Diane

Back to Uruguay today but now we’re at Punta Del Este which is a beach town with many resorts. Many Argentinians go there for holiday. It was strange to be a tourist in a town full of vacationers. The city has 18,000 permanent residents and about 300,000 residents during the holiday season.

The harbor was full of fancy yachts. And right next to them were old fishing boats and in the bay was our cruise ship.

I took a tour of the highlights of Punta Del Este which included a winery visit for cheese and wine tasting. After the tour I took a walk around town.

Today Jennifer and I went to a Gaucho Performance at an estancia (ranch) about an hour bus ride from the port. The horses were amazing and we had a Brazilian BBQ meal and a Tango/Milonga show.

I got to ride a carriage around the ranch- it was cool to see the ranch but the carriage was very uncomfortable.

When I got back from the carriage ride, I was one of the last ones the owner took on a horse back ride- a highlight for sure!

Buenos Aires Trivia:

• There are 3 million folks in the city and the daily commute brings in 2.5 million more. They have a terrific public transport system
• This time of year many families are on holiday so there weren’t too many cars or people on the streets
• Farms are the basis for the economy

Another day, another new country. Today we are in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buenos Aires means good air.

What a wonderful, busy day. Today I went on the ‘Highlights of Buenos Aires’ tour and saw Recoleta Cemetery, Plaza de Mayo with the Metropolitan Cathedral & the pink presidential mansion, and El Caminito (a historic street known for it brightly colored buildings). Then I walked on my own to the most amazing bookstore, El Ateneo Grand Splendid. The bookstore is in an old theater. I loved the Tango/Milonga show I went to in the evening.

Today’s tour was with a smaller group- we had 23 people this time. There was minimal traffic in Buenos Aires since many (almost all) families are on vacation during this time of the year because of the ‘summer’ school break. Between less traffic and less people in the tour we got to spend extra time at each tourist spot.

The tour was a combination of following the tour guide around a tourist site and having free time at a tourist site.

Buenos Aires uses school buses as classrooms during school breaks. This way children with working parents can be taken care of during the summer by going to summer classes. Very similar to our summer school classes but in a school bus instead of a room.

We had to take a bus from the ship to the port terminal since we were docked at an active dock. It was incredible to see all the containers and how they were stacked and moved around.

Buenos Aires Trivia:

• Most are Catholics
• 5 million people were on the streets celebrating Argentina’s 2022 World Cup Soccer win.
• Not much street art. More ads on buildings
• Mafalda is a girl comic strip figure that is very popular and was on many t-shirts. I’d never heard of her before and was confused by how often she appeared and how I kept trying to see her as a Disney character.
• Education is free

We set foot on a new country today, Uruguay.

Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America and has a population of 3.4 million. Because of their free education, they have an amazing literacy rate of 98%! Since 9% are poor and 65% are middle class, it is a very stable country. I really liked Uruguay.

Beef is their number one export and pulp (for paper) is another main export. Originally there were no trees in Uruguay. The trees they use for pulp are an eucalyptus imported from Australia.

Uruguay focused on renewable energy after the 2008’s oil price spike and now wind power accounts for a significant percent of the energy Uruguay uses. Uruguay used to import energy and after they started using wind power they can export energy.

My excursion today was to a UNESCO World Heritage Site- Colonia Del Sacramento. I loved the 2+ hour drive to the site because the country side felt familiar and reminded me of a combination of the farms & fields around Turlock and the rolling countryside between Minneapolis and Fargo.

The number of folks on the tour was 12 rather than the usual 25-30. This meant we could take longer at each stop because there were less people to wait for.

This evening they had a tango show in the on-board lounge- I loved it and will need to figure out a way to see more when I”m home.

Today’s ‘at sea’ activities included a massage then Sing Out Loud, bingo(I didn’t win anything but didn’t have to pay either!), an enrichment talk, tea and dinner.

The enrichment talk was “How 60s TV Changed the World” which was quite entertaining as they had pictures and video clips from some shows of the 60’s- including a clip of the moon landing!

We have a fun group of 4-10 women that meet up for Afternoon Tea.

