Recife, Brazil (inc. Porto de Galinhus)

After running for our bus back in Salvador, we settled ourselves for the jouney north. Lonely Planet estimated the trip at 11 hours which meant a we'd arrive at approximately 6am the next morning. We pulled into a pretty major bus station at around 6.30am and got off the bus along with everyone else. With no Portugese under our belts, too much pride to ask someone and the wise words of Lonely Planet in our minds, this must have been it. We gave our hostel address to the first cabbie who informed us that this hostel was in Recife. That it was, unfortunately we weren't. We were still 3.5 hours south in Masseo. We boarded another bus only losing about an hour from our blunder. This 3.5 hour bus ride turned into a 5.5 hour bus ride as gridlock set in on the outskirts of Recife. We finally made it and jumped in a cab to the hostel. Not only was the bus station at the end of the earth (approx R50 in a cab) but we noted down the address incorrectly and ended up at the wrong end of Boa Viagem. Even though much of this was our fault, Recife was in the bad books.

Our hostel was a bit creepy. It translated to 'Pirates of the beach hostel', had heaps of weird crap all over the walls and was basically a 4 bedroom apartment converted to dorms. Worst of all, it was expensive (R44 p/p with air con). Thankfully we managed to get it for R38 p/p after Nick passed himself off as a fulltime student, and I sold them a story about being a YHA member.

The next day was spent at the airport trying to change our flight with our good friends at TAM so we could get out of here. No luck. Even with our original flight costing only R220, the cost of changing it was going to be R360. Go figure. Given their previous incompetence dealing with our lost bags, this didn't really suprise me.

Plan B - Make the most of this place:
As it turns out, Boa Viagem wasn't so bad. It's a very 'Gold Coast-esque' area with high-rise apartment buildings, expansive beach frontages and alot of construction. Every building is clad with tiles which seems a bit excessive, costly and time consuming, but I'm sure there is a reason behind it.

The beach at Boa Viagem isn't actually that clean and we quickly learnt that most locals do day trips to nearby beaches. One of which is Joao Pessoa (our original plan), or Porto de Galinhus (our eventual destination. See below). Regardless, we decided to sample the local nightlife at a club called 'Nox', only 4 blocks from our hostel. This was a club for Recife's young and affluent and could probably be compared to Boutique, Eve, or any other stuck-up night spot back in Melbourne. The look on the bouncers face when we provided Australian drivers licences was gold. We were welcomed with no hesitation, most likely because we're gringos and presumed to have money to burn. Boa Viagem was also safe enough to walk home at 4am. (NB. Obviously not my photos).

Recife has extensive botanical gardens just north of Boa Viagem which was our first destination the next day. As it turns out, the gardens are bordered by a vast river which prevents entry. After 30 minutes of walking around the outside, we deemed it a waste of time and set off for Olinda.

Olinda is a world-heritage listed colonial town approximately 45 minutes north of Recife. The walking was quite demanding but worth the effort with the view from the top stretching down to the beach and all the way down the coast back to Boa Viagem in the south of Recife. Many of the buildings had been restored which was good to see, especially after the dilapidated old town of Salvador (not 'satisfyingly decaying' as stated in Lonely Planet). Stores and bars were open, and there was still some celebrations from the previous weeks Carnaval flowing over.

It didn't take much thought to conclude we'd travel down to Porto de Galinhus to check out what many Brazillians consider the best beach in the country. The bus took approximately 2 hours at a bargain price of only R6.30. We took a 20 minute sand buggy on arrival to Maracaipe for a 2 hour boat trip around the river mouth. We failed to bargain with the sand buggy driver and got fleeced R80 for the both of us. In hindsight, we probably could have got it down to R50-60. Not too bad and we got up some serious speed in the buggy on the way back which redeemed it a little. After some Tapioca for lunch, we went for a quick snorkel but there wasn't much to see (no corals and no colourful fish), plus it had started to cloud over so visibility was poor. We didn't take cameras with us so I've just ripped this photo off wikipedia. Unlike many wikipedia photos, Porto de Galinhus looks exactly like the photo. I think it speaks for itself.

We met an expat on the bus back to Recife who had been living in Berlin for the last 20 years. He gave us some good advice for our Rio leg which should hopefully stand us in good stead.

The tradeoffs for the day were third degree sunburn despite being liberal with sunscreen all day (I'm not looking forward to hauling a backpack to the airport), and the tragic loss of 'Kathmandu micro-fibre towel'.



He was last seen on the downtown bus from Porto de Galinhus after I left him on the seat. RIP.

Our last night in Recife will be on the airport floor to save money from the overpriced hostel, before a 5:20am flight to Rio. Hopefully the cold hard tiles of the departure lounge will sooth my sunburn.