Thursday, August 16, 2012

Out of the Northeast

The Northeastern Region of Brazil is like a different country. It's hard to explain and it's the middle of the night, so I'll leave that explanation for another time. Suffice it to say that I married into a Northeastern family, so I've learned to love most things from there.

This is only the third time I've been to the Northeast (Nordeste). The first time was a quick trip with our choir back on September 1994. We went to Bahia, which is a place that has a lot of characteristics all its own -- we visited the city of Salvador (NO, it is NOT El Salvador, the country, OK? It's the capital of the state of Bahia, which is pronounced Bah-ee-ah, "ee" being the strongest syllable).

Then, there was the "epic" Northeastern tour in our honeymoon, Dec. 1994 - Jan. 1995. Oh, yeah, and my dear friend Mimi will be quick to point out that we spent part of our nearly one month long honeymoon/vacation with his whole family. Yes we did, and SO WHAT? I can tell you more about that some other time (you can ask in the comments).

In any case, in our honeymoon/vacation we visited: Recife, Natal, São Luís, Fortaleza and, again, Salvador (my favorite!) -- all state capitals. 

This time, only 17 years later, I got to know another city, Maceió, the capital of Alagoas. I also re-visited Recife and we had a whirlwind afternoon trip to João Pessoa, capital of yet another state, Paraíba. I also visited another city in my husband's birth state of Pernambuco -- Caruaru.

Anyway... there is still a lot more to visit in the Northeast and I hope that someday I will get to it, but I'm happy I got to see new places on this trip. This afternoon we flew back to São Paulo and left the Northeast behind.
Some photos for you...
Olinda, PE
Olinda, PE, church from 1500s
Porto de Galinhas - PE
Reefs at Barra de São Miguel - AL
Pernambuco countryside

And this is nothing, really... I hope I get to share more. If only I could have a few more days here in São Paulo with real high speed internet (which is WAY better than what I get in where I live in Virginia)! I could stay up all night, but that would ruin my day tomorrow... what a temptation!

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