Yesterday was the end of one leg of our trip and today we got another bottle of sparkling wine and we haven’t even finished the first one we got! We will of course finish them all before the end of the trip.

In case you’re wondering what a cruise leg is…cruise companies will sell a longer cruise that is made up of smaller cruises; each of these smaller cruises is a leg.

For example we purchased a cruise that went from Miami to Singapore but it turns out this cruise is really 3 smaller ones(legs). The first leg is Miami to Rio de Janerio, the second leg is Rio de Janerio to Cape Town and the third leg is Cape Town to Singapore.

Today’s ‘at sea’ activities were Pilates, Sing Out Loud choir, bracelet making, tea, Captain’s reception, dinner at a fancy restaurant (Polos) and a comedy show. The captain introduces his senior officers and pays for drinks during the Captain’s reception. They also serve Hors d’oeuvres.

The ship stayed overnight in Rio so I got to go on another excursion to the Christ the Redeemer statue aka Cristo. This excursion also included a gondola ride to the top of Sugarloaf mountain and a Brazilian BBQ.

Today the Christ the Redeemer statue was hidden in clouds. The clouds would part for a few seconds so you could see the entire statue before it was covered in clouds again.

I saw the gondola to Sugarloaf from the ship when we arrived in Rio yesterday and was wondering if I’d still go on it as it looked to be very high and out in the open. I did go on it and there were wonderful views from the top including one of Copacabana Beach.

Sugarloaf mountain was named because it resembles the mound of sugar from the sugar cane processing. Sugar Cane is a major crop in Brazil.

And of course the Brazilian BBQ was delicious and there were many different cuts of beef available. Plus they served BBQ pineapple which was sweet and juicy. And, go figure, they had a sushi bar at the Brazilian BBQ!

Today we arrived Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I was so excited to be here to see Christ the Redeemer because Beppe has always wanted to see it and we had plans to see it but they fell thru.

I went on the tour to see Christ the Redeemer. It involved a bus ride to the Tijuca Forest where the tram starts. Then a 30-minute tram ride towards the top of the mountain. Once near the top, we exited the tram and had a choice of elevator & escalator or 200 stairs to get to the very top where the 98 foot statue resides. I took the stairs and was glad I did because I had additional excellent views.

There were quite a few people at the top; many trying various poses with Christ the Redeemer in the background. Some of the poses involved one person laying on the ground taking a picture of another person 5 or so feet away. This made it really difficult to walk around and see/photograph the statue.

Brazil was the last South American country to free the slaves. The slaves were freed overnight by Princess Isabel of Brazil. One day they were slaves and the next they were free. They didn’t have a place to live anymore and they moved to the mountainous area of Rio. These areas are now favelas.

Today we did the “Stars of the Southern Hemisphere” wine tasting and tasted wines from New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina. It was quite a fun presentation and I liked the wines too. The tasting included a food pairing. Jennifer got to enjoy my piece of lamb since I don’t care for the flavor of lamb- with or without wine.

Trivia:

• When I get our current location on my phone and see that we are very close to land, I”m always surprised that I can’t see the land from the ship.
• My google searches now come up with results in Portuguese since Brazil is a Portuguese speaking country
• Many folks are leaving the ship at Rio de Janeiro, our next stop. 348 are staying on ship (out of about 670) and we will pick up 150 or so new passengers at Rio de Janeiro
• During the celebration of folks on our ship with the most cruising days, spots 2 & 3 were about 1800 days; the most was 2135 days but she is a ‘resident’ of the ship and has been on for about 3 years!
• There are about 20 different nationalities in the crew

Today Jennifer and I went on an excursion to see the highlights of Salvador. It included visiting Fortress of San Antonio, walking around Upper town and visiting two churches(Catedral Basílica de Salvador and São Francisco). We completed the tour with a Brazilian BBQ lunch.

Petroleum is the big job creator for Salvador but still 60% of the people are classified as poor. And cars are expensive and difficult to maintain because of the temperature.

Buildings were taxed once they were completely built so a few churches built only one tower and never completed their second tower. This meant the building was never finished and therefore they weren’t required to pay taxes on the building.

São Francisco church used 1 ton!! of gold foil to cover the sculptures, walls and reliefs. It was visually overwhelming.