Porto de Galinhas, Northeast Brazil
BRAZIL | Thursday, 17 July 2008 | Views [239]
Back in Recife/Olinda, Ben and I met up with Amy Cooper, who popped by Brazil to hang with us for a few days after her Habitat for Humanity stint in Paraguay. Our plan was to visit Olinda with Amy for a few hours before heading south to the beach hot spot in Porto de Galinhas, but Amy was a bit under the weather (likely due to the nasty pizza on TAM airlines) so we skipped the walk and headed straight for the bus station.
A bus ride that should only have taken an hour of course turned into nearly three, but we arrived later that day in Porto de Galinhas ready for the beach. Porto de Galinhas was recently voted one of the top five beaches in Brazil according to a local magazine and so ended up on our itinerary for the northeast. The "Port of Chickens" has a dark history behind its name; after slavery was abolished in Brazil in the 1880s, slave traders still smuggled their human cargo into this port under crates of chickens. Today, Porto de Galinhas is full of mostly Brazilian tourists and silly chicken shaped telephone booths. It was a bit too developed and crowded for my taste, but we did have a great few days after our rough start.
Amy was still working through her sickness, so we just explored our pousada and walked to town via the beach for an early dinner. That night, we ended up having what Ben described as his "worst night of sleep on the entire South America trip." Our room was on the first floor next to reception and there were two men having a very loud conversation outside our room. Ben eventually went outside to motion "you are talking too loud, shut up!" We were awoken the next morning at 6 AM by some weird generator sounds, followed by shouting children with whistles and bells. To top it all off, there were about 20 mosquitoes in our room and our faces were eaten off. The bites looked like acne on a 15 year old. After a visit to the Best Western to inquire about a new room (totally booked, plus it was 400 Br. Reals a night), we decided to upgrade our room to one upstairs with working fans and AC to keep the mosquitoes away. The second room, which was two levels, was actually really comfortable and perfect for the party of five that we were to become.
Our pousada was only a half a block from the beach, so we spent that day relaxing and eating fresh lobster on the shore. We then went back to shower and walk to town, at which point we were caught up in a huge thunderstorm and were completely drenched. After some tense discussions as whether to return to our place or continue on in wet clothes (some of us were not too keen about having to sit in wet shorts...ahem, Ben), we girls ganged up on Ben and had a nice sit down dinner at a new restaurant in town. Ben was a good sport in the end, wet shorts and all.
The next day we walked 45 minutes to the beach of Maracaipe, which was calmer and less crowded. After a day in the sun, we enjoyed drinks on the waterfront, where a 14 year old boy painted a picture for us in a matter of minutes (it's quite good). We tried to negotiate 20 reals for the picture, which the boy adamantly refused, because as we found out a bit later, he was only trying to sell it for 10. We were such idiots, but all had a good laugh about it. That night, after a huge all-you-can-eat Brazilian churrascaria (barbeque, we love meat) we tried to stay up as late as possible to wait for the arrival of Amy's boyfriend, Taylor, or "Tay-Tay", who was on a work assignment in Sao Paulo. Due to horrendous traffic, Taylor missed his flight to Recife and was only able to arrive at 1 AM, at which point he was unable to rent a car and had to take a taxi to Galinhas. He rolled in at the cool hour of 4 AM, but it was good to finally have him there.
The next morning, we all engaged in a good game of Hearts and waited for the mysterious Rob Novoa to appear, one of Taylor's roommates from college who is currently working in Salvador. After a lot of confusion and waiting, we ended up meeting with Rob on the waterfront for evening drinks (he had taken the scenic bus instead of the express bus). Dinner that night was at the tasty Beijupira, where we had amazing fish dishes and capiroskas with fresh fruit.
Rob was back on the bus to Salvador the next day, and the rest of us spent time back at Maracaipe under umbrellas and engaged in more Hearts. After a return visit to our first night's restaurant, we went back for a quiet night as Amy and Taylor were off early that morning back to Recife to catch their respective flights. Ben and I switched to a smaller room and spent the whole day back at the far end of Maracaipe. I think I can honestly say that we are tan enough now.
Our final morning was a bit of a joke since no one was available at the front desk to check us out and take our money, and then our cab to the bus station never showed up, but we managed to make it out of Porto de Galinhas and back to Recife to catch our flight to exciting Salvador. Galinhas was a very cool stop on our Brazil journey for the simple fact that we got to hang with Amy and Taylor, our "white lightning" Londoners.
Next up: Salvador de Bahia, the Africa of Brazil.
Tags: beaches & sunshine
