South America, Days 166 to 169 - Stage 34: Cruising Brazil on MSC Poesia

With the captain at the special evening for Diamond cruisers only. We aren't Diamond, this being our first (and possibly only) MSC cruise. Only 'special' people can meet the captain and other officers, a big negative for us. We were sneaked in by our evening dining table partners who are Diamond members, mainly so we could get the free drinks on offer!

Day 166 Tuesday 

We were told to go to the restaurant at 19.00 last night to be assigned a dining time and table. We assumed (and hoped) that there would be space on the 19.00 early sitting as 21.30 on the late sitting would not work for us. As long as we didn't want a table for 2 the restaurant manager could accommodate us. It took him slightly longer when we asked if they could speak English. Up to this point we had heard no other English speakers at all. He asked us if Americans were ok? I told him only if they were the right sort of Americans, or we'd be back.

We were the first at the table, so the next arrival, Penny, looked most confused until we apologised. Two couples, one from Ohio, Dion and Jean and one from Puerto Rico, Harold and Sonia and a pair of female roommates, Penny and Michelle. Think we are going to be ok.

These are fellow evening dining table partners. All from different parts of the US and all lovely people and heavily into cruising (unlike us). LtoR: Sonia, Harold, Jackie, Dion, Penny, Michelle and Jean. We were in Ilheus, Brazil, outside Jorge Amado's house. He was a famous writer in Brazil apparently

Brian woke earlier than I expected after a very long day yesterday. The show doesn't finish till 22.15 and we'd been up at 03.55. Went to breakfast before 8 as peak breakfast apparently is 08.30-11.00 (peak lunch is 13.30-15.00 apparently!!) seemed ok to us. Then set off to walk the ship to get our bearings. It's a bigger ship than we are used to, it's only up 2 decks and from bow to stern from our cabin to the buffet, but it took Brian nearly 10 minutes to go and fill his water bottle. We probably got our steps in today just walking around finding the bars, toilets and various public spaces. Not however the library which we were told had to be removed because of COVID. Dion one of our tablemates who was on a world cruise, on this ship a year ago, when there was a library, was told something else today when he went to complain about the same thing. A simple book exchange is actually all we want, fingers crossed.

A matter of meters away from Jorge Amado's house and here was the setting for his most famous book (the name of which I can't remember now!). Vesuvio restaurant, where we stopped for a beer after walking the town. It's in a square with the cathedral Sao Sebastian on the next side with a legend of an underground tunnel connecting the two with Vesuvio containing a brothel, allowing people to sneak there rather than go to church. There's no evidence to that effect that has been found I hasten to add

We went to the dining room for lunch which was surprisingly busy. We were seated with 3 Germans but were joined by a couple of Brits, so that was nice. Only ones we've met so far.

The cathedral from the side with Vesuvio on the right

I went crafting for the afternoon while Brian read. We then found ourselves at the future cruise presentation. Only stayed because there were waiters with free drinks. We haven't signed up for the drinks package as we'd have to buy for the whole cruise we've bought which is actually 6 days more than we are onboard for. We can't make that pay! Managed to get a couple of glasses of champagne each, hurrah.

Off to dinner to discover that all the rest of the guys are 'Diamond' members, so invited to the special welcome drinks at 21.00. They gatecrashed us into the event, so more free drinks, and our photo with the captain. Double hurrah. Not to mention that Harold and Sonia had arrived with a bottle of champagne that had been given to them which they'd shared with us all.

We dashed off to the Latin through the ages, singer but left after 2 numbers as he was singing in English not Latin numbers through the ages.

Inside the cathedral

Day 167 Wednesday Ilheus

Out first port. The trips didn't look exciting, and they came with a warning that they might only be in Portuguese. We were planning on just going for a walk, as it turns out were our table mates, so we all went together. First time we've done that but actually we had a laugh. Brian and Dion between them had logged all the stops on the walking tour so we did them with the addition of another Christ the Redeemer for Brian, Dion and I , dropping off and collecting Michelle from the beach on the way while the other 4 stopped for a drink.

