A new place today - we nearly left on time but Esther was on Brazilian time. Not to worry, the airport was very easy to negotiate and our plane from Salvador to Recife was not even full. Sue and I sat in the same row with the middle seat empty. I read and by the time I was tired of reading, we had landed. It was only around an hour or so flight south. Of course, the usual waiting to get luggage and then to a huge tourist bus rather than a minibus. Our tourist leader whose nickname is shortened to Ni, kept up a steady commentary on all things Recife and Olinda. Our (unknown to us at the time) 5 star hotel, the Atlante Hotel is right across the street from an enormously long beach. Everyone here walks on the beach - it has both bike paths and jogging paths and plan walking paths - from 6-8 am and from 6-8 pm. At least those people not buying groceries which a few of us did around 7:30 pm when we returned from our tour of the city which ended up being a 4.5 hour tour.
Brazilians move at their own speed which is generally unhurried. It is that way in traffic, it is that way with grocery lines. There were three lines at the supermarket which was a ten minute walk from our hotel. We were on a necessary quest for water and snacks. Finding snacks was our goal and that was easy. Lines were long, only three check out counters. Our line had a checker who had to look up each item so it took forever for our line to move. I amused myself by analyzing the food items in the woman's cart in front of me and having imaginary conversations with her about her food choices. Midway in her food check out, another clerk took over and it was a radical improvement. We decided that the pink shirt employees were the rapido checkers as the previous one was in red shirt and probably a trainee as in red shirt from a hellishly slow Brazilian state.
We trudged back to the hotel, grateful for our two bottles of water each, cashews and my apples. Hot, sweaty and too tired to go out again, I opted to stay in and shower while Patty went out for a drink on the beach where you can get drinks and the equivalent of bar snacks.
Our city tour of Olinda was great. We were told to wear comfortable shoes as our big tourist bus couldn't get up the steep hill. And up we went panting and trying to get up to the level part on top. Beautiful colonial style Portuguese houses. We visited one church but Lonely Planet speaks of another church with an exquisite altarpiece that we didn't have time to see as we went to a bunch of shops. I did manage to boy a handmade blouse with handmade lace for a very reasonable price. Plus, I drank some sugar cane 100 Proof liquor dispensed from a ceramic goat's butt. Just a sip and I choked. I was then given a more palatable banana liquor which was infinitely better in taste. We walked back down a very very steep hill psst some artisan shops and were shown thee four oorners area where the carnaval music and festivities converge. It sounds like a whole lot of fun in Olinda where there is a cultural theme each. I would like to be here someday for Carnaval. The music is different than in Rio the dancing is different too.
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