seasons

they say its winter here in brazil. when we landed in sao paolo late sunday evening, we kind of felt it. we descended from the airplane via stairs, which i always find interesting because it makes me feel like im a president, or something, and immediately i felt a chill in the air. not a real chill, mind you, but a 60 degree chill. i put my fleece on and hoped that in recife, our ultimate destination that evening, it would be warmer.

about 8 hours later, after a long layover at the sao paolo airport and a quick flight north, we woke up, as the plane landed, to rain streaking the windows - sideways. when we got off the plane, we were supposed to be met by someone from our hotel, pousada peter, which is located not in recife but in neighboring olinda. olinda was to be hilly and nice, with art everywhere and forro (northern brazilian music) in the streets. anyway, we got off the plane and looked for a dude holding a sign with our name on it but, alas, there was none. we waited around a bit but no one showed. already extremely unimpressed with pousada peter, we got a cab. the cab driver drove like mad the long way to olinda. still, rain streaked the windows and we hydroplaned through most of the red lights encountered along the way. finally, eventually, we made it to pousada peter, but not without getting soaked in the progress. but the cab driver was extremely nice, and helped us stay dry as best he could.

the night check in guy (it was 5am) at the hotel didnt mention the forgotten pick up, and we didnt know how to, so the issue was dropped. we showed us to our room and we learned a few things: 1) they have bidets here in brazil, but different than in argentina. not another toilet seat but a hose like thing. interesting. 2) like many other countries in south america, toilet paper is not flushed. 3) there are electric showers here, too and 4) pousada peter decieved us because their website shows pictures of rooms that dont actually exisit. no matter though, we didnt let this last part get us down. we fell into bed for a nap before breakfast without even unpacking.

we woke up a few hours later, determined not to miss the free hotel breakfast. let me just take this opportunity to tell you how impressed i am with breakfast in brazil. they take it seriously here, and so far it seems that it is always included with the hotel. there are fresh juices, tons of fresh tropical fruit, eggs, bread, cake, cereal and strong coffee. really, anything you might want for breakfast is laid out on a table, and you just help yourself again and again while someone cooks you eggs. its such a wonderful way to start the day. so we had that and set off to explore olinda, though it was still raining intermittently.

olinda is, as more than one european traveler described it, (actually we only met 2. they both described it this way) very special. it is all cobblestone and hills, with views of the ocean and the buildings of recife from all angles. the people are friendly and there are museums and colonial buildings everywhere. what really impressed me, though, was the art. in olinda there is art EVERYWHERE. literally every other building is a gallery, which one is free to wander in and out of. the walls of the streets are covered in paintings, the hotels have art, the bars and resturants have art, even the bathrooms have paintings hanging in them. it makes for a lovely, friendly, if not a little sleepy, town. we spent 2 days exploring it and eating street food in the rain. after a while, the rain got old, our pousada became unbarably damp, so we left and headed for porto do galinhas, a beach town 2 hours south. we figured the rain wouldnt bother us there since we´d be wet anyway....

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