Recife, Brazil

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Continuing northwards, we are now anchored in the riverways in the city of Recife, the capital city of the state of Pernambuco. It is one of Brazil's largest cities with a population of over one and a half million inhabitants.

Although it has seemingly miles of wonderful beaches and it is soooooooooo hot, we aren't rushing into the sea. We're rather disappointed at how dirty the water is along the cities beaches. And the water in the river area where the yacht club is situated is really just a running sewer so we´re not too keen to stick around too long - the stench is somewhat overpowering especially during low tide. The yacht club is, however, really great. It has two swimming pools, one with water slides (back to our childhood), a fabulous and inexpensive restaurant, bars, tennis (too hot for that), showers, saunas etc. and only costs US$5 per day.

We enjoyed a week at the yacht club and then moved back down the river to the Pernambuco Yacht Club which, in appearance, leaves an awful lot to be desired but we met some wonderful people and thought we'd stick around for a few more days. We joined them for a meal in a nearby favela (a very poor squatter camp settlement) and thoroughly enjoyed both the meal and the atmosphere. They also took us to a very fancy all-you-can-eat churrasco restaurant. Churrasco, traditionally, is skewered varieties of meat which are brought around to each table and sliced onto your plate. This continues non-stop until you raise a red flag or something similar to indicate that you've had enough. Howver, this particular restaurant had a buffet-style set up which included the meats as well as quite a few dozen other dishes, fish, casseroles, salads and even sushi. This was our budget killer of the month but, wow, was it ever worth it!

The city itself is very dirty but very interesting. The marketplace is huge and quite amazing, we could have wander ed around for ages. There are a lot of 'sharks' on the take but one just have to keep their wits about you and hands on your valuables.

We have absolutely no idea of what is going on in the rest of the world as there is positively NO English media here at all. We have learned that the Pope passed away but only because his photo was on the front of every paper here, Brazil is a very Catholic country. If anything else significant has happened, we are certainly in the dark. All we need to worry about is where the next icy cold beer is coming from! And boy, do they ever know how to serve them cold here! Even I, who NEVER touched a beer, rather enjoy a glass or two just because it is served soooooooooooooo cold!

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Maceio, Brazil

We finally departed Salvador to start our trek northwards, however, we're still in no hurry to get anywhere fast which is just as well as we thought our trip up to Maceio would be a two-day sail but it took us nearly twice that time due to adverse winds and currents. When we sailed out of Baia de Todos os Santos, the large bay creating Salvador protected waters, we could see the lighthouse as we headed out on a tack northeast for a few miles before turning northwest. Several tacks and many hours later, we could still see the lighthouse. A few more tacks and, even though it was definitely getting smaller, it was still there so we decided to motor out on the one tack and sail back on the next. Finally, we left Salvador behind. Gees but how we hate to use the engine!

However, we eventually pulled into the fishing harbour of Maceio and were immediately surrounded by tons of stalls selling prawns, prawns and more prawns. Needless to say, we indulged ourselves, WOW they were good! We even had some good old South Africa peri peri sauce to go with them.

Maceio is a town of approx 1 million people with some great beaches and, of course, hot, hot, hot and humid. The sea water doesn´t even cool you off as its also so warm. It was a very cheap place to visit and we certainly enjoyed all the fish available there. The people were very friendly and accommodating as well.

The fresh produce markets were terrific and the beachfront properties quite something. There were dozens of quite exotic apartment buildings going up all along the shore front. The economy of this part of the world must be booming.

Maceio is the captial of the state of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil. It boasts some of the most gorgeous laces in the country and some fantastic food. They are known for their tapiocas made with grated coconut which are referred to as "the crepes of the Northeast".

Unfortunately, the city beaches are polluted but we took a trip further south to Praia do Gunga which was really quite beautiful with its long golden beaches.

Although virtually everyone we came across were extremely friendly, we did have one rather nasty experience our last night at anchor. We had gone to bed and were fast asleep when we were suddenly awoken at midnight by the most incredibly loud music. It was so loud that we could feel the vibrations through the water. We checked outside to see where it was coming from and saw four chaps on the rocks closest to us. They had set up a couple of ginormous speakers and were playing the same couple of songs over and over again.

Hours went by and we simply couldn't sleep, the same numbers were still playing. Paul finally let out his ultra loud whistle and told them to shut up - it was now three in the morning. Within a few minutes, a boat arrived alongside with some very threatening blokes aboard using what was obviously very foul language and angry gestures. We shut ourselves inside and lay awake for the remainder of the night. As the sun arose, they packed their speakers onto a small boat and left. So did we! The sense of this activity still alludes us as they weren't dancing, they had no female company and they actually never played more than three numbers and none of them all the way through. Very strange and very disturbing.

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