Uruguay, December 17-18

Today, Tuesday, was a wonderful day. We were back to really traveling. Rio was fun because it is a great city and we were able to explore on our own. Today in Montevideo, Uruguay we had the same luxury.  All of the stops in between have felt a bit like a Disneyland ride. "Good morning passengers. Today we will be visiting Brazilian Seaside Village Land. You will need an E ticket for this ride." As you have probably been able to tell, we have not been thrilled with the ports of call or the shore excursions on this cruise.

The ship docked at 11:00 a.m. and we were again in the middle of a bustling commercial cargo port. At least here we had an easy 5 minute walk and we were at the Mercado del Pueto, the Public Port Market.  Inside this building were a number of little individual restaurants and small craft shops. The streets next to the market also had kiosks and small stores with a variety of interesting Uruguayan products. The restaurants in the market are called Parradillas. They are similar to the barbeque restaurant we ate at in Rio, the exception being that parradillas are not all you can eat establishments. Each of the parradillas had large wood fired grills where a variety of meats, chicken and seafood was being prepared. Each of us had a nice steak with French fries and a beer. The steaks were excellent. Between lunch and shopping, we spent about two hours in the market area before returning to the boat. In the afternoon we had signed up for a tour of the highlights of Montevideo. We looked more closely at the tour and found it was going to be three hours and a bus driving by all of the important places in Montevideo. We decided to bag the tour and strike out on our own. Lynda did manage to talk the guide for the tour we were to go on to drop us off at the first stop, the Presidential Plaza. They begrudgingly decided to do so. It saved us a 20 peso taxi fare. Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay and the Presidential Plaza is where the main government building is located. The plaza is a large beautiful park with several impressive statues and several architecturally interesting buildings surrounding it. Just off of the Plaza is the Montevideo Opera House, the principal classical music venue in the capital. We ventured in hoping to wander around a bit and see the main auditorium. Unfortunately, that was not allowed. Tim's Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association member emeritus card did not seem to impress the people at the Opera. We also found the Montevideo Leather Market on the Presidential Plaza. Probably should have stayed on the tour bus. It would have been cheaper! Tim now has a new leather winter coat and gloves and Lynda has a new belt. We spent nearly an hour and a half at the leather market. It was quite fun. More laid back then the leather markets we have been to in Florence, Italy. We were exhausted from the shopping so we took the taxi back to the ship. Tonight we are looking forward to a special barbeque buffet poolside on the top deck of our ship. It is going to be a lovely summer evening here so should be fun and delicious.

Wednesday morning found us anchored off of Punta del Estes in Uruguay. We spent 6 hours today on an Arts and Cultural tour of Punta del Estes. Our first stop was the Museo Ralli, one of 5 Ralli Art Galleries around the world. This particular gallery featured a small collection of Salvador Dali sculptures and a temporary exhibit of Alexander Calder prints. There were also many contemporary sculptures and glassworks by South American artists that we found interesting. However, it was a bit disconcerting and highly refreshing that there was no gift shop in this art gallery. Upon leaving the Museo Ralli we were driven to the city center where we had an hour and half of free time which we used to have lunch, do some shopping and take pictures of a locally famous sculpture of fingers coming out of the sand on the beach near the main shopping area. After this free time we went to the home and gallery of a local artist by the name of Villaro. Villaro is 90 years old and still painting. He designed the home/gallery that we visited and, as you can see from the picture, the home has a very Moorish influence. As a young man Villaro met Pablo Picasso. Villaro's work reflects a strong Picasso influence. We had the opportunity to buy works by Villaro (think gift shop) but were able to resist.

We have thoroughly enjoyed Uruguay. All of the locals we have interacted with have been very friendly and welcoming. It is probably the favorite part of our trip to this point. Two points of interest. As we finish this posting on the balcony of our cabin we can look down and see literally hundreds of Jelly Fish floating by the ship just below the surface of the ocean. Secondly, for all of you who ordered marijuana, we have bad news. We saw no shops offering weed for sale. We will keep your names confidential...for a price.

Tomorrow is our final day aboard Regent Seven Seas Mariner. We will be docked in Buenos Aires and will try to post one last blog tomorrow night.

