Recife & Olinda

I’m melting! I’m melting! I’m pretty sure I left a puddle everywhere I stood today. It was THAT hot! Based on the direction of our travel, it’s likely to get hotter. Yikes! As we awoke this morning we could see yet another large modern city on the horizon, this one being Recife, pronounced Heh–say-fay. Our Oceania tour today was a morning one and we didn’t get far before being stopped by a road race. This annual affair certainly bunged up the flow of traffic from the port.

After about 45 minutes we got to destination one, the beach - a curious stop given that there wasn’t time to swim. It is a beautiful beach, if you don’t mind the sharks.

While we were slowed down, our guide Leo took us through the history of Brazil. Did you know that Brazil, at 170 million people, is the largest Catholic country in the world? From Recife, we drove inland to the World Heritage Site of Olinda. We were transferred to mini buses for our ascent over the really rough cobblestones to the historic heart of the village.

They gave us some time after the obligatory church tour to do some shopping. There are some interesting local handicrafts here, but by enlarge, there’s not much we were interested in purchasing. Throughout Brazil the wooden ladies in this photo have been prominent. They are quite unique but we’re not seeing a place for them in our décor. I’ve included a photo of a group of young Brazilian ladies because they represent today.

We visited, as well, a functioning monastery and we caught a fraction of what is normally a private service.

One of the prominent features of Olinda is its view to Recife. There were numerous lookouts with views extending from the docks to the commercial heart of Recife.

Like Salvador, there is a colour element to the homes, but the African presence was noticeably missing here.

As our tour lead us back to our ship we paused in a central park with courts on one side of the square and the Governor’s Palace on the other. In this park was a 170-year old baobab tree. These trees can apparently grow for one thousand years so this already historied tree was a mere babe in arms.

Referencing back to the beginning of this article, by the end of our tour we felt like this dog.

We ate in the Grand Dining Room again tonight with Albertans, Peter & Lois and I experienced a culinary first with a main course of ostrich. It was more like beef than fowl and it was delicious. Thank you Oceania!

Salvador da Bahia Part 2

It was curious to us that we spent the evening in port, because on other cruises we have sailed at night. But for whatever reason, we sailed from port at 8:00 this morning. So now, a continuation of yesterday’s story. The Pelourinho, the oldest district in the city, was once a wealthy neighbourhood. Over time, it gradually deteriorated into tenements and brothels until its restoration, just recently.

As our tour continued along streets lined with rows of pastel-coloured houses, the sun set and the lights came on giving the area a magical aura.

By the time we reached the centre of the Pelourinho, this was our view. It was riveting!

There were many shops along the way selling what were essentially African-style goods, like this drum shop.

I’m pretty sure that this area is fairly new to tourism, since we seemed to attract a lot of attention as we walked about. This is not always a comfortable feeling, especially as darkness descends. But then, we are the interlopers and our appearance certainly differed substantially from the locals. As we stepped back on our tour bus, it was dark and although the tour continued, we saw very little along the remainder of the route.

Dinner last night was once again in the Grand Dining Room. Dawn has been very good about having the Canyon Spa Menu, which as it suggests is the healthy alternative. Me, not so much! In my defense however, the regular portions are small and we’ve been fairly active. So…back to today.

This morning as we sailed away from Salvador, I was greeted with a Birthday card from the Captain – nice touch. This is a birthday I’ll likely not forget. We had breakfast in the Terrace Café, lunch in the Grand Dining Room and dinner in Polo and other than a workout on the track and in the fitness centre, that was pretty much the day.

There was a meeting of Canadians in Horizons before dinner that we did attend. We’ve met some nice people, among them Carol & Walter Donaldson from Windsor, with whom we dined at Polo.

During the course of the evening, we discovered that at least two others had birthdays today, but I was the only one to successfully keep my mouth shut about it. Sing along with me now. That’s the way uh uh uh uh, I like it uh uh uh uh!

Salvador da Bahia

As we continued north passing 13 degrees south of the equator, we had a leisurely start to the day since we weren’t going to be in port until mid-afternoon. The brisk head wind has stubbornly continued and the ship is still doing some pitching and rolling, but Dawn has been able to abandon her sea bands. Following breakfast, Dawn & I did the walk of the drunken sailor as we zigzagged our way around the exercise track. Finally at 3:00 p.m. we pulled into the dock at Salvador, a city of 2 ½ million people – third largest in Brazil. We are taking an Oceania tour here, but it will be an abbreviated one, due to our late arrival.

