Forteleza - March 25th 2011 - Day 22

Fortaleza means Fortress.  It is a sprawling city of over 2 million people.  There are beaches, but we didn’t make it there.

As of today we are still on Code Red.  If many more people get sick, the boat will be in isolation!
Hopefully this will not be the case as we head towards the mouth of the Amazon (the reason most people are on this ship is the one week trip up and down the Amazon)

Fortaleza - yesterday we heard the boat was in for another full health inspection on arrival.  However, both passengers and crew were cleared to go ashore quite quickly (in Brazil, it is necessary to check into every port separately).  We docked in a boat yard, about 20 minutes from the city centre.  A bit confused, but local transportation shuttle was arranged for us. Jimmy stayed on the boat (not a beach day and Brazilian cities have limited attraction after a while!) and Charlotte wanted to stay aboard and go to Kids Club.  I went ashore to find internet connection (to upload the blog!)

Brazilian authorities came and did a 6 hour inspection of the boat due to “CODE RED”

Unfortunately the next morning Kaley, who runs the kids club, was sent to isolation, so no Kids Club for a couple of days.

Recife - March 23 2011 Day 20

Recife means "reef" in Portuguese.  It just before the most Eastern point in Brazil and South America (hence, with no time change it was starting to get dark much earlier!).  8˚ 06S  34˚ 53W

Now we are off the beaten track of the regular cruise-ship routes, we seem to be docking more often in container ship yards!  In Recife, at the last minute, they were unable to let us dock at the passenger terminal so we were all ferried by buses 20 minutes into town.  There was a long wait, but they put on a local dance show for us while we waited:


Unfortunately more we were still on CODE RED as more people started to get sick.  The authorities would not let any crew ashore (and it was rumored that at one point, they were only going to let passengers on pre-booked shore excursions ashore.  I guess the reality of the town losing out on all the tourist dollars swayed them a bit..).  The Brazilian Health Authorities came aboard for a 6 hour health inspection!

The town didn't hold much interest for us, and we headed off to the beach,

where we were serviced drinks, toasted cheese:


There was a lot of other food being sold on the beach (shrimps, oysters...) but we daren't risk getting food poison and being  in isolation for 3 days.

After seeing this sign:

we didn't venture out too far!!

Back on the boat  by about 4pm:

Salvador da Bahia – 21st March 2011 – Day 18

Salvador, the third largest city and original capital of Brazil, sits on the mouth of the enormous bay of Todos os Santos (All Saintes Bay) on the NE coast of Brazil. It is split into the lower city and the (Old Town) upper city. There is an elevator and a funicular to get from the lower to the upper city.  There are many museums and churches in the old city, which was founded in the 1500s.

It is known to have the biggest Carnival celebrations – but we missed this by 2 weeks!

The African past is very prevalent in this city.  Some ladies also dress up in local costume to pose for pictures (at a price of course!)
  African influence, intertwined with Brazilian culture is more apparent in Bahia than anywhere else in the nation.  Local cuisine makes liberal use of African ingredients like dente oil, coconut milk and the music can be heard all around.

CODE RED!!! – 20th March 2011 - Day 17

Gastrointestinal Illness (N.L.V causing vomiting and diarrhea) is caused by a common worldwide virus, which is easily transmitted from person to person.  Hence it is more prevalent in areas of many people such as schools, hospitals and CRUISE SHIPS!  The media has often referred to it as the “cruise ship disease” as if it’s a virus carefully nurtured on board to spring on the guests 2 days into their trip!!

At the start of each trip (ie Rio, Buenos Aires and again Rio for us) the ship takes extra precautions, including suspending “help yourself” for all self service food for 48 hours.  Also there are hand sanitizer, and hand washing machines everywhere.

Well all had been fine, self-service had resumed after the change over in Rio (reduces the waits at peak breakfast time!) and then …… a new passenger that boarded in Rio had the dreaded disease!  Rather than informing the ship’s doctor (as it’s been drilled into us to do), his wife dutifully ran round the ship, getting his food - and spreading the virus! By that night there were 12 cases (including, we found out, the cabin next to us!!) – surely that’s a reason for an upgrade??

