SANTOS, BRAZIL - DAY 6

                            

        This is our position on Sunday morning, February 22nd.  Docked at Santos the nearest port city to Sao Paulo.  We approached the dock at 7:15 (earlier than planned).  It is a very humid morning with temperature of 73 degrees.

We lucked out again as have a good view of the dock area.

Silos for loading grain on cargo ships.

                                                               The skyline of Santos

                           Workers clearing water off the dock.  As you will see it will be all in vain.

                                                            Setting the gang plank at 7:35.

                 One of our pursers greeting the local authorities who will be clearing the ship.

        Authorities being led on board.  They have to check the ship's papers before anyone will be allowed to go ashore.

        At 8:00 it was pouring down rain.  Not a nice start to the day especially for the passengers going on tours.  Natalie made the PA at 8:10 saying the ship was cleared and tours can start disembarking.     

Historical/Background Info:
        Santos is Latin America’s largest seaport and is 60 miles from Sao Paulo, the capital and largest city of Brazil, with a population of over 21 million.  Santos has a population of 420,000.  Exporting coffee in the early 1900’s gave rise to the city and is where coffee prices were once set.  There is a Coffee Museum here.  Gonzaga beach is a curving stretch of white sand lined with hotels and condos.  Light crude oil was discovered offshore here in 2006.

        Brazil is the largest country in South America and was Portuguese.  So unlike the rest of South America, Portuguese is spoken here not Spanish.  Brazil is the 6th largest country in the world.  It is larger than the 48 contiguous States.  When I used to fly from DFW to Sao Paulo, half of the flight was over Brazil.  I primarily flew into Buenos Aires but also spent several months flying into Sao Paulo and Santiago, Chile, to break up the routine.  I knew a few words in Spanish and Portuguese, just enough to order dinner at restaurants mainly.  But I would end up speaking Portuguese in BA and Spanish in Sao Paulo.  They did not like that at all.  You see the Argentines and Brazilians do not get along too well.  Anyway, our layover hotel in Sao Paulo was a very nice Renaissance hotel just off the main street, Paulista Avenue.  One of my favorite restaurants in the world, not for the food but for the ambiance, was not far from the hotel.  I would love to take Rebecca there some day.  That’s why I wanted two nights in port here.  We would spend the night in the Renaissance and go to this restaurant.  Sorry to digress.  Sao Paulo is the 3rd largest city in the world by land area, population and density behind Tokyo and New York City.  The metro population is over 21 million with another 12 million in urban area.  As a side note, Sao Paulo hosts the world’s largest gay pride parades.  I was there on a layover one year and it was very wild to say the least.

        Sao Paulo was settled by the Portuguese in 1554.  For the next two centuries it was a poor and isolated village.  Gold then sugar cane helped to expand it to city status in the 1700’s.  Brazil gained its independence from Portugal in 1823.  Coffee production then became the major factor in the growth of Sao Paulo.  From 1869 onwards railroads began to connect Sao Paulo to the port of Santos and other railroads connected interior cities to Sao Paulo.  Coffee was the economic engine for major economic and population growth here.  Slaves were used in the coffee plantations until 1888 when slavery was abolished.  Today Sao Paulo is a huge cosmopolitan, melting pot city, much like any in the world.  The Portuguese and blacks interbred back then so there are what are called mulattoes, blacks, and whites in Brazil now.  Sao Paulo also has a large Asian population.  We were here in 2012 & 2016.

DID YOU KNOW:
1)  Brazil is as large as the contiguous 48 states.
2)  It has a population of 203 million people.  80% of them live in cities.
3)  Sao Paulo has population of 20 million and is fastest growing city in the world.
4)  The largest number of Japanese living outside of Japan live in Sao Paulo.
5)  The capital of Brazil is NOT Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, but Brazilia.
6)  Brazil has the 6th largest economy in the world.
7)  Brazil is largest producer of soybeans in the world.

