January 18th Rio de Janeiro and 19th

Thursday, January 18th and when I awoke we were docked in Rio de Janeiro with a magnificent view of the statue, Christ the Redeemer, towering high above the city. Alan had been on deck to watch our arrival in the dark and said it was pretty impressive. Our panoramic tour began at 8.30am and the temperature was 31 degrees, but it was overcast with a light breeze and therefore bearable for us. We past a Roman style viaduct that had been built in 1710 to bring water from the hills, it was in perfect condition and now being used as a road (approx. half a mile long.) Alan was beside himself wanting to investigate it from an engineering point of view. Then we were taken to where preparations for the next ‘carnival’, which takes place on February 28th, were under way. The ‘boxes’ surrounding the main parade area were being decorated for use by the groups of ‘Cariocas’ (local Brazilians) who make and wear their amazing costumes. The city is a very busy place and over populated, but interesting to view. Their second Cathedral was built between 1966/72 and is incredible, a truncated cone with four magnificent stained glass windows reaching from floor to ceiling, where there is a further glass window in the shape of a cross. The walls between are open vents that allow air to circulate and create a cooling effect. The bell tower is the building to the side of the cathedral and has a bell on each of three stages. We visited all the palm tree lined beaches en route including Ipanema and Copacabana, where amazing sandcastles of bikini clad girls were on display by their creators and surfers inhabited the rolling waves of the ocean. Because Rio is built on vast granite hills the city has numerous long tunnels across it, and we went through them all! There is much history but that would take months to get through. The whales used to swim up the canal between Copacabana and Leblon beach to the natural lake where they would give birth away from the shark infested waters of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the Cariocas over hunted in their waters and in 1910 the whales moved northwards never to return. Sugarloaf Mountain sits on the peninsular of Rio and greets visitors to the city: there is a cable car lift across to the top but we declined taking that ride. Portuguese navigators sighted this bay and assumed it to be the mouth of a river on January 1st 1502 and so named it “River of January” – Rio de Janeiro. The language spoken is still Portuguese. We returned to the ship at 2.00pm and after lunch I went back on land to collect my watch from Stern’s jewellers after having a battery replaced. Many were on deck as we left port but Alan and I were enjoying G & T and canapés on our balcony in the sun that had managed to come out before our departure. It was a good day ending with 1010 nautical miles to sail before reaching land and Montevideo on Saturday. We wandered around the ship after dinner and dropped in at the casino for a while before retiring.
Friday, January 19th was a restful day at sea. The ocean was calm and the sun shone down on us. I had another lay in and Alan did his thing! I actually managed to watch a film on TV. Did you know that you can log on to the Cunard site and watch from the Captain’s bridge on the web camera? You will be able to see each port of call that we visit and perhaps cruise through the Suez Canal when we do that. Don’t forget to post your comments we enjoy reading them and know that you are here with us, or send an email as normal. I understand there has been snow in Scotland today – hope you don’t get it too!! We arrive in Montevideo tomorrow but are running late due to a late departure from Rio awaiting the arrival of delayed passengers!

January 16th,17th.

Last evening began with cocktails and canapés in the Queen’s Room by invitation of the Captain to all ‘world cruisers’. It was a splendid event and Alan I found a nice table for two not far from the main display of hot and cold canapés, ice carvings and a huge cake iced with a map of the world and all our ports of call. We mingled with guests and Officers for an hour whilst champagne was plentiful, before heading of to the Queen’s Grill for dinner. A show in the theatre followed before we joined passengers at the Rio Carnival Ball where all were encouraged to wear our brightly coloured ball masks. Alan chatted with the Executive Chef of the QM2, Klaus Kremer (seen here). By this day we had sailed 3901 nautical miles from F.L. and had a further 765 to Rio.
At 12.10am on Wednesday, 17th January the temperature was still 80 degrees and the humidity 79 degrees with calm seas. We eventually went to bed! Early morning and Alan enjoyed a lecture about Rio whilst I had a lay in until lunch time! I thought I ought to get back to the gym in the afternoon as when I weighed myself I discovered that I had gained four pounds since we boarded the ship! We didn’t do much the rest of the day, but prepared ourselves for an early start for docking in Rio de Janeiro at 4.00am in the morning, and ready for our 8.00am start. We were advised against wearing jewellery on our tours etc. as crime is quite high here.