Another Christ the Redeemer in Ilheus, but this one's a lot smaller than the one in Rio. We walked there with Dion who took the photo

We joined them for a drink, a cheap lunchtime beer, well we've got a few Brazilian Real to spend. I'd bought a pair of Havaianas, even though I don't know what the fuss is all about, but pink glittery flip flops did seem a must. 10% discount for paying with cash too. What else can I buy over the next 2 port stops to get rid of £25.00?

Dion bought a cheap bottle of vodka which he then had to smuggle onboard, two water bottles, if only he could open the vodka bottle. How can it be that hard? He eventually went into a bar and asked them to do it for him. Kept one himself and gave the other to Joan to smuggle onboard.

Dion trying to get the top of his bottle of vodka in order to pour it into plastic water bottles to get it back on board. It took 8 of us but in the end we paid for a waiter at a nearby restaurant to do it

The same 4 that went to the statue went up to the convent because we could see it from below. We met a cat and a charming young man who wanted to practice his English on the way so that was all good. What we missed though was Jean on the shuttle bus feeling hot and taking a big swig out of her 'water' bottle.

Back to the ship for a late lunch, and soon it'll be dinner time! It's a hard life!

We took this just because we could. They had never seen this done before so we had to show them. It's a panorama from a viewpoint over Ilheus

The second crew show tonight and I counted a cast of 19. 5 singers, 4 acrobats and 10 dancers. Great costumes and good performance. This so far is the only plus for MSC. The 4 singers and 2 dancers on Azamara were very lackluster.

Tonight was white night so we were in our same White Night attire as on the Azamara but as the party on the pool deck didn't start till 23.30 we missed it! There is a lot going on in the evening, though much of it seems to revolve around the late dinner sitting at 21.30! Just too late for us. We might have stayed up if tomorrow was a sea day but it's an early port arrival.

We saw lots of these flying around after we left Rio on the ship. They had their heads down looking for fish and would dive bomb into the water and return with a fish in its beak. I tried hard to get a photo of that but failed. What is it? Google lens thinks its a short tailed albatross, but we're not sure, it's beak doesn't look right. Further searching by Jackie points to it being a Nazca booby

Day 168 Thursday, Salvador de Bahia 

Our second port and we signed up for a free walking tour rather than a ships tour. Lots of Spanish and Portuguese speakers for their tours and amazingly only Brian and I, and then a late arriving independent traveler from Canada. We weren't overly enamored with our guide though she certainly knew her stuff, but great to have such a small group.

Bit out of order, but I wanted to put this on. This is as we sailed out of Rio de Janeiro at sunset. The rock on the left is Sugarloaf mountain and the pointy mountain near the right has Christ the Redeemer statue on. A nice photo I thought

It was easy walking, we took the free lift up to the old town. The oldest Portuguese port in Brazil. There are still some of the walls in evidence and some lovely buildings and some hideous modern buildings. The homeless sleeping on the street that we've become sadly accustomed to, and many tours from the ship that we did our best to avoid. It was very hot and humid so we were straight back to the ship for lunch taking the easy way down the funicular this time.

Next port of call, Salvador, the first capital city of Brazil after Portuguese settlement. Rio was the second and now its Brasilia

A relaxed afternoon, our choice of bars to sit in as everyone else seems to either be baking gently in the sun or having a siesta.

We have to get used to this relaxed way of life though if we walk up and down rather than taking the lift and go to and fro between fore (our cabin) and aft (dining) a few times we should get our steps in.

We went on a free walking tour of Salvador and we assumed there'd be loads of people off the ship doing it, but it was just the two of us and a lone independent traveller from Canada. There were lots of people from the ship but they mostly went with either the Portuguese or Spanish guides, which is an indication of the little English spoken on the ship. Whilst waiting we saw this little chap which Google lens tells me is a Masked Water Tyrant (great name)

Day 169 Friday. 

At sea! I'll finish this off. Nothing much to report, a quiet day

Salvador is built on a high cliff surrounding the bay, which made it pretty impregnable inn the days of settlement. The Dutch had several attempts to take the city, all failed. The original city was surrounded by a wall with only two entrances and the fort in the bay you can see helped as well. Today there are several funicular trams to get us up there and this art deco elevator which has only recently reopened after extensive renovation. It's beautiful and free to use as are all the funiculars all in historic designs. It's a really nice place  

Day 170 Saturday.

