Blogs from Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, South America

Long before MS Volendam had arrived in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil on Friday, February 17, 2023, Uncle Larry had his priorities established. Santos is the biggest seaport in Latin America and is located about 19 miles from the capital of the state of São Paulo, you guessed it, the metropolis of São Paulo. São Paulo, with about 12.5 million people, is the most populous city in Brazil. Most of the goods going to and from São Paulo make their way through Santos. Santos handled 96 million tons of cargo in 2010 worth $4.36 billion U.S. dollars. The top four products exported from Santos were raw sugar (23% of total exports), refined petroleum (16%), coffee (15%), and soybeans (13%). The export of coffee at the turn of the twentieth Century, essentially, gave rise to the city itself ... read more

Thursday 11th February, 2016. Santos, São Paulo, Brazil Santos is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil. It was founded in 1546 by the Portuguese nobleman Brás Cubas. It is partly located on the island of São Vincente, which harbours both the city of Santos and the city of São Vincente. Santos is located approximately 70 km (43 miles) south from São Paulo which is the largest city in Brazil. São Paulo is the most populous city in the Southern Hemisphere and the world's 12th largest by population. Santos is a major seaport stretching from the mainland across to São Vincente. The Urban centre borders the Bay of Santos which is known for its wide beach called Gonzaga's Beach and adjacent 5.3 km long garden which is listed in the Guiness Book of Records ... read more

Check out of our hotel was at 12 noon so no need to rush. Our official time to check in with MSC was 3pm but experience told us to get there as early as possible. The plan was to have a leisurely breakfast, check out at 12 and then head straight for the cruise terminal. Being Sunday, most of the other guests must have had the same 'leisurely breakfast' notion because on strolling in to the breakfast lounge at 10am it was already quite full with guests. During breakfast we overhead a number of different accents including British, Australian and German. I wonder how many of these would be joining us today on the start of our Ocean going Odyssey. On checking out we asked for a taxi to the cruise terminal thinking a hotel of ... read more

Despite our only previous experience of Brazil was a 4 hour stopover in Sao Paolo airport on the way to Santiago, Chile, it feels like I already exhausted all the innuendos about Brazilians. Although our visit was a quick 'in and out', puns such as when the plane, as it was coming in to land had a near miss; and me referring to it as a ‘close shave' or ‘Don't forget to grab yer nuts!!' I will try not to strive for such predictable laughs during this trip!! (but I can't promise anything!!) Our latest ‘voyage of discovery' (OK not a real voyage of discovery. Vasco da Gama and Magellan went on voyage of discoveries, quite literally. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't be making this trip and you wouldn't be reading this) Anyhow, I ... read more

What a sight coming into Santos at 6.30 this morning, highrise as long as the eye could see! It took an hour and a half to come in the river, there is 50miles of port, the largest port in South America. Walked from the port to the old town about 4kms - very dodgy - seedy areas, unsmiling faces and falling down buildings etc etc probably the most apprehensive we have felt but walked into the old town with 6 others - so felt a little safer with numbers! The grand old buildings of the past are just gorgeous, the coffee museum, just beautiful - and boy was the coffee good too! Coffee and oranges are the largest exports from here, but Brazil is the largest beef exporter in the world. Pele (the soccer player) is ... read more