We flew from the southern tip of South America almost to its north-eastern tip for a little party called Carnaval. Instead of heading to the best known Carnaval in Rio, we decided to spend our Carnaval in the towns of Recife and Olinda upon the recommendation of our friend, Cara. Recife and Olinda are known for their more cultural, authentic, safer, less expensive, and less commercial Carnaval than its more famous Rio rival. It was a great choice!
We spent days in Olinda, a colonial town with a lot of character, with the young and costumed Carnaval crowd. At night, we headed to Recife for big concerts and awesome decorations. We had a blast joining the Carnaval madness with one exception: Jon was pickpocketed walking to the taxis at the end of the first night! Luckily he had no cash, just dealing with the nuisance of canceling and re-ordering credit cards and a driver’s license.
From Carnaval, we moved to several beach towns, generally going south towards Rio. However, we had to go north to check out one beach recommended by other travellers. To get to the dolphin beach, we walked in and out during low tide. Amazingly, the dolphins come by every day to swim with people in the bay! We thoroughly sunburnt ourselves by spending hours in the water flopping around trying to get the dolphins attention. It was worth it to swim with the beautiful dolphins in the pretty bay.
We headed south to Porto de Galinhas, a favorite of Brazilian tourists and those in Recife looking for a weekend getaway. The beaches were long, calm, and beautiful.
Our last beach town (well, city really) was Maceio. It was a relatively pleasant city along a nice, fun beach. The surrounding beaches in the area were even nicer, Gunga being the highlight. Gunga beach goes on for miles with a coconut plantation running alongside it.
We fell in love with the open, friendly Brazilian culture, while enjoying the tropical fruits and ocean views. What a blast! We were excited for more Brazil.
ROUNDABOUT 
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