January 13th,14th,15th,16th

On Saturday, January 13th we headed toward Barbados continuing on our south easterly track to run parallel with the Brazilian coast through the Amazon Ridge. The temperature was 28 degrees and it was a beautiful day. Passengers were sunbathing on deck and I had a lovely swim in the Pavilion Pool late morning while Alan went to a lecture, ‘The Age of Exploration’ by Captain Richard Hayman. After lunch I went to learn how to play ‘Craps’ because it appeared to be such a fun game as all players shouted excitedly! After a leisurely afternoon I went to the hairdressers. My new hairstyle is really taking shape. It was another formal evening but with a twist, as we were sailing the Caribbean it was ‘Pirates Night’. We should have borrowed Thomas’s Captain Jack Sparrow head gear, as it would have really stolen the show!
After dinner I went for my first real game of Craps! Alan watched and we had a really exciting couple of hours, it was very lively and great fun, but I lost my $50 this time. (I do have a better idea of how to lose now though!) Because our watches were to go forward an hour we had an early night.
When we awoke on Sunday, January 14th the Trade Winds were beginning to take effect and the sea had a swell, but not too much. The air was humid and on deck it was just like a sauna with temperatures around 29 degrees. We were travelling at 27 knots and had sailed 2158 nautical miles from Fort Lauderdale. With 2370 to go we were almost half way to Rio de Janeiro. We were heading south easterly taking us some 300 nautical miles north east of the Mouths of the Amazon River and through the Demerar abysal plain. Then through the Amazon Ridge and the Arquipelago de Fernando de Noronha, a group of small islands some 200 nautical miles off the coast of Brazil where we will continue our southerly track paralleling the Brazilian coast. Tomorrow we will be crossing the equator. After making contact we had coffee with Gary and Wendy O’Hanlon and chatted for a couple of hours. (Alan has got the suite number of the Gaugels so we will be making contact soon.) It was a pleasant surprise to find an invitation from the Environment Officer, David Latham, to dine with him in the Brittania Restaurant at 8.30pm. We had to ring the captain’s secretary to accept and arrived promptly. He was a charming young Officer and very interesting to speak with although we weren’t impressed by our other four ‘competitive’ dinner guests.

At 9.10am on Monday, January 15th Alan stood on the balcony with his GPS and announced that we had just crossed into the southern hemisphere. He had watched as the latitude changed from 0 degrees north and registered 0 degrees south confirming that we had crossed the equator. The sea didn’t seem to care, it remained deep blue and calm with slight white waves breaking alongside the ship, but we rejoiced as it was our first crossing of the equator on the ocean. At 10.00am we had an emergency drill – a bomb search in which we all had to participate. Dummy bombs had been planted to ensure that a search was carried out by passengers. Then for those who wished to join in there was an emergency evacuation to life boat stations (one step further than the normal boarding drill.) Had there been a real emergency the ship was just six hours from Fortalez, Brazil, at this time. We didn’t go that far, but did search our suite as requested. It is good that these procedures are carried out. At lunch time all passengers gathered by the Terrace Pool for the ‘Crossing the Line Ceremony’. Volunteer ‘Pollywogs’ were coated with various liquids from the ships galley and thrown into the pool in the presence of King Neptune, his Queen and Seaweed Court. (Of course we will be crossing the equator four times on this cruise so perhaps we will get closer to the fun next time.)

After all this excitement we needed a rest after lunch so I went to the cinema while Alan had a snooze. We dined that evening at the Lotus Japanese restaurant with Kay and Peter Bradley, friends made in the dining room on the QE2. It was a five course meal that was as delightful as we remembered from previous cruises. We listened to the pianist in the Commodore Club until the early hours when we advanced our watches yet again (we are now 2 hours behind the UK.) We have cruised past Recife and Cobo Branco the eastern most tip of Brazil today. (Are you marking it on your map, grandchildren?)
Our first interest of the day on Tuesday, January 16th, was listening to a passenger lecture on his experiences in the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Having visited and been very moved by the camp I felt great empathy in his recollections. He had entered aged 15 in 1944 and watched as his parents were taken to the gas chamber. He and his wife have founded the National Holocaust Endowment Fund to establish and fund college level education on the Holocaust. With light breeze and calm sea we were travelling at 25 knots toward Rio it was brilliant sitting on our balcony in the warmth of the sunshine during the afternoon. This evening is a Rio Carnival masked ball, so we are looking forward to that and I am going to the gym to lose a few pounds first!!! More about this later.