Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 5

[melsea]

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 5.

Day 14 at sea. Very very very hot!!
21st Jan

Clocks were put forward last night to -2 GMT

Started the day getting up at just after 7.30 and going for a walk of exercise. Even though it was earlier than yesterday when we ascended to our walk it was still warm with at least a breeze. As I did yesterday I did 15 mins upstairs and the rest on deck 7 where there was a sheep like following of passengers doing the same thing, walking around the perimeter of deck 7. I joined them but in the opposite direction, I don't do sheep following!
After I finished my walk I went back to the cabin to gather up my works of art and put my name on the back & front of the pictures, there was to an exhibition of those of us who have been doing the Art lessons.
It wasn't long before Bill came back at just after 8.30, he showered and went to his Christian Fellowship meeting. When he left I had my shower. By the time I had showered and got dressed and sorted out my bag it was 9.30 so I made my way to what was Cafe Bordeaux to meet up with Bill where we had breakfast.
Having finished breakfast I went back to the cabin to collect various things to take with me out on the landing that is at the back of the ship. Once I had managed to find a spot to lay my towel on one of the loungers I found on deck 10 I settled myself and took out my iPod that I was using to listen to an audible book. I didn't sit in the sun as it too hot and I wasn't dressed in my costume to sunbathe so I sat in the shade which was only a shade cooler as the air was warm. Bill turned up and brought me two mugs of tea and he also obtained a small table for me to use.
Went back to cabin just before 1.30 where I met up with Bill to go to lunch earlier than usual as I had a couple things to do between 2pm - 3pm.
At 2pm I went to Champions Bar where the art class pictures were to be displayed, actually the Art was displayed on the curve wall of the Casino on the outside as is part of the stairwell up to theThe Glass House. I got there a little after 2.15 to find that there was very little room for my humble pieces of art, note to self Go Early next time. Also there were a lot of people there to see the art and those of us to have pieces there. Its good to see what other are doing as you don't necessarily get to see other peoples attempts at the classes. I have to say there are some talented passengers on here and I really feel inadequate beside them. I enjoy it anyway.
In the meantime there was the Final of the Photography Competition which was being held in the Playhouse where two of the photographers do a presentation of photos that are in the running to win or be highly recommended and they talk through why they like a particular photo. All the entered photos were put up on display in the photo gallery that's outside the playhouse. This talk was from 12.15 to 2pm. I managed to see my photos being spoken about and really they were not my best as I rushed them. But seeing what other passengers had entered I felt some were not actually in any of the categories. I was a little confused by this. They announced each winner & highly recommended after show each of the categories, when they announced the winner of the intermediate I cannot now remember what it was. I did not win but I will continue to enter as I learnt a little bit of what they were looking for and its not what I was expecting.