The first sight we had, was of a very modern city with many skyscrapers. This is the new and thriving middle class of Salvador. But Salvador has a dark history because they were originally the destination port for slaves being brought from Africa. Because of the millions of slaves imported, this area is still very rich in Black history. The unfortunate part of this is, despite the abolition of slavery in 1888, blacks still make up the poorest element of Salvador and due to their “Let’s live today because there is no future” attitude, there is a huge cocaine problem in this community.

Our dock location in Salvador was not what one would call rejuvenated. The entire port region could be nicely razed and it would be no great loss. We were on an Oceania cruise tour today, which was predominantly a walking tour of the historic centre called the Pelourinho. Here black ladies in fancy hoop skirts greeted us. This dress pays homage to the freedom of slaves, when black woman could finally dress like Western women.

Along our tour route, we entered the Church of St. Francis. This place is a baroque/ rococo mix and is probably the most ornate and busy interior of a church that we have ever seen. Of course the main decoration here was gold leaf, so the interior literally shimmers.

Before I take you into the heart of the Pelourinho, I’m going to stop for today, since tomorrow we will be at sea again and I can do part 2 of our visit to Salvador. This actually works because we don’t leave Salvador until tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m.

Day One at Sea

Given the number of days at sea on this voyage, it was inevitable that this picture should show up, sooner or later, so I thought I’d just get it over with. There is land in view from our stateroom, but I’d guess it is a good 50-60 kilometres away as we steam north along the Brazilian coast. Because we got away late yesterday and because we are facing stiff head winds of 60 kmph, we will be at sea a little longer than anticipated, so that our tour time in Salvador will be diminished. Our best speed right now into the wind is about 32 kmph or if I was a sailor, 17 knots. So…about the wind. The sea is not rough, but sailing into this wind has certainly made us acquire our sea legs. It’s not nauseating, but Dawn IS wearing her sea bands. Sitting around the pool was a bit of an act of masochism due to the wind, where at one moment Dawn’s flip-flops were sitting beside her chaise and the next they had blown to the end of the boat. I sat and watched someone’s glasses blow along the deck with a crewmember in hot pursuit. Dawn is less than impressed by the way the wind has styled her hair.

We’ve discovered that there are a lot of Canadians on board and in particular, a large contingent of French Canadian bridge players from Montreal. People go on cruises to dance, so why not to play bridge. Most of the people we’ve had conversations with, however, have been American and they seem nice. As we continue to sail north, the sun gets higher and higher and hotter and hotter. By noon it had hit 37 degrees. Thank God for air conditioning! One thing is certain. We will get lots of reading time. Hopefully the books don’t run out. Dawn has discovered that she can’t see the screen on the i-pad at the pool, so that limits its use to indoors. Maybe we’ll have to take up shuffleboard or, God forbid, Bingo. In this heat it’s essential to remain hydrated, so after some cool cabin time, it was Happy Hour with its variety of refreshing liquids. It was also Meet the Captain night tonight with the requisite free drinks. We were introduced to the heads of each department on the ship, the last and most important being the chef – from France.

At Meet the Captain, we met yet another couple from Canada (Windsor). Then, with them, we dined in the Grand Dining Room at a table for eight that attracted yet 4 more Canadians – two from Alberta and two from Victoria. It is now clear that Canadians have taken over this cruise. Following dinner, we went to the evening show which featured a classical guitarist who studied under Segovia by the name of George Sakellariou. Excellent!

Goodbye Rio – Hello Insignia

I feel like we just got here, but alas, it’s time to leave Rio. Our experience here has been fabulous! We feel that tour books need to catch up with today’s Rio, because there is a distinct tone of caution in them that we’ve found isn’t justified. Let’s face it. You need to be careful at night in any city – anywhere – but we found that the beach area along Copacabana comes particularly alive after dark and is the farthest thing from frightening. Plus, it’s the nicest time to take a walk because you’re finally getting some relief from the sun. It may be the beginning of fall here, but the temperatures are still hovering in the mid thirties. We’ve been very happy with our hotel – it’s location and it’s amenities. The buffet breakfast is especially bountiful with all manner of tropical fruit, breads and cheeses. And no, the fruit in the middle of the picture below is not a tomato. It has a consistency close to an orange but its sweet flavour is not comparable to anything else.

After breakfast, we took our last walk around our neighbourhood. At 9:00 a.m. it was almost already too hot for a walk so we tried to stick to the shady sides of the street. There’s quite a commercial area two streets away from the beach with many small grocery stores and since everyone in Rio wears flip flops, lots of shops selling them.

