What day is this?

Hi All,

Today is a monsoon day.. it´s pouring like mad! We almost got swept away wading across the street getting to the internet cafe (3 blocks). Looks like people stay inside, judging from the internet cafe, which is emptier than usual. So I will use this time to write a blog.

Last week we did a bit of sight-seeing in Downtown Recife. There is some interesting architecture, and lots of old churches, which we seem to be able to wander in and out of as we like. At the northern tip of the Island of Recife, there is the Palacio de Governo, and just south a park and a theatre. Here is the view looking south from the Palacio:



An interesting walk. Just yesterday we went on a tour of Olinda. We took the bus to Praça del Carmo, where we were quickly approached by a tour quide who, upon figuring out that we spoke english called for an english guide. I´m quick to suspect rip-offs, but we didn´t have much money anyways. Our guide, who´s name was Marqués does tours for donations, not for a set price, and didn´t seem to care much that we didn´t have much money on us. So he took us on the tour, which included the big samba areas, which culminate at Quatro Cantos, some Portuguese and Dutch houses, and of course more churches! Some pretty interesting buildings. Marqués says that you can tell which churches are Portiguese versus Dutch by the number of towers. One for Portuguese and Two for Dutch. So here is a Dutch Church, Igreja do Carmo, I believe.



From the Igreja we took a walk up to Alto da Sé, which is a great lookout point, where you can see Recife and the beach. It looks like a great beach and all, but it´s quite polluted and it´s not advised to swim there.