Steve and Cathy's Blog

Today will be spent in Recife, Brazil (pronounced fe-see’-fee), which is technically considered to be in the northeastern part of the country. It is as far east as you can get in Brazil, and is actually closer to the coast of Africa than it is to the border of western Brazil at the same latitude.

It is the capital of Pernambuco State, and that fact is emphasized, again leading to the conclusion that states are very important political and cultural designations as they are in the US. It’s a large city – 2.3 million – and an important port for this region.

And speaking of port…we arrive in the port, or, better said, the old port, right on time around 8am. This port was deemed too small and shallow to accommodate today’s larger ships, and because the sea bottom was solid rock so dredging was cost-prohibitive, a newer one was developed about fifty kilometers from the city. This one is reserved for smaller freighters and cruise ships. In fact, we dock right next to a bulk freighter that appears to be loading sugar. A dozen or so enormous wind machine blades are in view, as well as a couple of enormous cranes used for unloading. Enormous trucks carrying sugar stand near a set of large silos awaiting their turn to unload. Steve is now officially in freight heaven. Pictures will be posted on Facebook for you few freight geeks to see.  And they are below:

This city is described as the Venice of Brazil, but it is pointed out in Currents that it would be better said that it is the Amsterdam of Brazil, as it was the Dutch in the 1600s that actually laid out the design for the city, engineered the infill of the marshes and had an outsize influence on the city during their short, 24-year occupation between periods of Portuguese control. I won’t do the city justice with this description because I still don’t grasp the total picture, but there are two rivers running through the place, so there are 140 bridges connecting three islands that appear to make up the majority of the city.

Our excursion today is entitled Catamaran and Casa de Cultura, and it doesn’t begin until 1:15pm. So we will have a leisurely morning. Breakfast at Terrace Café this time as Cathy wants to dine on smoked salmon. Steve still has issues navigating the different stations with people milling and thronging, spies something he recognizes and, ignoring all the promises he made to himself to watch his diet, asks for a plate of eggs benedict. After breakfast, we grab our amusements (laptop and knitting) and vacate the stateroom so it can be made up for the day.

We look for a new venue. Destination Services would always have entertainment potential, but Cathy is concerned that the ladies there might think we’re stalking them, and we feel the need to get outdoors. So we end up on the pool deck on the opposite end of the smoking lounge. It’s quiet and comfortable, with overstuffed chairs and a nice view.

After an hour, though, it gets pretty warm. Being outdoors is all well and good, but we’re spoiled cruisers already, so we retreat to the room. Steve posts some photos on Facebook and Cathy continues the book club book about Thomas Jefferson’s daughter. Noon rolls around and we head for Waves for a quick lunch in preparation for our afternoon. Again Steve opts for something unhealthy (Mexican hot dog) but Cathy stays focused and has grilled salmon.

We are to meet our excursion group on the pier rather than in Insignia Lounge. Not sure why that is, but no matter. David Smith, the photographer lecturer, and his wife are also aboard as representatives of the ship, and Dave finds two tickets to this excursion on the floor just at the gangway belonging to another couple. Lord, I’d hate to be them. Five minutes before the tour begins, and they are no doubt tearing their room apart trying to find the lost tickets. I feel bad for the husband. No doubt he is in deep doo-doo. I know I would be. [Cathy here: why would the husband even have the tickets?]

Because we are in what is essentially an industrial port, the transportation arrangements are complicated. First we take a shuttle bus to the cruise terminal, then board our excursion buses, as it would be too dangerous to have us wander over to the terminal on our own. We notice that there is lots of ship maintenance activity. There is a truck pumping out the sewage (I’m sure you needed to know this), and three tractor trailers full of supplies. Seems like a good idea, as Recife will be the last fully stocked port we call on until Cape Town.

We are delivered to the large two-story, pretty new cruise terminal. It must have been built with much larger ships in mind. The place is empty, but we wander from ground level to second level to ground level again on long ramps. The place is a bit of a labyrinth, and we are puzzled as to the point. But we eventually find ourselves outside and board our full-size coaches for the ride through the city to the catamaran pier on the Capibaribe River.

