January 28, 2026 - Day #24

 Today we are still in Brazil, taking the first morning tender into Porto Belo. This will be a long day, as we are on a bus for about 1 1/2 hours to the city of Blumenau. Due to traffic, the bus trip to the city was 2 hours long, but the tour guide had a lot of information to share. She is 56 years old and was born and spent most of her life in this area. Blumenau was settled by a German man who loved the area and got authorization to create a German settlement in this part of Brazil. They have worked very hard to maintain their German heritage. Part of the trip was a “German” lunch and I quizzed the tour guide about the foods, as other than the sauerkraut and red cabbage it was not very German. The potato salad had mayonnaise and not vinegar.  She admitted the food was somewhat German with a Brazilian twist. From the pictures you can appreciate some of the German flair in the town. The flower clock was cute and the train was a replica of the one they used to get back and forth to the coast. On the drive back to the ship we went through the city of Florianopolis with numerous skyscrapers. From this city back to Porto Belo there were at least 100 high rise apartment/condo buildings under various stages of construction. Literally, one building after another. It seems that this area is a region where lots of the effluent people are moving to get closer to a retirement community nearer to the beaches. We made the last tender back to the ship through some rather rough water.  With my German heritage, it was fun to learn about some German influence in this country. 

January 27, 2026 -Day #23

 This morning we arrived in Santos, Brazil. This is close to San Paulo, which is reported as the largest city in Brazil. Also, we were told that it is the third largest city in the world, but my research shows that they are about the eighth largest city with the most recent population counts. In any case, they are a major metropolitan area and a hub for finance, culture, and industry. Named for St. Paul the Apostle, it was founded on January 25, 1554. In modern times, the locals shorten the name to Sampa. 

We spent the day in Santos, which is the actual port where we docked. This area was known for growing and exporting coffee, so we toured the coffee museum which is in the building where the coffee auction house was located. Due to the coffee plantations, there were a huge number of slaves brought in from Africa. Next we toured the Pele museum, which had a lot of memorabilia from his career in Football (Soccer). As you may know, he grew up in Santos and in 1957 at the age of 16, he started playing for the Brazil national team. As you might expect, he is quite a hero in this city and holds many records. Next we went to another Botanical Garden and have a few pictures of more local flora and fauna. Joan really enjoyed the tortoises and a local large rodent called a capybara, that was too quick for me to get a good picture of it.

A little more about Santos. Reportedly this cit is growing quickly because a lot of the more affluent people in San Paulo are getting second homes in Santos to be closer to the beach and more relaxed retirement community. 

The day ended with a good party and some Elijah Craig bourbon with a couple I met from Minneapolis.  Small world. 

January 26, 2026 Day-#22

Although I have been working to keep up to date with my journaling, I have gotten a few days behind on blogging. It is tough to get everything done when your have so much to see and do each day. Therefore I will try to get a couple of posts published this afternoon. You might remember that I need to go to the computer center to get access to a hotspot for uploading pictures. Hope to get this done between putting contest and a mixology class.

We had a short over night trip to (using all caps because it is confusing to use a capital I and lower case L  on this keyboard) ILHA Grande, Brazil. The island is a largely undeveloped municipality just off the coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro. We are south of Rio de Janeiro city and moving toward Uruguay. This area was first used as a leper colony then transformed into a prison until it closed in 1994. The penitentiary was destroyed and now the island is used for tourism. The island is only 75 sq miles in size with only a small dock, so we needed to tender from the ship to shore. Joan and I explored the area close to the dock in the 94 degree heat and humidity, walking from shade to shade, through the cultural center (most everything written in Portuguese). However, I did get to read and understand one poster about some of the insects. Joan walked into the water and said it was a little chilly. I should have worn my water shoes, maybe it would have cooled me down a little. Not a lot to see, and due to the heat we headed back to the ship after about one hour. We ate dinner at Toscana, the on ship Italian specialty restaurant, and had a good visit with some folks from Spain. Sorry, Joan did not take a picture of her food!