Arrived at the port of Fortaleza, our last stop in Brazil and we decided to do nothing other than the blog. Apparently it's too dangerous to walk around from the port and the historic centre is a 30 minute taxi ride away that, according to our Lonely Planet book is not very exciting. Our US friends all went in, we went as far as the cruise terminal building to use the free wifi. Jackie is currently spending the last of our Brazilian Real money!

These are just some of the buildings in the historic centre. We're in the square at the top of the art deco elevator and that's the government building and another beautifully restored manor house in yellow to the right

Further round in the historic Pelourinho district, this is the Basilica Sao Salvador. See those ladies with the big dresses in the centre? They are in tradition dress and want you to pay to have your photo taken with them.

The other side of the square and this is the Igreja de Sao Francisco, a convent. The coloured buildings were mainly restaurants and cafes

Most of the streets in the historic area are like this, very bright and a pleasure to walk round. Famous people who have been here are Paul Simon who apparently came and asked to sing with the local musicians; Michael Jackson, who filmed a section of one of his videos here and Jorge Amado (remember him? That famous author from Ilheus who lived here for a time and had a house here)

Our intimate walking tour. Stephen on the left joined us and we thought he was a bit scary at first with huge arm muscles and 'unusual'  attire, but he was a really nice guy. A former 200m sprinter for Canada, he never made the national team, but competed at a pretty high level. I can't remember the name of our guide now, but she was good fun. We managed to avoid the MSC crowds who were following behind their guide carrying an MSC paddle

Back down on one of the funicular railways and a short walk back to the ship

This is the ship we're on, the MSC Poesia. It takes 2500 passengers, the biggest ship we've been on and we're not that excited about it. The food is OK but pretty average, if we hadn't gatecrashed the Diamond evening we'd have never met any officers on board and we feel a real disconnect with anyone in charge, very different from the smaller, more intimate ships we've been on before. it feels much more like staying in a big impersonal floating hotel and it seems they look for every opportunity to charge you for something. This is turning into, for me, all that I dislike about cruising and, had we not had better experiences on other smaller ships with interesting destinations, it would be my last and, I think Jackie feels similar

This is looking down to one of the swimming pools and, beyond that there's another pool. There's a stage down there where they teach some dancing. Not the kind of dancing we know and would want but solo dances that are just basically some moves to music. It's mainly women who take part with the odd man. We've given these a miss

The theatre from the balcony, which is quite large. There's a show every night (we're not going to tonights, the ventriloquist doing his act in seven languages!), but some of them have been pretty good, usually revolving around the contortionist, who can wrap herself into all sorts of unusual shapes and a couple of aerialists who swing around on ribbons and hoops above the heads of others while they sing and/or dance. The 70's and 80's disco show was particularly good with music we recognised and the sparkly suits worn were something else! The shows last for 35 minutes, finishing at 10:20, which is quite late enough for us. The action doesn't really start until 23:30, where there's a disco until about 2:00am and a live band in another room. We haven't seen any of that!

One of the open areas of the ship. See that piano down there? Its above a pool of water that swishes around as the ship moves. The pianist performs every night and he really is very good, as good as you'd see anywhere and a pleasure to listen to. The open area means his music travels quite far which is quite nice. There are lots of different areas on board all playing different music in the evenings, I've no idea how many but at least six and they don't interfere with one another. There's always somewhere to sit despite the ship being full, so these are all plusses. However, I can't get over the fact that it's just not what I'm really enjoying. It's a great way to get back home for us, it's just a journey and therefore infinitely batter than economy class in a plane costing more than half of what we've paid for an 18 day cruise with all food provided, so no complaints on that score. Many people had flown out specially to do this and I'd have been really disappointed if we'd done that. We'll be very quiet for the next 5 or 6 days now as, when we leave port today we have five days at sea and we're not having the very expensive onboard wifi. Next port of call Las Palmas in Gran Canaria when I can switch back on my UK SIM! We have good books to read and there is a gym! See you on the other side of the Atlantic