Our guide today is Delia, who has lived in Brazil for twenty years. Her English is flawless, her heritage (she tells us) is Italian, and she is a real professional at this. Now we’re going into Random Fact mode, as it is hard to organize all the information she is giving us as we fight our way through the thick mid-afternoon city traffic. Recife was founded by the Portuguese in 1535, and were the colonial overseers except for a twenty-four year interlude in the 17^th century when the Dutch ruled. Surprisingly, their influence is still evident everywhere you go.

Now let’s talk alcohol. Of course, there is the local hard stuff, called cachaca (pronounced ca-cha’-sa), which is made from sugar cane. The most popular cocktail made from that is the Caipirinha. We are advised that Brazilians drink lots of beer. They also consume a lot of whiskey, and here in the State of Pernambuco, Johnny Walker Red rules. But apparently, Brazil has been building a wine industry here in this area (and no doubt elsewhere) for the past 25 years, and has an award-winning Shiraz. Red wine is becoming fashionable. All this info may seem superfluous, until you are told about Carnival (currently being celebrated) plus all the other celebrations, additional carnivals and other events that mark life in Brazil.

As we slowly motor along, Delia tells us about the religions in the area. Nominally, the country is Roman Catholic, but according to a recent regional survey, 64% of those who profess a religion are Protestant, and she remarks with some concern that most of these are of the Pentecostal variety (a la the megachurches in the US). There are many, many enormous Roman Catholic churches, many of which are covered in gold and silver, a result of competition among the sugar barons of yesteryear trying to outdo each other in their generosity to the Church.

Being only 8 degrees south of the Equator, the climate is described as having two seasons: months with rain and months with no rain. The rainy season runs from mid-May to mid-July, and they consider this their winter.

Until recently, education in Brazil had not been compulsory. Some studies a few years back, however, revealed significant and alarming deterioration in the levels of mathematics and language achievement among a majority of Brazilians, and there is much discussion on how to overcome that problem. Right now, the thought is to perhaps make the last three years of schooling geared toward job skills. In the meantime, the rate of unemployment in the region hovers around 30%, although the government claims it is half that. (More about government later – Delia has a lot of very straightforward opinions on that.)

Immigration and demographics: Northeastern Brazil’s economy has been until recently almost exclusively agricultural, with sugar the most dominant surviving crop. One of the reasons for that is that immigration into Brazil has almost been exclusively in the south, and it has been the immigrants from abroad (Germans, Italians, etc.) that have brought or started new industries. The northeast region is made entirely of 1) whites with Portuguese ancestry, 2) blacks whose ancestors arrived here as slaves, and 3) the indigenous population, aka Amerindians. These three groups have thoroughly mixed, and, I must say, it has produced a population of good-looking people. Steve can only speak of the women he saw, but Oh, my, my.

We pass by a British cemetery, and Delia relates an interesting bit of history to explain its existence. As mentioned above, there was little immigration from abroad, but the British did come here in the 19^th century to develop a textile industry. Why? Because at that time, cotton was grown in the area in great quantities. Unfortunately, some kind of plague descended upon the crop, and the cotton crop, and along with it the textile industry, disappeared.

Health: Delia is very specific about this. If you have money, medical help is first world. If you do not and rely on government health care, it is third world. Again we see this stark division between the elites and the rest of the population. Ironically, the Recife area is world-renowned as a center for plastic surgery. Go figure.

Much of the cuisine in the area is seafood-based, crabs especially. There are river crabs and sea crabs. The crabs are plentiful and available to everyone because of the low price. Apparently, many people catch them, take them home and place the crabs in a coconut milk environment. In ten days, all the potential pollutants in them are gone and they become very tasty. Clever, eh?

Delia also jokes that dessert is the most important course by far, most likely due to the abundance and importance of sugar. It is not uncommon, she tells us, for an upper middle class dinner party to have a dozen desserts available for the guests.

