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

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 2/24

Our arrival into the natural harbor was spectacular.  Christ the Redeemer statue is lighted and was a fantastic sight as we sailed in at about 6:30 am.  We had a morning tour that included views of Ipanema and Copacabana beaches as we drove through the city.  The highlight was riding the tram to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain where there were great views of the different beaches and sections of the city that are separated by mountains.  The traffic was very bad as they have many areas of construction while the city prepares for World Cup Soccer in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016.

Christ the Redeemer statue at dawn

Going up the tram to Sugar Loaf

Copacabana Beach

View coming down in the tram

 The beaches were all packed with people as many take the entire week off from work as Carnival just ended on Tuesday.  Remnants of Carnival can still be seen throughout the city and tomorrow night is the last event, a parade of the top five Samba Clubs.  They have a spectacular stadium where the parade is held, it is like a street with permanent grandstands lining both sides.  We found out that the parade starts at 8 pm and lasts until 4 am and each of the five top groups have an hour and a half for their part of the event.  We were told that tickets can cost $1000 to see the parade, however our ship leaves Rio at six tomorrow night before the parade begins.

After dinner we had a little time before leaving the ship at 9 pm for a Samba show.  The show did not start until 10 pm, quite late for us!  The costumes were very elaborate with lots of glitter and feathers and not much else, it made up for the ugly bodies in bikinis we saw on the beaches!  At the end of the two hour show they paraded in prize winnng costumes from prior years Carnival.  On our way back to the port we ran into several road closures as they were moving all the floats for the "Winner's Parade" on Saturday night.  At one point we were right by the ship but they would not let our bus go through so we had to continue down the elevated highway for about 10 miles before we could turn around and go back on a different road.  We did see several of the floats as they were being moved, they were huge and very impressive.  We did not get back to the ship until 1 am, it made for a very short night as we had to be up at 6:30 to be ready in time for our morning tour.

Several of the dancers were over 6 ft tall

They had about six or seven costume changes

Lots of peacock and ostrich feathers

Gold dyed peacock feathers

2/23 Buzios, Brazil

This was another beautiful resort town, made famous by Bridget Bardot when she vacationed here in the 1960's.  there is a statue of her an a street named after her in the middle of the town.  The skies were clear but we had gusts of wind reaching 40 knots that created a substantial swell.  The captain came on the PA early and warned of the rough sea and cautioning everyone about being extra careful when entering and exiting the tenders.  We went ashore about 10:00 am and walked around the town.  It was very pretty with trees lining the cobblestone streets.  There were many nice shops and restaurants but about one third of the shops were not open this early.  Typical of Latin American countries! 

Pier at Buzios

Elaborate sand castle on the beach

There were two main streets lined with trees

Brazil is a large producer of gems and for the last seven ports, jewelry stores (Sterns, Amsterdam, Sabin, Ben Bros and others) have had representatives on the piers when we arrived. (Two representatives from Sterns are even on as passengers, having boarded in Buenos Aires.) They were passing out brochures and token gifts trying to get passengers to take advantage of their offer of free tours with private cars and drivers when we reach Rio. Of course the tour would include a stop at their stores.  There must really be a lot of profit in jewelry!

We have really been impressed with the resort ports of Brazil.  After two days in Rio we head north with several stops before entering the Amazon in nine days.  Brazil is a huge country, as large as the continental US.  We are having a great time but our knowledge of Portuguese is minimal. 

Ilha Grande and Parati, Brazil 2/21 and 2/22

We arrived in Ilha Grande (big island in Portuguese) to clear skies and a beautiful sunrise.  The island is a short distance from the mainland and accessable only by ferry or private boat.  There are no vehicles on the island other that a few used by the police, fire and park service.  There are many nice beaches and they were all packed with locals as this is the last day of Carnival.  We just took the ship's tender into the town, walked around for about one hour then went back to the ship in time for lunch.  We did look in a few shops to perhaps buy a tee shirt, but they were very pricey. 

Refer to Tom's prior comment about string bikinis

Vultures on the beach at Ilha Grande

Riding back to ship on top deck of tender

In the early evening the ship had another special event for the full cruise passengers on the bow deck (the crew calls this the "steel beach" as it is where they can relax in the sun).  The culinary staff was barbequeing (sp?) Brazilian type meats and there were also some other cold items displayed on a large mirror in front of a very tall ice sculpture of the Christ statue that is in Rio.  Not long after I took a picture of the sculpture it came crashing down, scattering all the food and breaking a lot of dishes and the large mirror.  The load noise sure got everyones attention!

