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January 16^th

Recife Brazil

 The Venice of Brazil, because of all of the waterways. A very large, beautiful city on the eastern most part of Brazil on the Atlantic coast. The ocean is warm (85) and most of its tourists are European, and they come for the beaches. Booked a Best of Recife and Olinda tour which took us to a beautiful beach, a couple of churches and historic Olinda, which is a World Heritage site. Old stucco buildings, narrow cobblestone streets, and an old prison that was renovated into shops. Each shop is a ‘cell’ and not very big. In the 18^th century, up to 15 prisoners were kept in these small rooms with no facilities. Hard to imagine what that was like.  The tour was about 5 hrs and we rode in a very nice bus and saw the sights. Mostly churches and views. The city looked very productive, but our guide told us that unemployment was about 33 percent and very poor.  Brazil just passed a law that every child has to attend school until they are 16 yrs old. Before that many did not go to school at all, or just off and on. And it was never enforced. Surprised me.  Did not see much poverty, but we were mostly in the center of the city. Did not feel as hot as other days, but maybe we are finally getting used to it. The port was pretty far away from the city, so it was a good thing we booked a tour. And once again the guide was informative and interesting. This would be a great place to vacation, but would need to know Portuguese, since very little English is spoken or understood.   Recife is a very interesting city.  Returned to the ship around 2 and enjoyed Happy Hour in the Crows nest with Tom and Jerry.  No, not the cartoon characters, but our table mates at dinner.

ON ANOTHER NOTE……We sailed south over the equator and now it is officially summer.  The ship gave us a certificate signed by the captain which was a nice touch. Recife is 1 degree below the equator so they have no time changes, daylight to standard, or vice-versa.  Right now they have an equal amount of day time and nighttime. Almost to the minute.  As we sail further south the days will get longer.  And I think when we get to Antarctica; the days will be really long.