What Goes Around Comes Around

Back in April, when my mom was visiting, my friend Andréa spent a couple of afternoons taking us around to see the sites [my car was languishing at the dealer's waiting for the infamous nota fiscal to arrive from São Paulo]. One of our trips was a Saturday afternoon visit to the town of Igarassu, 30km north of Recife. Igarassu was founded in 1535 and was one of the first points of colonisation after the Portuguese discovery of Brazil. In fact, the first church built in Igarassu - São Cosme e São Damião (above) - was the second to be built in Brazil and is now considered the oldest in the country as the first [built in São Vicente in the state of São Paulo] collapsed and was washed out to sea. São Cosme e São Damião was built in the mannerist style which predates baroque. It was baroquified over the years and then returned to it original mannerist form following the most recent renovation. The Santo Antonio Franciscan convent just down the hill houses one of the most important collections of Brazilian religious colonial art and is an extraordinarily well preserved example of baroque mixed with a bit of mannerism.

Igarassu retains the feel of a small village even though the population tips the scales at 86,000. The three churches which form the historic centre are well preserved and merit a couple of hours of visiting. Following our stop in Igarassu, we continued on our way to the village of Itamaracá where we visited the Forte Orange or Orange Fort built by the Dutch in the first half of the 17th Century. We then enjoyed fried fish and manioc on the beach and a gorgeous sunset before heading back to the city.

Well yesterday, it was my time to complete the karma. A friend, his uncle visiting from Ireland, and I bundled ourselves into my car and headed out on the same journey. The meaning of it didn't quite sink in until we were safely enjoying our meal on the beach. We did make a few substitutions: we switched Forte Orange for the Manatee Rehabilitation Centre which are right next to each other and then the fish for sundried meat. Other than that, the visits were identical. When I mentioned this to my co-travellers, my friend laughed and said "does that mean in a few months time I will have a car and will be taking another expat and their visiting mother/father/uncle/aunt/cousin/sibling on this route?" Could be, could be!

In any case, it was great to see the sites again - each time I retain a little more! Being a little bit difficult to access without a car, Igarassu is not on many visitors' itineraries, but is well worth the extra effort to get there.