Praia de Calhetas

For my kids' winter break I got it into my head that I would pick a new beach to visit per week. Today's choice was Praia de Calhetas, a teeny beach one hour south of the city. The reviews on Trip Advisor rave about its quaintness and beauty. They are right on both accounts: the boat scattered cove and beach is only about 100 yards long and is surrounded by thick tropical forest. I also read that the drive "might be tricky" which of course was a complete understatement. The pavement turned to cobble; the cobble turned to a mess of dried splattered cement, rocks and mud- all on a steep grade with roosters and dogs running around. 

I figured the drive would be worth it all to escape the massive rains and floods Recife's dealt with these past few days. For the most part it was- even when a storm rolled in with rain so heavy, our exit became impassable with muddy water runoff overflowing the stairs.  Of course Deets and Margo delighted in the rain, climbing rocks and hiding under tables while I tried not to have visions of our car falling through the earth above us.  In the end, we fought waves, ate piping hot fries,  and checked another beach off the list. I only have 1,000 more to go.

View from the top of Praia de Calhetas. 

Playing King of the Insanely Prickly Rocks game.

View end to end.

The entire path was drowning  in fast flowing water up to the tree trunks.
Until it wasn't-  like it never even happened.

Festa Junina

Festa Junina in Caruaru. Credits: Camocim VIP News.

Perhaps less well-known than Carnaval, but definitely just as important, northeastern Brazil's Festa Junina marks a day (more like weeks) of parties integrating traditions from Brazil, Europe, and Africa involving a mash-up of saints- Johnny, Petey, Paulie and Tony. It's also a day of honoring the end of the rainy season and the sanctity of marriage. Throw in a little bit of country square dancing called quadrila, costumes, and a whole mess of music, food and drink, and you've got the makings of bewildering yet meaningful traditions. Recife alone will host 200 parties, shows and concerts around the city wheras 2 hours inland the city of Caruaru, the capital of Forro, hosts the biggest Festa Junina party in the world.

I say bewildering because every single decoration and costume blasts with color and design. Multicolored flags and plastic lanterns cover the ceilings. There are so many pictures of saints and icons that it gives an Orthodox church a run for its money. Ladies sport loud dresses all pinned with ribbons, pom-poms or miniature dolls. Even the mock bride, who represents matrimony and re-birth wears a white dress with neon pieces of flair. Men might wear plaid button downs with tattered pants and straw hats. Others might wear gaucho costumes or bandit outfits from the sertão or backwoods of NE Brazil. Those without naturally large freckles, gap teeth or pencil thin mustaches- are drawn on. 

Mercado Sao Jose- HQ for... everything. 

A whole ton of lace and polyester. 

Decorative lanterns. 

The music and dance, called Forró is just as colorful, sounding like a mix of salsa, country, polka, mariachi and blues. It's heavy on the accordion, acoustic guitar and triangle with catchy syncopated rhythms and tells stories of homesickness, love (lost or found), passion, or jealousy.

Then there's the food. I have never seen so many things made out of corn before: bread, cake, porridge; popcorn, couscous, and cookies. Only Brazilians call them broa, bolo de milho, canjica; pipoca, cuzcous, and aberém. Corn on the cob, meat on a stick, soups in a pumpkin. At Festa Junina, you go big or go home- eating is mandatory fun. It was here where I discovered my daughter's love of farofa covered steak (toasted cassava root)  and Deets enjoying corn flower based cookies.  

Of course, the kid's school spent a large amount of energy organizing and executing their own Festa Junina. Normally my son keeps a low profile and doesn't like mass group performances. Believe it or not, he embraced the loud music and cheering fans as his class took the floor to dance. He's also repeatedly asked to wear a mustache. Margo wanted to sleep in her dress and asks me every day to wear batom- Portuguese for lipstick. I think Brazilian indoctrination is working. For me too because I am just starting to understand the love and respect this country has for the classics. On the surface these celebrations seem over the top, but Brazil has a unique way of embracing its heritage- and I certainly could use more of that. 

 

Boys getting ready for their guitar solos.

Buying in Bulk at Ceasa

Did I ever tell you about my neighbor who brought me 40 star fruits and 20 pounds of caja? Or the time she handed over about 50 bananas and 16 mangoes? Well today she took me to the same market she bought them from: Ceasa.  While many tourists and locals delight in the brightly painted walls of Mercado Sao Jose or Boa Viagem, with piles of beautiful foods, crafts and art, the market of Ceasa looks more like the ugly step sister. Its worn and rusty warehouses stand covered with ripped canvases flapping in thew wind;  gritty trucks and matching drivers roll over potholed asphalt and mud to unload thousands of pallets daily. It's definitely big and definitely ugly, but functions surprisingly well as headquarters for food sale and distribution coming into the state of Pernambuco. 

