Salvador, Brazil

Wednesday – 4 March 2009 – Salvador, Brazil

Avoid using the Lacerda elevator, the tour brochure said. Having never thought of it, I found no such compulsion.  I was most impressed after a sea day sailing (well, actually motoring) up the coast of Brazil from Rio to see the emerald city of oz appearing in the distance. Salvador's modern city is a apparition of high rize condos or apartments, many of them with large balconies which are actually private swimming pools, one per apartment. As Fitzgerald said, The very very rich are not like you or I.

Oddly enough, Salvador is a remarkable and very friendly town. The former capital of Brazil, it dates back to 1501 and boasts a population that is 80% African, African music, African food, and yet a decidedly European feeling .  A street vendor with a home made mobile stand in the shape of a locomotive, an grizzled old guy looking out a window complete with a lively street scene. The remands of the largest and best , said the tour guide on my interminable walking tour in 35 degree (that's C for much too hot), uh, heat. There are dozens of very beautiful but decaying churches and lots of people moving very slowly.

I really liked Salvador.

Making lots of friends, well at least dinner companions. There's a number of folks from the Northeast, actually NYC area, and lots of discussions and my kind of humor. I'm about to have lunch today with Judy Abbot, the Cruise Director, a good friend of Ray Solaire (see the journal of the last cruise). I suspect his name will come up.

The evening of the sea day I had dinner with the Captain, a recently widowed philosophy professor, my friends Heinz and Ellen, and a 94 year old woman who has over 1000 days on Silversea and has had 9 husbands and numerous boyfriends, including one who was "her favorite" but passed away a year ago. He said he called him her "boyfriend" because he was 3 months younger. The table also included the 94 year old's daughter who is a family practice doctor. What a varied dinner it was, but the captain talked mostly to me, about ship handling and weather issues. This morning I had coffee with the IT/Communications Officer, a 60 yr old guy who had been a radioman on ships for 25 years before that position was eliminated. We talked about Morse code and wireless internet antenna placement. I think I scared him.

At breakfast, the head waiter suggested I get an omelet made by the very bored chef at the egg station as no one was up at 7:30 when the buffet opened. He told me, "The omelet will be the very best thing that will happen to you on this cruise." I told him that I was kind of hoping for more than that, but the ham, onion, and mushroom omelet was indeed very good. Perhaps it was the best egg I will have on the trip if not the "best thing."

Finished the day after dinner on the deck up high on the stern sipping lemoncello and pointing out the Southern Cross, Canopus, and the Magellanic Clouds to all who cared to look. Went to sleep looking forward to an aspirn.