Porto de Galinhas’s name, which, loosely translated, is Port of The Chickens, was given because people illegally transported slaves to Pernambuco alongside live poultry until 1888.Bruno Lima/Westin Porto de Galinhas
The Brazilian state of Pernambuco is teeming with contrasts. During the 45-minute drive from Recife airport to resort-heavy Porto de Galinhas, on the coast, my tour guide and I dart through bustling streets boasting large shopping malls, condos and busy piazzas and pass quiet acres of sugar cane fields and ember wood trees. Each geographic shift is interpreted by Baruche as “a reflection of Brazil’s beautiful future and dark past.”
Porto de Galinhas’s name, he explains, is a prime example of Brazil’s uneasy history. The town’s name, which, loosely translated, is Port of The Chickens, was given because people illegally transported slaves to Pernambuco alongside live poultry until 1888. “We are a place that doesn’t hide its old mistakes,” Baruche says, “but we do want to show tourists that we are more than this.”
Getting to the Westin Porto de Galinhas by plane is not as easy as a trip to Puerto Vallarta or Cancun. However, the added hours and connecting flights from major Canadian airports to São Paulo and then Recife are worth the jetlag, especially for those weary of resort locales which offer the usual mix of beach, buffet and basic poolside down-time.
Getting to the Westin Porto de Galinhas by plane is not as easy as a trip to Puerto Vallarta or Cancun.Tadeu Brunelli/TBFoto/The Westin
The soundscape en route features neighing horses, hooting pygmy owls and throngs of local field workers hand-chopping stalks with machetes. Then, at the hotel, I’m greeted with a stainless-steel coffee bar serving up turmeric lattes and mochaccinos.
The java comes with oversized doughnuts, French macarons, German strudel, Italian biscotti and the featured local delight, a miniature version of an eighteen-layer guava cake called Bolo de Rolo. Leticia, the barista, tells me the latter pastry – while baked in house – comes from a family recipe from Olinda, an ancient city founded by the Portuguese, an hour and a half away from the resort.
Olinda is a UNESCO World Heritage Site crowned by churches and structures hailing from the 16th to 18th centuries.DPI StudioBruno Lima/Westin Porto de Galinhas
Most guests are Brazilian and choose to lounge the day away in the sun (temperatures go up to 32 C during the January-March high season). A fisherman I bump into on the beach tells me that the weather feels like summer all year long.
The smartest travellers have booked one of the property’s two-storey villas with a generously spaced living and dining area and a private pool, sequestered from the main area of the resort. On the property, there’s aqua yoga, a grand stage (local Capoeira martial artists drop in to perform), a fully equipped gym (cardio-based instructors also work out in the pool’s shallow end) and an all-out party (two nights a week, DJs spin a fusion of dance and Brazilian top ten).
Husband and wife team Guido Stutz and Ana Laura Heissenberger manage the property with a keen eye on cuisine, informed by their visits to Michelin-star restaurants throughout Brazil and beyond. In their free time, they’ve hosted a wine tasting event and experimented with the resort’s culinary team to replicate three-star meals.
“We want people to have a cross-cultural experience so when they come here, they don’t leave thinking this is a typical resort,” hotel manager Guido Stutz says. At one of the more casual restaurants on the property, Ghalinas Bistro, Northeastern Brazilian plates (specifically tapioca-flour-based pancake dishes called beiju de tapioca) are fired up alongside Argentinian-influenced dishes (featuring bolas de fraile: yerba mate and dulce de leche “Timbits”). A food truck beside the pool serves pizza, tacos, burgers, hot dogs and addictive gluten-free pao de queijo (chewy little balls of baked tapioca flour and cheese).
The resort’s upscale dining experience is Tuna, which boasts local wine selections from up-and-coming Brazilian wineries in regions such as Farroupilha (try the dry moscato called Branco) and Monte Belo (with sparkling wines that are infused with tropical fruit). Heissenberger tells me many local fish, such as peixe agulha (tiny swordfish) and cavala (mackerel) make their way onto the resort’s hotel menus, in a series of dishes that incorporate seasonal produce. “We are here to surprise to you,” she says.
Remembering Leticia’s advice at the beginning of the trip, I take a car ride out to the city of Olinda – a UNESCO World Heritage Site crowned by churches and structures hailing from the 16th to 18th centuries (Church of St. John the Baptist Military, used as a hermitage in 1586, is the oldest). After touring baroque giants such as Basilica St. Benedict (with its gold-encrusted sacristy) and wandering the hilly streets among bright, rainbow-painted homes of the city, I experience the best meal of the visit.
It is courtesy of César Santos, the chef and owner of restaurant Oficina do Sabor, an unassuming restaurant off Amparo Road. Seated on a veranda facing the spiritual heart of Olinda, I sampled plates of crayfish, shrimp and rice stewing in saffron and wine coconut cream sauce served in a pumpkin, Amazonian pirarucu fish in passion-fruit sauce, and farofa, toasted yuca flour and cassava flour.
Located 20 kilometres from Olinda on the verdant outskirts of Recife is the Ricardo Brennand Institute, an art collection founded by the Brazilian entrepreneur who made billions from Brazil’s glass, steel, ceramic, cement, porcelain and sugar production. When I visited it, the art appeared to be casually strewn. It felt like I was entering a palatial flea market for billionaires with Renaissance sculptures and paintings sitting alongside pieces from dadaist and rococo movements. The hundreds of antique maps and guns, samurai swords, and medieval clocks are displayed alongside sacred Vatican acquisitions.
Ricardo’s brother, Francisco Brennand, was so inspired by his family’s penchant for collecting art, he spent 72 years of his life painting, sculpting, and making pottery and ceramics. The culmination of his efforts is located in a building called Oficina Francisco Brennand. Eight kilometres from his brother Ricardo’s stockpile of art, Francisco’s large works reflect Brennand’s exploration of religion, sexuality, eroticism and the natural and supernatural worlds.
It is fitting that I ended my trip in Brennand’s self-made shrine before making my way home. It reflected my entire visit: beautifully chaotic, cultural, and sensual, a journey tailor-made to excite the senses.
The added hours and connecting flights from major Canadian airports to São Paulo and then Recife are worth the jetlag.The Westin
Special to The Globe and Mail
The writer travelled as a guest of The Westin Porto de Galinhas, which did not review or approve this article.