He Said . . .
Day 1 on the open seas, I already miss Rio, seems like so long ago now. What a whirlwind, I’m not sure why we ever just get a two day interlude in a location before our cruises but I must really work on extending that by a couple of days to see more of the beautiful cruise locales that tend to be the beginnings of our journeys. That said, the boat is beautifully redone and the little things seem to be where Azamara sets itself apart from our typical cruising, for instance just down the hall from our room we have the free laundrymat, which by the way allowed me to get Ami to pack just 1.5 suitcases instead of the typical 3.5, progress I tell you progress!!
I did manage to find the scale in the gym and did my 44.5 laps around the walking/jogging track on deck 11; that’s 3 miles but seemed like an eternity while trying to keep track of how many laps I’d made. Fortunately the scale was kind to me (although difficult to read with the ebb and flow of the waves). I was really skinny in the throughs!!! :) Not so much so on the crests though… :( But overall all good. We relaxed quite a bit and wound down from the journey with no ill effects of the long journey to get us here.
I do have to mention one item I forgot to mention during our hotel stay, can’t believe I forgot about it; when we got to the hotel and checked in Ami and I both took showers (and froze due to the shower temp) before complaining to each other that there was no hot water. I really couldn’t believe that a 19 story hotel could possibly get by with just one boiler so I set out to resolve the issue by the next mornings shower, Ami wanted to tell the front desk, I convinced her otherwise. We got up the next morning, Ami showered first, she told me the same thing, nothing but cold water, I couldn’t believe it. I went in and turned on the shower, before I got in, I sampled the temp, sure enough this was going to be brutal once again. So I began playing with the single handle shower and realized that hot water, just like the toilet ran backward south of the equator. I have no idea if that’s just an old wives tale or not but nonetheless, the shower to the right was toasty warm and I enjoyed the first hot shower since our arrival. I thought I would let her know in good time the following day but that wasn’t to be, turned out I asked her for something, hair spray I believe and she told me she would grab it from the bathroom, the next thing I hear is “Why is there steam in the bathroom? Did you find the hot water?”, damn, foiled again, she wasn’t happy with my silence but I would have told her before she finished her shower the next morning, I promise I would have!!
Back to our first sea day, I finished my Oracle OCP, that stands for Oracle Certified Professional, of which I have two but want to get the newest one for my repetoire, Oracle 12c. Once I wrapped that up I finished my Cisco CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Administrator), my VERY weakest technical subject--that’s always been a mystery to me--not the layer 2 side of things but certainly layer 3 if you’re into the ISO layer 7 model. If not, I wouldn’t spend any time on it, it’s very boring stuff. Then we were on to just novels that Ami and I both have, mainly I just read whatever she read two years ago because oun kindle’s are sunk up with one another. First up was “The Innocent” from David Baldacci, easy reading but a pretty good page turner, not Grisham, Child and not even close to Dan Brown but very pleasant and keeps you engaged which is all I’m looking for on sea days.
Dinner was excellent and I’m having a tough time with the wait staff thinking I’m not liking my food but I really don’t want to tell them that it’s weight loss surgery and not their cooking. But I’m totally skipping the appetizer and only eating the 25% of the French onion soup and about 25% of a fish entree so I can stuff down my cheese and cracker plate. With coffee it’s extremely tough and I have to pace myself carefully not to get stomach cramps and end up losing my dinner. So far so good though, just have to be very careful, I miss my diner, they know my plight!!!
Salvador de Bahia here we are…
Our first stop, Salvador, we got off the boat and took the elevator from the lower city to the upper city; it was a whole 15 centavos a piece, with a real being 3.76 to the dollar and a centavo being 1 cent of a real, well you can do the math, it isn’t very much, I think quicker math say 4 cents US. But it actually had an elevator attendent, government job I guess, certainly not private sector with that kind of ROI.
We enjoyed finding the Cathedral and taking some beautiful pictures it and the surrounding area; the oddity in my mind was the broken cross sculpture just in front of the bay view but I would once we had our excursion tomorrow. Beautiful views of the bay and lots and lots of churches, apparently they had to build their church at night as the slave owners forced the slaves to build theirs during the day back in the 18th century. But you can tell that’s it’s not a very prosperous place on the whole, but the people look like they are enjoying themselves.
Excursion day in Salvador -
We set off on a photo tour, my idea as Ami had a couple of photography classes in college and I had none -- thought I might catch up a bit, boy was I wrong. Started innocously enough, 8:15, we were group 1 off the ship, 6 people that was it!! We met our guides and we were off, little did I know that Tom, our photography guide, would help us so little that I wondered why it was a self serve walking tour, I don’t think I learned a thing but we did make the trek to the lighthouse, greatness, and to the local market, oh my God it was disgusting, all I could smell was body odor and filth ever where I looked. I swore I would never eat another crab as long as lived. We were there as our final stop and I could not get out of there fast enough, but it took an hour; the stop in the city center was quite nice and we saw some great churches and architecture that was beautiful, quite ornate with lots and lots of gold leaf everywhere, amazingly opulent but beautiful!!! We enjoyed the free wifi at the cruise terminal upon our return and caught up with everyone at home, everything seemed fine and the house is still standing so all is good; hopefully the foundation of the new house is poured and Brando sends me some pics from up North, can’t wait.
