O Que Linda Olinda!

Olinda was one of the first Portuguese cities in Brazil, and still has lots of colonial architecture from the 16-17^th century. It was built on hills by the ocean, which made for some excellent views of the ocean and the rest of the Recife area. Although we weren’t dancing after a carnaval parade up and down these hills (that happens in February), we still managed to work up a sweat taking photos and interrupting church services.

Olinda is full of colonial-era Catholic churches built by the Portuguese. This one had been closed for restoration for over 10 years, and just recently opened again before our arrival. Built on a hill by the ocean, it’s pretty much the first thing you see upon entering Olinda. It’s also one of the oldest churches in Brazil.

And here is the same church from a higher hill further into the city. We decided to take this picture ourselves rather than buy the postcard.

We didn’t actually interrupt this service – or any of them, all were open to the public as historical sites as well – but Mary did manage to get a picture of these nuns singing. The gorgeous painted tiles on the walls at the back of this church were also worth a photo. 

Inside a different church that was not holding a service at the time we found an epic altar, where all the intricate details were done in real gold. This was the church attended by the very wealthy back in colonial days. Mary calls it the Igreja do Ouro (Church of Gold), although it is actually called the Igreja de São Bento (Church of St. Benedict).

The churches weren’t the only historic buildings to be seen in Olinda. Streets were lined with colonial buildings like these. Brightly painted, in true Brazilian style.

Here are Camila and Mary posing in front of one.             And the Pernambuco state flag in front of another.

This is a view from the top of one of the higher hills in Olinda -- the city in the distance is Recife. August is the end of the rainy season in northeast Brazil, so we did have to deal with rainclouds like these ones on our trip.

 

Fortunately, umbrellas were easy to come by. In fact, these multicolored umbrellas are a symbol of the state of Pernambuco, because of a traditional dance called frevo (literally, 'boil') which features umbrellas.

 

This handy umbrella doubled as a phone.

Here is Mary making her “I wish it would stop raining” face in front of an interesting building. The word Olinda is written in iron on the door. We didn't notice this at first due to our mad scramble find some shelter.

 

We found this giant puppet in the middle of an artisanal market. Puppets like these overrun the streets of Olinda during carnaval. On a less festive note, we were also told that this market used to be a place where the Portuguese bought and sold slaves.

The omnipresent graffiti art on the street was an interesting contrast to the historic buildings and religious artwork. This painted wall happened to be in front of the highest church in the city.

We thought these walls were also particularly interesting – one shows the Virgin Mary alongside old-style dancing Olindenses and the other has Brazilian cartoons mixed in with Disney characters. 

 

We weren’t sure what this building was, but we thought it looked cool. 

We also liked these painted tiles, although we couldn’t shake the urge to buy canned tomatoes after seeing them. There was also a lion painted on some other nearby tiles selling goiabada (guava compote), which was less effective. We'd just had goiabada for breakfast, and a lion didn't make it seem any more delicious.

 

This building was right next to the oceanfront, on a street lined with the original coastal houses built in Olinda. It was one of the scruffier houses of the bunch, but we liked it anyway.

 

We saw this tailless guy sticking out of the wall of a rather run-down pousada, a kind of Brazilian bed-and-breakfast. This one overlooked the ocean. Hence the merman.