Perhaps what is most interesting is that many warehouses contain several companies selling a single product. We visited the orange warehouse, the pineapple warehouse, the onion warehouse... bananas, potatoes, and coconuts.  It was a lesson in bulk buying, something I feel I should excel at as a card carrying member to Costco. I thought was I able to keep up with my neighbor as I bought 4 pineapples for 5 about $1.50 (USD).  She deftly purchased 50 pineapples for $10.  She picked up 200 oranges for $7.60 and a whole smear of other things at jaw dropping prices. Then she introduced me to one of her cousins who owns a banana company and I ended up with 10 bunches. Along with four packs of grapes and 5 mangoes. It was delightful and a little bit of crazy. I was getting all sorts of revved up to buy! buy! buy! Then I realized I'd be the one washing all the stuff once I got home- maybe I didn't really need 75 pounds of potatoes.

This stall cleverly named "Swimming in Oranges"

Fresh coconut.

Bushels of green stuff..

Banana warehouse.

33 pounds of margarine for $21

Potato warehouse

Pineapple warehouse. 

Fitting it all into the Fiat.

Now deciding where to put it. 

Jaqueira Park

I talk a lot about the beach. I know this. Recife's reputation and tourism thrives on its very existence and I frequently forget the city offers more than sand and coconuts. The city has its share of museums, markets, and praças (plazas, piatas, squares- whatever you want to call them) along with shockingly large shopping malls, medical empires, and waxing joints.  In efforts to recognize other charming aspects of the city I lured the kids with promises of rocket slide and picnic food to one of Recife's better known parks: Jaqueira Park.  It's an adorable park with canopies of trees offering respite from the blazing sun rays. Jaqueira has four playgrounds, a running path, dirt bike park and skatepark. It has a cement roller rink, spaces for yoga and a new free-weight workout area.  They even have wifi and volunteer security guards. Nevermind that it took me over an hour to get there, when twenty minutes would have sufficed. Traffic is horrific here and the drivers all have a little bit of sass, so it can be a major fun-sucker.  

When we arrived by 8am, the park was already in full swing. Brazilians are good for that. I always see people utilizing these open air gyms- the normal schmos, the gently toned, the juicers. Along the running path I enjoyed watching an absurdly large number of power walkers, joggers, and those people who don Kbands and "sprint" with their human anchor. (Mark calls them exercise cummerbunds.) The kids beelined to the rocket slide with full intention of blasting to the moon for moon cheese. I pretended not to see the rusty metal ladders or slippery wooden bridges that my kids defiantly conquered barefoot. I pretended to not notice my poor choice of wearing jeans when the heat and humidity of the day seeped through. I did notice however, that the kids genuinely enjoyed themselves and by default, I did too. 

Managing distances and milestones.

Deets said this was a swing for wheel chairs.
I think he's right. 

Zip line, purposely made with a swing
that could only fit the ass of a child. 

Shoes? Pffft. Atta girl.

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? 

The Return to Pipa

Normally when I do a weekend excursion to a beach, I come home annoyed with the very idea of setting another foot onto scalding sand or swimming in ocean water. I feel like dried out leather yet bloated and ill from the salt water, beer and grease I invariably consume.  I assumed I would feel this way when we came home from Pipa but surprisingly found myself wondering when we could return. The basics remained the same: beautiful beaches, crabs galore, the good ol' hippie atmosphere. But some things were totally different from our first trip here six months ago: laws, seashells, animal sightings.  

The biggest thing I looked forward to was collecting seashells. I loved how the beach between Praia de Centro and Praia de Amor was drenched in millions of colorful shells back in November 2014. Unfortunately like the changing seasons, the turnover of sand and rock migrations were different- not a shell in sight. I asked one of the bar guys when the shells would return and he guessed within 5-6 months. We still enjoyed the tiny black crabs scrambling over the sharp, water abused rocks that seemed to have multiplied. Or maybe it was just extremely low tide.

Crab hunting. 

Grandma and grandpa take a hit to the face.

My children particularly looked forward to a promised catamaran tour to see the famous dolphins and to swim in the deep ocean off the back of the boat. I marched right up to one of the many guides on the beach and requested tickets for 4 adults and 2 children. To no avail. According to the guide, that was a law enacted in January 2015 prohibiting children under 5 to ride in a boat, even if they had lifejackets. I ended up distracting their sadness with promises of ice cream and kayak rides. The good news: the dolphin sitings were few and far between during this so-called low season, so we didn't feel like we missed much. 

Mark couldn't wait to get his hands on Pipa's sole microbrew: CAP Beer. Last time we were in Pipa we toured CAP's brewery built into a residential home located off a rowdy, crag ridden neighborhood dirt road. At the time all three employees were present, and we hung out drinking beer while the kids played on the lawn. We walked away with beer (duh), goodies, and advice on finding decent beer in Recife. When this next trip came up, Mark emailed the brew master to schedule a visit but learned he and his brewery were on hiatus in Chile. Apparently he was dealing with exploding bottles and recipe improvement.  His hope is to begin bottling in June and selling by July. Which naturally means we need to come back.

