February 12th

February 12, 2009

SALVADOR, BRAZIL

Think Africa but with a Portuguese flavor. This was Brazil’s main seaport during the slave trading era (16th and 17th centuries). 80% of the population is direct descendants of African slaves. The city is broken into two sections. The lower section is the commercial area or new section. The upper section is the historic district. Like everywhere in Brazil they have their share of petty thieves and street people.

We left the ship at 8:15 am and took the H. Stern free shuttle to the historic district in the upper section. The architecture here is spectacular! Being so early it was nice to be able to have the area to ourselves for a little while. Our first stop was the church and convent of St. Francis built between 1708 and 1750 and is considered the richest church in all of Brazil. The convent has beautiful tile work but the church is truly impressive because it is covered in more than 100 kilograms of gold. It was built by slaves of the sugar barons and is covered with 100s of the ugliest cherubs you have ever seen. I found out later this was the slaves’ way of rebelling. They gave them the bodies of midgets, homely faces and penus covered with fig leafs. Years later the leaves started falling off raveling their peanus. The Catholic Church was horrified so they chiseled all but two off.

We walked across the plaza to the Cathedral Basilica then wandered around the area with their beautiful pastel buildings, cobblestone streets and many shops.

The city has a 225 foot 100 year old elevator that takes you to the lower section in 15 seconds.

We went to the Mercado Modelo at the bottom, which is indoors and outdoors with a large selection of handicrafts and art work. The following day we were going to celebrate Bobby’s birthday so we wanted to get some liquor that is only made in Brazil cachaca that is similar to moonshine or white lightning. LuAnn and I lost Bob & Bobby in the market but we found out the closest liquor store was only 3 blocks away. We started walking; of course, the street the liquor store was on didn’t look safe. We each agreed that if it wasn’t the first store we would go back. We lucked out – it was! I have to tell you so far in Brazil we have noticed hardly anyone speaks English or Spanish so we mainly have to rely on our sign language. Everyone knows what cachaca is so that wasn’t a problem but getting directions and then trying to select which of the 7 different cachacas to buy wasn’t easy! We settled on a bottle for $2 because we think the owner told us it didn’t matter what it costs since we were going to be mixing it with juice.

We returned to the ship late afternoon and watched us sail away.

From Salvador, Brazil

February 13, 2009

BOBBY’S BIRTHDAY

Today we had a tour of the kitchen. We had a cheese and cracker platter delivered to Bob & LuAnn’s room (since it was the largest with a window) for Bobby’s 61st birthday party at 4:30. We got orange juice, lemonade, guava juice and fresh lemon and limes to mix with our cachaca. We decided it is similar to tequila – our drinks were delicious!

From Bobby's Birthday

February 14, 2009

RIO DE JANEIRO

We couldn’t believe it - this is a port we were really looking forward to having a sunny day but we were greeted with rain and fog! Friends recommended Neyla as a tour guide so we gathered 10 of us and for $35 plus admissions she and her van driver drove us from 8 – 5 pm. Neyla was excellent!

We went to Sugar Loaf (Pao de Aquear) first. This is a rock that juts straight up from the bay and is accessed by two aerial trams for $22. We were early so we were able to go right up. By the time we arrived at the top, the rain stopped and the fog started to lift.

From there we drove to Corcovado to see the statue of Jesus Christ that is 2,200 feet above the city and can be seen from just about every vantage point throughout the city. We arrived at 11 and had Neyla buy our tickets because they wanted to charge us $50 instead of $23. There are three cruise ships in and thousands of people. We couldn’t get a train to the top until 12:40 so we decided to go to a local street market till it was time. Neyla had us try many fruits, pastries and drinks that we had never seen. One of these was the jack fruit that was brought here to feed the slaves. It is a large fruit, almost the size of a small watermelon, and very sweet, I can’t relate the flavor to anything I have ever tried. Now the trees grow all over the jungles.

We returned and took the cog railway to the top. The train goes through Tijuca National Park (the largest national park within a city in the world), a rainforest with beautiful trees and flowers. When we arrived at the top, the clouds came and went so we had to take quick photos.

We then stopped at H. Stern because this is their largest shop. We had a tour of their “factory” where they cut their stones, visited their museum, shop and each received a gift of three uncut stones.

We drove by the café where the song “The Girl from Ipanema” was written.

Unfortunately, due to the weather the beaches were deserted so the guys didn’t get to see the beautiful Brazilian women in their little bikinis.

We got back to the ship at 5 because we thought we were sailing at 6. We wanted to watch us said away but dinner for us is at 5:45 pm. We were surprised we hadn’t left at 7:30 when we finished so we dashed out on deck to see us sail away. We didn’t leave until 8:30 pm because so many people (including the Captain and lots of crew) were in line at Corcovado so they held the ship!

From Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

February 15 & 16

AT SEA

We really enjoy our time at sea – the days just fly by! Somehow Bob was able to get a tour of the bridge but he wouldn't tell any of us how. The 15th was a formal night followed by a spectacular dance show.

From Formal Night