Recife was a three-day stopover, not a destination.

I find the city stressful.

Traffic is bumper to bumper, with sidewalks full of people waiting for a bus because it’s the kind of city where getting around is tricky—it’s big, it’s spread out, and it’s the “Brazilian Venice” with many islands and bridges.

The neighbourhood of Boa Viagem comes with an eight-kilometre stretch of beach but it’s dirty, and swimming isn’t advisable because of tiger shark attacks—no kidding.

The historic centre is fun to explore, but it’s hard to get there and it’s always crowded until it empties out in the blink of an eye just before sunset, and you’d better not stick around… and good luck with the traffic, no matter which bus you end up taking.

Recife is also hot and stuffy, and chances are you’ll be staying in one of Boa Viagem’s tall towers—apartments all look the same, small functional studios with breathtaking views of the dystopian cityscape.

I was mentally prepared for Recife, yet it caught me by surprise.

Let’s just say that my three-day stopover did not go as planned.

The two-hour bus ride from João Pessoa was pretty eventless. I think so, anyway—I slept through it.

Somehow, Recife decided the bus terminal was best located far away, half into the jungle, but that the airport should be right in the middle Boa Viagem. In most places, it’s the other way around, right?

The bus terminal was eerily quiet, yet decorated for Carnival in a hopeful attempt to make it more inviting, I suppose. I walked around until I found an Internet connection—tall trees blocking my Vivo network?—and I called a 99 to get to my Airbnb.

A “mentira o verdade” radio game show was on. The driver and I enthusiastically chimed in, yelling MENTIRA! Or VERDADE! I got most questions wrong but just understanding them was enough for my ego.

By the time my Airbnb apartment was ready, it was already about 3 p.m. Not much to do but hang out in Boa Viagem. I grabbed the camera and walked to the waterfront.

Unlike in João Pessoa, it’s not a very inviting waterfront. And unlike in Natal, it’s not an inviting beach either.

“Should I go for a swim?” I texted my mum, along with the “watch out for sharks” sign.

“Very funny,” she texted back.

I walked back to my Airbnb, cooked, worked and planned the next couple of days. Easy, really. Day one, Olinda, the colourful old town just outside Recife. Day two, Recife Antigo, historic central Recife.

And so the following day I left around noon for Olinda, camera in my bag. It started raining when I crossed the street. I almost stopped at the bakery—may as well get a cup of coffee—but I figured I could still make it to the bus stop.

No way. It was suddenly pouring.

I quickly took shelter under a porch, the universal way to hide from the rain without intruding—it was some kind of condo management organization. Two minutes later, I actually stepped into the lobby and so did several passersby stuck under the sudden downpour. Five minutes later, it started leaking all over the place. Ten minutes later, the ceiling came down. We all moved further inside the building.

We spent the following 90 minutes stuck together—employees, passerby—going through all the interjections in Portuguese—“Nossa!” when the water started to rise in the flooded street, “Meus Deus” when it got to the point that cars were abandoned in the middle of the street because engines were flooded, “Porra!” when it became obvious the whole neighbourhood was impossible to navigate.

I left, eventually. Some travel moments are more glamorous than others. If you’re tired of my beach shots, picture me crossing the street, water past my knees—hey, no shark at least, best place to swim, ah, ah.

The next day, the streets were back to normal, so I went to the historic part of Recife. Once I arrived, I bumped into a blond girl and two blond guys who were definitely not Brazilian and looked completely lost. They were from Denmark and they had just sailed (!) to Brazil from South Africa on a tiny boat. We teamed up and I showed them around the busy streets of Santo Antônio, another neighbourhood just across the bridge. Recife antigo was pretty quiet with streets being boarded up for Carnival.

Because yes, Carnival is starting.

A new adventure is also starting for me… and I’m both nervous and excited.

Stay tuned!