As we drive through the city, the poverty is pretty obvious. There are vendors everywhere, small open-air stores line the streets, and there are crowds of people everywhere. For the most part, the buildings look like they have seen better days.   Our eyes are not deceiving us. Delia does say that the choking traffic in the city center has driven most all of the successful businesses and stores out of the downtown into other areas. Sound familiar? It’s happening here just as in America. There is tons of public transportation, but it all is surface transportation because it would be cost-prohibitive to build a subway in the marshland upon which the city was largely built.

As we approach the Catamaran Tours dock, Delia points out two brand new 40-story apartment buildings, giving us some positive news about Recife. These are the anchors for complete redevelopment of this entire section of the city. They are the first of what will hopefully be twelve of these towers, with commensurate rehabilitation of many square blocks of the area. It is an ambitious plan, but one that fits with the vision for their future as a tourism center for northeastern Brazil and diversification of their economic base.

Okay, so before we reach the dock, our driver needs to back this huge bus we are in for at least a tenth of a mile down a narrow street lined with parked cars. A very impressive demonstration of expert driving skills.   We finally come to a stop, are shown to an area where rum punch and fruit juice is offered, and then we board the fifty-foot catamaran. Delia remains as our guide, and for the next hour, in the company of Larry and Kerry Noomen, we cruise this area of the city as she points out historical sites, identifies some of the many bridges under which we travel (it is customary to make a wish as you pass under each one), describes the occupants of buildings and generally gives us an even better understanding of life in Recife.

Upon our return, we board our bus (buses, actually, as there is a convoy of three of them full of Insignia passengers) and drive to the Casa de Cultura. The large building was built as a prison in the 1850s and served as such until 1974. At that time it was closed and, rather than tear down such a classic colonial structure, turned into a marketplace, with each cell rented out as a market stall to purveyors of all manner of dry goods. A tourist mecca. There must be a hundred of these tiny shops, and the place is packed with us visitors from another land and many Brazilian tourists as well.

They have left one cell as it was, and our guide advises that it normally housed twenty prisoners, only made possible because the prisoners slept in shifts. Delia related a story about when she was an interpreter for the British consul who had to visit someone there. She said you could smell the place from blocks away, and that stench still comes back to her every time she brings a busload of us tourists to the place.

A great reuse for a beautiful building with a grim and unsavory past. If this serves as an example of the creative redevelopment than can be expected in the rest of Recife, then the city’s future is looking good if the national economy cooperates.

Speaking of which, on the bus ride from the Casa de Cultura to the ship, Delia asks if we have any more questions. People ask about the national government corruption of which she has spoken many times during our tour. The federal police force has conducted a four-year sweeping probe of government corruption, and the former president, Lula da Silva, is caught up in it. While he was in office, the economy grew significantly and forty million people escaped poverty, but at a cost that is yet to be fully calculated. The economy has since stalled, government finances are teetering and the man himself is facing prison.

In Delia’s opinion, there is a huge mess to be cleaned up. Da Silva’s populist policies have led to massive debt, his cuddling up to far left dictatorships in Cuba, Bolivia and elsewhere has damaged the economy and the country’s international standing, and the government is full of self-dealing crooks whose only interest is in feathering their own nests. She describes the inflation as four times what the government claims it to be, with their social security system in desperate need of substantial reform. There are protests daily over everything going on right now, and she reflects those frustrations.

We arrive back at the ship with a much better understanding of this very fascinating nation. This is what we hope to accomplish everywhere we go. It’s one thing to read newspaper articles about the country, but being here even for a short time is another thing altogether. The potential of a nation like Brazil, with phenomenal natural resources and a population of 208 million, knows no bounds. It appears that they are hobbled by a society built from day one on allowing a selected few to control all too high a percentage of national assets for their own gain and little regard for building a society that will offer opportunity to everybody. Corruption is sapping the potential of these people, and you can see those lost opportunities everywhere you go.

Well, time for me to get off my soapbox and back to recounting the day.   We get back to the ship, push away from the dock shortly after 5:00pm and head out to the South Atlantic where we will spend the next four days heading for Africa. A quick dinner of sushi at the Terrace Café this and this busy, thought-provoking day is concluded; as is, finally, this post.