So now we are on “CODE RED”.  Self service suspended and even the captain was serving behind the pastry counter at breakfast time to try and reduce the lines! – Charlotte laughs as at lunchtime crew from the spa and Casino were also serving behind the self-service counters!   We see much more vigorous cleaning going on (its already spotless!) and definite disinfectant smells by the cabins!

The hot tubs have been taken out of operation, and for a short time also the pool.  The virus lasts 48 hours so hopefully we should all be back to normal again soon.

The Suite Life on Deck (Zack and Cody) – 20th March 2011

Charlotte feels she is in heaven, living the life of the Disney Channel program “The Suite Life on Deck”.

We are now into our third week on board – everyone on board now is on for the 4-week trip up to Ft Lauderdale Florida, the highlight being the trip up the Amazon.  For the majority of the trip going forward, except for the week up and down the Amazon, shore days alternate with sea days – the sea days will be a good opportunity to do extra school, to give more time to explore the ports on shore days.

There are many activities on board on sea days also – so far, at Charlotte’s request, we have been to napkin folding, and towel folding (to duplicate the animals that the cabin crew make and put on our bed every night.)
  Also a tour of the galley, (which was very interesting – the ship goes through a few tons of food every day so the organisation of not only cooking but storing and buying was very enlightening!), afternoon tea, Kids Club for Charlotte while we went to a wine tasting!  However, I haven’t played bridge yet.

The novelty of the big cooked breakfasts has worn off (fortunately!).  We refrain from the 5 course dinners in the main dining room quite a few night, although are not convinced that we eat less at the self service!! 

With the ship’s movement, we sometimes stagger from side to side down the corridors – without even a glass of wine! 


I haven't made it to the gym yet - Jimmy tries to get there.... but it's on the same floor as the restaurant....  However, he has kept his word so far, not to use the lifts - considering we are on the 4th Floor and often eat our meals on the 11th floor, thats a lot of stairs up and down every day!

Rio – 18/19th March 2011- Day 15/16

Rio de Janeiro (January River) is on the SE coast of Brazil, on Guanabara Bay of the Atlantic Ocean.  It is, without a doubt, the most beautiful city in the world.  Rock formations and lush mountains sprout out everywhere, interspersed with fine beaches and breath taking scenery.

Jimmy always wanted to sail into Rio, but he said going in and out with the cruise ship was fine (after a wonderful lunch on board!)

We arrived to fantastic weather (unlike our prior trip with Rio 2 weeks earlier) so set out to take full advantage of the great views of the city.

First to the top of 710m Corcovado mountain, to Christo Renentor (after almost a 2 hour wait for the cog train to take us to the top! – great weather comes with a price!!)

Then to Copacabana for lunch in a beach side restaurant, and on to Sugarloaf Mountain (Morro da Urca) with it’s unquestionable beauty, as we took the 2 cable cars to the top.

While we were in Rio, Obama arrived, with mixed messages - posters on the street “We Love Obama” and small planes flying by trailing “Obama Go Home”.  The timing of the trip was not the best with all the action going on in Libya. While we waited 2 hours to get the cog train to the top of Corcovada, they closed it off 2 days later for Obama’s sightseeing trip!

Rio is due to host the Olympics in 2016 (and the world cup in 2014) and a lot of work and building is needed before then.

The following day we went over to Ipanema Beach (remember the song?) for the morning.

With some passengers departed, and new ones on board, we sailed out of Rio that afternoon, with a good opportunity to see the breathtaking scenery from the water.

Parati 17th March 2011 – Day 14

About 125 miles SE of Rio, Parati has remained fundamentally unaltered since its heyday as a staging post for the eighteenth- century trade in Brazilian gold. Population is 15,000, involved in fishing, farming and tourism.

The tender ride ashore was much longer than normal (45 minutes) which meant, once all the tenders had been dispatched ashore, there was a long wait before they returned for the next lot of passengers waiting to go ashore!

Finally the clouds cleared and we saw some sunshine again.  We rented a local boat with 3 other couples 

and had a wonderful 3-hour tour of the bays and beaches.

Ilhabela, Sao Sebastiao Island – 16th March 2011- Day 13

Ilhabela, located on the north coast of San Paulo state, is one of Brazil’s largest ocean islands and is said to be one of the most beautiful spots on the coast between Santos and Rio de Janiero.

