Author: Diane

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.

Another Sea Day. We are near the coast of Brazil on the way to Salvador Brazil. Today I chose fitness, crafting, playing carnival games on the pool deck during the county fair that the ship’s crew put on, art class, a movie, and afternoon tea.

Here are a few random pieces of information:

• We have had very, very few bugs- as a matter of fact I’ve only seen 2 mosquitoes and haven’t taken any Malaria medication yet.
• The fitness lap requires 13 times around to make a mile- it makes me dizzy so haven’t even made a quarter of a mile but you have to watch out for the other walkers as they will run you over if you don’t get out of their way
• The sun is so intense it burns my skin even when I don’t get a sunburn. Currently I’m a big fan of shade.
• We’ve had a number of time changes so far and sometimes the ship time doesn’t match the time on my phone. We have a little red analog clock in our room that I originally wanted to hide away but now I can’t go without it.
• As expected, the food on the cruise has been very tasty and full of variety. It’s also prettily presented.
• There is ship WiFi on board. Because WiFi is used so much many cruise lines now offer free WiFi- they used to charge quite a lot. This cruise does offer a higher speed/service for the sale price of $7/day. I’m using the complimentary one which works quite well but can only be on one device at a time so I’m always logging out of one device so the other one can logon.
• Apparently I can’t live without cell service anymore. I keep running into accounts that require a code to logon. The code is texted to my phone and I can only get the code when I’m in range of cell service. I’m slowly, slowly learning patience as I wait a day or two or three before cell is available.

What to do on a sea day? Choices, choices, choices- message, bridge, bingo, spa treatment, fitness work out, art class, enrichment talk, laundry, brunch, needlepoint, craft project, afternoon tea….

Today I chose laundry, brunch, craft project, art class, afternoon tea and a show.

The show was extra special because Jennifer was in the choir show. One activity that passengers can do on sea days is to join the choir which will perform a show for all the other passengers.

Today at 10AM we are officially away from the Amazon river and in the Ocean so water can be made again. Everyone is happy.

At 5pm the laundry room became available. Almost instantly the washers were all full and shortly thereafter the dryers were all full. They stayed that way the rest of the day and will remain in use all day tomorrow too. Minimal fighting over the machines except there were unfriendly feelings towards the person that used & started 3 of the 4 washers just before the laundry room officially opened.

We exited the Amazon river and headed north. I’m not sure why we went north again before heading south- my guess is to get to cleaner water so we could once again make water.

We have crossed the equator three times- once north to south to enter Amazon river; once south to north exiting the Amazon river and the last time (for now) north to south to continue to our next stop along the coast of Brazil.

There is a ceremony that occurs to initiate all the folks that crossed the equator via sea for the first time. I decided to participate before I realized it involved kissing a fish and an ice water dunk. I did get a certificate tho. There were probably 20-30 folks that participated.

One item I forgot to mention about the time in the Amazon that a couple of different tours mentioned: Fordlandia. Henry Ford needed lots of rubber to make his cars. The rubber was needed for the tires and belts in the car as well as for the equipment in the factory. He decided to make a town in Brazil that was filled with workers to work in the rubber tree orchard he planted. This town was build near Santerim. It was to be a model town- nice houses, roads, cinemas, swimming pools and stores. Unfortunately the rubber trees did not do well in his orchard. The local parasites & diseases almost immediately killed off all the trees and the town never lived up to it’s promise and became a ghost town.

Today we are leaving the Amazon River seven days after entering it.

The air on the Amazon river was sweet and green smelling while the air on the ocean has a salty smell.

The water changed from muddy in the Amazon, green in the estuary and finally blue when we reached the ocean. It took quite some time to completely exit the mouth of the Amazon and get to the blue water.

We’ve been watching the storm clouds that typically arrive in the afternoon. Sometimes they just dissipate but today we saw a big black cloud and had rain, thunder and lightening.

Today we are in Santarem, another big city along the Amazon. This time my excursion was into the Tapajos National Forest and not seeing city sights or exploring the river. The bus ride to the forest took about an hour and it was interesting to see the villages and fields along the way. The bus wasn’t air conditioned but the windows opened so it was pleasant. The funny thing is that the cruise companies don’t want air conditioning to be used and want fresh air instead so that less folks get sick from being in an enclosed space with many people.

