January 25

 Jan 25

The latest segment route and itinerary.

Day 3 and the last day in Rio, the sun is shining, and Rio is smiling in all its glory.  It is amazing how a city transforms when the sun is shining.  We took a city tour that stopped at the modern cathedral, intended as a radically new concept, but it looks remarkably like the Liverpool Catholic Cathedral.  It is said to have been inspired by the Apollo space rockets.

The clouds lifted, we finally got to see the Christ the Redeemer statue from the city.

We got to see the rounded incline of Sugarloaf Mountain, standing at the entrance to the bay.  It is accessed via a cable car, suspended 1,000 feet above the bay.  Not for the faint of heart.

Then, finally, a drive along Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, probably the most notable lengths of sand on the planet, in full swing on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

As we prepare to sail off into the sunset, we have to say we are not city people, but Rio has greatly impressed us.  This city grew from a most magnificent natural bay setting, and it has been developed and molded around the foothills of the mountain range in a wonderful, sympathetic way, creating a world-class jewel.  The natural granite rock erupting from the bay makes an impressive statement about the power of our planet.

Jan 26

Today is a tender port to visit the island of ILHA, about 5 miles off mainland Brazil.  A full-time population of only 50, but there are many vacation homes, most of which are off the grid.  Merry and I took different tours.

Rod – I took a snorkeling, swimming, and beach excursion, where we could imagine we had been stranded on a desert island.  A large schooner took us a 20-minute ride up the coast, to a beach known locally as Blue Lagoon.  Not the famous Blue Lagoon from the movie, but so called because it is very similar.

The boat anchored in a shallow bay, and we had 50 minutes of snorkeling time.  The water was warm; the tropical fish were plentiful and friendly, but sadly no coral. 

 Next, we traveled about 15 minutes to an outstanding golden-sand beach, where we had another 50 minutes to sunbathe and swim in the protected waters.  I am not a sunbathing type, but I made an exception in this case.  It has been a long time since I needed to put on sunscreen.

We saw an oil platform in the next bay that completed its assignment and is being refitted for its next deployment.

Finally, the schooner came back and picked us all up and took us back to the pier.  We had the option to stay longer and explore the island, but being overheated, I chose to take the tender back to the ship and discovered I had worked up quite an appetite.

Merry- I opted for the walking tour, and as I found out, our group turned right after we left the tender, while Rod’s group had turned left.  We hiked along the cobblestone footpath for several “blocks” and stopped at a small, lovely church.  With a population of 50 its safe to say it was the only church on the island.  We next stopped along the beach path, where a school of children was lined up, playing an unknown game.  There was a father who kept a drone over the heads of the children, circling them to make sure each child was included in whatever they were playing.  I was enchanted in watching all this going.  I was absorbed by the fantastic scenery and took a few photos of the same, not a very good selection for you to see.

I turned around when the path got under some trees, which had turned the trip very steamy, and slowly headed back to town and the tender port.  I was amazed to see several hundred people waiting for a boat to another island, which was coming into the suddenly very busy port I had come from just two hours earlier.  I found my way to the right spot on the port and a paper cup of very appreciated cold water, thanks to Vista for that thoughtfulness!!!  The ride back was uneventful and had only a dozen or so passengers, compared to the inward short trip, which carried about 100 passengers.   I’m afraid I used more than my normal allotment of hot water as that shower felt sooooooo good!!!!

 

In the page above, this bird, who was standing quite still, was drying his wings after flying over the water and diving for food.  I’ve never seen a bird doing this before and thought it quite strange!!

In the afternoon, we worked hard to plan a way to meet my best friend in grade school and high school.  He now lives in Brazil.  We were hoping to leave the ship one port early so we could spend a good full day with him, his wife, and daughter.  With plans in hand, we talked to the head lady [friend] in reception.  It turns out our visa prohibits spending the night off the ship, and there is not enough time to get an Uber to his town, Florianopolis, and back in time to catch the last tender [he told me the traffic can be horrendous and dissuaded us from risking it].  The new plan is for him to drive to the very small port and spend time with us.  We will see.

In the evening, we went to trivia, and for the first time, our team won!!! Three whole points per person, that’s what we struggle over. Questions like “Does a peacock lay eggs or give birth to young?”  Leave your answer in the comments.       