It has volcanic origins with startling mountains that rise to 1370m and are covered with dense, tropical foliage.  The dozens of waterfalls and beautiful beaches, along the 80 miles of coastline, have contributed to the island’s popularity.

Unfortunately, it rained most of the day – we went ashore and took a bus ride down the western coast but were not able to appreciate the real beauty of the island’s beaches.  However, we were able to see the lushness of the island, in particular when the bus took us up into the hills a bit – this part reminded us a lot of Grenada, with its thick dense foliage.

13-15th March - Days 10,11,12

We were looking forward to the first stop at Punta del Este, Uruguay, on the route back up to Rio.
With beautiful beaches, people, yachts etc it’s known as the Monaco of South America. Unfortunately, due to 60 knot winds, and a tender ride ashore, it was felt too dangerous for us to stop and we continued up the coast.

The next day was also a sea day, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the activities on board, including, the Formal Night for us:


the Pirate Night for Charlotte

and especially the Desert Extravaganza!

The following day we were supposed to stop at Paranagua, Brazil, but unfortunately the small town had flooded, so even if we did get ashore, there would be nowhere to go.  Instead, last minute, the captain arranged for us to stop at Itajai (one of the leading economic ports in Brazil, not regularly on the cruise ship itinerary!).  It was a nice town with plenty of market stalls:


and shops and supposedly some lovely beaches, which we didn’t get a chance to see.

Buenos Aires – Park Day – 12th March – Day 9

We headed over to Charlotte’s favourite park, where we had arranged to meet up with “Little Charlotte”, Trevor and Sarah (who lived in the same apartment block we had stayed in for a month).

Charlotte’s favourite type of a day – first she played with Little Charlotte, then we rented a rowing boat on the lake

and finally we rented rollerblades.

Back on board by 3.30pm and, after a little delay, the ship set “sail” (well motor!) We had to go over 100 km down the Rio Plata

- although one of the widest rivers in the world, it is shallow and the shipping lane is very narrow, constantly dredged and one way – inbound/outbound boats have to wait for channel to clear.

“Polo-Day” – Buenos Aires 11th March – Day 8

With an overnight stop in Buenos Aires, we were finally able to book our day trip to the Polo Ranch (something we had tried to do while in Buenos Aires previously).  Polo is a popular sport in Argentina and they are number one in the world. Many polo ponies are trained and exported from Argentina.  4 players on each side, playing 6 “chuckers” (rounds) per game, changing horse every chucker – as you can imagine, its an expensive hobby! (Especially flying a string of polo ponies around the world!)

We were driven to the polo club / ranch about 50 km north of the city, and greeted with empanadas and red wine, while they gave us a display of a polo game.




A typical Argentine “Asada” followed (with plenty of meat..) and then a chance for us to get on the horses and learn a bit of “Stick and Ball” (Polo).

We had great fun – it’s a lot harder than it looks – we had enough problems trying to hit the ball when stationary (I was also so worried about smashing the horse in the face!) – trying to hit it when moving seemed impossible!

Charlotte found a half dead abandoned kitten, and, despite her love of riding, preferred to spend the whole time looking after the kitten! (after her care, we are hopping it might survive..)

After a while, there were just 2 of us still persevering, and so the owner, Marco, challenged us to a “chucker” of polo – him against the 2 of us.  Needless to say, he wiped the floor with us, even when he hit it in our direction a few times! And he didn’t come up to tackle when I stopped in front of the ball, before trying to hit it.

From 2011-03-11 Polo Day

At the end of a great day, they drove us back to Buenos Aires.  We stopped off at the hotel where we had stored 2 suitcases for 2 weeks, and then back to the boat, just in time for dinner! 

Sea days and Montevideo - 8-10th March 2011 – Days 5,6,7

2 sea days – lots of time to catch up on home school! (but no time to play bridge..) and then, on to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, a pleasant smallish city located on the east bank of the Rio de la Plata (across from Buenos Aires). After lunch on the boat (finding it hard to go too long without food now!), we spent the afternoon walking around the city, finishing off in a nice little outside restaurant. As normal we were due back on the boat by about 4.30pm.

