From Savona to Buenos Aires

Well this update is a handful. How to compress three weeks of binging, port calls and associations with fly by night passengers who are forcibly gripping dining room cutlery, into a few hundred words of happy-go-lucky prose that will be enjoyable for all. Yes, even the Queen of England reads this!

Our first port city was Casablanca, Morocco. You remember Humphrey Bogart, don’t you? His 1942 Movie called Casablanca? The city is very proud of this famous association and even though Humphrey passed away in 1957, one year after Morocco gained independence from France, you can still sense his obscure presence loitering in the shadows of the street corner, wrinkled white suit, hat brim pulled down, cigarette dangling from thirsty lips, eyes wary and watching for voluptuous female operatives. So here’s the thing, 68 years after Casablanca hit the theatres, 68 years after Richard was born and 53 years after independence celebrations, the Costa Victoria sailed into Casablanca harbour at sunrise on a beautiful day. Richard and Donna disembarked soon thereafter and were delighted to wander the crooked streets of the medina, searching for anything and everything bargain related. Many passengers joined day tours to Marrakech or Fez but we chose to chat and bargain with the men in the little shops. All of them spoke Arabic of course, and French, but also English – just to put things in perspective. We found the men to be polite and full of sardonic humour. They are all good at bargaining, of course, that’s their job, and we had fun with two men in a little shop over the purchase of a spiffy new Prada handbag. Yes, the kind the devil wears, ha!

By early afternoon the medina became hot and overcrowded so we decided to soak up a few exhaust fumes on Main Street before running back to the ship for late lunch. The medina is in the oldest part of the city and is a permanent market where everything from pets to purses, fruit to frocks, shirts to shoes, haircuts to cut hares is sold. There are a couple of what appeared to be low-cost hotels inside the walls so we considered a future return, what do you think? There were no Moroccan women working in the shops in the medina, only men. To see photos of Casablanca (and all our port stops) you can watch the slideshows embedded in the blog. Also, you can click on ‘view all’ at the lower left corner of any slideshow and it will take you to our Picasa Web Albums where photos can be viewed in larger format. It’s easy – just give it a try.

Next stop was the island of Tenerife, the largest and most populous of seven Canary Islands. St. Cruz de Tenerife is a gorgeous, clean, well mannered Spanish dancer and we were delighted to explore her pedestrian streets and amazed to find that many items were priced lower there than in Benidorm. We rode the tram to the end of the line, about ½ hour, which took us to an outlying town called Trinidad. Quaint and charming streets lined with shops filled with German style traditional clothing and enticing food dishes – that’s Trinidad. Tenerife is a for sure return.

At 5pm when the Costa Victoria pulled up rope in St. Cruz and blew our ears with off with the traditional three long blasts, everyone aboard was a little excited because the next port would be Recife, Brazil – five full sea days away. How would Richard (and everyone else) manage if the seas were rough crossing the Atlantic? It was a worry. But here’s the surprise. The sailing was smooth as the skin on a new baby’s back. The further south we sailed the higher rose the temperature, the hungrier everyone became and the faster Richard and Donna power-walked deck 6. At midnight on the third day we crossed the equator so the captain and his staff of slaves hosted a late night Equator party on swimming pool deck, complete with buffet, Brazilian music and dancing beneath a colossal map of sparking diamonds. The glossy sea continuously rolled and smoothed itself out underneath our bow, silent and deep and mysterious. It was a remarkable night, an experience I hope we will always remember.

The Victoria visited five ports in Brazil, three of which were associated with H. Stern, a Brazilian jewellery manufacturer that distributes and sells some of the most expensive and exquisite jewellery in the world. Please see their link near the photos for more information. H. Stern operates on the same principle as time share sellers in Mexico. They will give you something free if you visit their retail store and look at their jewellery. Sounded like a fair deal to us. So their generous transfers, some with tours to various venues, allowed passengers including us to explore Recife, Salvador and Rio - a great saving compared to buying tours from Costa. In Recife, Allan, Margot, Richard and I were taken to the H. Stern store across from Boa Viagem, the sprawling and inviting beach that was alive with rolling surf and sand the color of your fondest dream. We walked to the shopping mall not far away but it seemed like miles because it was so hot. After returning to the ship for lunch we later walked into the core of Recife where life seemed dirtier, much more frantic, somewhat broken and somewhat steamy, yet when we sailed away, vast suburbs filled with high rise apartments planted themselves in our camera lens. Too bad for Recife though, we could not find any souvenir tee shirts so we left empty handed. And just one more thing - our Recife slideshow does not really reveal the truth about the city. About the heat. Or did I forget to mention it was hot?

Next port was Maceio, 259 driving miles south of Recife. We loved Maceio – it is a sophisticated, densely populated coastal resort city that boasts some of Brazil’s most delightful beaches. Nearby the ship was a handicraft market – good planning on the part of the merchants and even better, it had fans blowing the air into our faces as we panted, red faced and sweating, in front of them. Hot yes. Well stocked with souvenirs and tee shirts of all kinds. Lucky us, lucky them. Again we walked into the core of the city and took time to marvel at how busy the city really was. Pedestrian streets clashing with people - enough to do any city proud. We spent some time at an internet café and left satisfied that all was well at home – always a big thing in our heads when we travel. The color and flavour of Maceio was remarkably different from Recife and as the ship sailed away we fell in love with the clear emerald green waters. Brilliant. Maceio was just brilliant!

