The last weekend in Recife -- off to Fernando de Noronha

A link to my next destination: http://www.noronha.com.br/english/index.html

Current photos are posted here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/14172071@N02/60aRYN

Time seems to go so fast and I will need to come back in fill in details of the weekend. In summary, Paulo showed up Friday and suggested we go downtown to a festival where we saw native dances. On Saturday we took a long bus ride to Porto de Galinhas --one of the most famous beaches in Brazil-- (port of the chickens) and spend the day at the beach. My niece Katie could spend a month crawling around on the reefs at low tide; all the "life" that could be seen was incredible.

Sunday had us off to see Olinda, which is the first town in the state of Pernambuco. We walked through town and did the typical tourist thing. We did hire a local guide to tell us the history...actually he told Paulo, Paulo translated. One of the things I found most impressive though was not history of the the town, but a program the city enacted. Olinda is one of the major tourist areas in this region. They had a severe pan handling situation where people posing as guides would lead people off and assault them. To get a grip on the problem, they created an organization to offer to the pan handlers etc, a program (free of charge) to learn the history of Olinda and get a "guide card" stating they are approved by the city to give tours. In parallel they made panhandling illegal and tour guides without cards are not approved. Thus it made the day nice not being hustled. I also thought is was a great idea to offer children / young people the opportunity to do legitimate work.

After a morning in Olinda, we took a taxi across town to a museum, de Ricardo Brennand. The Brennand family is very wealthy "old money". There are two cousins, Ricardo and Francisco. Ricardo built the museum we visited and Francisco is a very famous "potter" who's done may famous public pottery sculptures around the world. The museum was very interesting and full of local art and culture. But, the highlight of the day was the "Amory". At a young age, Ricardo began collecting "Arms" and built the armory to store is collection. It was simply amazing.

Now off to Fernando de Noronha a place where everyone has said I must visit. I have no idea if there will be computer access while there. So the may be a gap for a few days.

LASTLY, looks can be deceiving!

For the past two weeks I've walked past this old VW bus. It's the only old delapited vechile on the street. I kept thinking to myself, gosh this seems out of place here. Day after day I looked at it. The other morning when I went to the beach early to see the morning sun and I was amazed at what I saw. It was about 7:30 am and as I reached the block where this bus was, I saw an inordinate amount of traffic and people. When I got past the cars and people, to my surprise the doors were open and two ladies had the van full of produce; fruits, vegitables, greens etc. It was full of produce, and stuff stacked on the side walk behind the van. People were driving by and getting their produce, and people walking up the side walk on the back. One lady selling to cars, the other selling to the people. Obvously this is the neighborhood produce stand. By 9am it was closed and the people gone. I wish I had the camera when it was open. Quite amazing. So the van is the local "lojas" (store). Anyway, just had to share.

OK, will update as I can on my travels.