretations of the black and white theme.

 The after dinner show theme was Viva Las Vegas and Dress 13 is worn by one of the performers. It was a great show and a great end to our sail across the Atlantic.

19.1.11 The clocks went back again overnight so the late night was suddenly not such a late night, The sunrise was about 5.00am and we were ready to explore Recife and Olinda in the Province of Pernambuco North East Brazil.

A few facts

Population 1.4 million	Largest city in the region and 5th largest in Brazil
The name Recife comes from arrecife the Portuguese for a reef, the reef being the reason the Portuguese were able to form a port here	Olinda(4 miles up the coast) was originally the settlement and was discovered by the Portugese in the early 16th Century
French raided the town in 1561	Dutch invaded and settled for 24 years in 1630 and ousted the Portuguese
Portuguese ousted the Dutch in 1654	Dutch from here went north and settled on Manhattan and founded New Amsterdam (now New York)
First synagogue in the Americas founded in 1640	1710 became a Brazilian town and 1823 became city and capital of pernambuco
Recife is often called the Venice of Amsterdam of South America due to its canals, bridges and waterways	Original industry and reason for growth was (and remains largest) export is sugar cane.  And for those readers in Spain is one of the reasons for the decline in cane production in Motril area.
Has the highest quality of life in Brazil	Suffered badly in last decades of the 20th century due to decline in sugar trade.
Economy is bouncing back with development of high tech industries, tourism, conferences,	Olinda Pope John Paul the II visited the oldest church there twice
Geographically slightly larger than Portugal	The beach Boa Viagem is their ‘copacabana’ and really lovely with white powdery sand.
The city is only 4 metres above sea level	They have mangrove eco-system which they are working to preserve and restore as great damage had been done historically as they cleared the land for city expansion
As with all of Brazil there is an ethnic mix of White, Black and Brown and they happily refer to the mix in those terms	Rivaldo was born here 19 April 1972

I’ve listed the facts as I had not heard of the place, yet here it is 1.6m people, sky scrapers, booming economy, long and rich history and cultural background, we absolutely had a great trip. The temperature was 32C and they get an average of 70% humidity so quite sticky. The buildings along the water fronts are certainly reminiscent of Holland and are gradually being restored in many cases.  The high rise buildings along the Boa Viagem reminded me of north Durban South Africa, with very expensive apartments facing a gorgeous blue sea view and the natural swimming pools formed by the reef.  Olinda was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1982 and is charming, with many restored - colonial some Dutch some Portuguese style buildings, there are 22 churches there and I lost track of which I was in by the end of the tour.

 As always we absolutely love the sights, smells noise and surprises of the shops and markets.  So in the afternoon we headed downtown. This is where we got dress number 14. It’s worn by Ana Paule who sold me some totally over the top earrings.  She is wearing one of the dresses from the shop and Andre the owner and designer is standing by her side.  They were very helpful and amazed that we were English speaking in Spanish with all of us throwing in some French for good measure.  Their shop is abajour mas www.abajourlilas.com.br if you are ever in Recife and want a locally produced and designed dress.

We thoroughly enjoyed our exploration of the town; souvenirs were plentiful and cheap and I have to confess to three pairs of flip flops, a tee shirt each and some local handicrafts.   The region is in the middle of the carnival season which attracts over 1m participants. It’s known as the most democratic of carnivals in the world as there is no charge to participate, and all ages enjoy the party.

Dress Number 15 is David it’s his birthday and he thanks everyone for getting the cards in to us before we set off on our trip, he has had a great day, the phones and blackberries worked as we were in port so he could catch up with base, the weather was fabulous, he got a card and balloons from the captain and a trip round a tropical city.  The evening finished with a tropical party round one of the pools (hence the pink trousers and an uncompromisingly tropical shirt) I therefore think he deserves to be recorded as number 15

Quite a long blog today, and I just wish I could post pictures of the sights, but unfortunately until we reach Australia we are struggling with very slow connections so dear reader you have all those lovely pictures to look forward to. 

Bizarrely on the night of the 19^th the clocks went forward an hour so we’re back to the time of a couple of days ago.