Itamaraca is actually a city in its own right, and although the resident population numbers only around 17,000, this swells tenfold at weekends outside of winter, and up to a half a million over Carnaval.

There are some fantastic parts of Recife some very modern, some very old, and it has a great deal of tourism. But, like every other city in the world, there are some parts that are not so good...