We recently visited the beach areas of Porto de Galinhas and Maragogi. Porto de Galinhas is a major tourist beach destination, and is located about 60 km. south of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco. Maragogi is a greater distance away; it is located in the state of Alagoas. Both of these places are known for their “natural pools” (piscinas naturais).
Olinda is located in the greater Recife area in Brazil’s state of Pernambuco. It is considered one of the best-preserved of the old colonial cities. We visited the city today, and the result is the collection of photos below. The city is about a 25 minute drive from downtown Recife.
We took a boat ride in Recife last night. It was really just a short ride from one part of the city to the historic downtown area, which was surprisingly alive, considering that it was Christmas Day. I sampled a lot of the street food, as is my usual habit. One interesting thing I noticed was that whenever the boat passed under a bridge, the passengers clapped in unison. I supposed this was a local custom, perhaps having its origin as a way of warding off bad luck, or giving thanks for continued safety. No one I spoke to seemed to know the origin of the custom.
When a man is exposed to different modes of life, his sense of understanding and sympathy is correspondingly activated. Preconceptions and prejudices begin to recede into the mist, and steps are made, perhaps still hesitatingly, towards a feeling of human commonalities. And things that may once have seemed to be so important in our own lives take on a much more diminished aspect.
Men undertake explorations and great journeys for many reasons. Some expeditions–such as those undertaken by Denham, Burton, Burckhardt, and others like them–are primarily focused on expanding geographical knowledge, commercial information, and ethnographic data. Others, such as those of Humboldt, Rondon, Lewis and Clark, and von Barth, are more interested in the collection of scientific information about the natural world. The Brazilian explorations of Carl Friedrich von Martius falls into the latter category.
I spent the recent holidays in Belo Horizonte, which is the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. It was a fantastic trip, and I wanted to give readers my impressions of the city.
One of the most compelling figures of Portuguese history–and surely one of the greatest practitioners of its prose–was Father António Vieira, a Jesuit missionary, orator, statesman, writer, and mystic. His career illustrates that stimulating mixture of conservative and progressive thinking that would come to characterize the Jesuit order throughout much of its history. He was born in Lisbon in 1608 and moved to Brazil (what is now the state of Bahia) in 1614 when his father received an appointment for a government post there.
Quintus Curtius 
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