Buckskin Lily's Amazing, Fantastic Blog: South America Odyssey Continued: Brazil

Baiana Lily

Olá! It's me: Buckskin Lily, coming to you live from onboard the Royal Princess which is currently docked in Montevideo, Uruguay on the Rio de Plata River across from Buenos Aires. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We have just finished a week (or so) visiting three glorious ports in Brazil: Fortaleza, Salvador, and Rio de Janeiro, and I'd like to tell you a little bit about what we saw.

In Fortaleza, we shared a taxi with a couple of gentlemen from Argentina (more about them in the next post). But for now...we visited the Central Market, a former prison which has been converted into a five-story shopping mall filled with small shops of all kinds. It was really difficult to capture the essence of this place in one photo, but I'm including a shot to give you a bit of an idea. This place must have been a real hell hole when it was a prison. It was about 90 degrees the day we visited, and as you went higher, it got hotter and the ventilation got poorer.

Mercado Central de Fortaleza

When it got too hot in the Market, we ventured outside and down the street to visit St. Joseph's Cathedral. We were hoping to sit quietly in the back and cool off for a bit, but unfortunately, we were besieged by beggars and had to leave. It was all for the best, though as it was time to rejoin our taxi mates and our taxi driver for our trip back to the ship.

St. Joseph Cathedral, Fortaleza, Brazil

Next stop (after a couple of sea days--Brazil is a VERY large country) was Salvador. We first ventured out looking for a local tour or taxi, but were literally mobbed and had to flee for the safety of the cruise terminal. After regrouping and getting some information at the information booth in the terminal, we discovered we could walk to our destination and save the cab fare. So we started out again, heading for the Elevador Lacerda which would take us (for .15 reales) to the upper (and old) part of the city.

Elevador Lacerda, Salvador, Brazil

Once in the upper city, we began wandering and exploring the Pelourinho (old town). It was filled with lots of churches...

Sao Francisco Cathedral, Salvador, Brazil

Igreja de Sao Pedro dos Clerigos, Salvador, Brazil

...picturesque cobbled streets lined with brightly-painted buildings...

Cobblestone street in the Pelourinho, Salvador, Brazil

Interesting doorway, Pelourinho, Salvador, Brazil

Someone's window in the Pelourinho

...shops filled with all kinds of touristy items:

Baiana Magnets

...the Carnival House...

Buckskin Lily at Carnival House

...and the former governors' palace (now a cultural center & museum)...

Former Governors' Palace, Salvador, Brazil

The palace had some impressive details:

Stained glass window in former governors' palace

Phoenix newel post in former governors' palace

After visiting Salvador, we again had a few days at sea. Noah and I spent some time observing the white boobies (no, NOT those kind of boobies!!) that followed the ship. They flew alongside the ship for miles, hunting and diving for fish. I tried to capture one diving for fish, but it was very difficult. Here is my best effort:

White booby diving for fish

White booby splashing down!

Not that great, I know, but it was the best I could do! Here's a white booby just flying along beside the ship:

White booby (sorry if you aren't as bird crazy as I am!)

Our final port in Brazil was Rio de Janeiro. In Rio we took a tour with a taxi driver who claimed to speak Spanish. However, I soon discovered his Spanish was as bad as mine! However, despite his Portuguese-laced Spanish & my 5th grade-Spanglish, we managed just fine. He took us on a whirlwind tour of some of Rio's most famous sights, including the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro (also known as the Cathedral of San Sebastian) the design of which is reminiscent of a Mayan temple:

Noah in front of the Cathedral of San Sebastian, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Inside, it had four beautiful stained glass windows. Here is one of them (and you can see the altar cross hanging from the ceiling in this photo as well--it's to the left of the window):

Stained glass window behind the altar of the Cathedral of San Sebastian

Next, we visited the Escadaria Selaron--the Selaron Steps. The steps were created by a Chilean living in Rio named Jorge Selaron. He began repairing some steps in front of his home in 1990 and basically got carried away, eventually creating this:

First flight of the Escadaria Selaron in Rio de Janeiro

Again, my photo doesn't quite capture the whole scene. There are about 3 more flights above the ones in the picture, plus the walls on both sides of the street are covered with tiles and tile sculptures like this:

Wall decorations along the Escadaria Selaron street

As I looked more closely, I realized that no two tiles were the same. Here are a couple shots I was able to grab before we had to move on:

Owl tile

Waitress tile

Bathing beauty tile

I wonder where old Jorge found all his tiles?

We also stopped at the Arcos de Lapa, an 18th century aqueduct constructed by the colonial authorities:

Buckskin Lily at the Arcos de Lapa

Finally, we stopped at Copacabana Beach to see all the beautiful bikini bodies (unfortunately, they were in short supply, but the beach was nice). We were able to take a stroll along the shore and filled our shoes with sand to take back to the ship with us.

Noah at Copacabana Beach looking for cheeky bikinis

Buckskin Lily at Copacabana Beach wishing she'd brought her cheeky bikini

We didn't want to go up the mountain to the Christ the Redeemer Statue, because word was the crowds were insane, but no blog post on Rio would be complete without at least a token photo, so I went to the top deck of the ship and took this: