Wednesday 6^th March – Rio de Janeiro.

Nesta was on her own for the trip, today, and went in the company of Claire, one of the American “Road Scholars” on board.

Driving around Rio they saw lots of damage from the storm last night. Rows of cars pushed bumper to bumper at the side of the road with rubbish and water all around (and inside) them. There were also trees down so the traffic was heavier than ever.

We were supposed to go up to Corcovado first, but the train line was being cleared of trees so we drove round the beaches and then caught the 10am train. This was great as it was the first of the day so when we got there, not many people were around.

Our guide took photographs of us all, with our own cameras, “holding the pose”

As a souvenir, Nesta bought a Rio umbrella/parasol/sunshade.

In the afternoon, Glynnis and Austin visited us (not together!) in our new abode and both agreed that the upgrade is money well spent.

In the evening, we went to only our second trivia quiz of all six cruises (hard to believe isn’t it Graeme!) with Wally & Sue and Austin and Wes. All of us are on for the whole trip so we called ourselves “what the Ls” (“L” standing for Lifers, as it seems that we’re on here for ever).

Unfortunately we didn’t win!

                               Christ the Redeemer - impressive isn't it

                                      Had to be done!

                                     The train that goes up to the statue

                                  Copacabana and the statue at night

Thursday 7^th March – Day at Sea.

Watched another patronising port lecture from David, but as it was on the large TV in our cabin, we were able to comment to each other freely!

Jade came for a visit to the cabin after lunch and we sat on the balcony putting the world to rights.

In the evening, our newly formed quiz team took part again – and won! We got a “Discovery pen” and a cotton Voyages of Discovery bag each…

 

Friday 8^th March – Day at Sea.  

Well – we thought we might be bored today… but no.

We woke to find that we had had a letter delivered during the night informing us that our cabin (7204) – which we booked and paid for six weeks ago – has someone else in it on the cruise from Recife to Manaus… Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing!!

We have been asked to move to 7104 on the starboard side of the ship instead. We are not happy.

Eventually we managed to speak to Eddie. He knows we booked 7204 and isn’t able to give a satisfactory explanation of what has happened. At least there was another cabin for us to move to. An Australian couple agreed to pay for an upgrade from Recife to Jamaica into Cabin 7203 and were advised that they could move in this morning.

They were actually packed and had their cases outside the door of the cabin waiting for the cabin steward to let them in when they were told that it had been booked in the name of someone else for the first cruise… To make matters worse there was no other balcony cabin available - so they had to return to their original cabin and unpack!

A “you’ve broken our contract” discussion is probably being held at this moment!!

Regular readers of this blog will know what I think of the Company… Voyages of Discovery seem to think that once you are on board, you don’t matter but now their whole administration seems to be falling apart… Cabins are booked via computer on the ship but then these bookings seem to be over-written in the UK and booked again – and when push comes to shove it’s the new customers who get the benefit rather than customers already on the ship who have after all only paid thousands of pounds to come on holiday.

Anyway – rant over!

We decided, just for a quiet life, to move ourselves into the new cabin and at least Eddie has promised us a bottle of wine!

In 7104 the fridge and shower seem better but the TV didn’t work. The engineer said he had a small TV if that was ok - so we suggested that he go into cabin 7204 and give us that TV instead!

He did, so now we are alright.

In hindsight, we’re looking at the whole experience as an excuse to invite everyone back for more drinks in our new cabin!

In the evening our quiz team won again!!! This time our prize was a Voyages of Discovery notepad.

 

Saturday 9^th March – Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

We thought this was going to be a pretty place, but it turns out that it is the third biggest city in Brazil!

We were booked on the scenic tour around the peninsular stopping at a beach for a quick swim.

Some of the beaches we saw were quite nice but houses that were on the esplanades have been, and are being, pulled down to make way for tower block after tower block of new apartments etc.

The beach stop was for two and a half hours where we sat on red plastic chairs at a restaurant buying drinks so we could use their shade!

The sea wasn’t suitable to swim in - big waves, rocks and strong currents – but Nesta did have a paddle!

On the way back to the ship we went through the business district and Favelas! (Slums).

We have since learned from other passengers (and yes, from Graeme too!) that the old colonial town is really pretty – but we didn’t do that trip. D’oh!

We decided not to go back out this afternoon as it is still over 40 degrees and we need to keep our fluids up!

In the evening rumour has it that salt has got back into the drinking water – so we are back on bottled water! (Can’t help feeling a little déjà vu here… hasn’t this happened before?)

Editor’s note: Please see our blog of the first cruise across the Atlantic!

On a positive note: there was a pub quiz tonight with over 80 questions… guess who won again for the third night running?

This time we actually won a bottle of wine (between the six of us!). Think we may have to think about retiring unbeaten to let someone else have a chance!

                                Arriving in Salvadore

                                   The old lighthouse

                                      Beach - Brazilian style!

                                       Sunset over Salvadore