Jan. 15.Itajai, Brazil. Sunny, clouds and thunder. 99!

Last night we had dinner in CR, usual, usual, then we did go to the show, an “instrumentalist”, but mostly a classical guitarist. We almost walked out after the first 2 pieces, but then he got really better and we stayed until the end. Here today in our first of 12 Brazilian ports, we passed on the tours. We didn’t arrive until 10:30am and the tours were either 7 hours long, getting back after 6pm, or the one shorter tour was a hike in the mountains! The sail in was beautiful. This is obviously a summer resort area for Brazilians, with beautiful beaches and brand new and still being constructed high rise condos. We spent the day hanging out on our veranda and on the pool deck at our usual table that gets a great breeze. L&O didn’t take a tour either, but they did take the shuttle to downtown for shopping. They said we didn’t miss anything. We had a nice dinner In Chartreuse, then we did go to the show. It was “Crossroads” put on by the production cast. We had seen it before, but really enjoyed this energetic show of Country vs. Rock and Roll. Fun music, great dancing!

Jan. 16. Sao Fransisco, Brazil. 86, sunny.

For Regent,  today was a logistical disaster. I don’t know how they got it so screwed up, but from the tender, to the tours to breakfast and lunch, nothing meshed. We had an afternoon tour, so had a pretty calm morning up until 11:30 or so. Well, the issues were that somehow Regent didn’t realize they had 300 guests on morning tours and another 300 on afternoon tours. They just didn’t staff for the breakfasts, lunch’s and tendering to manage it! We tendered in for our 12:55 tour, leaving the ship at 12:15. When we got to the pier at 12:45, it was , oh sorry, the morning tours are running late so your bus won’t be here til 1:30. By 1:45, after waiting in the hot sun for an hour, some busses started to come. Bottom lime, people getting off the busses were saying, “worst tour ever”, so we bailed! We walked a bit around town and had a beer, then returned to the ship. Back at the ship, more disorganization. Just not enough staff in the one open lunch venue to handle the 300 just back from tours.   There were so many unhappy guests; it’s wasn’t pretty! The good news about today was I had the best meal for dinner that I’ve had so far. A really unusual salad and prime rib! We did go to the show, a magician with a fabulous resume, including fooling Teller and Penn, but he didn’t do much for us. All 4 of us walked out after 10 mins.  We do get what we call “the ejection seats”, last row, far end on the balcony, so hopefully we don’t disturb anyone when we walk!

Jan. 17. Santos, Brazil. very HOT. 102 at 3pm.

Santos is the largest and busiest port in  South America! Who knew? Who ever even heard of Santos before. It is also the seaport/beach resort for São Paulo (which I have heard of before), which is 50 or so miles inland. Santos has a beach 5 miles long and way wider that Hilton Head; maybe 500 yds. It’s summer here, with schools out and everyone on vacation, so all 5 miles of beaches were packed . It was very hot. Our tour was “Highlights of Santos”. It was fine, but would have been more enjoyable with less heat. Our first stop was through Old Town,  to the Coffee Museum. It was a very pretty 19th century building that served as the exchange house for the coffee market. There wasn’t a whole lot to see there, but it was interesting. Next we walked (in the 100 degree sunshine) for about 10 mins. to the Pele museum. We had 45 mins. to explore the museum, which was really, really well done and I’m sure fascinating to anyone who loves or even understands soccer. We then drove through the city, (not a scenic drive, George said it reminded him of Canal Street in NYC), to a botanical garden. We had 30 mins. to again stroll and explore on our own ( in the 100 degree heat, but it was lushly shaded). We returned to the ship via the modern part of the city, with the high rises, hotels, beaches etc. We got back in time for lunch by the pool, but again the heat! It was too hot to linger over margaritas!  Cocktails, dinner in CR then no show, as it was production cast doing one we saw before and didn’t love. We took espresso martini’s to the room and watched a movie.

Jan. 18. Parati, Brazil. 86, sun then thunder.

We are in a beautiful bay, but our tour, on a schooner to 2 beaches wasn’t til 1:30. Note to me, don’t do the afternoon tours! I see I have several scheduled on the last leg and I’m going to change them! Just like us in the northern hemisphere, in the tropics, the mornings are beautiful and come afternoon, there are thunderstorms. So, we are in this bay, and anchored, with a 45 min. (!!!) tender ride into the pier. It’s hot, but not as hot as yesterday, but come noon, we could see the storms on-shore and the thought of that long tender ride in the heat…ok… have a margarita , or go on a tender for 45 mins. to a schooner to 2 beaches for 3 hours and a 45 min. tender back… We canceled, as tomorrow is on a schooner to  2 beaches! So glad so didn’t go. At 4:30 as we would have been coming back on the tender it was thunder and lightning. I’m not a fan of lightning! We had the usual cocktails and dinner in CR. We did go to the show, the second of the guitarist. He’s pretty good!

Jan. 19. Ilha do Maia, Brazil. 84, cloudy.

We had a last minute port change for today due to “congestion” in the other port. We are very close to Rio, which is supposedly very congested ; so much so that they have already canceled tours to Copacabana beach, claiming it is too crowded there to be safe!  Our tour today remained the same, a schooner and snorkeling adventure. Fortunately is was cloudy and cooler all day, as it would have been way too easy to get way too much sun on this tour!  We sailed on a schooner about 45 min. across this very large and protected bay to a place they call “Blue Lagoon” where we anchored for 30 min. of snorkeling off of the boat. The water was beautifully clear and teeming with fish. We then cruised a bit to a sand beach where we had 40 min. to enjoy the beach. After beach time we sailed back to the town pier, where our tender was waiting,  encountering a little rain on the way. Apparently there is good artisan shopping in this small town, but it was past lunchtime, so we just went back to the ship.