Chapter Two!

Daily Cruise Journal!

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Max & Donna’s South America Adventure

! ! ! ! ! ! February 24, 2014

Today we crossed the Equator for the first time. We were polliwogs, now we are shellbacks. It was a very messy initiation. Only a few passengers were chosen for the complete initiation ceremony, not us. We did laundry and continued reading Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. Its been cloudy and foggy for a couple of days, not exactly the hot tropics we had expected. Drizzling. Nothing to see, we are far from land, only passed one tanker yesterday. !

! February 25

Fourth day at sea on the way to Brazil. Max got up way early and found that the buffet does not open until 6 am. We sat in the sun for a while today and then went to High Tea with scones and yummy clotted cream. Donna went to the ladies knitting get together. Nothing to see on the ocean, it sure is big and empty and we are too far off the coast to see land. We learned that Princess stockholders get a $200. discount; how did I miss that one!!

! February 26

Arrived in Recife, the old capital of Brazil. It’s a bunch of urban islands, like Venice. The old city of Olinda is nice and quaint. People are getting ready for Carnival, building platforms and seating and paper statues are going up. Then we drove thru town, the traffic is horrible and bound to get worse. Many interesting old buildings in disrepair. Did not see any ATMs; they all must be indoors. We went 1

Chapter Two! shopping at an old renovated prison that is now occupied by craft artists; each cell is a perfect little shop, and the security is great. I think we were on the last bus back to the ship; when we got up to our cabin, I looked over the balcony and the gangplank was coming in.!

! February 27

A day at sea. It rained last night. Max went aft for early coffee, then we went together for a real breakfast in the dining room. I sure hope it’s healthy to have lox every day! The best pastries are at High Tea at 3 pm. Its a good thing that Max discovered the walking track on Deck 19; only 16 times around makes a mile! !

! February 28

Second day at sea. It’s getting sorta routine: sleep in until the light wakes us, breakfast in the dining room unless its too late, walk a bit on the deck, attend the John Maxtone-Graham lecture about the history of cruise ships. lunch, nap, afternoon tea, dress for dinner, showtime, then singalong with Tom Franek in the piano bar.!

March 1

Today we are finally in Rio. This place is incredible, it’s most of what you have heard, and then some. We took a 5 hour city tour, stopping briefly at the new soccer stadium where the World Cup will take place in June, Christ the Redeemer and the famous beaches Ipanema and Copacabana, many apartment buildings, lots of traffic, back to the ship for dinner and the ship’s show, then off to the Sambadrome to see the big Carnival Parade. OMG ! So fortunate that Donna made the 2

Chapter Two! connection to get tickets for great box seats near the judges, we could see everything. The whole parade that we saw was safe and well organized. The “Samba” dance schools were amazing - creative costumes, huge multi-level floats decorated with costumed dancers, all slowly moving down the way to loud throbbing drum music, all wonderful. I had no idea there would be so many people in the parade, hundreds of people followed each float, with one set of costumes melding into the next set of revelers. Hard to believe that we left the ship for the parade at 11 pm, got back at 5 am, and it was still going on!!

! March 2

Slept in, dragged around the ship for half a day, then went out for a walk in the afternoon into the old part of town. Many streets were closed off, as the next peoples parade was already beginning to form up on the main street. Goodbye Rio, you are awesome.!

! March 3

Stopped for the day at the beautiful island of Ilhabella, went snorkeling with table mates Dave and Roseann. The people here are also preparing for their Carnival.!

! March 4-5

Two days at sea. Max used the bike machine at the gym, soaked in the hot tub, then we had a late breakfast and skipped lunch. It’s nice to go up to the little walking track on Deck 19 where you can see in all directions. At the moment, we are passing the long low coast of 3

Chapter Two! Uruguay as the ship begins turning west to enter the estuary of the Rio de la Plata.!

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! March 6

We enjoyed a tour of Buenos Aires, saw Eva Peron’s grave and a wonderful tango show with a great Argentinean beef steak. Many parks and large apartment buildings, kinda like Fifth Avenue in New York City. We went to Caminito Street in Boca, the old port district where the tango dance started. It had been a low rent housing area, then they painted the buildings bright colors and it has become an artist haven. We saw the Boca Junior soccer stadium. The street price for pesos was up to 11.to the dollar. The river here is brown and muddy and shallow.!

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Chapter Two! March 7-8

At night, the ship moved across the estuary to Montevideo, Uruguay. It’s smaller than Buenos Aires, Argentina, but because of it’s position it is technically the most southern big city. in the America’s. We took a bus tour out to the original capital town of Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay. The second day we simply walked around the port and enjoyed the old city. It claims to be the safest city in the world. Enjoyed the quiet sophistication of this country the size of Washington state. This evening we celebrated our anniversary with champaign and chocolate cake. Tomorrow we head further south to Stanley in the Falkland Islands. !

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! March 9-10

At sea, lots of white caps and a bit of roll, no other ships all day. We are now at latitude 48 degrees south, it’s colder out, so time to get out the cold weather gear. !

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