December 28 - Recife & Olinda, Brazil

Today was a port day, and I took the Recife and UNESCO Site of Olinda excursion.

Olinda, the old capital, is a beautiful city on a hill. It is a UNESCO site which has lovely homes and historic cathedrals. UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. You can just see my home (ship), if you look really hard, in the upper right side of both of these pictures

  

We visited Mosterio de Sao Bento (Monastery of St. Benedict) a 17th century Baroque gem with an ornate interior draped in gold. 

 
   

They had some very nice Stations of the Cross Plaques


Here is one of the Monks, keeping an eye on us. 

We continued to head up the hill and arrived at the highest point, Alto Da Se (top of the sea) which overlooked another church that I think was Misericordia Church. A 16th century architectural masterpiece. However, I can’t be sure.

 

Or maybe it was this one.

We also passed this shop. Translated it says House of Giant Dolls & Children of Olinda. Downright creepy.

Here are some views from the Top of the Seas.

City View

 

Ocean View and back to City View. 
 

Here you can see their fascination with umbrellas.

Heading down the hill we toured the huge city of Recife


 

We then headed to Praca da Republic, or government square. We saw the Palacio do Campo das Princesa/Palace of the Princess (yellow building), Teatro de Santa Isabel/theater of Holy/Princess Isable (pink building) and Palacio da Justica/Palace of Justice (grey building). 

 

 

And a Boa boa tree. Funky looking isn't it.

We got to visit a beautiful beach, Boa Viagem, know of its great waters, as it is protected by a natural reef, which keeps the sharks out. This is what it looks like. 

This is what we saw. At least we saw the last part of the reef. 


At the beach we saw this big Rooster. We were told the Rooster is the predominant figure in Carnaval. The first parade is the rooster parade. Both the rooster and the umbrellas play a large role in Carnaval.

We then headed over to Casa da Cultura, which was once a prison and is now a handicraft market. It was Way too crowded for me; however, I was able to snap a pic to show that it truly was once a prison. Also out side they had a cultural show for us. One of these days I’ll start posting videos. It would help if I took some videos to post. Hahaha

 

As always I love unique structures. Here is a bridge and the port terminal building.
 


Brazil (Brasil) is in desperate need of a GOOD Electrician

An interesting note; we were escorted everywhere we went with a police/military contingent. They were quite unassuming, in fact a friend had to point out their presence to me.

 






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