The north east has the year round weather and Brazil’s best beaches. It is where the Brazilians from Rio and São Paulo holiday in what they consider to be their cold winter months from May to October (equivalent to a scorching summer for northern Europeans: 22°C to 26°C) and where the food, the music and the culture conjure up a heady and exotic mix.

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Pernambuco was the richest state in Brazil, thanks to sugar cane. The climate is tropical and the 190 km coastline a succession of beaches, for the most part protected from the Atlantic swell by banks of coral reef. You need not venture too deep in the water here in order to feel you are in a tropical aquarium. All that is needed is a mask.

Overlooking the ancient and modern city of Recife is Olinda, an open-air treasure chest of baroque art and architecture declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. It is a joy to walk through the ancient streets and sit at one of the many cafés. Its population of just over 370,000 swells to two or three times the size at carnival time.