We are docked at Salvador today. In this photo you can see our next two ports of call: Maceio and Recife. It is cloudy and 77 this morning.
Historical/Background Info:
The first
Portuguese established Salvador in 1549. It was the first capital of
Brazil and remained so until 1763. Many Dutch and Jewish settlers entered
Brazil here in the 17th and 19th centuries. Brazil had few indigenous
people for the Portuguese to use as laborers so they brought over slaves from
Africa to work on their plantations. This is why about 70% of the people
here are descendants of African slaves and hence black. Brazilian music
and dancing, the samba, came with them from Africa. Salvador is the third
largest city in Brazil (2.5 million people) behind Sao Paulo and Rio.
Salvador is second in Brazilian tourism behind Rio. Ford has a
large car manufacturing plant here and Monsanto manufactures raw materials for
its Roundup (herbicide) production line. The port exports fruit and
agricultural products. The Salvador coastline is the longest for cities
in Brazil with 50 miles of beaches. The beaches range from calm inlets, ideal
for swimming, diving, sailing, and underwater fishing, as well as open ocean
inlets with strong waves used for surfing. The city is on two levels:
lower, where the commercial part of the city is, and upper part, where the
Cathedral and administrative building are. There is a huge elevator near
where our ship will be docked that will take you the 236 feet between the lower
city square to the upper square in 20 seconds.
The city has 365 churches, one for every day of the year. We were here in 2012.
LAST EVENING
At 5:45 there was a Seven Seas Society Cocktail Party in the theater. The theater was packed.
Here are the numbers on board for each of the SSS tiers. We are in the "Diamond" tier with 1098 nights so far on Regent cruises.
We left the party a little early so we could enjoy our cocktail hour in the Meridian Lounge. Grey Goose martini for me and La Crema chardonnay for Rebecca. Also enjoyed some "pigs" and chips. Only thing missing is Marcia Rector!
At 7pm we went to Compass Rose for a wonderful dinner. Here Kaz is presenting a bottle of Rombauer chardonnay that I ordered. Love this chardonnay that is $88 on the wine list. On our last cruise it was $80 so price went up 10%.
We both started with the Mykonos (Greek) salad. Very good!
Watching the busy station again tonight.
Our favorite entree on Regent is this miso glazed sea bass with sticky rice. The sea bass melts in your mouth.
We had some green beans and asparagus.
This is white chocolate croissant pudding for dessert.
Again I was the first one to enter the theater when they opened the doors at 9:00. Got our usual front row seats.
Peter had a great voice and really enjoyed his show.
His wife, Inna, joined him for a few numbers. She will have her own show tomorrow night.
Great violist and not hard on the eyes either.
The ship's trombone, trumpet, sax, and both electric guitar members accompanied them. The ship's orchestra members are outstanding!
TODAY
We were scheduled to be docked in Salvador by 8am but the Captain made a PA saying we would be about an hour and half late. A revised tour schedule was sent out to all the suites. Basically all the morning tours will depart 2 hours late,
Alarm clock went off at 7am as usual. I went down to get us a couple Americano coffees and a bran muffing for me. Room service showed up at 7:35 with Rebecca's omelet and more coffee.
There is a channel on our tv with a view forward from a bridge camera.
Seas are smooth again this morning.
At 8:45, "land ho"!
A tug standing by as we dock.
Our luck ran out with good view from our balcony. Today we have this view of a small fortress.
Tour buses waiting for us
I went to the other side of the ship to get these photos of us docking.
They are always cleaning the ship. It is immaculate.
The crew's emergency drill at 10:15 was cancelled due to our late arrival. Instead I saw many crew going ashore.
While Rebecca was on the treadmill I went to see Gudrun to book some more cruises. I booked another Alaska cruise for 2027. It is 2 back to back cruises. September1st we do Vancouver to Anchorage (actually the dock is at Whittier). Then September 8th we stay on board and cruise back to Vancouver. The main reason we do this is so we can take our son, Jeff, with us. I booked him from Vancouver on 1st to Whittier. He is still working so cannot take two weeks off. We are doing this same cruise with him August this year. So now we have 7 cruises on the books.
Getting rid of some garbage today. They compact it so there really is a lot of trash. Nothing is dumped in the beautiful oceans.
Enough said!!
Very nice fruits here.
Good lunch menu today in La Veranda
My usual starter: anchovies, blu cheese, and smoked salmon.
Our favorite today. Salmon in pastry. Very yummy.
Oh my, Can't believe it. Rebecca eating something for lunch. She ALWAYS has an Atkins meal bar for lunch.
Here are some photos to give you an idea about the city.
Looking up from port to the upper city.
Light house
Lift from lower city (port) to upper city.
Church--Rosario dos Pretos
It was 88 muggy degrees this afternoon
Tonight's menu in Compass Rose. Nothing appealed to us so last night I put an order in for veal osso buco, polenta, and zucchini with garlic & parmesan cheese for the two of us. At lunch I also ordered a special Zinfindel red wine to go with the osso buco.
We are sailing again at 6pm. Another short hop up to Maceio, Brazil. That is our usual time to head down to the Meridian Lounge for cocktail hour followed by dinner in CR.
We plan on seeing Inna Tolstova's dynamic violin show at 9:30 in the theater. We saw some of her talent last night when she performed a few numbers with her husband. We plan to be on the front row again.
No comments:
Post a Comment