Mar 12 Recife, Brazil

It is hot again today. Sam is getting closer to the equator each day. Today the ship is in Recife, Brazil. Sam did not sign up for a tour off the ship. He decided to try getting off the ship and finding a taxicab that would take him around to some of the sights in Recife and also Olinda, Brazil.

The shuttle bus from the ship took Sam to a nearby tourist area where he was able to find a taxi that agreed to give him a ride for several hours.

Recife is one of the largest and most important cities on the northeastern coast of Brazil. The city was originally founded by Dutch colonizers. Its name is an allusion to the coral reefs that are present by the city’s shores. The many rivers, small islands and over 50 bridges found in Recife city center characterize its geography and give it the nickname of “Brazilian Venice”.

The Franciscan Convent of St Anthony is one of the city’s biggest attractions. The convent contains chapel built in 1588 that  is called the Golden Chapel. Sam was told that it is one of the most beautiful broque churches in Brazil. The altar is covered with gold engravings, there are paintings on the ceiling and an impressive amount of Portuguese-style tiled panels throughout the building.

 

Sam enjoyed the drive around the town of Olinda and the many colorful buildings and shopping areas. The other major cite he visited was the Casa da Cultura. It is a former prison that now holds multiple souvenir shops. Sam had his picture taken in one of the remaining jail cells!

              

Mar 11 Sea Day

Sam has been enjoying his days at sea especially since he has a balcony in his cabin. He has been able to see different animals in the water as the ship is sailing. So far he has seen whales, dolphins, flying fish, sea turtles, jelly fish, and lots and lots of birds.

The other day Sam mentioned where the passengers he has met lived. He would like to add to the list of the states, for his young blog-followers that want to keep track: Minnesota, Virginia, Georgia, Washington, Maine, North Carolina, Utah, Nevada, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Vermont, Colorado, Arkansas, Missouri, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. 

Mar 10 Salvador, Brazil

Another Brazilian port today, Salvador. Salvador was the first colonial capital of Brazil hundreds of years ago. They have had several since then including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and currently Brazilia.  There are millions of people living in Salvador. There are two distinct parts of the city and communities (these are like suburbs in our country). The original, old part of the city was built on a hill overlooking the natural port. The buildings are old and there are many areas that would be considered slums in our country. The houses are made of whatever materials were available. They are built very close together and almost on top of each other. There are no streets through these areas only narrow sidewalks. Because most are built on hillsides, the sidewalks often are long, narrow stairways. Sam is not sure that he would like to live this way.

Other distinct part of the city is the new part, areas built within the last 100 years. There are many tall buildings, apartment houses, malls, shopping areas, etc. It is quite a contrast.

Sam’s tour today was to another town on the north coast, Praia do Forte. It is mainly a resort area that Brazilian people go to during the weekends or vacations. There are also accommodations for tourists. It is very commercial. Sam got to have lunch in a Brazilian restaurant. This one specialized in more fish dishes prepared the way the local people enjoy. There was also steak, Brazil is big into beef just like Argentina.

 

Along the coast where this town is built sea turtles come each year to lay their eggs. There are five different variety of sea turtles that are native to the area. As the town grew and more people came, the nests of the sea turtles were in danger. The eggs are laid in a hole the turtles dig in the sand. If the nests are disturbed or uncovered before they hatch, there wouldn’t be any little turtles. Sam visited the TAMAR Project that is trying to protect the sea turtles. He saw the protective fences that were placed around some of the nesting sites.

 

He also saw some of the little turtles in a pond.   

 

He saw some of the larger turtles that had been rescued. It is in Brazil to keep sea turtles as pets, but sometimes people do. And when they get too big or the people are tired of keeping them, the project will take them and try to introduce them back to the sea.

INSERT PICTURE

On the way back to Salvador, the bus stopped at the Garcia D’Avila Castle. It was built in the 1500’s. It is in ruins (no roof on most of the structure, some walls have crumbled, etc.) but very interesting. There were two floors and many, many rooms in the castle. It was situated on top of a hill. The views were spectacular and the breeze was very nice. With temperatures in the mid 90’s today, this site was very pleasant.

Once the bus was back in Salvador, Sam saw more of the city. There was a man-made lake that was created by the Dutch people that were some of the first European settlers in the area. In and around the lake were large sculptures that were dedicated to the people that came from Africa to settle in the area. Most of those people originally came as slaves but their descendants are now a large part of the culture of the city.

