January 25 At sea

At Sea on route to Rio

What have we been so busy doing? Time just goes so quickly, and that is surprisingly true of days at sea. We seem to never have enough days at sea to tire of them. So after Barbados we had a total of four days at sea, then the port of Salvador, and now one more sea day before we reach Rio on Saturday.

On the open decks we enjoyed the sea air and the sunshine and took a couple of naps. We saw large numbers of Blue-faced Boobies, birds that look something like gulls, but are more interesting. They like to coast on some kind of air current in the trough of the waves, and then, all of a sudden, they take a deep dive after some fish. I kept hearing the shark in “Looking for Nemo” as he said, “I’m having fish for dinner.” The graceful and elegant birds followed the ship for hours one day, often looking as if they were going to fly right into the window we were watching from before veering off – maybe they were playing. We were about 20 miles off the coast of Brazil so they are able travel great distances.

We have also walked quite a bit on both the open decks and up and down the stairways. Today we went to the exercise room. The first challenge was getting there since it is at one of those elevator/stairways that connect only a few floors. So we have to first find the right corridor to get to the proper stairway before we can get to Deck 6, Stairway C. The fitness room is quite well equipped with exercise machines. Jerry uses the treadmill and the weight machines. I still don’t like treadmills, so I use the weight machines and the free weights. There is also an indoor pool that I plan to make use of for water aerobics – as much of the routine as I can remember from home.

Salvador, what can I say? We had hoped to go on our own to a beach, and the staff provided us with information on which beach would be the best for us to visit, as well as which beaches to avoid. BUT, there were so many warnings about how dangerous both Salvador and Rio are that we decided to be sensible and not go off on our own. We took advantage of the free shuttle provided by the jeweler H. Stern to go to the heart of the historic area. We looked in their store and I, of course, found an exquisite necklace. It was a rainbow of all of the colors of the non-precious Brazilian stones – spectacular. I would not only have to have more money to purchase it, I would have to create an entirely new life for wearing it.

We wandered around a bit and heard what sounded like firecrackers or gunfire. Happily, it turned out to be firecrackers drawing attention to a demonstration for either better treatment for the handicapped or better healthcare. Foreign languages always seem to leave lots of room for multiple interpretation. The demonstration created quite a traffic jam in spite of the efforts of large numbers of police or military. We couldn’t decide which uniforms were for the military and which for the police.

There is apparently a very nice area of the city with lovely gardens and huge homes. We were in the port and the old part of town though so we mostly saw extreme poverty. There were many people trying to sell bottled water and handmade necklaces. One man tied a yellow ribbon with words printed on it around my wrist and said something about good luck and three wishes. I speak very little Spanish and no Portugese so I wasn’t exactly sure what it was about, but he seemed sincere and kind. Shortly after that, I think I got my first wish fulfilled and the van arrived at H. Stern to return us to the QE2.

We made our first visit to the launderette on board, which is free, unlike on the cruise ships we have been on. It is a pleasant little space with about a dozen washers with dryers stacked on top, with an adjoining room equipped with about 6 or 8 ironing boards and irons. It worked quite well except that the washers take about 20-25 minutes and the dryers take at least 60 minutes, so you can see how quickly a backlog of wet clothes and cranky people develops. At any rate, our timing was excellent and we were out of there is just under 2 hours. Boy! Do we know how to have fun!

So now we have another day at sea. The Maitre D’ arranged for us to have what Jerry has been craving: a burger, of sorts. It was quite tasty actually – a soy and potato “burger” on a roll with lettuce, tomato, onion slices and veggie cheddar cheese. You may not go yum, but we certainly did.

And now we are off to the theater to see the film “Underdog” with James Belushi and others. Two hours for that and it will be tea time, followed by dressing for another formal night, dinner will be followed by a show in the Grand Lounge with Duo Yalba. I never heard of him either but he is proclaimed as having mastered over 40 instruments and most musical styles. And then if we are still awake will be the Carnival Ball in the Queens Room with a dance band.

Tomorrow, Rio