RECIFE , the Northeast's
second-largest city, appears rather
dull on first impressions, but it's
lent a colonial grace and elegance
by Olinda, 6km to the north and
considered part of the same
conurbation. Recife itself has long
since burst its original colonial
boundaries and much of the centre is
now given over to uninspired modern
skyscrapers and office buildings.
But there are still a few quiet
squares, where an inordinate number
of impressive churches lie cheek by
jowl with the uglier urban sprawl of
the past thirty years. North of the
centre are some pleasant leafy
suburbs, dotted with museums and
parks, and to the south there is the
modern beachside district of
Boa
Viagem . Other beaches lie
within easy reach, both north and
south of the city, and there's also
all the
nightlife one would
expect from a city of nearly two
million Brazilians.
Tourists wandering around Recife
should be particularly careful with
their possessions and it's best,
too, to use taxis to get home after
an evening out. Recife is one of
Brazil's most violent cities, an
unsurprising statistic given the
immediately obvious disparity of
wealth and stark poverty, and the
large number of homeless people on
the streets. On Sundays in the old
centre of Recife, the streets often
seem deserted except for beggars;
everyone else seems to be on the
beach at Boa Viagem. Tourists tend
to hang out in the much pleasanter
environment of laid-back Olinda.
The City
Modern Recife sprawls onto the
mainland, but the heart of the city
is three small islands , Santo Antônio,
Boa Vista and Recife proper,
connected with each other and the
mainland by more than two dozen
bridges over the rivers Beberibe
and...
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