We arranged pickup from our hotel at 11:30 to take us to the ship and they were actually a little early. Even though it was approaching noon the traffic was pretty nasty. We drove past the commercial heart of downtown and saw another side of Sugarloaf. Once at the dock a porter disappeared with our bags leaving us to wonder if we’d ever see them again. We headed away from our luggage and located the Oceania entrance. Once we obtained our on-ship security/key/credit cards, we headed to the Terrace Café for lunch since our rooms were not yet available. This seems to be a recurring theme on this trip. That’s what we get for being on the early end.

At about 1:00, we headed for our now ready staterooms only to discover that no one on our floor had an operational key card. This meant a trip down to reception for new cards. We were rewarded once we got into our room with a chilling bottle of Champagne. We would have enjoyed sipping it on the balcony but it was too darn hot, so we cranked up the AC and enjoyed some time in our stateroom. Before we embarked, I took some last looks at Rio from the top of the ship.

Shortly after 5:00 the ship underwent a lifeboat drill – not a bad thing. We now know that we are in boat #4 on the port side and as lifeboats go, it’s a big one holding at least a hundred people. It’s handy to know this since we have an Italian captain – Ha ha.

We got a slightly late start since we had to wait for a flight of about 50 passengers. I mean, who shows up for a cruise minutes before embarkation? Clearly, some do. This did afford us some nice final evening views of Rio and the pool band played while we pulled away.

Dinner tonight was in the Grand Dining Room. Dawn had the Canyon Ranch Menu that is designed with good taste in mind and low calories. I actually had 2/3 of that menu and it was very delicious without excessive content. I pre-purchased a flight of wines when we arrived and we had the first, a Sonoma Rhone-style Cline that was excellent.

We finished off the evening with the entertainment in the lounge. They gave us a taste of what entertainment is available on the ship. Yes, it’s limited compared to the larger ships, but once again this ship is about quality and not quantity.

So far travel on the ocean is not perfectly smooth, but it’s not barf city either. Stay tuned.

Day Three in Rio

Yesterday was such a full day that I neglected to include one of the best views from Corcovado – that of the Lagoon off Ipanema and Leblon beach. The track in the lower right is the horse track (hippodrome).

Today we set out on foot to the south end of Copacabana. From our hotel, which is pretty much in the centre of Copa, that was about four kilometers. At the beach end is the Copacabana Fort that is an operational fort with fortified bunkers and large swivel guns protecting the harbour entrance. We stopped here for coffee and juice and watched the standup surfers search for waves.

As we left the fort the fishermen had just brought in the day’s catch in their small boats. They were repairing their nets and selling their wares in a little makeshift market.

There was still lots of action on the beach with most girls wearing what the Brazilians call “dental floss”. Apparently the reason why most young Brazilian girls are carrying a little more “junk in their trunk” is because that’s the way Brazilian men like them. Classic! Every hundred metres or so there were also sand castle builders extraordinaire.

Our route back to hotel took us two blocks up from the beach to the main street of Rio with all of its bustling commerce. We thought we should top up our Brazilian currency and had difficulty finding a bank that would accept our bankcard. Four institutions later, we finally succeeded with the Citi Bank. We arrived at the hotel in time for lunch and chose to eat on the hotel terrace around the pool. This was our idea of lunching on the beach, Dawn in her bikini and me on my computer. We had lunch and tried the Brazilian drink specialty the caipirinha that is a delicious lime drink made with cachaca, the Brazilian sugar cane liquor, not unlike rum.

The next photo is a significant one. The wave pattern in the walkways along Copacabana symbolizes the waves of the Atlantic. There are three colours of stone used in these patterns – white for the Portuguese, black for the African slaves brought here by the colonists and red (not seen in this picture) for the aboriginal people. If you go to Ipanema the pattern is more geometric but the colours of the stone remain the same.

We walked back to the night market tonight and Dawn had fun with her try-ons. We thought we did well with the steps yesterday, but topped 17 000 today. We feel we’ve got to get the walking in before we hit the days at sea, where we can walk, but it won’t be nearly as interesting. On the walk back to the hotel, we stopped for a drink at one of the beach cafes. I finally had the coconut water, which was ice cold, but not as coconuty as expected.

For dinner, we returned to La Trattoria and once again shared, this time, a caprese salad and a garlic fettuccine. We have the tried the Brazilian wine – red and white – and although not offensive and definitely not expensive, it’s also not remarkable. Tonight we had an Argentine malbec – delicious – gotta try more of those at home.