January 25, 2026- Day #21

 This is day # 3 of 3 in Rio de Janeiro. It is a Sunday and a friend who had been to Rio in the past told us about a local monastery that has a Sunday mass with Gregorian chants. So after breakfast we met up with 2 other friends and got an Uber ride to the monastery. The outside of the church is very plain, (see the picture) but once you go through the arches the inside is absolutely beautiful with lots of art work and gold leaf everywhere. I don’t think the pictures do it justice but hopefully you can appreciate some of the beauty. One of the photos is of the church pipe organ that our church organist at St. Mark would be envious to play. We did not know it was there until the very end of the service when we heard it for the first time. I think I understood about four words the entire service but it was a wonderful cultural experience. If you want to look it up, the name is Mosteiro de San Bento ( Sao Bento Monastery) run by the Benedictine monks. According to a man after the service, the monastery was one of the first buildings in Rio and was built in 1590 on the top of a hill, with nothing between the monastery and the ocean. After mass, we walked back to the ship, through some local neighborhoods with run down shops on one side of the street, and modern high rise office buildings or the harbor on the other side of the street. 

The evening included a Captain’s Cocktail party followed by dinner in the main dining room. Joan and a friend went to the 9:15 show, and I was able to watch the second NFL playoff game. Looking forward to the on ship Super Bowl party in a couple of weeks.

The ship pulled away from the dock in Rio this evening, the same way we arrived. In the rain! On to ILHA GRANDE, BRAZIL for an arrival about 7:00 tomorrow morning. 

January 24, 2026- Day #20

 This is day 2 of 3 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Today we are scheduled for a shore excursion to the “Highlights of Rio”.  The trip started with a bus ride through the city seeing lots of housing, churches, and preparations for Carnival. A hope that I obtained a picture of the stadium seating constructed to seat about 70,000 of the 1,000,000 spectators along part of the Carnival parade route that I also mentioned yesterday. At the Corcovado Mountains we took the Cogwheel train through the Tijuana Forest up to Christ the Redeemer statue. Unfortunately the fog was very thick, but I will attempt to share some photos so you can experience this wonderful site. We also saw Sugarloaf from a distance and traveled along miles of beaches with thousands of sunbathers and people playing a sport like volleyball that is played with their feet. It was interesting to see a woman serve the ball by kicking it off a mound of sand and other players spike with their feet! We heard about the over 100 hotels and residential areas along Copacabana beach. Many owners turn the building so the main entrance is on the side street to reduce the level of taxes they are accessed. Back on ship we sat on our balcony to watch and hear the large gathering of locals have a pre-Carnival parade down the street outside the cruise terminal. If we didn’t already have dinner plans I would have liked to go out to have the local experience. Instead, we had a nice dinner with friends in the French restaurant to celebrate his birthday. Then we saw an onboard show called Brazilian Roots with a lot of percussion and gals doing traditional dances in their native costumes. 

January 23, 2026 - Day #19

 This is day 1 of 3 in Rio de Janeiro. We arrived about 7:00 am this morning and our Stateroom faces the port, so we get to see the activities in the city. More on this later, but we did sit on our balcony and watch the workers unload several 18 wheelers of their numerous pallets of supplies for the ship. Got to watch the drug dog work to make sure we aren’t loading contraband. We did not schedule a tour for today, just wanted to get a feel for the city. At about 11:15 we headed off ship to go to get a shuttle to the shopping mall and Copacabana Beach. Found out the buses were not running for two hours for their lunch break. Apparently this was noted on the schedule at the Destinations Desk, but not any of our schedules. We decided to go back on the ship and have our lunch. The good news is that I did find a shop in the terminal that had Tanquary gin. That works for me. We did get back off ship to take a bus to a dinner theater for the evening. This is called the Roxy Theater. Good meal and a very entertaining high energy show on the cultures of the five areas of Brazil. See the pictures.

Some information about Rio de Janeiro. This is a city of about 14 million people and called Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvelous City or Wonderful City). Some famous sites in this city are Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugarloaf mountain, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. They have a huge Carnival celebration in February that is planned a year in advance. They actually have an area of stadium seating along the route for over 70,000 spectators with over one million people along the parade route. We can see lots of preparations in the city for the festival and they are talking about all the parties and activities to prepare for the main celebration. Rio is the second largest city in the country and was the capital city for a period of time, but it was decided to move the capital to a city more in the center of the country. December through March is the rainy season with temperatures about 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) with expected blue skies for a part of each day.  