Day 15. Rio de Janeiro. Hot start to the day. 8am - 11pm
22nd Jan

Woke up at 6.05, got dressed and went up on top deck to see our sail in into Rio. The sunrise as always was a delight to see. Took a number of photos. Both Bill & I got talking to the same woman at different times who was getting off in Rio along with 270 other passengers. Even though there are 749 of us going all the way round I have yet to meet those that are around the ship, we met a few at the around the world lunch which will host this in stages due to the high numbers.
While making our way to our docking area we noticed that it wasn't the same place we have been before but closer to the town. We are the only ship in town!.
Having seen us in I went back to sleep for a while longer as I have a tour at 1pm and as I am nursing a cold I didn't want to tire myself before going out. Bill went for his walk in what was very hot and humid weather.
At 9.30 we went to breakfast at the Glass House.
I had partially got my things together last night but I checked to see if I had everything I was to need for the day.
There was still a couple of hours before departure time so I sat out back listening to my audible book, Dan Brown's Inferno. The person reading the book is easy to listen to which is always a bonus. At just after 12.30 I made my way to the gangway where there were a few people waiting to go on the same trip I was going on as it said there would to be no shade to wait under and the coach may not be ready for us. We eventually made our way only to find not only was there shade in the form of the terminal building where you could have waited but the bus/coach was already there and in fact a good number of people on it already and in fact I had to find a seat near the back. We left a little earlier which was good in some ways and others not because our allocated time for the tram ride up to the Christ of Redeemer was due at 2.20pm and we left at 12.45. The journey there seem to take ages and it was apparent that there was great deal of works going on that interrupted your flow of travel. Also something I had not noticed was that much of the network of roads were one way and very little direction of being able to get to places in a direct way as we seemed at times to be going over the same ground. Although I think this was to use up the time so we didn't arrive too early at the tram station where there was limited space to stand and sit. On our way we went passed the avenue that is purpose build for the carnival which is in a couple of weeks in February. Eventually we arrived at the tram station at 13.35. Our tour guide told us to wait where we were and he would go and get our tickets for the ride. Our tickets were for 14.20 and when we saw our tram time up on the television screen we were to queue at the entrance. The time between queuing and getting on was roughly 20 to 30 mins. The journey time going up was a fair time getting to the top about 20 minutes. When we got there we had a lift to go the final stage then two escalators. Finally I was there, having waited all this time there was a great deal of cloud but I still managed to get some photos but getting photos of the view below was proving more of a challenge as the cloud was gathering for all directions so when it cleared to your left briefly it was immediately shrouded in cloud from your right and vice versa, so I only managed to get a couple of photos which was very annoying because the one view you want is the one that has sugar loaf mountain. We were only afforded 40 minutes before we had to make our way back down to get the tram back which came at ten to four. The journey took a longer as we had to wait at a point where the other tram can pass. In the meantime I got chatting to a non cruise passenger who lives in Houston Texas, he was here on business and had a few hours to kill before flying home. We chatted most of the way discussing world health, wealth of the people, medical issues and other things, basically discussion all matters to do with human kind and how we will be in the future.
When we arrived at the bottom we were ushered down to the street and waited for our coach it was 4.30pm when we left. We drove away from the tram station and started to make our way back. For some reason we came back past the station, I can only think that we had to go down the road and go round the block so to speak in order to be facing the correct way back. We were shown the beaches and eventually turned off the beach front and headed into the built up areas and it was here that our journey back to ship slowed down. With the advent of the Olympics to be held in Rio next year there is plenty of works going on, the one that seems to be hampering our journey was the roads that have been dug to install a tram system from the city to wherever the Olympics will be held which I believe are just outside the city in the suburbs. We finally got back to the ship at just after 6pm a whole hour later than we should have arrived and more to the point it took an hour and a half to get back!.
Needless to say we did not go to the main dining restaurant for our evening meal. We instead went to the buffet where the theme was Thai Food.

Day 16. At Sea. Very cloudy & fair amount of rain today also it was a lot cooler than recent days.

23rd Jan

Black Tie
Didn't feel too good today. So did very little. Except I did go to the Art class but felt quite exhausted afterwards.
Didn't go to the restaurant in the evening. Bill brought down from the buffet something to eat for us. Stayed in cabin tonight instead.


Day 17 at sea. Very Hot & Sunny. Evening Casual.

24th January
I went see Nikki Chapman's talk. She is only a few years younger me and so when she told of stories about her life working in London in the late 1980's it brought back memories for me as I am a Londoner born & bred and her life working in the West End where the advertising, media, fashion and photography were based largely she was talking about my world and brought back the frenetic world I used to work in where everything was wanted yesterday and had to be best, you were only a good as your last job. In my case I was a photographic technician where I printed and processed work for a large number of photographers including the likes of David Bailey who was extremely surprised to find it was a woman that had printed some of his work. Bizarrely Nikki & I had tenuous link to a group she had managed, The Spice Girls. At one of the photographic labs I worked at one of our photographers had done a photo shoot for one of the yet unknown spice girls, it was years later that we realise this, I had printed the photos, the Spice Girl was Geri Halliwell.

Next report will be the start of sector 2 of this cruise.

[Gill W]

I'm really enjoying your reports, I'm looking forward to the next one

[Suekersh]

Very enjoyable read Mel.

[GillD46]

I am enjoying these reports also.

[Dancing Queen]

Me too and looking forward to the 2nd sector.

[cruisin_duo]

We never seem to walk in the same direction as other passengers on the Promenade deck either. Sounds like you had a great cruise. Looking forward to the next part.

[Quizzical Bob]

We never seem to walk in the same direction as other passengers on the Promenade deck either. Sounds like you had a great cruise. Looking forward to the next part.

Me neither. I usually walk upwind on the sunny side and I don't know why everybody else goes the other way. I think they all hide behind the doors until they see which way I'm walking.

[Belle53]

Loving reading your reports, it really makes me want to experience a world cruise!

[emjay45]

It's better to go the 'wrong' way round the prom deck as you can dodge the power walkers who get irritated if you're not moving fast enough when they come up behind you.