Sunday, June 19, 2005

Recife

So as to where we are. Recife is a large city on the north east corner of Brasil. It is right on the Atlantic Ocean. Phil wanted our stay in Recife to be special because after we left town to go to Caruaru it would be work work work. So he did a few special things for us. The hotel he chose was right on the water. When we arrived it took at least an hour to check in. I guess there is quite a bargaining spirit in Phil. He explained how he worked to get the best rooms for the cheapest price. We very much appreciated it. Kim and I were on the 18th floor overlooking the ocean. Wow! That was gorgeous. Found out that our hotel room didn't have electricity unless we put our key card for entry into the room into a box on the wall. That would allow the lights to be turned on and the air conditioner and the TV... We took showers which felt great. The next thing that he arranged for us was to go to eat. We walked a few blocks north from the hotel along the beach. It was dark out already (it gets dark between 5 and 6 because of our vicinity to the equator. It is always only 12 hours of Dark and 12 hours of light.) After a few blocks of walking our van pulled up and drove us the rest of the way to the restaurant. I was thankful when I found out that it would have taken us over an hour to walk the rest of the way.

The Black Cow is the name of the restaurant we came to. It was a wonderful and unique experience. Their specialty is meat. And for those who know me, that is right up my alley. There was a buffet of side dishes that we filled our plates with then the real fun started. The servers started bringing large cuts of meat prepared different ways and from different animals. They would come to each individual and ask if we would like some. Then we would say yes or no and much or little. They would cut off a slice or piece of the meat and place it on your plate. There were at least 30 different things they brought out. Beef of all cuts, water buffalo, chicken, pork, sausage, fish, and alligator. The highlights were the alligator, chicken hearts, beef cut from the shoulder, and the sausage. I ate and ate and ate and ate until I thought I could eat no more. Then I had a few more bites. It was so much fun. It was so nice they had handtruck/dollies to wheel us out of the building when we were finished if we couldn't move. Okay, maybe that wasn't true but they should have.

We then went back home and crashed. It was wonderful to finally sleep laying down after the plane trip.

The next day we slept in and had the included breakfast at the hotel. Wow! They need to have this kind of breakfast in the states included with hotel stays. There was a buffet with many kinds of fruit, pastries, juices, eggs, bacon, sausage, and many items I didn't recognize but were delicious. Plus there was a lady making eggs to order. Omelets, over easy, whatever you wanted. She also made a tapioca, coconut, cheese item which was really tasty.

It was raining really hard when we woke up and continued all day long. Our driver picked us up in the van after we checked out which took another hour. We drove to a store that sold dishes to look for tea cups. We had found out that all of the tea cups we had sent (over 100 of them) hadn't arrived yet. We sent them 6 weeks ago. So this store had a river surrounding it. The rain was starting to flood the streets. It was quite interesting. We did find what we needed and were able to purchase 100 nice teacups, and 6 teapots for $160 dollars. For those who don't know, that is a very good price. The people in the store treated us like royalty and it was like a party the whole time. Because of the rain and the amount of time it took in the store we had to leave for Caruaru afterwards. It took 2 hours driving to get to Caruaru.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Micah,

It's sounds like you guys are having an awesome and interesting time. Can't wait to here more. Any chance you might be able to post a picture? You're all in our prayers!

Michael & Lyndsay

Luke Storer said...

They have the thing with the key in the box on the wall at hotels here too.

Your restaurant experience sounded excellent. What a great name "The Black Cow"

Interesting thing about the 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark... I did not know that.

-Luke

Anonymous said...

Micah, i don't think we have met but i'm really enjoying reading about your Brazil trip. There are 13 or so folks going after you from RCC in July so I'll pass your info on to my sister who is going for the first time. I know Lynette very well and Al and Caroline. keep up the writing and excellent humor. I have your site bookmarked and will check in every day. Know that you all are being prayed for on a daily basis.

gayle terry