Ice sculpture and food before

and after!

Food and Beverage manager with Brazilian style meat

On Wednesday morning we had a very long tender ride, about 50 minutes, to the town of Parati.  The town is very historic, from around 1500.  It was an important harbor for the Portuguese as it was where they shipped Brazilian gold back to Portugal.  It is now a nice tourist spot and seems fairly prosperous. Our tour was a ride in a 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser with bench seats in the back that held 8 people.  We visited two waterfalls, one was a large rock that people were sliding down, some even doing it standing up like surfers.  We then visited  a cachaga distillery, a local liquor that is made from sugar cane, and a bromeliad nursery.  After the tour we walked through the town to find a bank where we could use the ATM to get some Brazilian Reals.  We then found a restaurant that had a menu with English and had a light lunch before heading back to the ship.  One interesting thing about the town was that the tide came in while we were on tour and when we started back to the pier some of the streets were under about a foot of water!

One of our tour drivers sliding down the waterfall

Flooded street, salt water can't be good for the cars!

Restaurant on small island we passed on the way back to ship

Porto Bello and Santos, Brazil - 2/19 and 2/20

Porto Bello is a very nice seaside resort area with beautiful white sand beaches, restaurants and souvenir shops. We cancelled our scheduled tour after finding out that the tour was a 30 minute tender ride,  45 minute bus ride , 15 minute cable car ride, 30 minutes at a beach and then reverse the order back to the ship.  We took the tender to the town and walked the main street for an hour looking for an ATM and never found one so we returned to the ship in time for lunch.  Our ship seemed to be quite an attraction, we had a steady stream of tour boats, private power boats, sail boats and jet skis circling us all day.  One thing Tom learned while walking around the beach area is:  even though it is Brazil some women should not wear string bikinis.

Beach at Porto Bello

Tom studying the map of the town

The Mariner was a big attraction, some of the many boats that came around for a look

Santos is an old, major port city established around 1545 that is on an island.  We are here during Carnival and most businesses were closed.  There is a very long, wide beach area that is lined with high rise condos and apartments and being a holiday the beach was packed with thousands of  the local people. We saw quite a few of the Carnival parade floats being readied for the major parade that takes place tonight at about 11 pm.

One of the unfinished parade floats

Trading area of the coffee museum

Stained glass ceiling in coffee museum

Just one of the several trophy cases in soccer museum

Santos had served as the shipping and brokerage city for the Brazilian coffee industry so they have a coffee museum that is located in the building that had been used for the coffee trade.  It is a beautiful building and had nice displays.  There was a nice little cafe in the museum where we shared a piece of cake and Tom had an espresso after touring the building. Our next stop was the Santos soccer stadium which houses a museum featuring the local team's awards, trophies and photos.  Pele played for this team (and the national team) for many years and he still lives in the area.  Unfortunately we then visited the Santos aquarium.  The only one we have seen that is worse was the one in Key West.  Overall it was a nice visit in a city that is obviously becoming more prosperous.

We finally saw some penguins, unfortunately they were in an aquarium

2/17 and 2/18 Rio Grande, Brazil and sea day

Our first port in Brazil is the largest port in southern Brazil and they also have nearby factories that make John Deere farm equipment and Chevrolet cars.  Our side of the ship was against the dock and there were literally dozens of John Deere (combines?) parked on the pier and we could also see there were hundreds if not thousands of Chevy vehicles parked nearby awaiting shipment.  The town itself has little to offer, no souvenir shops and many of the historic buildings are in disrepair.  Tom took a short ride into the town on the shuttle bus, stayed about 15 minutes and went back to the ship, the area reminded him of some of the poorer areas in Ecuador and Peru.

There was a pre-dinner show featuring a clarinet virtuoso and an soprano opera singer, right up Tom's alley!
We dined with the General Manager and the Executive Concierge, a very enjoyable experience, probably the nicest dinner we have had with ship's officers. 

While at sea we had a smooth sunny day.  We had a special "gaucho" barbeque on the pool deck for lunch and Tom enjoyed the Argentine wine tasting in the afternoon.  This evening we having a Filipino dinner with a small group that we have met on board.  This is our second "themed" dinner for the nine of us.

