"Brazil - Porto de Galinhas " a Pôrto das Galinhas Travel Page by Sunshinekiss

Porto de Galinhas means Port of Chickens; during the 18th century, when the traffic of slaves was forbidden, "chicken" was the code used to refer to the slaves. "There are new chickens in town" was the way to say that a ship loaded with slaves had arrived.

Many visitors come in package tours and are picked up at the airport in Recife and driven straight to Porto. Packages (including flights and half-board lodging) starting from Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have prices comparable to the price of flight tickets alone.

Porto Galinhas, is a fishing village turned eclectic resort. The town is small, colorful and funky. There are several restaurants, shops (mostly beach wear), and art crafts. The village gets crowded during high seasons, with tourists and residents of Recife, who are attracted by the colorful night life of Porto.

The beach line is 18 km long, all with white, fine grained, clean sand. There is a chain of reefs lining all along the coast. During the lower tide, the water trapped by the reefs forms several natural pools; tourists can swim, dive and feed the fishes.