LAST EVENING

                        La Crema chardonnay, pigs in a blanket, and my Grey Goose martini.

        Cheers!!  As you can see in the background, we have the Meridian Lounge to ourselves.

                                                 Canapes offered to go with cocktails.

                               Entrance to Pacific Rim restaurant guarded by this dragon.

                   We were greeted by Arriana, the maitre d.  We have cruised with her before.

             She seated us at a window table in the corner of the restaurant.  Nice quiet area!

                                                                   Lai, is our waitress.

        Rebecca was offered a black napkin since she was wearing black pants.  I asked for a green one to go with the charger plates.  Of course I used my white one!

    Our sommelier is Komang on our2022 world cruise.  Her husband is also working on the ship.

                           Edamame beans with dip.  Beans not cooked so we did not eat them.

        I ordered two appetizers:  (top) Alaska king crab summer roll and (bottom) crispy soft shell crabs tempora.  I did not care for the summer rolls so ordered another soft shell crab.  Rebecca also had the soft shell crabs.

                                          Rebecca had the miso black cod as her entree.

                      I had gigantic pink tiger prawns.  I did not care for the soft breading on them.

                                             Not sure what this dessert is called but good.  

                 We asked for chef Michael to come to our table so we could thank him.

        All in all, we did not care for our dinner in Pacific Rim.  We won't be returning.  It's just hard to beat the food in Compass Rose.  We did not go the the guitarist's show.  Bed was calling me!

TODAY

   Up again at 7am and headed down to have Gennaro, barista, to prepare our Americano coffees.

                 At 8:00 it started pouring rain.  Right as the tour groups were to go ashore.

        Shortly after 8am we went down to Compass Rose for Sunday breakfast.  On Sundays they serve caviar and champagne.

  I told Anna, a head waiter, that I wanted to go with her to get my caviar.  I had her load my plate up!!

                                                                 Caviar and champagne

                                                Also on Sundays the serve eggs benedict.

Rebecca had two fried eggs over medium and some bacon.  She said her eggs were under cooked some.

        At 10:15 this morning there as an emergency drill for the crew.  It was a long one that lasted nearly an hour.  I took these photos on my way back from the computer room where I printed the last of my Fidelity tax forms.

Lunch today is available in Prime 7 so we shall be going up there for lunch.  Here are a couple menus.

                                        I started with the soup  of the day, potato soup.

                                                    Chicken quesadilla as an appetizer

            Caesar salad with 5 anchovies and some lemon-pepper grilled shrimp for my entree.

           This is looking down on the desserts offered.  They were very tempting but I resisted!

There are two other cruise ships in port today disembarking and embarking passengers.  They are the MSC Preziosa which holds 4000 passengers and the Costa Diadema with 3700 passengers.  Both ship's passengers have to be bused from and to their ships which are docked elsewhere in the port to the cruise terminal just next to our ship.  That's lots of busing!!

        As I mentioned we visited this port in 2012 & 2016 on 72 night circle South America cruises.  First time we were here we just took the shuttle to a downtown mall.  In 2016 we did the "Highlights of Santos" tour.  Unfortunately in 2016 we spent 4 days here as the ship's backup generator had to be replaced.  What an ordeal that was.  

        Rebecca went up to the library again today to read her book.  After finishing this post I will look for another movie to watch on tv.  I now have all the documents that I will need to add them to an online worksheet our CPA has us use.  I enter the data then send it for her to do our income taxes.  I brought it all with me.  Not sure when I will enter the data.

        I notice that many of the crew are heading to take the shuttle to town this afternoon.  They like to dine off the ship and do some shopping.

        Here is tonight's Compass Rose menu.  We will be dining here after our cocktail hour.  The show tonight is featuring the second show by the vocalist, Stephane Webber

        We will be sailing again at 6pm.  Another port tomorrow which is Ilha Grande.  Wonder what the weather will be??