Olinda, Brasil
Hobbled into Olinda yesterday after a short 20 minute or so bus ride from Recife. i say "hobbled" because i caught Moctezuma´s Revenge on the Amazon River Ferry (8 days ago, get my drift?), since yesterday i started experiencing the symptoms of a cold i probably the little kid sitting next to me on the lonnnnnggggg bus ride from Belem to Recife who kept sneezing on me & my iPod, & somewhere i mysteriously tweaked my right ankle. that said, my timing apparently is good in getting to Olinda, because they have 2 Carnaval celebrations, & the 1st 3-day celebration starts tonight @ 8pm! How i ended up in Olinda is a result of meeting a musician when i came across the border from Venezuela. He noticed my cornet case & i told him i was headed to Carvanal in Bahia & hoped to play my instrument in the celebration. he said the music in Bahia was more guitar based & suggested i check out Olinda, where the music centered around brass instrumentation, & there was a chance i could join one of the orchestras. Also, on the last day on the Amazon Star i met a French couple, & the husband asked his wife to speak with me because she spoke english. i told her my plan to visit Olinda. She said Olinda was beautiful & she recommended a place to stay there, the Pousada d'Olinda.
The Pousada d'Olinda is lovely. It is similar to a hostel. I have a 4 bed (2 bunks) dorm, that i now share with a fellow who speaks english (!), a young college student from Maine named Eric who just arrived this morning. The pousada includes complimentary breakfast with fresh fruit & fruit juice, & they have excellent buffet-style lunch & dinner (fresh vegetables, yay!!!), for $5,99 reals (about $3.75US). There's also a small swimming pool & hammocks.
Last night i got to sit in the 2nd trumpet chair in one of the Carnaval orchestras. The orchestra had 8 trumpet players, about 10 saxophone players, 8 to 10 trombone playesrs, tuba, & a bunch of drummers. They play a music style called frevo, a fast paced, booming, thundering music. According to the women who told me about the rehearsal, this style of music originated in Olinda 100 years ago. The horn lines were like Charlie Parker solos! Either it was the room acoustics, or everyone was playing at fff (triple fortissimo aka "very loud"). i woke up this morning thinking i had lost some hearing in my left ear (seems like it´s cleared up now). After the rehearsal water break, & i returned to my chair i was sure to put in my earplugs.
