After two uneventful sea days we have arrived in our first Brazilian port. We’re anchored off the island of São Sebastião, which lies off the coast roughly one third of the way between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The first Europeans to arrive here came in 1502 in an expedition with Amerigo Vespucci traveling on behalf of the Portuguese king. For a number of years it became a haven for pirates until the 17th century when sugarcane was planted and took off as the major crop.
There’s not much to report about my sea days. I go from meal to meal with lectures, trivia, and different shows interspersed. We’ve had some excellent shows with entertainers we picked up in Buenos Aires as well as the singers and dancers from the ship’s company. There are some truly talented people here.
This island is lush and green and hilly. But the most outstanding feature we noticed as soon as we tendered ashore was the HEAT. Think Virginia on one of those really hot, sultry days when the moment you step outside you are instantly drenched, and you’ll know how it feels here. What a contrast from just ten days ago! I think this is what I can expect for the next couple of weeks.
I tendered ashore to the little town and we walked around for a little while. Truthfully there wasn’t much to do unless we wanted to try to get to a beach and neither my friend nor I wanted to go broil. We did stop for a moment at a seawall to get a picture of the ship at anchor. Then we spotted a dog in the water. His owner was on the narrow beach below us and she’d thrown a ball out for him to fetch. He was having a good time. Why not, he was in cool water. We watched him go out a couple of times and then we wandered on. Along the way there was a little jewelry store with interesting looking necklaces made of resins that looked like amber. A sign on the door that said “Air Conditioned” convinced us to go in and have a look. My friend Claudia found a very attractive necklace and earrings. I thought some of the things were very pretty but not really my style. I like gold jewelry more. It was all very reasonably priced too. After shopping and cooling off a little we headed back toward the pier. It’s Saturday and it seemed most places were closed which struck us as odd, but oh, well that was okay.
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| My home away from home |
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| This boy was having a good time. When he brought the ball back and his owner didn't throw it right away he started barking until she did. |
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| As you can see from these photos there isn't a lot here. |
At the pier Seabourn had a crew member handing out cold washcloths. Heaven! When we got back onboard we went up to the Patio Grill and got a table in the shade and had a light lunch and big glasses of ice water. While we were sitting there a waiter came around with a beautiful green drink so we all tried one. I haven’t a clue what was in it, but it was delicious. As we sat there and talked I discovered that Claudia and I are scheduled to be on the same ship next year. I’m getting on before she does and then she’ll be staying on after I get off. That will be fun since we’ve been enjoying one another’s company.
Now it’s time to chill out, check e-mails and get cleaned up. I’ve come to realize that I packed poorly for this cruise. Nearly all the warmer weather things I brought with me are made of synthetic fibers and they just don’t let you breathe. I’ve got a day with not much planned in Rio and then the day after that we’ll be in Buzios which I heard has a lot of beachy boutiques so I think I’ll have to look for some cotton and linen things to wear during the day. If it’s this hot and humid here I can’t imagine what it will be like on the Amazon. Bye for now or as they say in Portuguese, adeus por enquanto.
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