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