We had dinner at the specialty Asian restaurant, Red Ginger.  Great food, and we shared with a nice couple from near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, originally from Boston.  A dentist and an attorney.  We had great conversations and immediately bonded.    Dinner ran late, but we caught the second part of the evening show.  Again, it was tooooo loud and not our type of music, but it was by a very talented singer and musician.  The 7-piece band that is part of the entertainment was outstanding as always!  We have learned to carry earplugs.

Jan 27

We woke up at the port of Santos on the island of São Vicente, though it is not easy to tell it is an island, as it sits within the coastline and is separated from the mainland only by rivers and bridges.

It is only 1-1/2 hours from São Paulo, the world's 3rd-largest city, with a population of over 12 million.  Santos has a population of 400,000 and is best known as the city where Pelé played football [soccer] for most of his career.  It is also famous for coffee.

We took a brief tour of Santos, beginning with its Botanical Gardens.  We have been to many gardens, but this one is quite different: tropical, rainforest-like, and featuring local animals and birds. 

   

We continued a tour of the city, ending at the Pele Museum, which was full of Pele information in all his different stages of being the world player he was.   Pele scored over 1,000 goals in his career.

  

 And the nearby Coffee Museum

  

The coffee is delicious.

We then returned to the ship for lunch.  It was extremely hot on tour, and we took our time cooling off in the afternoon.  We attended trivia, then the pre-dinner show, which was a very good British comedian who was hilarious.  From there, we went straight to dinner.  We always ask for a shared table, and we never know who we will share with.  Tonight, we shared with a couple that we ate with on our first night, so we are developing quite a friendship.

Jan 28

Today is a tender port at Porto Bello, still in Brazil.  We hustled to get an early tender ticket to meet my best friend in school, Bob, and his wife, Sonja.  Note: they use four tenders, each holding up to 100 passengers. There are over 1,000 passengers, most of whom want to tender ashore; those who have booked a tour get priority.

We managed to get an early start and stopped at a beachfront restaurant with Wi-Fi so we could communicate with Bob at our meeting point.  We, of course, had a drink while we waited.  

Once they arrived and we exchanged greetings, we headed off in their car down the coast to Garopaba, to a wonderful restaurant Bob had recommended.

We are not very adventurous or familiar with local foods, so we let Bob and Sonja order a selection of starters and traditional drinks. 

 

Because this is on the coast, they suggested we go for fish,,,,the first course was a shell which housed something cut up and dressed up and it was delicious!!  Then we had a fish dish, cooked to perfection, covered with spices that were to die for, not at all what we call spicy, served with rice and sauce that was very good.

 

To our relief, they were delicious.  Topped off by a decadent and spiked desert.. And fine it was, accompanied by what they call the coldest beer possible.  Yuuuuummmy. 

Bob is a retired college lecturer, and Sonja is still working as a senior pediatrician.  We spent a couple of hours after lunch catching up on our lives and stories,

 

before they dropped us off at the tender pier.  We had only a few minutes before art class started, then Trivia.  We came in fourth.

We had a little time to change for dinner.  We were not that hungry after or large lunch, sharing a table a new couple traveling from Rio to San Diego and had a nice chat, followed by a show by a singer comedian.

Jan 29

A well earned seaday after nine straight port days.  I had some paperwork to take care of: obtaining two visas and getting them printed for the ship; arranging for a guest to be onboard when we arrive in San Diego; and updating an upcoming excursion that had a problem.  Life these days would be impossible without a good internet connection.

Merry managed to attend the enrichment talks, and we both attended the art class and trivia [3^rd place].

We had dinner with a couple from Washington DC, but the wife was raised in Brazil, so the conversation was very interesting.  The evening ended with a show by the ship's singers, dancers, and band, which was very well executed.

Jan 30

Our last port in Brazil, Rio Grande, is not to be confused with the mighty river in the south of the USA.

The seafood from two days ago caught up with me, so I stayed home and indulged in modest room service, while Merry took the tour.

Merry-----It began with a ride on the bus.  I didn’t know where we were going, or what Rio Grande would bring.