January 22, 2026- Day #18

We arrived off the shore of Buzios Brazil at about 9:30 this morning. Joan and I sat on our balcony watching the Vista crew members launch boats that will tender us to shore later in the morning. Since we did not have a scheduled shore excursion and it was lightly raining, we waited until late morning to go onto shore. Buzios was a quiet secluded fishing village on the peninsula until it was discovered by Bridget Bardot. She was trying to escape the paparazzi in Rio and she discovered the beauty of this little village. Of course the paparazzi followed her here and as the saying goes, the rest is history. I said we did not have a shore excursion on this stop, and maybe that was a mistake. Several friends reported they did the tour around the peninsula and into the rainforest, and that is was beautiful with magnificent vistas to photograph. One couple even said they are considering coming back here for a several day stay. Joan and I took a walk through the downtown area and along the promenade. We stopped at a little restaurant for a tapa. I had a local beer (tasted like a Stella) and Joan had a local minty drink that I am sure had plenty of rum. Back at the dock I went down to the beach and walked into the water. It was cooler than I expected, and apparently this is because the current along the coast comes up from Antarctica, keeping the warmer water coming from the equator off shore. Joan has a picture of me in the water, but that will need to be shared at a later time. Back on ship, we have had Brazilian cuisine for several dinners and French cuisine last night at one of the speciality restaurants.  Therefore we decided on Indian food prior to the evening entertainment. This was a special show, as several of the performers that have been on ship will be completing their contract obligation and leaving the cruise in Rio. 

January 21, 2026- Day #17

 After all the walking yesterday I slept really well last night. This is our sea day to sail from Salvador to Buzios. Did some catchup blogging this morning (see prior posts). Today Joan did a needlepointing session and we attended another Veterans gathering to say good bye to some folks getting off the cruise in Rio. Panos Karon gave a nice presentation about his work spreading the joy of music to children in a number of third world countries. An obvious passion of his! As he will be leaving the ship soon, he gave his final after dinner concert in the Vista Lounge. Another great evening of classical music including several pieces from Chopin. Late afternoon had a good presentation on the beaches and sights of Rio. We just missed their big Carnivale celebration and apparently they really party with a section of the parade route with risers that hold over 70,000 spectators in one small section. Reported that over 1,000,000 people travel to Rio for this festival. We are looking forward to seeing this city in a few days. Tomorrow will be our stop in Buzios. 

No pictures to share today.

January 20, 2026- Day #16

 Off the ship early for our day tour in Salvador da Bahia. We arrived ahead of schedule as we had a good southerly current into the bay I already mentioned. (By the way, my research refutes that this is the 2nd largest bay in the world. Apparently Hudson Bay is also larger).  However the people of Salvador are quick to point out that they have a beautiful city. It is called the Capital of Happiness mostly because of the African influence of the food, music, religion, dance, and martial arts. Salvador was the national capital city of Brazil for two centuries and considered the capital of Portugal’s “great New World colony” until the national government was moved to Rio in 1763. The city (and we saw several examples of these) has numerous gold-laden churches, which also have significant religious art pieces made from silver and ivory. Some of the churches are literally right across the street or square from each other.  I hope the pictures do it justice. One of the massive churches was called Cathedral Basilica de Salvador where the male saints were on one side and the females were on the other side of the church. This was also where the parishioners are required to sit segregated during the services. Salvador has also been the center of an incredible arts movement with a backdrop of colonial buildings. As in many major cities there are separate Portuguese, Spanish, and British neighborhoods with very different economic status. Our guide mentioned multiple times about the high 60% poverty rate. The lower port neighborhoods are very poor and called favelas. We also saw a number of forts around the city and along the shores (which are numerous and beautiful). Our guide pointed out that they take great pride in their beaches and clean water due to the septic system. Reported the beach water is about 85 degrees at all times. The port area is connected to the upper neighborhoods by a free elevator. We also saw a strong police presence and told to remove any gold necklaces or jewelry and make sure to stay with our group.  The final stop on the tour was for a late lunch at a Brazilian Steakhouse (like we have in the States). You better be hungry, and we were due to the amount of walking through the city. They kept bringing different meats to the table until we were all stuffed.