Sunday - 1 March 2009 – Boarding in Rio
A lengthy walk up and down the Ipanema beachfront passed the early morning (it was only 90 or so in the early morning coolness, but it was a wet heat!) as the highway is closed to auto traffic on Sundays. The most beautiful young people in the world were already loading up Ipanema Beach as the old folks—don't ask about old men in speedos—were walking with me on the road. The $24 taxi ride from Ipanema to the cruise pair was $116 cheaper than the gracious accommodation offered by Silversea Cruises. But as the cruise line representative at the hotel said, "You will be conveniently billed on your shipboard account." I suppose I might have been more interested in the offer if they were to charge someone else's shipboard account. The taxi ride was better as it gave me the opportunity to experience a ride from a driver who had a deep hatred of red traffic signals, actually a loathing bordering on rage. Needless to say, the ride went quickly.
Boarding early at 10:30 am allowed me to settle in before the traditional lineup of cabin stewardesses, always a treat.
Monday – 2 March 2009 – Rio Botanic Garden, Tijuca National Park Jeep Ride – Sailing
The Botanic Gardens are huge, old, a wildlife sanctuary (notice the miniature monkey in the tree), and empty on a Monday morning. A couple of mile walk in the 114% humidity was followed by a lengthy 4-wheel drive in an open back jeep for us 6 hardy adventurers taking the tour. The others on the half empty ship (about 130 guests out of a capacity of 300 or so) were not taking any tours I was told. The jeep ride went into the 8,200 hectare National Park. (8,200 hectares is a lot of acres, more than 8,200 to be sure. The conversion if 2.24 or is to 4.1 light years per hectare, if you carry the "8".) We took a short hike, lots of pictures, and kept from throwing up. A nice tour, all in all, for a lot of money as it was priced in hectares.
The sail away out the Rio harbor past Sugarloaf and Cocovado (BGJ) got me to observe the range of guests onboard who were in their sail away garb apparently. I documented that both screws were providing equal thrust—no asymmetric azipods for Silversea (they don't have azipods on Silver Cloud)—and had a lovely dinner with a medical professor and hospital administrator wife. Went to sleep early with theSouthern Cross out my window as the ship headed NE towards the easternmost point of South America and Wednesday's arrival in Salvador, the old Brazilian capital and home of many pickpockets, according to the defensive ship's brochure.
Note on Silversea versus Regent and Silver Cloud: Cloud is fantastic, intimately small, service is caring and courteous, staff all knows me, dairy free pastries and chocolate desserts already coming regularly, and bartenders—mostly women promoted from bar waitresses on earlier cruises, including the Chief Bartender as Silversea is a leader in elevating non-traditional staff groups—know how to make drinks. The Silversea product is head and shoulders better than Regent now. A couple who were on my recent Mariner cruise accosted me with the comment, "What were we thinking."
So far, so good….
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