3/4 Alter Do Chao, Brazil

This morning we could not believe the amount of debris that was coming down the river.  There were huge trees, floating pieces of sod as large as tennis courts and all kinds of other stuff.  One passenger told us he saw a dead cow floating by.  This is the rainy season and there is a lot of flooding, we have seen houses built on stilts completely surrounded by water and we saw some where only the roof was out of the water. 

This beetle was on the deck this morning, it was about 6 inches long

The village we visited is on a tributary, the Rio Tapajos, it is amazing that a cruise ship can go up a tributary of the Amazon.  We passed one town, Santarem, that has a population of 300,000.  It is at the mouth of the Rio Tapajos where it joins the amazon and we will visit there in five days. 

The clear water of the Rio Tapajos meeting the Amazon

The area where we were to dock was quite flooded with trees sticking out of the water and there was a sandbar so we could not get the tender up to the dock when fully loaded. The solution was to tie an empty tender to the dock and then the loaded tender tied off to it and we unloaded by walking through the other tender onto the dock. 

The two tenders at the dock

Thatched roof pavilions that are under water

At sea 3/3 Amazon River 3/4

It was a nice day at sea with the wind and swell coming from the south.  Since we were headed mostly WNW there were some bouncy side to side conditions, but nothing serious.  As usual we kept busy with lectures, games, trivia (we won), and we watched a movie in the suite.  There was the usual King Neptune Ceremony on the pool deck when we crossed the equator.  We enjoyed another Indian cuisine dinner arranged by our Aussie friends Graham and Jane.

Our trivia team

There has been a problem for about the last ten days with getting the satellite newspapers received and printed.  We have also been unable to get the news channels on the tv as they have had no signal for the last few days.  All contact with the outside world is via the internet or telephone.  For those of you old enough to remember the tv show "Laugh In", the comedian Arte Johnson has been on board the last two segments.  Most people do not recognize him. 

Noel with Arte Johnson

The ship officially entered the Amazon River during the night.  The river is about 200 miles wide at this point.  We awakened this morning to water the color of coffee with a lot of milk in it.  There have been trees and debris floating by as this is the rainy season and  a lot of junk gets washed into the river.  Two river pilots will be picked up this afternoon at Macapa.  This is just a technical stop and no one goes ashore.  We have been asked to conserve water since the ships desalinization equipment will not work while we are on the river.

We never realized how large the Amazon rain forest is.  Parts of it are in countries other than Brazil and the whole forest is larger than the continental US.  There are 3000 rivers throughout the forest.  Our technical stop was a couple of hours to be certified to continue.

Macapa where we anchored for about two hours while waiting for clearance to continue

Fortaleza, Brazil, 3/1

We were docked overnight in Fortaleza but left about 2:30 in the afternoon.  We will be entering the estuary of the Amazon during the night and have to time our sailing to the high tide as there are sandbars to avoid.

Today we took the shuttle bus into the center of the city and looked around the central market for a couple of hours.  The market was immense, having five levels connected with ramps and stairways and it even spills out onto the surrounding streets.  This area of Brazil specializes in cotton lace and other cotton products, leather and cashews. 

Fortaleza is the fifth largest city in Brazil and seems to have tremendous growth with new high rise condos and apartments everywhere.  You still see plenty of poverty but it is evident the economy here is growing.  The area was settled by the Dutch, but the Portuguese later took control and the African influence is gone. 

Tom is very sad to leave the Brazilian coastal areas, home to the string bikini, or as they call them here "dental floss" bikinis.



View of Fortaleza from ship



Cathedral in center of city

Large beach area with wide walkway



Inside the five level market



2/28 and 2/28 Sailing to Fortelaza, Brazil

We have had two glorious days at sea.  We kept very busy with lectures, a tasting of wine and chocolates for Tom, bingo for Noel, a comedy magician, and local folk dancers for entertainment, wonderful meals and the company of new friends.  (We also won trivia again today!)

We have had some interesting sights the last two days, many small sea birds called masked boobies that are very curious and come right up to the ship skimming the water looking for fish and we are also amazed at the number of very small fishing boats that are near us, more than 50 miles from land.

It is becoming obvious that as we head north we are nearing the equater again.  For the first time in over a month the wind is from the south and it has become much warmer and more humid.

Local folk dance group from Fortaleza

Salvador, Brazil 2/27

We arrived and docked in Salvador de Bahia right on schedule at 1pm.  Salvador is the heart of the African culture in Brazil and was once the capitol city.  Slaves were brought to this area to work on the sugar plantations from 1532 to until 1855.  As all the records were destroyed they can only estimate that about 4 million slaves were brought here during that 300 year period. 

We left the ship for a highlight tour after having an excellent lunch of several types of BBQ ribs (not as good, of course, as the Back Room in Columbia Falls, MT!).

What a city of contrasts, according to our tour guide, there are nearly 400 churches, outnumbered by 2,000 "voodoo houses", and a mix of Spanish, Portuguese and African language is spoken.  The African heritage is obvious everywhere.  There are many beautiful beaches lined with expensive condos and apartment, but right alongside there is the abject poverty of the Favelas (slums).  Our guide was one of the better ones we have had during the cruise, his command of English was excellent and when we asked where he had learned he told us he had lived in Denver as an exchange student for a year.  It was a vibrant city and we truly enjoyed the afternoon, even though it was quite warm.

View from the old city

Colorful buildings in the old city

Lots of gold leaf in this church 

Some of the Carnival decorations were still up

At sea off Brazil 2/26

It was quite a sight leaving Rio and sailing by Copacabana Beach where the ship did a full turn and sounded the horn before heading north.  We had a "Glorious Day' to quote our cruise director Ray Solaire.  The sea has been so calm  you almost forget that we are moving and the time passes quickly with all the activities.  Lunch was a very nice seafood barbeque on the pool deck but our highlight of the day was an authentic Indian dinner arranged by our Aussie friends Jane and Graham.  The assistant chef from India prepared our four course private dinner.  There was more food than we could eat and all of it was fantastic. 

Four other cruise ships docked behind us in Rio

Lat view of Copacabana Beach

With the chef that prepared our special dinner

Rio de Janeiro 2/25

We had to get going pretty early today as our tour starts at 9 am and this is "change over day"  when we get about 450 new passengers so the ship gets kind of crazy.  The passengers that are leaving are supposed to be out of their rooms by 8 am but there are always some who try to push back the time, not realizing how difficult it makes things for the stewardesses who have to completely strip the rooms and remake everything including how the hangers hang in the closet.  When we came back to the ship after our morning tour at about 1:30 our poor stewardess was actually running down the hall all out of breath. 

Our tour today was to take the cog railway up to the base of the Christ the Redeemer statue.  It was very crowded and uncomfortable with a temperature around 90 degrees and high humidity.  After that part of the tour we had another drive past Copacabana Beach, which was just as crowded as yesterday.  When we got back to the ship most of the new passengers were on board, sitting around with their carry-on bags waiting to get into their rooms.  It always feels like we are on the wrong ship with all the unfamiliar faces.  Another surprise this afternoon was that there were four new ships docked behind us along the same pier that had docked while we were on tour.  Two of the ships are really big ones.  It is probably a good thing that we are leaving this evening as the city will be really packed tomorrow.  We should have a nice sail away party with the great views available of the beautiful harbor.

Christ the Redeemer statue

Beautiful opera house

Pet rooster on a leash wearing sweater, go figure

Walkway at Copacabana Beach