Traveling - Again! Welcome to Recife, Brazil

At the end of July, Elder Hall was asked to visit the U.S. Consulate in Recife, Brazil to
establish relationships and faciltate Brazilian missionary visas to the United States. 

 His meeting was productive and we stayed some extra days, at our expense,
to attend their beautiful temple and explore the city and surrounding area.  

Recife is on the northeast coast of Brazil.  

It is a fairly large city, 9th largest in Brazil.
 Our friends, Laird and Gloria Swensen served a mission there and
they told us Recife is less prosperous, with a lot of crime. 

 However, it is rich in history and beauty.

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard and decided ahead of time to

not rent a car but take only taxis.  We had been advised that 

driving/parking is extremely risky and challenging.

For example, if the light is red but the path is clear, just keep going.

It is common for a car to be approached while stopped at a light, 

by a desperate robber who will smash your window with a gun and 

demand - whatever it is that he wants.

The cabbies know how to hopefully avoid these kind of situations, 

better than an American driver.

The hotel (and food of course) was great and it was the first time 

since we've been in Brazil, that

Randy had his own separate living quarters...

-some booking confusion that we decided was ok-

A queen bed was a definite upgrade from his regular "twin" :)

His private TV and remote - sweet~

Our first taxi ride was straight to the consulate and then, 

after we decided we liked the driver, asked him to return for us to

drive us a little further north to the temple.

He knew exactly where to go.  He had driven visitors there many times

even while it was being built back in 2000.

He was always intrigued, watching it build up.

typical lovely landscape

After our session and dinner in their cafeteria, our "driver" picked us up

again for a night drive back to the Marriott.

So now after having taken care of "first things first"

it was time to head south.

There is a little resort town called Porto de Galinhas 

about an hour away.  The hotel arranged a shuttle for

the small group who wanted to go that morning and spend the day.

This time our driver was an adorable guide named Wagner

and his girlfriend Sandra.  She was on vacation from her English school teaching

 job and wanted to come along for the ride.  And help translate of course!

Wagner explained the reason for the name "Port of Chickens" is

according to history, the town was called Porto Rico (Puerto Rico) until 1850 
when it became a place where people traded slaves 
to work in the plantations of sugar cane. 
To evade the control of the illegal transaction, slaves were transported
together with guinea fowl and passwords were created by traffickers
(Portuguese: "Tem galinha nova no porto"—"There are new chickens in the port"). 
 The slaves were transported in the hull of the boat
while the chickens enjoyed the clean sunny sea air above.


So there are all these "chickens" around town!

 this one is a phone booth

Almost every restaurant and shop has a cute chicken inviting you in~

-bed and breakfast-

And there are also beach chickens.

Boat load of chickens...

Our guides arranged a little dune buggy ride for us
to take before lunch.

Our buggy rider took us to some of the back roads.

And along the beautiful beach.

 There are hundreds of these trees.

Now of course we are starving.
So Wagner recommends a perfect seaside seafood place.

These baskets  hung above our covered patio table,
looked like jelly fish and would gently blow
in the sea breeze and helped create a peaceful, serene environment.
The fish platter was huge, a little "boney" but tasty!
After lunch we did a little shopping in the numerous shops.

Then to the aquarium.

Scientific name for Seahorse (in English) is hippocampus~
This small aquarium is conducting a seahorse "study" or project.
The purpose is to raise awareness about their preservation.
We learned here that there are 50 species of seahorses worldwide,
but only 3 in Brazil.  They can live 5 years and may grow up to 7 inches.

Who doesn't love watching these little  sea creatures?

all of them have these cute little identifying collars

This one is pregnant and males carry and deliver the offspring.

I had forgotten that about seahorses :)

The females develop the eggs then deposit then into the male 

for fertilization during mating.

There are a few other fish and creatures housed here as well.

Back to Recife

The word Recife means "reef".

There have been a lot of shark attacks here.
In the last 25 years, about 55 attacks, half being fatal :(

We were not tempted to venture into the water.

Saturday we spent touring the city with a cab driver.

These are photos from an area called Olinda - which means oh, beautiful.

This city is ancient, founded in 1537, and some of the buildings reflect that...

Some amazing sights, in and around the city

crab harvest

Baneiro for Power Rangers?

And of course - the markets
People buy this stuff?

Entrance to this big indoor market that used to be the prison~
each "cell" is a separate small shop :)

Miniature clay nativity

Another unique phone booth~

Recife is a huge "Carnaval" city.  The preparations are elaborate for the party of the year!!

This is a little warehouse-like building to store some of
the pieces for the floats.

This tall girl was dancing to music when we walked in.

 Hard to imagine how they can close off their narrow streets
and then fill them with an enormous parade!

To end our visit to Recife, we enter the world of the ceramist Francisco Brennand
 who turned the family pottery business into a studio and museum. 
There are paintings, tile panels and sculptures.
 The visit, which includes a stroll through the gardens  can finish in the artist's showroom, 
which accepts orders for tile and ceramic pieces for the dining room..

Brennands is located about 30 minutes outside of Recife.

 snake in the grass  8)

Such an unusual, interesting place.

Mother Earth

Beautiful but seemed too heavy and fragile to take home.
(and expensive!)
These photos will have to suffice :)

It was time to return to the airport.
Good thing, because Randy was totally bored with Brennand
and couldn't wait to be on our way  :)

We all had really enjoyed the trip, but by this time, he was just - done.

Back to work!