Lots of John Deere green

More of the same

2/15 and 2/16 Montevideo and Punta Del Este Uruguay

The bow of the Mariner tucked under the bow of the Star Princess

The stern of the Empress against our stern (note the climbing wall on top deck)

 d

Just a small number of the many high rises in Punta Del Este

Famous sculpture of hand rising out of the sand on one of the beaches

After our adventures at Iguazu Falls and our time in Buenos Aires, we were able to sleep in this morning. Since we had been in Montevideo just four days ago we just walked around the old town for a couple of hours.  Our ship is docked between the Star Princess with 2600 passengers and the Empress with1850.  The Mariner is dwarfed by these two floating cities. 
It is hard to believe that we were wearing fleece and jackets just two weeks ago as today it is 90 and humid.
Arriving in Punta Del Este is like being in Southern Florida, there are hundreds of yachts, condos, high rises and luxury homes.  It is on a peninsula with miles of white sand beaches,  many restaurants, bars, and high end stores.  All of the condos and homes for sale are priced in US dollars.    We did not expect to see such an affluent area in South America.
Uruguay has definitely exceeded our expectations.  Friday we arrive in Rio Grande, Brazil, for our first of 22 days in that country.  Goodbye Uruguay!

Iguazu Falls 2/13 and 2/14 The excitement continues!

Our flight on LAN airlines from Buenos Aires to Iguazu was running about one hour late by the time we boarded.  The plane had taxied a short distance and we had stopped for a few minutes when we felt some sort of impact and shaking of our plane.  Looking out the window you could see a large number of ground personnel pointing at the rear of our plane making gestures to our pilot.  Soon we had a huge crowd of various vehicles and people gathered around us.  It turns out that a plane from another company that was being towed had hit the tail of our plane with the end of their wing.  We sat on the plane for over one hour before the planes were separated and we were towed back to the gate area.  We stayed in the terminal for about another hour and a half then boarded another plane for the completion of our flight and arrived at Iguazu Falls about 4 hours late.  Our ship delayed the Tuesday departure time so we could extend our time at the falls and do our entire scheduled program.  Nine people decided to return to the ship after the accident and not continue the tour.  Their loss.  The accident was front page news in the Buenos Aires newspaper  with several pictures and even a double page spread on the inside section!

Front page of the paper

Inside story with more pics

View from our hotel room

It is difficult to describe the falls, They are immense, 1.7 miles across with 275 different falls.  There are 4 large ones with The Devil's Throat being the largest.  Our Sheraton Hotel is the only hotel within the National Park and looks directly at The Devil's Throat.  Once we arrived we got a few minutes to change clothes and then hiked down 600 steps, viewing some smaller falls along the way, and arrived for our boat ride.  We were given life vests and a water proof bags for our belongings.  We were taken close to the Devil's Throat, made a pass under a smaller fall, then made two passes under the San Martin fall, (the second largest). We were absolutely soaked, like someone had turned a fire hose on us! We then headed down some rapids where one wave came over the side and a foot of water hit Tom in the chest as he was sitting on the outside seat.  We traveled about four miles down river where we got out of the boat and than walked up about 200 steps to reach a big 6 by 6 truck (WWII vintage) that took us through the jungle and back to the hotel. 

View from our boat

Soaked to the skin!

We had a nice buffet dinner at the hotel and Tom tried some Argentina Cabernet and thought it was quite good.  We had a great first day with the added excitement of the airplane incident.

In the morning we had breakfast and checked out of our room, leaving our bags in storage before meeting for our two walks that ended up being about 3 or 4 miles total.  Our first walk took us to the area above the Devil's Throat.  The view from above was utterly spectacular and we again got very wet from the spray that was blowing back on us.  There was a system of raised walkways that connected all the areas of the upper river to reach the different view points. In several places you were right above a fall looking straight down, amazing!  We then walked back to the hotel for a shower in the health spa and a nice lunch before going to the airport for our flight back to Buenos Aires.  We made it back to the ship in time for Tom's normal 6 pm martini.  This experience ranks right up there with the best we have had.  Off to Montevideo again for another visit,  Goodbye to Argentina!

Above Devil's Throat

Some of the smaller falls

Boat under the San Martin fall