RECIFE-DIVETOWN
copyright 1999: Joseph M. Cocozza

As a scuba instructor I teach my students that they should always "Get a good night's rest" before a day of diving. But, as dedicated dive journalist, I am prepared to do whatever is necessary get the story. I only had four short days to have a complete an assignment on the diving, restaurants and nightlife of Recife Brazil. Recife is to Brazil what Key West is to the USA. Located on the South Atlantic Ocean, its a party town with great tropical diving. Diving, eating and partying, don't let anybody tell you this is an easy job.

Photographer Don Tipton and myself traveled the Red Eye via Sao Paulo and arrived at the Recife Airport around noon. By 4:00 PM, we were on a dive boat heading to the shipwreck "Vapor Pirapama. We arrived at on sight of the shipwreck an hour before sunset. Our dive guide, Marcelo, (who reminded me of a young Antonio Bandaras) gave us our pre dive briefing. "The Pirapama is one of the most scenic of Recife's shipwrecks. A turn of the steam-powered paddle wheeler, it was sunk due to a boiler explosion."

&PIRAPAMA

As we descended down the anchor line even in the dusk light, I could make out the outline of the wreck at 70 feet. The wreck was covered in Sting Rays with a huge ray that was crusing over the bow. My dive light peered through the wreckage and I discovered a sleeping Sea Turtle under a section of boilerplate. The out of dark depths another turtle appeared and then another. In total we spotted five turtles and a dozen rays. Already, I was enjoying Recife's nightlife.

We surfaced in the blackness of the South Atlantic. After two dives, Don and I collapsed from exhaustion. I awoke from my nap as we neared land. Looking to the south, I saw the Boa Viagem (a Brazilian Waikiki), a southward stretching beach of white sand and reefs that is rimed with the lights of high-rise hotels. To the north, is Olinda, a bohemian enclave of students and artists that is clustered with colonial architecture.
Marcelo and our new Brazilian friends invited us out for dinner. But Don and I decided the better part of valor was to go to bed early and get a fresh start in the morning.

The next morning I awoke early to go for a run. I jogged down the "Calyadao" a wide sidewalk that parallels the beach. The 6-mile stretch is lined with bars, restaurants, hotels and people in thong bikinis. It was here I discovered a culinary masterpiece that is unique to Recife.

Everywhere in world there is an indigenous street vendor food. In New York it's a Hot Dog, in Tijuana it's a Taco, in England its fish and chips wrapped in a newspaper cone. In Recife it's Tapioca. A grainy pancake, the center filled with chopped coconut and cheese. The pancake is flipped over like an omelet and it served hot and delicious

We got to the Cabanga Yacht Club the crew was waiting. We were going to do another dive on the Vapor Pirapama, but this time in the daylight. At the site, the color and clarity of the ocean reminded me of Bonaire. During the day the wreck was covered in parrotfish, sergeant majors, sea turtles and rays.

After a day of great wreck diving it was only getting better. We got some lunch and spent some time on the beach. As the sun was setting we hooked with our new dive buddies. We were about to learn that the only sin in Recife is not having fun.

There are a lot of places to party but the most concentrated celebration is in Recife Antigo. The "Rua do Nom Jesus" is the throbbing heart of the area. Because of its strategic location near the waterfront, it use to be the "red light district". But that was fifty years ago; today Recife Antigo is the center of music, dance clubs and fine dining.

Eating is almost a sport in Recife. There are hundreds of restaurants to choose from; with a multitude of cuisines that include: Indian, Arabic, Italian, Seafood and Japanese. As you walk past the cafes of the aroma of coffees and deserts draws you inside. So after a meal of local shrimp and lobster, we stopped at a cafe and had Brazilian espresso and a desert called Cartola. Cartola, is bananas fried in butter, topped with melted cheese and then sprinkled with cinnamon & raw sugar. Sounds weird but it tasted great. After a couple espressos we were wired and ready to party with a crowd of about a thousand.

At the band shell at the end of the Rua do Observatorio, a local band played Portuguese versions of popular American songs. From there we strolled down Polo Bom Jesus, where flirting is a contact sport. Brazilians are a friendly people and it's not uncommon for someone to just start dancing with you. The streets are always packed with people. You get energy from the place; there are mimes and other street entertainers that work the cobblestone walkway. From the nightclubs you hear a mix of music that includes the rhythms of Frevo, Samba, Jazz, Forro, and Mangue Beat. We made our way from bar to bar. At the far end of the district a Mange Beat band played an outdoor concert, as pierced and tattoed Brazilian teenagers (in baggy pants) danced.

We ended up at a nightclub called the Funhouse that could have been a dance club in New York City. Marcelo's 19 year old sister took it as her personal responsibility to teach me Brazilian dances and I was very motivated pupil. The Funhouse is a cavernous multilevel club with different rooms that each played a different type of music. The first room had a live rock band. Downstairs was a "techno dance club" and behind that was a Mexican room (complete with tequila shooters). Upstairs was "disco" and a traditional Brazilian music room. We migrated from room to room and danced to cover versions of the Cranberries and the Counting Crows. After some refreshments, we danced Orgy's Blue Monday as Brazilian girls dressed as vampires strutted in Go-Go gages. I had an almost out of body experience when I released that I was south of the equator.

I got back to my hotel just before predawn. Then a shower and a light breakfast and we headed out to Cabanga Yacht Club. I welcomed the two-hour boat ride, as a chance to get some sleep. That day we dove we the wreck of an old Brazilian Navy Corvette. To be honest most of the day was a blur.

&don_tanya

Our last night in Recife, we all went to bar called the Downtown Club. It was modeled after what the Brazilians think a traditional British pub would be like. It surreal to be playing snooker in the land of carnival. Marcelo brought along a girlfriend and his sister had some of her friends join us. Some of the girls did not speak English very well but I was smart enough to have a Portuguese/English dictionary and we all managed to communicate despite the language barrier.

We had in depth conversation regarding the differences of baseball and soccer. Brazilians have a hard time understanding the concepts behind baseball. But, I think I enlightened them. I explained to our Brazilian friends, that baseball is so ubiquitous in American culture that it as a metaphor for sexual conquest. When I explained the differences between "striking out" or "making a home run", they seemed to grasp the concepts.

After going into "extra innings", I realized that what made Recife special was not just the great diving, bars and restaurants but it was the friends that we made. The next day when Marcelo dropped us off at the airport, I thanked him for being a wonderful host and a good friend. Before I boarded the plane, I asked him about his new girlfriend and he replied. "Second Base!"