Dinner came quickly enough but didn’t pass as quickly as it needed to -- turns out that Azamara has a thing called “white nights” where everyone is expected to wear white to dinner, we took this literally, or I should say Ami did, so I did, we walked on deck and realized we were the only two idiots in all white, I turned walked back inside and said, “I’m changing.”, she said, “Me too.”, we’re outta here -- we ate in the main dining room, it was lovely. Those clothes will never be packed for “white night” again, live a learn. Finished my book while Ami was typing, good read, all going according to Hoyle thus far, enjoy home, we’re enjoying the respite!!
She Said . . .
Overview of Vacation
I realized after our first blog of this trip, we never outlined the vacation. It was too long anyway, so now, when there is not as much to talk about, might be a better time.
Here is the overview:
March 17 Sunday 2:30 PM-Flight to Miami, 10:55 PM-Flight to Rio
March 18 Monday 8:15 AM Arrive in Rio de Janiero, Check into Rio Leme Hotel
March 19 Tuesday Rio Private Tour
March 20 Wednesday Get on Azamara Pursuit
March 21 Thursday Sea Day
March 22 Friday Arrive in Salvador de Bahia at 3:00 PM
March 23 Saturday Salvador de Bahia until 10:00 PM
March 24 Sunday Sea Day
March 25 Monday Recife, Brazil
March 26 Tuesday Sea Day
March 27 Wednesday Sea Day
March 28 Thursday Sea Day
March 29 Friday Sea Day
March 30 Saturday Cape Verde (Island off the coast of Africa)
March 31 Sunday Sea Day
April 1 Monday Sea Day
April 2 Tuesday Sea Day
April 3 Wednesday Agadir, Morocco
April 4 Thursday Casablanca Morocco
April 5 Friday 6:00 PM Arrive in Lisbon, Portugal
April 6 Saturday Cruise is done, Noonish-flight leaves for Philadelphia, then Miami,
Spend the night in MIami
April 7 Sunday Flight to Austin, then DFW (yes, the return blows but Blaise had
AAdvantage miles that were going to expire)
Yes, that is three whole weeks. I never thought I would be at a place in my life where I would take a 2 week vacation, let alone 3. But life is too short. I love my job. Most days. But there is much in this world I want to see and do. If there is one thing I learned from watching my sister suffer for years and then loose her life to that vile disease, it is that none of us are guaranteed tomorrow or even a healthy today.
Those that know me, know when I am working, I work hard and often long hours. I know some attorneys, and probably clients, get irritated when trying to schedule hearings, mediations, and whatever else around my vacations. But I am not giving this up - this time I spend seeing the world and spending it with my husband. I would love to add my nieces into the mix at some point but while they are in school and as active as they are with volleyball and all the other fun things teenage girls do, that is not possible. I would love to have Brandon join us too. I hope some day we can all take a trip together and enjoy new places and experiences together. Someday.
Thursday, March 21 - Day at Sea
It was a relaxing day at sea. The day we got on the ship, we found a quiet, little used place on the deck right outside the coffee shop on five with lounge chairs. This location is great for Blaise with his new found love for coffee.
We camped out there in the morning reading and writing this blog. In the afternoon, I spent some time in the cabin finishing my lengthy portion of the blog and attempting to upload into blogspot. I REALLY hate the formatting issues with blogspot! My first attempts at “publishing” were unreadable. Each paragraph was one long line and you had to scroll right to read the whole thing. Thankfully, after Blaise came back from his walk on the track, he gave me an idea to fix it. The result wasn’t ideal but since I refuse to pay for internet, I let it be. We each have 90 minutes of free internet and I spent a good 45 minutes jacking with it. Hopefully today’s upload will be smoother and quicker with what I learned Thursday.
I went to the gym and spend an hour there, first on the elliptical and then on the stationary bike.
We never did eat lunch this day and I really didn’t miss it. Dinner was lovely although 3 days later, I can’t recall what either of us had.
Friday, March 22 - Salvador de Bahia
We spend the first part of this day, not unlike the first part of the day before - Breakfast, then reading on the deck on 5.
