Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 4

#1

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 4

Day 11. At sea. Evening casual.

18th January.
The day started with Bill going to the meeting with fellow Christians then afterwards I met up with him in what was Cafe Bordeaux for breakfast where I had fruit and yogurt followed by a croissant with jam. Yes The Glass House was doing breakfast but it was not advertised and there were not many people dining there either so we had a choice of where we sat. At just before 10.15 Bill went to the Church service. I stayed and finished my tea.
I had my camera with me and I set about taking some photos for the competition starting with the Glass House which is where CB used to be and where I already was. I then moved downstairs and ended up on deck 7. There will be a photography competition for each of the Five Sectors. For this first sector there were three challenges 1. Around the Ship, 2.The Ocean, 3.Food Glorious Food. The deadline to submit your photos was on 20th January at 2pm. You could enter as many photos as you wanted. The photos would be printed to the size of 8"x6" at a charge of £1. The photographers will then judge the photos in three groups, Beginners, Intermediate & Advanced. You decide which group you would go into but you could ask the advice of the photographers.
At 12.25 I went to another talk at the camera club, this time it was the manager talking about abstract photos. She virtually talked about the very images I generally take anyway. As her presentation had new photos she ran over the time allocated. I went back to the cabin to rest for a while and at 1.30 I made my way to the Art Class being held in the Crows Nest still, there were about 30 of us that attended the class. I left just before the end so that I could get something to eat from the buffet.
Later on I went to the photo gallery where I made a selection from the photos I took with the help from one of the photographers, Chesney. I put mine into the intermediate group.

As I was getting ready for the evening I started to feel not terrible good as I had what started to feel like a sore throat. We went to dinner anyway but we didn't stay for tea but went straight back to our cabin where I ended up going to sleep much earlier than usual. Bill was able to buy me some lemsips before the shop shut which was very good as from tomorrow all goods from the shops will have an extra 25% charge due to being in Brazilian waters. This has never happened before and I suspect the Brazilian government is trying to increase its revenue in order to pay for last years World Cup and the future Olympic Games in 2016!

Day 12. Recife, Brazil. 7.30am - 5.30pm
A very bright sunny hot day.

19th January.
Feeling a little fragile this morning I did not rush to get up and in fact we both woke up just a Aurora was docking at around 7.30. We sat up and had tea and watched the news. We showered and went to The Glass House for breakfast where I had a fruit platter with yogurt followed by a poached egg on a muffin and salmon, very nice it was too. I left Bill in the glass house and went back to the cabin to get my things together to go on shore. I eventually got off at just after 11am but I didn't actually get into town until just before 11.30.
We were dropped off at the same place we have been dropped off before. It was the cultural centre which was in a previous life a prison and the cells have been made into shops, offices and some into toilets, quite good ones at that. Spent a little time there before heading back out into the searing heat of the day. I made my way towards one of the bridges where I had walked across. I came back and ventured further down into the shopping area and although everything around you is not the best, the shops actually had some very nice things. As I ambled my way through the streets that lead into narrow ones where street traders were selling everything from shoes, bags, food and plastics and this is where the pavement or rather it's broken up pavements and roads are looking pretty grim and dangerous you really had to watch where you were stepping. There were a number of churches along the way with a good number of people visiting them and saying their prayers in what is quite a poor country. I ended up at a market which was jammed packed with all sorts of things. From wooden boxes, clothing, baskets, fish and meat as well as places to eat although I wouldn't want to eat there as like everything around you it's not exactly clean and oh the smell from the unrecognisable cooked food to the fish market close by and the horrible stench that was the refuse collector who was collecting from where food was being cooked taking the bin from over the counter into a small wheelie bin and the smell almost made me heave, this bin was no more that two feet away from where people were eating. At this point the heat was really getting to me and I made my way back to the shuttle pick up point. When I got there I noticed that the river tide had come in and the smell from that was even worse than that of the market. Much of the smell is not the river itself but the sheer mass of rubbish that has collected and swept up river and into the reeds of the trees where, once it gathers there, there is nowhere for it to float away so it rots away close to the river bank and emanating horrible smells to the street level. I guess the locals are used to it.
I got back to the ship at 2.30pm.
Didn't go to the restaurant for dinner tonight as I didn't feel up to it so we had room service instead, two pizzas!!

Day 13 at Sea. Very very hot. Evening Dress Black Tie.
20th Jan.
Ligurian Lunch

Clocks will be forward tonight at 2am to -2 GMT

We started our day with our walk on the top decks, we actually went up a little later than we should have done as the temperature was searing against our skin, never mind that the sun was equal to the searing heat that was in the air. There were already many people finding their space to sit and sunbathe for the day.
Needless to say I did not stay out too long, I only managed 10 minutes on the top decks before I succumbed the need to continue my walk on deck 7 where the sun is not above me but at the side on one side of the ship, on the other it was in shade a welcome brief respite to the sun. Bill also came down to the same deck but later than me to do his one hour walk. After my walk I went back to the cabin where I had a shower and then began to sort out what I was going to wear to the Ligurian Lunch at midday. Bill had return, showered and the went to the Glass House to sit and have coffee and read a book. I continued to get ready, once I had almost got ready I started to feel a little tired so I rested for a brief while. It was at just after 11.30 that Bill returned. No sooner it was time to make our way to the Alexandria Restaurant. We were shown to our table which was by the window and had seats for 9, the extra seat on this table that is usually for eight was occupied by an officer of the ship's company, a Ben Forbes whose title was Hotel Services Engineer. A strange title that seems to contradict itself. Bill told me later that his role at this time was to help out in hotel. The other passengers were nice and no one was overbearing which made for a change. It seems some of those on this table had been on Arcadia doing the Alaskan Cruise that lost time in San Francisco due to passengers having started to utter 'why are we waiting' which got up the noses of the American immigration officials who upped sticks and didn't come back for a while. This resulted in people loosing their slot of a tour they had booked themselves. Also the Malaysian lady sitting next to me & her husband were on the 2012 world cruise and had relayed the story of how we were treated in Brisbane, which was as I recalled was a direct result of what happened in Sydney although at the time we didn't know why, as we thought it was what happened in SF where three young passengers were arrested for drug offences.
In the evening I went to the show and saw two acts Francisco Yglesia, a harpist & Virtuosity, 3 young lady singers. Both were okay but nothing to write home about.

Soon it will be the end of the First sector, where has that time gone..

#2

Love reading your reports Mel. Why oh why do they have to put the Ligurian lunch on a formal night. All those sea days to choose from and yet so often they clash.

#3

Very poor organisation to double book the same day for the lunch AND the formal.

#4

What's more we had both the World & Ligurian Lunches very close to each other and both on formal night days. I can't remember when the rest of the passengers had theirs but I know they didn't all have it on formal nights. I do know that one couple asked to change their Ligurian lunch to one a that was a bit later and not so close to the World One, they said no so passenger emailed head office and they said yes. Anyway the both lunches were very nice and both were different menus too.

#5

When I've read your previous World cruise reports, I've thought how brave you were wandering around foreign parts by yourself. So I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you did the same in Recife. I wouldn't have done it myself though.

Sore throats seemed to another thing a lot of people were suffering from on the ship.

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