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Published: March 9th 2014
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Wednesday – Mar. 5/14, Armação dos Buzios
This resort town is usually simply referred to as Buzios and is part of the state of Rio de Janeiro. European pirates who had established a lucrative business of smuggling Brazil wood to Europe and slave traders originally settled set up their base of operations in this area. The Portuguese eventually banished the pirates in 1575 and established a permanent town, which is now a popular destination for tourists from Rio, 169 km to the southwest.
Brigitte Bardot who visited the area in the 1960’s popularized the peninsula and town. She came to the town to avoid the paparazzi of Rio with her Brazilian boyfriend. They permitted one photographer to come along with them to record their vacation. The locals erected a statue of Brigitte in the center of town. Today the town is very much a beach resort, being that there are at least 20 nearby. The beaches attract tourist who participate in an active nightlife and support the local hotels and restaurants.
Once again the ship was anchored off
shore and the tenders were needed to get us ashore to join our tour. The tour that we selected was quite short, being only 2 hours and was entitled “Buzios Highlights”. This was a driving tour of the peninsula with several photo stops at elevated points along the coast, providing panoramic vista shots of the coast and islands offshore. Some roads were likened to roller coasters – a very apt description. Most streets were of cobble stones, and rutted, and we were sitting over the wheel well of a small bus. We returned thinking our teeth had been permanently loosened in our jaws and that our kidneys would never be the same again. There were no road signs and no street lights so cannot imagine how people find their way back to rental accommodations after dark – or even in the daylight!
One of the points of interest that we stopped at was connected directly to the ancient geology of Pangaea. If this area of land were a puzzle piece then this section of the Brazilian coast would match and fit directly into the African coast.
Friday – Mar. 7/14, Salvador da
Bahia
Known for years simply as “Bahia” (which is actually the name of the state) the full name of the city is São Salvador da Bahía de Todos os Santos which means “Holy Savior of All Saints’ Bay”. This is one of Brazil’s oldest cities and its historical center in the upper city has been named a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. The city was established in 1549 and quickly became the first capital of Brazil and the second most important city in the Portuguese empire after Lisbon.
The early economy of the city was centered on sugar and slavery, which were later replaced with gold and diamonds. Thousands of slaves were brought to Brazil from Africa to work the sugar plantations and as a result Salvador is considered the country’s most Africanized city.
Salvador is also noted in the Guinness Book of Records as having the “biggest street party” on the planet. Our tour guide clearly stated that Rio’s Carnaval celebrations were the commercial ones while Salvador’s were for the people.
Day opened with
bright sunshine and a few light high clouds. I went up to deck 12 to photograph our entry into port, which was through a wide assortment of ships waiting their turn to come into port. Later in the day storm clouds appeared over the ship but nothing happened onboard – however sections of the old city got rained on quite heavily.
Our scheduled 8 hour tour was entitled “Praia do Forte & the Tamar Project” and it
involved a bus trip 80 km north of the city to the Tamar Project, which is a site devoted to the protection of sea turtles. The foundation behind the project has dedicated itself to the preservation and protection, and study, of the five different species of turtles that exist along the Brazilian coast. The Project directs funds derived from the ticket admissions, donations and the sale of souvenirs towards the fight against the extinction of these magnificent creatures. They employ local fishermen and their families in this protection exercise.
We were then taken to Guarajuba Beach where we had lunch at a local restaurant and then given a chance to go swimming at yet another beach
if we wanted. In total we spent about two hours there before we headed back to Salvador. The bus trip took almost two hours due to the heavy late afternoon traffic.
There has been another outbreak of gastrointestinal illness (GIS) onboard so the Captain has needed to make several announcements about the need for everyone to wash their hands thoroughly. They even stationed an officer at the gangway to ensure that everyone coming back onboard used the hand sanitizer.
Just before dinner the Captain announced that we were returning to the “full” service mode for food handling in all locations, Main Dinning Room, Lido, etc.
As our dining room table steward, said – “More work for us” .
The ship’s company is trying to reduce the chance that this illness will spread to and by any of the passengers. Anyone who is currently ill is required to stay in his or her cabin and room service will bring them their meals.
The Captain did say in a subsequent announcement that one guest had been ill for three days, had been walking around the ship and failed to
report it to the medical staff.
With the “Code Red” status being imposed even the Library has had to change the way they do things. All the books are locked behind their screens and you can’t just pick them off the shelves and browse them – you have to ask the Librarian to retrieve something for you. We are hoping to stay healthy.
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