Mar 9 Sea Day

Sam has been enjoying his trip around South America. He is seeing many new things and meeting a lot of nice people from all over the world. Sam has met people from Canada (almost every province & territory), Australia, China, Poland, Germany, Ecuador, England, Turkey, Iceland, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, India, Mexico, Wales, and from across the USA from New York to California, Florida to Chino Valley, Arizona, Hawaii, Alaska, and Wisconsin to Texas. There have been as many as 3100 passengers on the ship!  Can Sam's younger blog-followers find the countries and states of his new friends on the map?

Sometimes people on the ship get grumpy, not Sam, he is happy to be going places! But he thinks it is funny what makes people upset....... running out of sheets of paper (the form) for trivia,  running our of popcorn, and this morning the head maitre'd had to calm a guest that was upset because the ship was out of bananas and raisins!

There is a lot of food on the ship. During trivia today, Sam learned that on a 7-day cruise this ship serves its passengers 20000 pounds of meat. They use 7200 plates for each meal. That's a lot of dishes to wash!!

Mar 8 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

There are a lot of things to see and do in Rio de Janeiro but the ship will only be here one day. Sam decided to see some of the most popular sites. 

The first thing will be going to the statue of Christ the Redeemer that is high on a mountain over-looking the city of Rio. To get to the top of the mountain, there is a train ride. It seems to go straight up!

Once he reaches the top, Sam wanted his picture taken with the statue in the back. It is really tall, about 100 feet and weighs about 160 tons!

Next the bus tour stopped at a Brazilian restaurant. At this restaurant you first go through a buffet line to pick your salad, vegetable, and side items. Then you sit at your table and the waiters come with a skewer that has some type of meat. If you want what he has on the skewer, he uses a big knife to cut off a portion for you. There are a lot of waiters walking around the dining room with many choices. You can have whatever you like. There was chicken, pork, and beef, pork beef ribs, ribeye, sirloin, and fillet, etc. It was really good!

 

When he came left the restaurant, Sam could see three people, way up high in the sky that were kite-gliding. They were higher than all the buildings! Sam did not think he would like to do anything like that, but he enjoyed watching.

On the way to the next activity, Sam saw beaches including Ipanema and Cocacabana. Most of the people at the beach were not in the water, just on the sand. There were several really neat sand sculptures. Sam wished that the bus would stop and let him spend some time at the beach!

The last activity on the tour was going to Sugar Loaf mountain. To get to the top of the mountain you ride cable cars. You ride on two separate cable cars to reach the top. The cars are big enough to hold 40 people. It was cloudy at the very top of the mountain and you couldn’t see very much. There weren’t clouds at the first level, top of the first mountain, so Sam took some pictures there. There were samples of the first cable cars that were used on the mountain.

Cable car:       

 

 

Old cable car:    

 

Rio from the mountain top:        

Mar 6 & 7 Sea Days

The weather is getting warmer since we went around Cape Horn and are traveling north again.  It will be in the 90s when he reaches Rio de Janeiro!! Sam spends a lot of time in the ice bucket, even during the day. He has seen reports of snow in Iowa and sometimes wishes he was there. Have any of Sam’s blog followers built a snowman, gone ice skating or sledding, made a snow fort, made snow angels, or had a snowball fight?

One of the things that Sam has been trying to collect at the countries he has visited are coins, the money used in the country. Sam would like to share with some of his young blog-followers if there is any interest.

Mar 5 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Back to Argentina!  Actually, today Sam is just up the Rio de la Plata from Uruguay, on the south side, in the city of Buenos Aires. This is the capital of Argentina. Today Sam is on an excursion to the town of Tigre and the delta. The delta area is formed by several rivers that come together and feed into the Rio de la Plata. There are a lot of small islands in the river.  People that live on the islands do not have cars. They only have boats to get back and forth from the mainland. The islanders do not want to have roads and other “improvements” that might take away from the natural beauty of the area.

Sam rode on a boat around some of the islands as that he could see the houses. There were boats that were like a grocery store that went to the islanders, one was like a gas station, and one was a library. Many people that live in Buenos Aires and other parts of the mainland, have houses in the delta, on the islands for use on the weekends, or as vacation homes.

 

On the way back to the ship, the bus went through other areas surrounding Buenos Aires. One of the buildings Sam saw was an old English railroad station.