We had been hearing about the culture and rhythm of Salvador da Bahia for years so it was hard to believe we were actually there. When you enter the city, these are the words you read - Salvador da Bahia is the place where you breathe the history, soul and essence of Brazil. The city was founded on All Saints Day in the 16th century and boasts 365 churches - built by the determined Portuguese, one for every day of the year. But in the past the churches had to share Salvador with voodoo spiritualism from Africa, brought into Brazil by thousands of African slaves. Salvador is the ‘blackest’ city in Brazil and has a reputation for being unsafe, especially at night. In spite of the warnings we felt quite at home and literally fell in love with the revitalized heart of the city for its rhythmic music, unique black population, and outstanding central plaza – all located high on a hill that overlooks the port area. The easiest way to access the top is by an elevator that costs 15 cents, but you only have to pay one way. The line for the elevator was very long and never seemed to catch up with itself. Although H. Stern offered transfers to their store near the square, we chose to take the elevator and do our own exploring. As we sailed away, once again we were amazed at the urban aspect of Salvador with life spread along the contours of hills and beaches and implanted with enough high rise condos to make a concrete forest. Amazing, photogenic, colourful, world class Salvador da Bahia – we look forward to an early return!

How could your heart do nothing but stop when you realize you are sailing into Rio de Janeiro (River of January). Rio truly is one of the world’s most spectacular cities (population 7 million) and we saw enough outstanding sights to fill up Sugarloaf Mountain. But for the sake of your eyes we will keep the words down. Our little group took the H Stern advantage and were driven to Corocvado, the 2,300 foot granite mountain in central Rio that boasts the 125 foot statue of Jesus. Our lovely tour guide, Luiza helped buy our tickets and accompanied us to the top. In spite of having to share the space with hundreds and hundreds of equally eager tourists, standing beneath the world famous statue that towers high above the city was an outstanding highlight of our trip. Rio had experienced a lot of rain the day before so unfortunately when we arrived it was still misty below, but we didn’t care, we crammed our addiction for excitement right up to the highest mark. Next we were taken to lunch at a packed-out restaurant down the street from H Stern. Mmmm delicious food and we were introduced to the Brazilian specialty drink called a caipirinha. Our stop at H. Stern headquarters was interesting but took up too much time. Margot purchased a piece of jewellery from them and, wow, a lovely pendant it is. On the way back to the ship we became entrapped in the crazy, crazy traffic of Rio. We were able to see but not visit the famous Ipanema and Copacabana beaches and the billion dollar apartments that cling to their shores. We made the ship only twenty minutes before sailing. Rio! Ah Rio Rio Rio….

Last in Brazil was Ilhabela, a delightful sleepy little island as opposite to Rio as you could get in one country. Beautiful beaches, expensive yachts, sweeping bays, you name it, Ilhabela has it. One of our favourite sights was Nicholas and Lucas, identical twins from South Africa, being pushed along the path in their stroller. We found it remarkable (and slightly terrifying) that a young couple had enough finances and energy to take the two little boys on such a big trip. And therein lies the beauty of that - life is full of remarkables!

And finally, last port of the cruise before Buenos Aires was Punta del Este, Uruguay. It’s an expensive playground for the super rich from all around the world. Even Shakira has a summer home there. Spotlessly clean, beautifully maintained, it has free wifi in the town square but we paid to use a computer in an internet cafe. As we headed back to the ship, we were quite thrilled to see a naked sunbather at the yacht club. What do you think of her? Better take a look.

On December 21st at 8am the Costa Victoria docked at the port of beautiful Buenos Aires and settled in. We were allowed go off sightseeing for the day and return to sleep on board that night. But our exit was final on the 22nd. Kicked off. Our floating dream was already boarding replacements by the time we left to collect Thelma and Louis in the terminal. How hurtful was that? We knew where our rental apartment was – but therein lurked a big problem. Buenos Aires was stuck in the middle of a ‘red alert’ heat wave, the highest their scale goes. Smokin! So here’s the thing. It was too difficult to move Thelma and Louis up and down the metro stairs. It was too hot to stand outside and wait for bus 92 at Retiro station. It was way, way too hot and too far to walk. So with sinking hearts and a wallet full of dread we walked a few blocks away from the port and hailed a cab. Yes, that’s right, I said taxi! But it wasn’t air conditioned, if that helps. We agreed on a fare in advance with the driver - twenty pesos, about CA$5 and he dropped us at the door. He was a very nice man and went a long way to set our minds at ease about all taxi drivers being thieves. We spoke in Spanish on the way, ha ha, ha, and he explained a few things about his beautiful city. He was awesome. Then came the next problem. Thelma and Louis were outraged that they had been dumped in the hot trunk. They love to sight see too.

That’s it for now. More is sure to follow!