Since Rod was left behind, I was on my own.  I offered the spare seat next to me to a nice lady, who was also on the excursion alone. We chatted a bit, and soon I was taking pictures.  Our first stop was the double church.  We were in part two, which was built for the poor, and sometime later, a priest had been murdered here, and that ended the church.   We did not get to the other half of the church.

Next, we drove past the oldest building, the one that housed everything.  We then went to one of the parks in the city and looked all around it, into a place that sold clothes that were in the fashionable part of the village, all without going into the park, which had several tables of people selling jewelry, animals and other things which were of interest to me, so I left the group and snuck into the park.  I did not have much time to look and listen to the people's sounds, but enough to know I wanted to go back there.  When I rejoined the group, I asked if we could spend time there, and was assured that after seeing the museum, we could be dropped there if we wished.

The museum was very interesting indeed.  It housed many skeletons and shells from the nearby beaches, including early finds of sharks and whales, and the largest shell in the world (I doubted that, as I have seen other shells larger, but it was late!!).

The children below were singing in the area where we waited for our ride back to the ship.  Having been dropped off where we had asked for, but as it turned out, I was the only one from our particular group.  There were many tables of things to buy which I was interested in looking at, one of the pictures below is one at which I bought things.  I always forget to do that, this time I remembered!!

The picture of the crowd assured me that there were others waiting to get the shuttle back to the ship.  There were an unusual number of people waiting, and it seemed to take a long time, but it did come.  

 

Back at the ship in the afternoon, we had several classes all clogged together. 

·       3.30 The talk about “Lava, Quakes and Plates”. We will watch this on TV later

·       4.00 Art Class-  Rod went for 20 minutes.

·       4.30 Trivia-  We both attended this, and we won

·       5.30 Captains cocktail party, yummy

·       6.30 Dinner – we shared with two older ladies who travel together.  Very interesting stories

·       9.15 Show Salvatore Hasard, who plays many instruments, loud but impressive.

Our final thoughts of Brazil.  Brazil is massive, and we only visited seaports. We spent 11 days at 9 different ports, and 60% of the population lives within 150 miles of the coast, so we sampled a lot of the culture.  They only speak Portuguese, and very few speak English or even Spanish, making communication complicated.  We had to work on our masquerade skills to communicate and find that they are wonderful people.  The culture is outstanding, especially the Carnivals.  We loved every minute [except the very hot, humid weather].  Experiencing the more central parts of Brazil will, of course, be a completely different experience, perhaps for another trip.

Jan 31

Finally, we left Brazil and entered Uruguay.  A nice sunny day, but cooler than Brazil [but only for now].  This is a tender port, and we arrived at Punta del Este.  We had never heard of this city, but it is very well known to Brazilians and Argentines as the Riviera of South America, and the Las Vegas of South America, and it lived up to its reputation.  The harbor was full of mega yachts, miles of golden sandy beaches, and a promenade out of the textbooks.

Our tour guide was very funny, but he was deadly serious when he said his fellow countrymen are lazy.  They speak a modified Spanish.  Uruguay, with a population of 3.5 million, is sandwiched between Brazil, 48 times its size, and Argentina, 16 times its size, so the country must compete to survive.  The city has endless large sprawling homes, many of which are second homes for their big neighbors. They are meat eaters, not fish eaters, like their neighbors, and they are predominantly of slim build.

We visited a museum of modern art, which is not our thing.

Next, we visited a very strange home built by Carlos Paez Vilaro in 1960.  It has no straight lines and is more like a massive hobbit home with a million-dollar view of the ocean.

Our last stop was a sculpture of a hand sticking out of the sand, which is Uruguay's most famous feature.  By now, it was extremely hot.

We were late getting back to the ship [3.45pm] and only had time for a quick snack.  We didn't have time to get to art class, and we made it to trivia just in time.  Then, time to relax and update the blog before dinner.

We asked for a sharing table, but no one arrived, so we had a quiet dinner for two.  Merry was feeling a little queasy, so she passed on dessert and headed for an early night.  I went to the show, a lovely singer doing a tribute to Carole King.  The crowd loved it.  I must have been the only one who knew little about her and most of her songs, having moved to the States in 1981.  When I got back to our room, Merry was asleep, so I quietly snuck into bed.

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.  Check back next Sunday for the next chapter.