March 9, 2007
Day 527
A church in Olinda.
I took another "short" bus ride to Recife, yet another big city on the coast, this afternoon. This time, finding my way around was easy. There was a tourism information center right at the bus station with people who spoke English and were eager to help me to get where I wanted to go. They gave me directions to Olinda, a smaller city next to Recife, and I was on my way.
There was a metro station attached to the bus terminal, so I boarded a train and started to ride to the center of town. On the way, I passed multiple favelas (slums) with the worst living standards I've ever seen. It was truly horrific seeing how the people living right next to the train tracks lived. When I got to the last stop in the center of Recife, I found a bus right away to take me over to Olinda. I decided to go there because it was smaller and I heard it had a better atmosphere than Recife.
Tonight I met a girl named Barbara from Couchsurfing, and we went to a small party with some people from Spain who were living in Olinda for a few months. There were a bunch of people who were passing through the area and were members of Couchsurfing. It was a fun evening.
The photo album for this entry is here.