Montevideo

Punta del Estes

Meat

Punta del Estes

More Brazilian Villages

Just about every night at dinner we sit with another couple or two. For the most part this has been very enjoyable. Several nights ago a single gentlemen joined us who, it turned out, was one of the ship board entertainers, Marty Henne, pianist, singer and raconteur. We heard him a night later and he was very good. Interestingly, we found out during our dinner with him that he had been the music director for "Sesame Street" for ten years. As is the case every evening, dinner conversation eventually turned to how bad the shore excursions are on this cruise. Marty had an interesting spin on this which Tim agrees with. The eastern coast of South American between Rio De Janiero and Buenos Aires has very little of interest. Tim suggested, and Marty agreed, that one of the non-descript villages we have visited could be dropped and an extra night spent in Santos so that we would have time to experience both Santos and Sao Paulo. This is all a preface to the fact that in the past three days we have visited two of these aforementioned villages. On Saturday we anchored off of Porto Belo, Brazil. Lynda stayed on board while Tim visited the village to see if there was anything Lynda absolutely had to see. There was not.  There were several stores, a furniture store and an appliance store, that locals actually shop in. There was also a shoe store with a large selection of women's sandals that Lynda has been looking for, but obviously not enough to leave the ship. The only noteworthy thing in Porto Belo that Tim experienced was hearing his first Christmas carol, a Portuguese rendition of Felix Navidad.

Sunday was a day spent at sea. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day. Eat your hearts out Michigan.  Lynda spent an hour having a massage while Tim spent time putting on the putting course and hitting some golf balls in the nets that are available. Tough day!

Today we docked in Rio Grande, Brazil and took a three hour tour of Rio Grande, three hours that we will never recover. The highlights of the tour were the military building with a group of beautiful hydrangeas in full bloom and the Rio Grande Public Library which, and I quote our tour guide, has "2000 books, each with a different title."

So you don't think this blog posting is one big whine fest, the cruise itself has been excellent. The service has been good, the food outstanding, and the booze free! Our next report will be from Uruguay.

Happy Birthday Beethoven!

Porto Belo, Brazil

Cathedral de San Pedro, Rio Grande, Brazil

Inside Cathedral de San Pedro

Paratay and Santos

A couple of pieces of business before we get to today's travel news. 1. We all owe our daughter, Jilayne, a big thank you for sorting out the problems we were having posting blog entries. We have just enough computer knowledge to be dangerous. When real help is needed we go to Jil. (Aside from Jil: I am still posting for them, so apparently my “help” is of little use!) 2. It has come to our attention that Uruguay has become the first nation to legalize marijuana trading. We arrive in Uruguay on Tuesday of next week so have your orders in to us before Tuesday. Keep in mind that we are three hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

Yesterday we anchored off the coast near a picturesque village named Paraty (pronounced par-a-chee). Paraty was settled by the French back in the 1700s and features lovely French colonial architecture.  When we boarded our tender for the 45 minute boat ride to the pier in Paraty it was cloudy but with some promise of sun. When we arrived at the pier it was raining. Lynda begged an umbrella from a fellow passenger who was waiting to return to the ship. The streets had to be original construction as they consisted of rocks and were very difficult to walk on, particularly in the rain. There were very few motorized vehicles. Most people were getting around by horse drawn carriage. We felt sorry for the horses. There were many lovely shops beyond the ubiquitous cheap souvenir shops as well as a lot of small art galleries run by the artists themselves. Because of the miserable weather we did not stay in Paraty as long as we would have liked.

