Penedo to Olinda

27 February: Breakfast at Pousada Colonial is brilliant, there's lots of fruit, bread, omelette and good coffee at the buffet. We give the LP parcel up at the post office. It's there than a Brazilian in the queue behind us tells me that my small rucksack is dripping. My water bottle's leaking. Nothing much seems to have happened, my Camera is still working (it takes a few more days for my camera to die because of water damage).

Entrance to Pousada Colonial in Penedo	Our room in Pousada Colonial
View from our room in Pousada Colonial	Our room

Igreja da Senhora das Correntes	Igreja da Senhora das Correntes at the end of the street overlooking the Rio Sño Fransisco
Inside small but beautiful Igreja da Senhora das Correntes in Penedo	Igreja da Senhora das Correntes
Penedo street	Looking out
Convento de Sño Fransisco e Igreja NS dos Anjos In Penedo	Convento de Sño Fransisco e Igreja dos Anjos
Sign above Penedo hotel after a drink too many	They kept prisoners here for their night before hanging
Art deco style Post Office in Penedo	Dengue fever was a problem in Rio during our stay, causing several deaths

Today we're planning to reach Olinda. On the way we would like to find a beach to swim in the ocean. The roads are quite good with some bad pothole stretches in between. I managed to avoid most of them but I did hit at least one bad one. The scenery around us is beautiful, there are lots of palm woods then sugarcane plantations. The beaches we look for are unfortunately either rocky or not to be found at all.

They seem to have found oil here	Palm trees galore
Love Motel	Coconut telephone
Beach at last	Relax for a drink
Drinks at Piscinas Naturais (lagoons, with no waves) Tabuba restaurant	Ocean view
Now and again there were some good showers	And soon enough the sun was out again

The last one we took a look at is Jaipiritinga, the beach is not that great to look at from outside, but once entering the water it's really pleasant: the water is temperate and warmer than it looks, the waves are not too high, there is no current, the sand is soft without any stones, WOW! The best beach I've experienced so far!

Kids trying out their bike at the beach at Jaipiritinga	Beach at Jaipiritinga
Beach at Jaipiritinga	"The Lombada will Lambada your car"

Then we continue on our drive to Recife. It rains off and on on the way and it's quite uncomfortable in-between, not really that hot but just humid. We make good use of the a/c in the car. Recife is the 4th largest city in Brazil and the road into the city is very long. Olinda is to the north of Recife, and we reach there after a very long drive through Recife. Luckily they didn't have much in the way of bad traffic jams.

The first hotel we checked out had a tube of a 3-bed room and it looked very hot inside in spite of the a/c. We go on to Pousada do Amporo. He wants 170 R$ per night which is an outrageously high price (although the room is quite nice), but will settle for 150. We continue on to search for some alternatives but we return, he accepts my offer of 140. We have dinner at a Creperie nearby, the Crepe is actually good by my mood turns quite bad because of my cold and not knowing exactly where to drop the car at 8 tomorrow morning. Later we ask a taxi driver and he shows us the directions. Great! 

We had the fan in our room running through the night but my throat had turned raw again today and I move to sleep in the bed upstairs. 

My favourite Beer, Antarctica	Mural in Recife

Continue to 28.2 Exploring Recife