Brazil is a leading exporter of soybeans and we saw many soybean fields along the way. Each field had a random number of Brazil nut trees at random locations in the field because the Brazil nut tree is protected.

Tapajos National Forest is a protected primary forest area and has a great variety of plants and trees. We went on a short hike and saw Brazil nut trees, rubber trees and many different types of iron wood trees. We got to taste a fresh Brazil nut and it was delicious. The Brazil nut tree takes 60 years to grow enough to produce the nuts.

The guide went over some of the medicinal uses of the plants & trees. One tree is used to produce the fibers that are used in US bills. It’s one way that reduces the ability to counterfeit US bills. He also lit some tree sap on fire to show that the fire would quickly extinguish itself because of the moisture in the soil. Not sure I believed him that the forest wouldn’t burn.

The tour company did a really good job of organizing visitors. We had 3-4 buses of about 30 people each and we all parked in the same area but started on the trial at different times and starting locations so I didn’t feel surrounded by people even tho there were many around.

Today’s excursion was quite different. The ship anchored near a small village along the Amazon River and passengers could take a small boat from the ship to the shore(tender) and then mingle with the villagers. The village of Boca Da Valeria was quite a change from the large city of Manaus.

The villagers had some unique ways to earn tourist dollars and would run to crowd around the pier when the tender arrived to be first in line for the tourists.. Small children carried ‘pets’ (baby caiman, baby sloths, large grasshopers, baby turtles, etc.) and would charge $1 to have a photo taken. The older villagers would take guests on a 30 minute boat ride up the narrow river channels for $5. A few souvenirs and drinks/food were available for purchase. They also had a Toucan, a Hyacinth Macaw and parrots on tether for photo opportunities.

I spent the morning relaxing and planned to visit the village in the early afternoon. Jennifer went early in the morning and took a boat ride. When she came back she reported that there were giant water lilies to see so I rushed off to the village for a boat ride. These water lilies can have a diameter of up to 10 feet.

I walked off the tender and selected a boat driver and off we went on our 30 minute ride- no giant water lilies but it was a lovely boat ride in a wooden boat that required bailing.

When we returned to the pier I picked a different boat driver- one with a laminated sign that showed a picture of pink dolphins and giant water lilies. I pointed to the picture of the giant water lilies hoping to let them know that’s what I wanted to see. They pretty much only spoke Portuguese so I didn’t have an easy way to communicate with them. They caught on and asked another driver where to find the lilies and off we went. This time in an aluminum boat.

Less than 3 minutes into the boat ride there were giant water lilies! I was so happy since I really wanted to see them on this trip.

After the boat ride, I walked around the villages little but didn’t take the opportunity to take any ‘pet’ photos because I was wondering what happened to all the adult sloths and the Hyacinth Macaw is an endangered species.

Before the ship left for Santarem, I caught a glimpse or two or three of the pink Amazon river dolphin in the waters near the entrance to the village

Another day of excursions in Manaus. Jennifer went on a Jungle walk and I did a city tour. We both had fun.

One of the things I wanted to see in Manaus was the Teatro Amazonas (Manaus Opera House)- built in the heyday of the rubber era. It was build for opera for the creme-de-la-creme of Manaus to see and be seen. People came from Europe to see the opera in Manaus and the opera house had such good acoustics that singers came from Europe to perform. Materials were imported from the best of the best in Europe for the building and interior.

Manaus had a monopoly on rubber for a number of years and the rubber barons made (and spent) money hand-over-fist during these ‘golden years’. Shortly after the rubber tree seeds were stolen and brought to Indonesia, the Brazil rubber industry went bust and the rubber barons had to sell off their belongings and mansions.

The tour included the Palácio Rio Negro, a mansion built during the rubber boom. It had amazing wooden staircases.

The Mercado Municipal was included in the tour as well. This market is held in a building that is a based on Paris’ famed Les Halles market. And the building’s metallic structures were built in Paris and sent to Manaus by ship,

Just after we sailed away from Manaus we got to see the ‘meeting of the waters’ where the Rio Negro(clear dark water) joins the Amazon river(brown muddy water). They don’t mix right away because of acidity and temperature differences. There are more fish in the Amazon River because it has more nutrients.