Day 52 - 11/27/23 - At Sea to Fortaleza, Brazil - Day 2

 It continued to be a quiet sea overnight.  The water system was tuned off over night for maintenance, and the water was back on this morning.  However, our stateroom did not have hot water so no showers were taken.


 After our customary interdenominational Bible study, we enjoyed a coffee chat with Jeremy and Benjamin Sack, the resident artist who is teaching drawing classes.  His pencil drawings are brilliant and his classes are very full.  I found him a bit evasive in some of his answers to Jeremy's direct questions like how did you get started on a cruise ship or what was your education & training?

Bosco did an excellent presentation on A Brazilian Link Between Medieval Europe and the New World.  And Richard Watkins followed up with his first talk on the Amazon (The Amazon River & Forest).  It was brilliant.

Climate regions of Brazil

A happy sloth

Brazil Nuts

Three types of forest environment


In his noon announcement the Captain made no mention of whether we would be able to make it to Manaus, but Jeremy in his presentation on our next port of call, Fortaleza was a bit evasive and guarded in his comments about whether we would make it up to Manaus.  


I updated and published my blog and listened for a bit to the drumming practice.   It was a bit loud for my ears so I didn't stay long.

 

Our evening entertainment was a Brazilian guitarist, Diego Figueiredo.  He was absolutely brilliant in playing his guitar.  The crowd was mesmerized listening to him and you could literally hear a pin drop when he paused in his playing.  It was not only a performance, but it was like a master class in guitar playing.  It was so good that Angela and I stayed for the 9pm show as did a number of other guests.  We learned that he'll be in the Pacific NW in March, 2024 and hope to see him there.

Tomorrrow is Fortaleza, and we have a 1/2 day tour scheduled there.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 01 - 10/07/23 - Embarkation Day - Ft. Lauderdale

Image
 The Big Day was finally here except last night we received an email from Holland America that our embarkation time was pushed back 1/2 hour to 2:10pm.  So I decided to move our shuttle pickup to 1pm from 11am even though it would cost us $5/person. So after breakfast I changed the shuttle pickup time and elected to relax in the room and enjoy the air conditioned comfort of the hotel as we didn't want to risk being standing out in the heat at the cruise terminal. We highly recommend this hotel (Rodeway Inn & Suites) for a pre and post cruise hotel.  It's inexpensive, clean and neat with free airport and cruise port shuttles.  The attached restaurant had very good food.  The only downside is that if you want to get anywhere, it's a 1.3 mile walk to the Winn-Dixie supermarket, Dollar Tree, and fast foot restaurants.  The pool is nice and there are ample chairs and lounges around the pool plus a number of photo opportunities in the courtyard. There were a number of folks t
Read more

Day 05 - 10/11/23 - Puerto Límon, Costa Rica

Image
 What a day!  We were up before 7am as we needed to meet our shore excursion group at 7:45.  Overnight we left the flat screen TV on the bow camera and it gently introduced the day's light to our windowless cabin.  As we ate breakfast, we watched our arrival in Puerto Límon (named after the tree of the same name). After breakfast we gathered up our belongings and joined our group led by Beth in the 5th floor Ocean Bar.  Shortly after 8am, we received Jeremy's announcement over the PA system that the ship was cleared to disembark passengers.  This is our first time in this port, but we've visited Costa Rica a number of times on the Pacific side.  We made our way off the ship and walked the long pier to the port exit where we easily found our small excursion bus. Ricky, the proprietor, was there to greet us.  He had driven 6 hours from the other coast the previous day to do this tour.  He's a jovial person, ready to share information.  The bus had 7 empty seats and its on
Read more

Day 07 - 10/13/23 - At sea to Manta, Ecuador

Image
 Our day started with the interdenominational Bible study at 8:30 and all too quickly followed by the first coffee chat at nine hosted by Jeremy and featuring the hotel department management of Florin, General Manager, Joanne, Guest Services Manager, Ron, Food & Beverage Manager, Samantha, Entertainment Manager, and Metla, Executive Housekeeper.  It was one of the best coffee chat sessions we've attended.  They discussed preparations for this Grand Cruise and details about what separates a Grand cruise from traditional 7 day cruises. A couple interesting details I'll share here.  First, there was a planning meeting held in Montreal back in May to explore how they could make this Grand better than the last Grand Africa. Second, Ron shared about the challenge of discovering at 7am on embarkation day that 7 pallets of 2023 Grand Africa travel bags had been delivered to the ship and not the 2023 GSA bags. He went on to share how they solved the issue.  The overwhelming impressi
Read more