Sleepless in Olinda...

We arrived on Thursday afternoon in Recife after a nice and comfortable bus trip from Natal. During the journay Katie struck up a conversation with two Swedish girls behind us who were also looking to stay in Olinda. We decided that it would be a good idea to share a cab and their knowledge of the cheapest hostel to stay in.

We jumped in the cab but our cab driver thought he knew best and started to take us around all the different pousaddas and not to the hostel that we wanted. Eventually we decided that we would stay one night at a poussada in the higher area of town and move to a cheaper one the next day as this one was nearly £15 for the two of us!!

The next morning we moved to a Cassa in the lower area where we are staying with an old lady who has moved herself out to a scabby matress in the store room whilst we (myself and Katie and the two swedes) have the run of the house.

After going out last night we returned home to find that this nice little Cassa is in fact situated in the middle of a housing area that sounds like the notting hill carnival. We retuned home to find loud music and fireworks starting around midnight and contnuing until about 5am and more mosquitos than I have ever seen!

Tonight we will be doing as the locals do and going out around 11.30 and joining in with the carnival rehersal parties.

Katie here - I´d like to add that we are re-writing this as we lost connection and about 45mins worth of typing a little while ago (arrrrrhhhh) so sorry if its a bit rubbish! Also, we haven´t in fact seen ANY mosquitos, we just have the evidence, in abundance!! (don´t worry, no malaria here...)

Old Olinda is a lovely tumbling colonial town. One of the few surviving in Brazil, it´s now a protected site and is very popular with tourists. It has a sleepy atmosphere during the day with the locals choosing to spend much of their time sitting outside their residences watching the world go by. At night the place comes alive with throngs of families, locals and tourists (almost all Brazilian) drinking, chatting, and playing on the streets.

We´ve seen Capoeira being practiced, as well as big band rehersals, drum marches, and Samba all getting ready for carnival in a couple of weeks. Olindas carnival is renound as one of the best in the country (less comercial than Rio) and the place will be thronging with people. We´re not sticking around that long, it´s been great to watch the rehersals though!

We´re off to Salvador tomorrow (Sunday - arriving Monday) so we hope to get some sleep on a comfortable coach!

Until next time...