Recife Pros and Cons

Welcome to Recife: Ut Luceat Omnibus- The Land Shines For All.  It happens to be one of the most sought out posts in the Foreign Service. Could it be for you? Depends. Do you love fun, sun and Frevo?  Do you love selfie-sticks and meat on-a-stick? If you said yes to any of the above, then you're well on your way! Read on for the Schlink version of the pros and cons of Recife...

Recife Antigo

PRO: You live on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. At this time all government apartments line Avenida Boa Viagem, the traffic choking one-way drag that hugs the coastline. The view, the beach, and the people watching provides many of fantasies and entertaining stories. Everyday I "enjoy" 5:00am sunrises. I've cried and cheered on 70,000+ people marching in the Diversity Parade, raised eyebrows at the much smaller scale religious parades and political protests, and gazed upon endearing late-night soccer games. Recife is simply beautiful.

Sunrise

Con: You live on the edge of the shark infested Atlantic Ocean. The danger of sharks is so real, surfing is prohibited and swimming is limited within the rock reef.  While 2014 ended with no reports of shark attacks, March 2015 a 23-year old surfer experienced a true Jaws moment when a shark bit his thigh. The attack occurred in the city of Olinda, 8 miles north of Recife.  He survived, but vows never to surf again.

Pro: Brazilian people who smile and say hello. Their friendliness is overwhelmingly welcoming, and I've made some interesting friends based on this factor alone. There is one woman in particular who regularly supplies me with fruits and vegetables. About once a month she drives to the outer skirts of Recife where there is a warehouse sized open air market and stocks up her four fridges. She even procured two ducks for my husband after he randomly reminisced about a Romanian Christmas celebration we did with grilled duck and duck-fat potatoes. Next month we will go together so I can experience this for myself.


Con: Brazilian people who mug you at gun point. Or knife point. Sadly, Recife is a dangerous city and the need to stay vigilant is essential. While I've been spared the terror of muggings and theft, I have several friends who weren't so lucky- some were even robbed on the beach.

Sun setting behind the cityscape. 

Pro: Carnaval festivities rife with dancing, singing and union. While Rio can boast about their raging pre-Lent, samba-plagued celebrations, it doesn't hold a candle to the intense cultural and emotional attachments northeastern Brazil prides itself in. And there's a Carnaval for everyone: there's both large, millions of people size parties and small, neighborhood magazine stand gatherings. You can celebrate in the chest pounding/crushing streets or in the relative safety of a pousada. You can celebrate on the beach at 6:00am or at midnight in Recife Antigo (Old Town.) Recife even has separate Carnaval parties for children and senior citizens.

Con: Carnaval festivities rife with dangerous levels of alcohol, drugs and sun exposure. Safety concerns go way-side with the overwhelming amount of risk-taking behavior, and it's essential to keep one's wits about.

Carnaval Recife

Carnaval behind our apartment.

Pro: Food that expands your horizons. We eat weird looking fruit and vegetables. I have a new love affair with coconut water. Good lord, the acai. The red meat has a special place in my heart particularly filet mignon and Argentine picanha. Even the cheese is great. I don't even miss cheddar that much. Brazil is a food-blogger's paradise. I mean, where else can you eat creamy hot fish soup served with hardboiled quail eggs and jerked meat as garnish? And actually like it?

Con: Food that expands your waistline. Sugar is king here: sugar cane juice, cachaça, sugar crusted desserts like bolo de rolo and chocolate cake, much of which is routinely eaten as a breakfast food to chase down sugar flavored coffee. Coffee of course, that is never available before 9am, and lacks the richness that I prefer. In fact, probably the thing I miss most is having weekend breakfasts filled with bagels and skillet cooked eggs and potatoes. Brazil doesn't really have this either. Beach food, though tasty is usually fried in order to preserve the freshness and with salty fried food comes beer. Ice cold beer. Cheap ice cold beer. Wait- maybe all this food talk is really pro after all...

Pro: World class health care availability. Recife ranks #2 in Brazil for advancement in research and development with well equipped hospitals better than places in the United States and well trained physicians to boot. Need new breasts? Done. Emergency bowel surgery? No problem. Want to have your baby here? Let's do it in style in the presidential suite with the physician's manicured hands soft as pillows.

Con: World class health care availability to those with money. The poverty gap that exists in Brazil is blatant and even though every Brazilian is entitled to free health care, the waiting time to see a doctor on the public system can take months. Procedures, years. Plus the patient frequently becomes the vehicle for dealing with lab stuff. For example, a friend's sister discovered she carried a 6kg tumor in her belly. After her surgery the hospital staff handed her a sack containing the excised tumor with directions to the nearest pathology lab. The same thing happened to another friend for her thyroid biopsy. What?