Sex, cigarettes, chocolate, bourbon, white empty sandy beaches, fast cars, excellent restaurants, airline upgrades, (cute) girls in very small bikinis, good wine, and attractive, small hotels with ace infrastructure, longered in beautiful, peaceful scenery. OK, that’s only a partial list, but you get the general idea.
So, having established the basis of what’s good in life, I’ll point out, in my usual seemingly non-sequitur manner, that reserving beach places in Brazil on our friend Thomas’ recommendation (he spent a year in Sao Paulo, which should be weighed against the fact that he’s shown pretty A-grade judgment in his restaurant tips so far) was a bit of an adventure, especially considering that my Portuguese (and understanding thereof) is, bluntly put, ass. At least it’s nice to know there’s a whole other country out there where almost nobody speaks anything foreign (and their road signposting skills aren’t really all that) but at least when you visit somewhere as big and popular as Brazil, it’d help to speak their language. Nuh-uh, spend a year on a continent learning Spanish, which is spoken by pretty much everyone but…again, you get the general idea.
We still had a bit of a sour taste of Brazilian hotellerie from our stay at the Copacabana Palace (don’t bother, the service sucks and it’s expensive — but kudos to their GM, he did send back a very long, personal acknowledgment to make ok, that’s good style), so it was with considerable and pleasant surprise that the Pousada da Amendoeira, smack on the beach about 180km South of Recife, turned out to be (a) beautiful, (b) run by some really really nice people, (c) modern and comfortable and (d) an excellent restaurant.
There are about 8 bungalows in total, with aircon (don’t really see the point, given that the windows have no glass), hammocks out front, comfy beds, luxurious, white linen, dark wood, etc. etc. etc. and satellite TV with your choice of “video” and “channel 3″. Or take a trip to see the manatee, but make sure you get to spend enough time there (tip: if they have buoys around their tails, they’re reasonably tame and you can pet them, but don’t expect anyone to tell you. At least our guide didn’t — but then again, he said about 3 words total all trip. It’s a pleasant boat ride, though.)
That said, if you’re watching TV outside of waiting for the torrential tropical rain to stop (give it 5 minutes), or relaxing after a day’s sunshine while waiting for a good moment to go for dinner, you’re an idiot, because there’s a scenic beach out back — not the awesomest whitest sandiest one I’ve ever seen, but with warm, shallow water, picturesque fishermen, and really excellent easy chairs on the pousada’s wood sun porch. And if the rain takes longer, they have DVDs.
And the food — it’s superb. Everything’s fresh, the service is attentive and friendly, and each dish is created by Adrienne, one of the owners (apparently she taught one of the locals to cook exactly the way she wanted it done — good girl.) Loads of shrimp and fish filets, done with honey, fruits, wild rice, the local cheese, and perfect spices. Of the 8 or so dishes we tried, every single one was excellent, and they make the first really good caipirinhas we’ve had in Brazil (!!!) The whole place just felt comfortable, all the time.
I’ve never before experienced such hospitality from the owners of a resort/hotel; maybe it helped that we were among the only guests, but the three partners are warm and friendly — they’d even prepared some sandwiches for us when we arrived late after getting lost and confused around the ferry landing near Sao Miguel dos Milagres. Even their two cats are friendly (and one’s a Siamese at that.) Kudos for hiring all local staff and letting them partake in any profits. Three thumbs up, check it out.
Oh yeah, and like the rest of the country it’s really badly indicated. Watch for a tiny round sign by the ocean side of the road in the first part of Sao Miguel coming from the North. We told them they should hire another guy to wear a sandwich board, but I don’t think it’d really go with the overall feel of the place.
+55 (82) 3295 1213
+55 (82) 9902 8803 (cell)
pd.amendoeira@uol.com.br
http://www.pdamendoeira.com.br
