Friday January 29 – At Sea on route to Salvador.
A bit of a lazy day with the third and final lecture by Sir Tony Robinson talking about his and his co-actors on Blackadder and the Archaeology series – Time Team. In the afternoon we were invited to a wine tasting seminar where we sampled two whites and two red Spanish wines. Then another champagne Captain and senior officer party and ended the day with a performance by the Cunard Singers and Dancers performing for the first time a new routine called “Broadway Rocks”. A performance full of energy and will eventually be a good addition. There was a lot of missed timing (partly due to the absence of one of the girl dancers) but that will be ironed out over time. It will be interesting to see how the show develops.
Saturday January 30 – In Salvador (Bahia) Brazil.
What an amazing city. Founded in 1549, Salvador do Bahia was the original capital of Brazil, before it moved to Rio de Janiero and now Brasilia. It is the third largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo and Rio) with some 3 million of the 200 million that live in the 27 state country. It boasts the biggest or second biggest bay (Todos os Santos) in the world after one in Canada. The city is divided into the lower part (Cidade Baixa) close to the shore and the Upper town (cidade Alta) which are connected by road and more importantly a lift / Elevator (Elevador Lacerda – built in 1873 and carrying some 130,000 people a day each for R$0.15 (US$0.03) a trip). The principal Pelourinho district of the upper old town was named a Unesco Heritage Site in 1985 due to its colonial architecture, historical monuments and being one of the oldest cities in the Americas. Today (1/30) was the first day of Carnival which lasts for 10 days and is the largest carnival party in the world attracting some 500,000 people. We saw all the preparations (hundreds of portable toilets in the street, statues, fountains and parks boarded up to prevent damage etc), but as the party started in the early evening and we had to be back on the ship by 4:30, we did not get a chance to participate. The cobbled streets, colorful houses, uniquely shaped telephone booths (we saw 4 in the shape of coconuts) and brilliant colour everywhere made it a fun place to be. After going in the coach through different parts of the extensive city (45-60 minute drive from one end to the other) we ended up at what was one of the two main highlights of the day.
The Church and Monerstary on Saõ Francisco (St. Francis of Asisi), the foundation was laid in 1708 and the exterior completed in 1723 with the interiors completed by the early 1750’s . Upon entering, the “trompe euil” of the ceiling fresco leads to a large cloister with some 25 amazing tiled wall scenes from the Life of Franciscans that came from Portugal between 1743 and 1746. This then leads to the main church which has a simple exterior, but a truly amazing Barok interior with its extensive carvings (walls, altar, niches, side altars and indeed throughout) and all these had a gold leaf covering. A 50Kg solid silver lamp lights the altar / choir area with its seats made from Jacaranda wood. It was breathtaking, way above the brilliantly decorated churches we have all visited and will stand out in our minds as truly exceptional. A few interesting points were that above the altar was the traditional cross with Jesus, however the iconography shows St. Francis helping Jesus down from the cross with one arm over his shoulder. Another carved image shows St. Francis holding the baby Jesus. Since he lived many centuries after the death of Jesus, it is an interesting representation.
The other highlight of the day was lunch. As we wandered through the cobbled stone streets we noticed ladies sitting by metal cauldron like structures with boiling oil, frying up cake like things into which were placed (sandwich like) some sort of green paste and whole shrimp with heads, tales, legs and all. So after being left at the port by the coach tour, we got a taxi up to the old city and went to the Odoyá restaurant in the Pelourinho area, which was filled with locals. We had to taste those “Arepa” type “sandwiches”! So we ordered a dish that had both Acarajés (the “arepas”) and Abarás which was served with Shrimp and Vatapá – a traditional Bahia dish. Acarajés are made from peeled black-eyed peas formed into a ball, partially flattened and deep fried in dendè (palm oil). Abarás are somewhat like tamales without husks made from mashed black eyed peas. The shrimp were cooked dried shrimp with all their body parts except for head in a semi dry tomato sauce and the Vatapà was a pleasing “mushy pea” type vegetable that acted like a thick sauce on which to put the shrimp in the halved Acarajés and eaten. Delicious. We also had a shrimp and lobster Stew in a saffron like sauce accompanied with rice and “Farofa” (manioc root flour lightly fried). All in all a delicious meal washed down with Bohemia local cold beer. The outside temperature was 31 C, so very warm, thus the necessity of the 8 cold beers!!!!
We returned to the ship for a nice swim in the pool accompanied by the steel band, dinner and a show with Mark Donoghue who entertained with five instruments. One being his voice, singing but he played brilliantly the Violin, harmonica, electric guitar and piano. Spending some time thereafter getting pictures on the blog, bed came at 1:30 AM!
Sunday January 31 – At Sea on the way to Rio de Janiero.
Having not got to bed early, I woke too late to get to the 10 AM ecumenical church service led by the Captain, but was planning on going to the 11AM lecture on Montevideo. However, as we had our breakfast, we got chatting to a fun couple (optometrists from South Africa living in Austin Texas) so missed that and arrived a couple of minutes late for the fascinating talk by Simon Newman on Benjamin Franklin and his link to Britain. After going to the gym there was another interesting talk on Tsunamis by Dr Denny Whitford, dinner and an amazing show by the very amusing Vaudville act of Richard Gauntlett.
Tomorrow February 1, 2016, we are looking forward to arriving in Rio de Janiero for a 2 day stop where we have arranged for a private car and driver to take us around.
Roger & Anne Travels 