As for the rest of the trip? Not too shabby. We got pounded by waves and watched the muscle hard surfers on Praia de Amor. We lingered in a tidal pool and "built" sand castles and drank passion fruit (maracuja) caipirinhas where we would have collected shells. We lingered on my now favorite beach, Praia de Madeira during (go during low tide) and bobbed like loons in the rolling waves. We hiked through the Ecological Sanctuary where this time about 20 marmosets pommeled and chased each other in the trees. Let's not forget to mention the bats, turtles, and frogs. And spiders- there were a few anxiety inducing arachnids, but no tarantulas; and not in my bed either.

Margo and Deets as Godzillas.

Saguis/Marmosets

This might sound like I'm playing the Princess Card, but we enjoyed air conditioning and a pool at the condo we rented via Airbnb. The last condo in Pipa was bit more... rustic. It was much quieter and further away than our last place too, about a 20 minute walk from the main road.  Since we always end up carrying the kids on our shoulders, this walk turned into a pretty strenuous hike but helpful to burn off incurred calories of vacation imbibement. And imbibe we did: espresso and pastries at Terra Nostra, gelato at Preciosa, grape caiprinhas at Macoco, Argentinan picnanha at Os Prazeres de Carne. Everyone eats well and surprisingly affordably when they visit Pipa. 

Even after my reticence with beach life and entertaining the children with nothing more than a shovel and a bucket, after the ocean itch, and after the chronic sandy sunscreen applications, I think I am ready for more action. Well, maybe 1 more week.

Night sky from our balcony.

View of Baia dos Golfinhos- accessible from
Praia do Centro only at low tide
above Mark's right shoulder.

Stairs leading to Praia de Madeira.

Praia dos Carneiros

One of the many reasons why I love Mark is that he loves old churches. For someone who's not religious, he really appreciates a place of worship and the history and memories created within the walls.  So when I found out about the famous 1910 Sao Benedito Church on Praia dos Carneiros (Sheep Beach) I used my parent's visit as an excuse to go see it. After all, Sao Benedito happens to be one of the most sought after churches for getting married in northeast Brazil; with no wonder- the setting is romantic and secluded. The pousadas in Carneiros love it because nearly every weekend the church gets booked for weddings and invariably giant wedding parties.

I made the idea of visiting a church seem less boring to my kids by booking us on a boat tour. I merely walked 5 feet from the edge of the pousada to the beach where friendly boaters gave me my options: I could travel by catamaran party boats, private speed boats, fishing boats, kayaks or stand-up paddle boards. David and Margo could hardly contain themselves even though I couldn't promise dolphin sightings. Instead, they saw many people in scanty swim suits doing squats and odd-end poses on the steps of the church. They watched throngs of people slather their bodies in buckets of exfoliating local clay and drinking cans of beer. They saw sun-drenched sand bars and dank mangrove with tangles of roots anchoring the trees into place.  

The entirety of Praia dos Carneiros stretches no more than one mile, protected by a seemingly man-made rock wall against the south Atlantic Ocean.  In other words: little wind, very shallow with few waves, and very VERY warm. It's like sitting in cozy bathtub-water with other tourists. Because of the isolation, we ended up eating every meal at the pousada which, conveniently charged exorbitant prices. Annoying, but not horrible. We did eat some fantastic dishes and my parents got to experience northeast Brazil traditions like cake for breakfast, tapioca with cheese, and fried macaxeira- cassava root.

Everyday after swimming and beaching, my mom, dad and I would push the kids for hours on the pousada's wooden swings, strung high into a giant tree. Or, we'd play "pirates" together on an old fishing boat next to the swings. By "together" I mean Deets would yell and throw beach toys off the boat like anchors and then order us onto the ground because he needed to sink his ship due to war guns attacking us. Specifically, war guns on B-17 Flying Fortresses. 

The swings and boat almost made up for the fact our place had no pool. The pousada next door did and when the children realized this, boy did the tears fall. In fact, it was so stagnant and hot, even I threw a mental fit. Thus all weekend I couldn't escape the intrusive thoughts of fresh, cold water. Unfortunately I knew this going into our trip and had opted to pay the cheaper rate so I had no one to blame but myself. Yet somehow we'd have to make it through another trip in paradise. 

Andy Sandburg's song "I'm on a Boat" invariably
stuck in my head. Every. Time. 

Dutch cross at the end of the point,
dating back to 1600's according to the boat guide.

Mangrove swamp.

Margo in her cycling hat. 

Hammocks, like coconuts and
teeny swim suits are a staple in Brazil.