Cruiseship - Monday 7th March 2011

We are now 3 days (of 42 days!) on the cruise ship Veendam, Holland America).  It’s just like staying in a 5 star hotel, eating 3 meals (or more!!) a day in a 5 star restaurant, watching Broadway shows every night, with free babysitting til 10pm!  The service is fantastic – friendly but very professional. The presentation on the food is incredible.  We can’t fault any of it!!

Charlotte LOVES the kids club, which runs mornings, afternoons and evening – in the evening, she can’t wait for it to open at 7pm – often leaving us eating dinner all she wants to do is go to kids club! (leaving us free to go and watch the spectacular shows every night.)  For the last 2 days, she has opted not to come ashore with us because she wants to stay in Kids Club!  We have to drag her out at 9pm (as she needs to get up for home school in the morning!)

There are only about 10 children age 6-12 on the ship – most of which go to kids Club – a mixture of English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian speaking.  Charlotte has hooked up with 2 Australian brothers of 9 and 10 (the only other English speaking) who are also on the boat until Ft Lauderdale (and also do home school each morning).  We have naturally hooked up with their parents (who are traveling for 2 years) and combining our Brazilian sim card with their sim router, have sorted out our alternative internet (to the boats slow 50c per min!) – we could set up an internet café!!

Jimmy has kept his promise of going to the gym each day so far (but he always seems to disappear at midnight!!!)  I need to follow his example (but not the midnight buffet!) else they will be rolling me down the gangplank in Ft Lauderdale!  Good intentions of fruit for breakfast have so far ended up with sausages, pancakes bacon and eggs!!

We have stopped at 3 ports of call so far - interestingly, some islands that we would loved to have sail to, but the 3,000 miles of coastline to get there from the Caribbean made us previously abandon a trip to Brazil.

Buzios – closes to Rio and once a fairly quiet fishing enclave, it rapidly grew into a fashionable seaside playground after Bridgette Bardot visited in the 60s.  It’s on a pretty beach-fringed peninsula Armacao dos Buzios, and is one of the oldest and most attractive districts.   The cobbled stoned seafront avenues are lined with bars restaurants and boutiques. There are nice beaches, surrounded by lush mountains.

Ilha Grande – although just 75 miles from Rio, it is so different – an island with no cars - a small town with sand streets and great trails, either up into the mountains or along the beach (praias) ridden coast. The town is not big, but with 3 cruise ships in town, it was busy!! – it reminded us a bit of small islands such as Bequia or Carriacou, with 3 cruise ships in!! – anchorages looked great - a place we would love to sail to, especially to be there after al the day trippers have left!

Santos – high rise buildings along a 5 mile beach, by the town, with the biggest seaport in South America – it’s about 2 hour drive from San Paolo.

We are still in the sub tropics, in their rainy season – and hence the weather has often been overcast, with a little rain (which actually makes us not feel so guiltily not going shore that much! – the boat is so nice, its easy to stay on board!)

Rio 1-4th March 2011

We spent 3 days in a hotel on Copacabana Beach, with a nice balcony overlooking the beach, and Barry Manilow's song ("At the Copa, Copacabana...") ringing in our ears!


Last month they had devastating floods here - the weather was still overcast with light showers for most of the time, so we decided to delay most of the tourist trips that involve going to the top of a mountain for spectacular views such as Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf) and Cristo Redentor (Corcovado) until we come back in 2 weeks time on the ship.  We actually got to the Sugar Loaf but decided not to go up as the top was covered in clouds a lot of the time. Instead Charlotte played on the beach and playground (see Sugar Loaf and cable car to top below):


and we did a nice walk out to the point, seeing some monkeys on the way:


Other than that we did some general exploring around Copacabana Beach, including drinking coconuts!

What timing - Carnival is due to start today, Friday - the day we get on the cruise ship - Rio is renowned for the best carnival in the world!! but we will get to experience Carnival at some other Brazilian cities where the ship stops over the next few days.

People were arriving at the hotel with great costumes



We get on the cruise ship later today - it will be nice to settle in for 42 days on the boat, as the last 2 weeks we have been doing a lot of traveling.

Rio and Brazil March 1st 2011

Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth largest country in the world, both in area (over 3 million sq miles) and population (over 190 million).  It shares a border with every country in south America except Ecuador and Chile, and spreads over 3 time zones.  It has the eighth largest economy in GDP and is one of the worlds fastest growing economies.  It is the only Portuguese speaking country in the Americas.