We did have lunch this day. I had a slice of pepperoni pizza and some water. There is always free flowing wine and alcohol here since it is included. For some extra money, you can upgrade and get wine and liquor that are more expensive. However, I am doing my best to limit my wine and alcohol consumption. I lost 25 pounds before I came on this cruise. The tip from my diet doctor was to watch my alcohol consumption while on the cruise since you can consume a great deal of “empty” calories that way. The first night at dinner I had a glass of wine. None the second and then vodka, cranberry, and lime last night and the night before. I am trying to steer clear of the alcohol during the day. The doctor recommended clear distilled liquors if I am going to drink and watch the mixers. Cranberry juice is the best I can do and still find it tasty.
We arrived in Salvador de Bahia at 3:00 PM and headed out to explore around 3:30 PM. Bahia is the state and Salvador is the city in Bahia.
Salvador has two levels - an upper level and a lower level. The cruise ship arrived on the lower level. There are 2 ways on foot to get to the upper level - a funicular and an actual elevator.
The elevator was within walking distance and only cost .15 real (real is the Brazillian currency). There are approximately 3.65 reals to a U.S. dollar so the elevator was pretty damn cheap. You wanted to get to the upper part of this city of 2.9 million people, because that is where you find the historical part of the town, Pelourinho. Pelourinho was the heart of the city during colonial times. Because Pelourinho means whipping post, you can imagine what happened in this area of the city during the times of slavery.
Salvador was the center of the slave trade for Brazil back in the day so there is a strong African influence here as well as a greater percentage of blacks here (the locals do not say African American - they say black or Afro-Brazillian, but the latter is used mostly to describe the culture).
In the Pelourinha area, you see mostly black people. In the streets, there were lots of drumming, singing, and dancing. There is a dance called the capoeira. It is actually a mixture of dance, gymnastics and martial arts. This was used by slaves back in the day as a defense against their slave masters. Music was added as a disguise. Once outlawed, it is now celebrated. We saw a demonstration of this on the street but it seemed to me and my not-so-trained eye, these folks were not that good.
We walked into the Franciscan church for 5 reals. It was beautifully ornate and golden.
After walking around for a while, we went back to the ship for the evening.
I must say, this part of Brazil is quite hot.
The food on the ship is fantastic. This night I had coq au vin. It was delicious and probably the largest portion of anything I have had so far.
Saturday, March 23 - Salvador de Bahia
Today, we took a different kind of tour of the city - a tour “through the camera lense.” This was supposed to be a tour to take you to the most photogenic sites of the city with tips on better photographing them. While neither one of us are photography crazy, we thought it would be a great way to see the city and maybe get better tips of taking better pictures.
We went to a lighthouse/fort, Pelourinho (again), and a market next to the water. The market was for locals, so it was interesting to see how the locals live. The market sold mostly seafood and produce, and some crafts. You also saw people with booths selling mints, gum, and candy from the U.S. as well as miscellaneous things like CDs and toothbrushes. While Blaise really hated it, I found it interesting in that it was great insight into the daily lives of some of the people of Salvador.
This day, we explored a bit more of Pelourinha than we saw on our own. It seems every group of Catholics you can imagine built a church in Pelourinha - the Franciscans, the Jesuits, the Carmelites, and the list goes on. It is church, cathedral, and bascilica, right next to each other every where you turn. There is one church that was built just for the slaves. The slaves were made to build a church during the day for their masters so at night, they would spend their sleeping hours building their own church.
Apparently, the Pelourinha area of the city was abandoned for most of the 20th Century. But in 1985 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the restoration began. You can see restored buildings right next to buildings that have been abandoned for decades and in extreme disrepair. You can tell those run down buildings were once grand and beautiful. I hope the restore them all.
It was a weird tour which really did not give us any photography hints at all. That part was worthless.
While Salvador is not my favorite place because everywhere you turned someone was quite literally in your face trying to sell you something, the historical aspects of it are quite interesting.
Evening on the Boat
Evening on the boat was quite interesting. We were told by our travel agent they have an all white dress night on each cruise with an outdoor poolside buffet. Because there was a poolside buffet this night, we put on our white clothes and headed up to the pool. When we peaked out there, no one was dressed in all white. We felt silly. So we went back down and changed our clothes. Not sure what the hell happened there. I also discovered we didn’t have to eat poolside, so we headed down to the main dining room for dinner.
For my appetizer, I had a shrimp salad and Blaise had his soup, his standard French onion, when my appetizer was delivered. I had a raddichio ceasar salad and papperdelle pasta with some lovely brown sauce. Blaise had a honey mustard salmon for his entree. Blaise had his standard cheese plate for dessert while I had a cream cheese brownie with caramel ice cream for dessert. Yep, there went the diet. I just hope it all washes out in the end so I did not gain weight on vacation. We shall see. It gets harder and harder not to eat all the time on this boat.
That’s it for now. I write this as I sit on deck 5 enjoying the sound of the waves. Not a stitch of land as far as the eye can see.
No comments:
Post a Comment