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Published: February 26th 2014
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Days 20-21 – Indonesian Crew Show; Recife & Olinda
Sunday – Feb. 23/14 – At Sea
Nice having two sea days in a row – puts a real level of relaxation into the “routine”.
Once again Brooke & I headed off to do different things: she to the lecture by the guest geologist on “The Shale Revolution” and I to learn how to make Ensemada’s and Cinnamon Rolls – demonstrated by the head Baker Joel.
The day’s highlight was the Indonesian Crew Show held at 2 pm instead of the regular 11:00 pm. The performance was extremely well attended, unlike the later time slot. The performances were by the Indonesian room and dining room stewards and we made a point of telling the dining room steward who make up more than 50%!o(MISSING)f the crew how well they performed. They are responsible for organizing it and doing their practicing on their own time. The organizer of the performance was one of the Dinning Room stewards and we told him that we would be recommending to the Head Office that the show
should always be scheduled in an afternoon time slot.
Our head table steward, Win, was featured in a colourful dance number that depicted a traditional greeting. The costume he wore, we found out later at dinner, was made by him and he brought it with him specifically for the show. He told us that he has been dancing from a very early age.
Way back on our first day aboard, while we were touring the ship, Brooke had filled out a contest card for a half priced full body massage in the Spa - she won. Since we were at sea she took the opportunity to schedule the massage for this afternoon.
Monday – Feb. 24/14 – Recife
Today we docked in Recife, which is often referred to as the Brazilian Venice because the city is surrounded by rivers and built on a number of islands. There are no fewer than 200 bridges connecting the various sections of the city today.
The city prospered primarily because of sugarcane. The climate combined with the fertile soil made the cultivation
of sugar cane possible. From the 16
th to 19
th centuries slaves were brought in from Africa to do all the manual labour associated with the sugar production.
Today’s population is a mixture of Portuguese, South American Indians and African Slaves with a touch of Dutch thrown in as well. The Dutch, who were the primary sugar merchants back in Europe, had invaded the area in the 1600’s and took control of Recife for a time.
The city also boasts the first Jewish community and synagogue of all the Americas.
The inhabitants of Recife finally tossed the Dutch out when they carried out the Pernambucan Insurrection .
We opted for a city tour of Recife followed by a drive out to the neighbouring historic city of Olinda. The colonial city of Olinda, which was awarded the status of a UNESCO heritage town in 1982, is nestled in the hills and overlooks Recife.
First on the tour was a walking exercise in the downtown core of Recife. After a brief drive from the docks we disembarked in the city square. The guide explained the reason behind
all the barricades being erected around principle buildings and sites – Carnival was coming & these barricades were designed to reduce possible destruction of property.
The walking tour took us to the Golden Chapel – the chapel contained very ornate Baroque wooden carving, which had been decorated with 200+ kilos of gold leaf. The bottoms of the walls are covered with 16
th century tiles. The wealthy Portuguese leaders of the colony created the chapel for their private use.
After that visit we were taken to the former city prison which has now been transformed into the Casa da Culture. The prison houses a handicraft market. The artisans have taken over the prison cells and set up shop there. The 3 story building itself follows a French design and is built in the shape of a cross so that the guards could control things from a single point.
After a 30 minute stop at the market we were driven out to Olinda where we had to change from the large touring bus to smaller vans that could navigate the steep narrow streets leading to the Cathedral atop the hill.
We had a brief visit to the cathedral and again an opportunity to do some exploration on our own before re-boarding the mini buses and heading down the hill to the tour buses.
The evening performance was Shirley Dominguez – “When the Harp Goes Latin”. She had a wide repertoire of material ranging from pop, tango, salsa, classical and some of her own compositions. She had a small electric harp of 32 strings – not a 75 lbs. monster. It was excellent.
Tuesday – Feb. 25/14 – Maceio
Yesterday we were docked in Maceio, Brazil for a rather short stay – 8:00 am until 2:00 pm. Once again because of the size of the ship we were docked in an industrial area of the port. Just think what would happen with one of the monster ships – they would never get into some of these ports. As there were only three excursions to choose from and two were connected with beach visits/swimming we opted not to go ashore and instead took a leisurely approach
to the day aboard ship.
Brooke and I have spent part of the morning going over our photos and selected a number from the last few days to include in our blog.
While we were docked the Captain took the opportunity to have the crew practice some of their emergency drills, fire, lifeboat and a testing of the emergency generators. We think it was to demonstrate to the Brazilian officials that this ship practices what it preaches. We had heard that in the past the Brazilians had looked for “incentives”; now we understand officials come aboard to inspect everything. For every infraction of their regulations, even if it isn’t an infraction of health and USCG safety rules, fines are levied.
While we were selecting the photos we were serenaded by a brass band on the dock. Unfortunately they seem only to know two tunes and it was monotonous.
At lunch we learned from another couple who had taken the only non-beach tour that they had been taken to no less than four different “craft” markets on their tour. That confirmed for us that we made the right choice in staying
on the ship. We also learned that at least one of the beach stops was “washed out” by a heavy rain.
The deck crew had the gangway ready to pull up right at 1:30 just as two busloads of passengers were dropped off. The gangway was pulled aboard no sooner than they were on the ship and ten minutes later at 1:45 we were away from the dock and setting out to sea.
In the afternoon there was a mini-cooking demo where I learned how to make two different dips: a roasted red pepper dip & a white bean dip.
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Liz Massiah
non-member comment
wow
Sure seems like a great trip. And I agree about shows at 11 pm,,, way past our bedtime. THanks for the blog and the pictures. LIz