North East Brazil Condo for Rent: Recife waits for you! Steps from the Sand, Great Views - Property 176448

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Things to do...: *** Beaches! One of the best is Boa Viagem, an upscale area, and its southern extension (Piedade) which also offers most of the restaurants and nightclubs. Do not miss the coast around Recife with year-around warm water: Porto de Galinhas, Maracaípe, Serrambi, Tamandaré, São José da Coroa Grande, Muro Alto, Cupe, Suape, Calhetas, Gaibu, Maria Farinha, Itamaracá Island and Fernando de Noronha Island. *** *** Scuba-diving, snorkeling, surfing and other sea activities. Recife is known as Brazil's shipwreck capital (15 accessible to tourists out of more than 100). Do not miss Brazil's favorite shores for surfing and snorkeling (Porto de Galinhas), and for sailing and power boating (around the islands of Coroa do Avião and Itamaracá). *** *** Tour the 18-th century baroque churches and 19-th century public buildings and browse through the colorful Mercado de São José (an iron structure inspired in the Grenelle Market in Paris) and Casa de Cultura. ***

*** Carnaval! Recife’s and Olinda's Carnival is right up there with Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and carnivals in Rio, Salvador, Venice and Trinidad and Tobago. Recife's and Olinda’s Carnaval, one of the country's busiest, is a democratic party with street shows and parades playing contagious rhythms. Prepare yourself to dance, and to dress in costumes. Carnaval is usually in February, but rehearsals start two months before the actual date. Galo da Madrugada (a carnival group) attracts more than 1 million people to celebrate and dance on the streets every year. *** *** Watch a football (soccer) game or roller hockey. *** *** Visit Olaria de Brennand, a ceramics factory with a display area of thousands of pieces, and the Ricardo Brennand Institute, with very impressive collection of Brazilian and European historical artifacts from the 15th to 19th centuries and special attention given to the period of Dutch occupation in Recife and Northeastern Brazil. ***

*** Shop at Shopping Center Recife, Brazil's second largest shopping center, Shopping Guararapes (very close from the condo), and Paço Alfândega (set in the renovated structure of a colonial customs house building from the early 1700s). *** *** Recife, the gastronomic capital of the Northeast, has a multicultural gastronomy with African and indigenous influences. Try the traditional and delicious cakes Bolo de Rolo and Bolo Sousa Leão and the Caldinho, a small soup in a variety of flavors from black bean to shrimp served all over the place (restaurants, dedicated carts and people with flasks selling it on the beach). *** *** Do not miss Olinda, a UNESCO World Heritage site, founded by the Portuguese in 1530; the Catamaran rides in the Capibaribe River; and Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the New World found in the old quarters of Recife Antigo. ******** Come visit us soon! *************

Guest Book: 'Very nice condo rental. Price is very fair for what you get, a huge condo with a great ocean view. You are right on a great beach (Piedade) with a true Brazlian character. Piedade beach is full of fun, generally attractive, people listening to great Brazilian music and having a great time... If you want to just take a short, cheap taxi ride down to the Boa Viagem Beach, you will find a spotlessly clean, super-yuppie beach. I prefer the Piedade Beach right in front of the condo, however. Lots of good, cheap beach front restaurants in the area. I think that the whole Recife area is going to be the next 'boom' real estate area in Brazil... Like what happens in most big cities, a few people asked me for money in Recife and the beach. However, they were always polite and I never felt threatened. I felt safer in Recife than I do in San Francisco, where I live. Check Recife out! It is great!' Adam Gurley gurleylaw@sbcglobal.net

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