When we booked this trip to Brazil, the objective was to fit as many places as we could afford within the limited time allowed by paid holidays. The idea of the south American continent being in “winter months” was a bit of a concern and I surely did not want to end up spending time in places where the temperatures would be low enough so we would feel like London weather all over again! Therefore, I booked 12 days in Recife and Pernambuco state assuming that on the 8th south parallel, the weather would be hot and pleasant. Two years ago, we were in Bali and loved it… the weather was dry and the conditions were optimal for discovering our surroundings. This paradise island being south of the equator, I kind of draw to the conclusion that dry season would be all around the globe for the same latitude. One cannot become an expert in climate by vacationing once or twice in remote places!
10 minutes of google search showed me that we would spend 12 day at the worst time possible (after I booked of course!!!).
Our landing in Recife proved that Accuweather.com is not completely clueless as it was raining as forecast on their web site! In fact, all our stay in this region was doomed to be wet! Driving under heavy rain in a foreign city is far from fun and google setting places at the wrong location (our first night hotel was almost 1km from it’s supposed location) does not help. To make the story short, we found the hotel, settled for a room service in our 18th floor bedroom and fell asleep in the drenched city. Morning was a nice surprise as the sky cleared up to reveal the large conurbation lit up by the unexpected sun.
Our next stop was Serrambi beach, located close to the almost famous Porto de Galinhas and the Maracaipe surfing spot.We drove under a clouded sky and made it in good time ready to deal with the infamous weather we were promised! The rain invited itself several times but left us plenty of nicely lit landscape. The temperatures were more that one need to feel on vacation as this latitude offers an almost constant 25 to 30 deg C all year long. Today is our 7th day and more than half of this was under sunny conditions… so we call ourselves lucky and hope for the 4 last days to be as good as the best already spent.
One low key note on this place, compared with my previous experience under this latitude would be the water quality (not the one you drink… the one you swim, snorkel or dive in.) I assume the rainy condition explain the turbidity of the sea but I was also disappointed by the reefs and the lack of life visible to the average snorkeller. I actually decided not to dive in Pernambuco but keep this option for the costa verde.
Before we go back south, I need to blog about Olinda… so, stay tuned!