Today, Friday, we docked in Santos, a city of 500,000 people that is approximately 30 miles from Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil with over 6 million inhabitants. We opted for the Highlights of Santos tour, the first stop being the Coffee Museum. This building featured the room where the original Brazilian coffee exchange took place. The coffee exchange is now part of the general commodity exchange at the stock exchange in Sao Paulo. There were also many interesting exhibits that recalled the history of coffee in Brazil which is now a $2 billion a year industry. The final stop in the museum was the gift shop where you could buy coffee. We wondered why we didn't get a free cup of coffee. After all, we got a free beer at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin! From the museum our bus took us to the Santos Futebal Clube Stadium. The Santos Futebal Clube has a long and rich history. FIFA, the international body that governs football (soccer) worldwide named Santos the football club of the last century. The museum at the stadium displayed all of the numerous trophies that Santos has won over the years.  Santos is also famous as the team that Pele, arguably the greatest soccer player of all time, first played for. Obviously he was prominently featured in the museum. After the required visit to the gift shop we were taken inside the stadium. We were able to sit in the private boxes which, interestingly, are at field level unlike private boxes in American stadiums. The stadium is relatively small, seating only 20,000 fans and sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Tim wondered where everyone tailgates. This stadium will not be one of the 12 sites for the World Cup next year although a larger stadium in Santos will host games. Our final stop on the tour was the Santos Orchid Park. Depending on one’s point of view this was either going from the sublime to the ridiculous or the ridiculous to the sublime. We will leave it to you to decide who thought what. The Orchiderio, its official name, had a building that contained over 100 different varieties of orchids. They were absolutely beautiful. The park also featured a small zoo with mostly birds, parrots, macaws, toucans, and a few monkeys. There were also several peacocks wandering around freely in the park. The Orchid Park was a lovely, tranquil green space in this large, bustling city. After our tour we went back to the ship for lunch. Our plan had been to then take a taxi on our own back into Santos to explore the city by ourselves. Santos is the largest port in South America and, unfortunately, the cruise ships all dock right amongst the cargo ships. The docks are large, dirty and very busy so we decided it was probably safer to stay on board the ship for the rest of the day. 

A word about Christmas. Up until today we were beginning to think that South America did not celebrate Christmas. We have seen very little in the way of Christmas decorations, none at all on our ship, and have heard nary a Christmas carol. Tim's theory is that because it is summer in South America, Christmas is probably celebrated on June 25 here when it is winter. Lynda does not think much of Tim's theory! We did finally see a lot of Christmas decorations around Santos so all that Christmas shopping was not done in vain.

We will be back in a couple of days with another report. Enjoy your weekend.

Paratay

Coffee Exchange

Orchid Park

Toucan Sam

At Sea and Ilha Grande

We were counting today and decided we have been on eight different cruises.  Yesterday and today were the first times we have been limited in what we could do because of weather.  We probably should not include the QE II as there were no ports of call along the way.  Yesterday we were to anchor off the village of Buzios and take tenders into the village.  Buzios once upon a time was a sleepy little village until in the 1960's Bridgett Bardot came to a hotel in Buzios to get away from the paparazzi.  After her visit tourism exploded.  There is even a statue to Ms. Bardot in Buzios.  We were awakened Tuesday morning about 7:30, actually Lynda was awakened, Tim was already up, by the captain explaining that the seas and wind speed were too high to make taking tenders into Buzios safe.  So we spent yesterday taking a slow circular route to today's port of call.  The day at sea was mostly spent reading although we took time out to play duplicate bridge in the afternoon.

Today, Wednesday, we anchored off of Ilha Grande, an island about 120 miles southwest of Rio.  It has rained all day.  We were to have taken a schooner boat ride this morning that included snorkeling.  We decided against it.  We later talked with a couple who did take this excursion and said that because of the rain the snorkeling was poor.  After lunch Tim decided to take the tender into the village anyway.  In the sun it would have been lovely.  There were lots of little restaurants and bars,  many souvenir shops selling mostly bikinis, cheap fedora hats and cheap local crafts.  Tim did stop at a bar and sampled a ciapirhnia (pronounced ki(long i) per-on-ya) a Brazilian specialty drink made of rum, lime juice and sugar that is very sweet and potent.  Historically, Ihla Grande was a pirate hideaway (aargh!) but today is a resort island, home to a tropical rainforest inhabited by a number of endangered animals.  There are no motorized vehicles on the island.  It is now a national park and has over 90 miles of hiking trails.  You now know as much about Ihla Grande as we do.  Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow.

Having completed this blog posting we, unfortunately, don't know when it will actually be posted.  Our webmistress, Jilayne, hopefully is working feverishly to figure out why we are having trouble getting these posted.  Sorry!