The Brazilian Sun is Unforgiving

Recife is a big city. We didn't see it except from a distance. The skyscrapers lined up along the shoreline make it look, from a distance, like Miami. We didn't want to see another city just like all the others, so we took a tour to Itamarca Island to see manatees and mangroves and do a beach break.

The Brazilian Sun is Unforgiving

Both of us are exhausted and sun burned from our day on Itamaraca Island near Recife Brazil. It took us about an hour on the bus to get there from the ship and we had six hours to enjoy a very short catamaran ride, a quick glance at the mangroves, a long time on the beach, then walk through Fort Orange and the Manatee Center. On our ride home we drove through a smaller city to see some Colonial buildings.

The beach was fun and the water relaxing. At the beach we sat at a beach bar with tables in the sand, each one with its own palapa for shade, and enjoyed drinks of Caipirinha and beer. In Mexico, palapas are thatched with leaves from the fan palm. Here they use a long stemmed beach grass that may be related to sea oats.

At first we thought we would order lunch, but $20.00 a plate was astonishingly overpriced for what it was. I had packed some croissants and cheese from the breakfast bar on the ship so we decided to have those instead. One of the many vendors at the beach was walking around with a gallon can full of burning charcoal hanging from a wire so he would swing like a censure to get the coals red hot, and a Tupperware container of cheese. He would cook big thick slices of a hard white cheese over the charcoal until it was brown and leathery on the outside looking like the second side of a well done pancake. He would then skewer the cheese like a popsicle and hand it to you hot and ready to eat. We both had one of those for about $2.00 each. The cheese, about the consistency and color of very firm tofu, was absolutely delicious, and the slightly salty taste was perfect with the croissant and beer. Jack will definitely be trying to duplicate this at home.

Jack stayed under the protection of the palapa at the bar while I spent a lot of time in the water. It was sooooooo relaxing. The water temperature would change from warm to cold depending on where I was. I had on a hat so my face did not burn from the sun. My shoulders and back were not shaded so they are still sore. I do not know how Jack got so sunburned on his face???? He was in the shade all the time while on the beach but his face is as red as my back. He says is from the reflection off the sand and water.

We traveled to and from the beach island on a catamaran. It took us alongside the mangroves and past local fishermen. The catamaran was loud with people and music so we didn't see many birds or wildlife as I had hoped.

There was a small Dutch fort called Fort Orange there on Itamarca Island across from the beach island so we got off the catamaran we walked over to see it. The small 17th century fortress was originally build by the Dutch - that is why it is called Fort Orange for William of Orange - and later taken by the Portuguese when they ran the Dutch out (the Dutch then went to buy Manhattan from the Indians says the tour guide). We saw the cannons, Dutch maps and archaeological pieces. This was NOT my favorite part of the day........ and it was 40° C (104° F) in the shade while we were out walking through the sand with the sun beating down on us. Brutal. Could have been a “survivors in the desert” movie. I was really worried about some of the older members of the group getting heat stroke. (Older, ah yes, we are back in the younger demographic on this cruise)

Well, we walked from the fort across the island to the IBAMA Center for the Protection of the West Indian Manatee which is Peixe-boi in Portugese, pronounced “pehshee boy”. The research center rescues injured and orphaned manatees and then reintroduces them back into the wild. We saw only three manatee in residence but it was a fun stop with big shade trees. A small pack of tiny monkeys was running all around. The looked sorta like teddy bears and were like big squirrels in size and the way they ran up the trees.

Some of the trees growing there that have a purple fruit that looks like a big ripe olive. I think it is related to the mango because the tree looks just like a mango tree and the fruit has this huge seed in it. The taste of the fruit was pleasant, but much too acid. It felt like the juice was taking the enamel off your teeth. The guide said they are really good when ripe. Maybe the one I ate wasn't ripe? It looked ripe.

The picture for the day is Jack eating the cheese popsicle at the beach. Jack wanted to use a picture of one of the Brazilian girls in their bikinis, but oddly enough, there aren't any of those in the camera.