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil, and the 3rd most visited city in the world.  It is known for its stunning natural landscape, carnival celebrations, and beaches such as Ipanema and Copacabana.  Population over 6 million in the municipality and over 14 million in the metro.

A new language - unfortunately our Portuguese was currently limited to please, thank you, yes and no, and few people spoke much English (much less than anywhere we went in Argentina).  We seem to have a bit more luck trying to speak in Spanish....

We realise how used to speaking Spanish we have become, as we are finding it very difficult to ask questions / say thanks in anything other than Spanish! (Gracias even comes more natural than thank you!)  - we are slowly getting used to "Obrigado".

The language (or lack of) seems to be more of an issue here than in Buenos Aires (and will only get worse as we move north).  Therefore we are about to get on the internet and learn some new words!

Chao Argentina! - March 1st 2011

Just under 6 weeks after arriving, we said Chao to Argentina.  We had had a great time and now it was time to move on to Brazil.

The last day was very hectic.... a late, delayed flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires on Monday night, another change around of bags at 1am in the hotel (leaving 2 bags in storage to pick up when we pass again on the cruise!) and then the alarm set for 6.15am, to give us time for breakfast, finish repacking and leave at 8am for a 10am flight to Rio.

I woke up, it was 8.30am!!!!!!! Jimmy and Charlotte still fast asleep
Panic, screaming, within less than 10 minutes we were in a taxi to the airport! (in rush hour!!) Touch and go but we made the flight!! (which then sat for 1.5 hours in the tarmac!) We changed planes in Uruguay - fortunately they held the flight for us (and the flight after us...) - Delays seem to be a common occurrence down south!

By the end of the day we had checked into our hotel on Copacabana Beach Rio.  We are here for 3 days before heading onto the cruise ship.  Carnival is due to start in a few days (the most famous in the world).

Horse Riding in Patagonia - Monday 28th February

Charlotte and I headed off for a 2 hours horse riding in the morning - it was nice to experience 3 very different places to ride (the Pampas and gauchos of Buenos Aires, the mountains of Bariloche and now the glaciers, woods and sea of Ushuaia).  Charlotte had also now gained a lot of confidence riding.







Lamb was the specialty meat of Patagonia - which we sampled at an "all you can eat Parilla" after the riding:




Isla Malvinas was relatively close - but while down there, as an English person, I didn't mention the Falkland Islands.....

We spent 2 nights and 3 days in Ushuaia, nice but long enough in cold weather!

That evening we caught the flight back up to Buenos Aires.

Penguins - Sunday 27th February 2011

One and a half hours in a mini bus, mainly on dirt roads, through some great countryside and mountains, followed by a 15 minute boat ride on a 30 foot inflatable to Isla Martillo 

and then the penguins!  It was amazing - we were able to walk within feet of thousands of penguins - they seemed oblivious that we were there.

There were 2 types of penguins on the island - the Magellanic and the Gentoo.  They live on average about 15 years and start to breed when they are 5 years old.

Our guide was very informative

The Magellanic come to the island in summer from about September to March, to breed and molt - within a month from now they will head north (the Gentoo stay all year).

Each year the penguins come back to the same island to breed - the male makes a nice nest in a burrow (usually using the same one year after year) for the female to lay her eggs.


Within about 2 months of being born, the juveniles are ready to head off on their own to the water, not to return until the next year, to molt.

After giving birth and feeding their young, the penguins are ready for their annual molt.  They spend about 5 days molting and during that time are unable to go in the water (to catch food) Therefor, before molting they eat a lot and get fat, to enable themselves to go for 5 days without food.  They also stay very still during the molting process to reduce the energy they use.  While we were there, a lot of the penguins were molting:

These were different type of penguins to those seen in the film "Happy Feet" - (which live on snow and the male keeps the eggs on his feet, rather than in nests.)

It was late afternoon and windy and cold on the island - most others on the trip had big coats, hats gloves etc! - Charlotte and I wore our six layers but were still cold - someone lent Charlotte gloves and the guide gave me his coat! (note the pictures below).  However, the cold didn't seem to bother Jimmy - he wore just a T-shirt and Yankee windbreaker - I guess all the Argentine beef BBQs had prepared him well for the cold!