After my time in Salvador, I was looking forward to visiting a new city where I hadn’t had any previous experiences. Recife was to be one of the biggest cities in the north of Brazil I would visit, so I gave myself a week there to take in as much as possible.

I’d made contact with a number of people from Couchsurfing, which seemed to have quite a large community in Recife. By the time I checked in to the hostel, I’d already been having a bit of a conversation with a girl named Marcelle, so we decided to meet up for dinner in Boa Viagem (The main beach of Recife, and where my hostel was located).

On Saturday night I hung out with Marcelle and her friend JP in Recife Antigo, where we chilled out in Marko Zero and sampled a few of the cheap cachaças being sold by vendors on the street. The next day I was off to Porto de Galinhas with Zach, an American guy (living in Brazil teaching English) I met at the hostel. Relaxing on the beach with a juice in hand, we spent the afternoon talking aimlessly, taking in the sights and sounds and getting a tan.

Monday was spent walking around Olinda with another friend from Couchsurfing, then finished off with an awesome (and cheap) all you can eat Japanese lunch – for just under AUD$20. This was to be my last day at the hostel in Boa Viagem, as I then moved to stay with a Couchsurfing host in a nearby suburb called Torre. Thiago was extremely generous in taking me in to his new apartment for 3 nights and not only feeding my huge appetite, also showing me around Recife and teaching me about his city and it’s culture.

For my last full day in Recife I met up with Marcelle again in Recife Antigo, and we visited Paço do Frevo (a museum dedicated to the culture and history of Carnaval in Recife), a train museum, and had lunch in Mercado da Boa Vista. I had a shot at another local dish ‘Arrumadinho de Carne do Sol’ - which was fantastic. JP met up with us after lunch and we took a couple of buses to Instituto Ricardo Brennand – a castle-like museum which holds a very impressive collection of Brazilian and European historical artefacts from the 15th to 19th centuries.

In the evening, we met up with Thiago in Recife Antigo and shared dinner together. We stopped for a while to enjoy a concert in the street, then it was time to say goodbye to Marcelle and JP.

In Recife I walked a lot of miles, took plenty of buses and topped up on my tan in what felt like a round-the-clock 35 degrees sun. I made some great friends from which I was sad to leave, but I guess that is the beauty of the Couchsurfing community - there’s a kind of unspoken agreement that one day, you’ll see them again and return the favour when they visit your hometown.