Olinda

OF CHURCHES AND COLOURS

Olinda had been recommended to me so often that I decided to visit the place. The cheap hostel that I had booked on the internet was hard to find by taxi and  proved to be a house with half a dozen rooms for rent. Since it was simple and quaint, plus located on a steep, unpaved road, it fit in perfectly with the historical town of Olinda. The view from my room  offered a small baroque church on a hill behind, and tree tops, red roofs of tiny houses and a lighthouse at the front, with a special bonus at night of a full moon over a glittering, shimmering sea further away. My balcony also had a hammock, which I used a lot to escape the noon heat; after all, "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun".

The owner of the hostel turned out to be a well-known interpreter of the traditional, regional music, called "forro", and told me of his performances in Germany, France and Switzerland, apart from his frequent appearances in his own state Pernambuco. For a link to him singing and playing the accordion, see YouTube Homenagem ao Gonzagão.

https://youtu.be/okqINne7lpE

The beach of Olinda looked beautiful but it was not the main attraction of this town. Instead it was the historical centre with old churches.

Olinda had so many 16th and 17th century churches that I did not manage to see them all, though I walked enough up and down the cobbled streets to give me stiff muscles at the end of my first day. Sitting in a local, modest restaurant at the foot of a couple of sloping streets I could see two of those holy places on their separate hill tops, depending on where I turned my gaze.

Most of those churches were closed anyway, and looked neglected and dirty from the  outside, which was surprising, since the historical town of Olinda was declared cultural heritage by UNESCO.

The São Bento monastery, however, was open and displayed its splendid, ornate altar and decorated ceiling to  a busload of sight-seeing tourists.

Also the Igreja de  Misericordia was accessible because of an evening service for a score of white-clad nuns living in the convent nearby. Their church had an impressive, baroque ceiling. Convent and church were located at the end of the most beautiful spot of Olinda, a square on a big hill with several places of worship at its edges and a lively market place in the middle, where the stall merchants sold handicraft or prepared food items for the hungry passers-by.

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I loved the view from the edge of the square, overlooking the historical town centre with here and there a centuries-old church and in the distance the big city of Recife, which I decided to skip, partly because of its notorious criminal reputation. Olinda, at least, had its "tourist police" in order not to scare away potential visitors bringing money into the local economy.

What I liked best, though, were not the numerous baroque churches but the colourful houses, a typically Brazilian image that I already had many years before I set foot in this country. The range of different paints was large, but also the combination of colours for one single dwelling could be most unusual - I loved it.

What made the outside walls of many houses even more interesting, sometimes downright funny, were the murals. Sauntering through the narrow streets offered the visitor some frequent artistic surprises. Olinda - a worthwhile visit.