On Board Olympia Explorer 2002

We thoroughly enjoyed our 2002 circumnavigation of SA. We

had a wonderful small ship and excellent enrichment speakers.

Ted, an astronomer who put together eclipse cruises was in

charge of the enrichment program. Participants included:

Captain Loren McIntyre

            I like to call him a modern day explorer. He traveled

            and photographed Brazil and other SA countries. He

            had at least two National Geographic covers. His lectures

            covered many not often seen areas of SA. We visited

a recently discovered archaeological site and he said he

was doing a photography shoot in Brazil and when he

checked in with his wife she said National Geographic was

trying to contact him to  photograph this site, but he had

to turn it down because  he had invested a lot of money

(airline pilot) for the shoot he was doing and couldn’t afford

to leave, thus missing the opportunity to be the first to

photograph this site.

Sergei Khrushchev

               Son of Nikita and professor at Brown University

               We first heard Sergei on a Mediterranean cruise shortly after

               he obtained American citizenship. It was so interesting

               to hear the other side of the story. Having lived through

               his father’s leadership, at first it was amazing to realize

               who we were talking and listening to.

Chef Andre Soltner

               Owner and head chef of Lutece restaurant in NYC

These were the top three favorite speakers the cruise line used

And we had them all at the same time.

But we also had others

               Archaeologist

               Geologist

               Ambassador

You can see how we got spoiled for future cruises. We have

heard many excellent speakers, but never of the quality and

quantity of those on Royal Olympic. We were very disappointed

when they went out of business.

Scenes from Fortaleza, Brazil

                  Stained glass window in Fotaleza Cathedral

                                           Fortaleza Cathedral

Nice lady who warned me to hold on to camera

Fortaleza

Wednesday, land ahoy.

We are in Fortaleza, Brazil today. We took a shuttle into town

this morning. Surprisingly it was not super hot. There was a cloud

cover and the temperature was only ~78 degrees. But the

humidity is so high, it is still very warm. This afternoon it is

over 84 which probably equates to over 90 humiture. We’ve

been warned it will probably get warmer as we continue to

Rio.

I left Foster waiting in the shade and walked to a nearby fort.

On the way back as I was waiting to cross the street, a lady

my camera dangle from my arm, but to hold it in my hand. I

had forgotten about being careful. That was a very nice gesture

Since we went out early crowds weren’t too bad. But our next

two stops are much larger cities with huge carnival celebrations.

I am glad we have already visited both of them since we may stay

on or near ship.

I am glad my blog isn’t being graded for grammar. I would go nuts

trying to make corrections.

At Sea near Brazil

We are in the midst of four days at sea. We have been greatly

enriched by several presentations from our maritime historian

our port lecturer (Juilo) and also an interview with the captain.

Throw in line dancing and Ryder cup golf and of course some

reading. I’ve been busy but had plenty of restful time.

The one thing emphasized by Julio is huge crowds because of

Carnival. Since we are very near the equator, it will also be very

hot. We should be near town at all the ports in Brazil either by

foot or by shuttle bus. We’ll decide when we arrive if we want

to go ashore or not. 

Brazlian Visa

We had to get a Brazilian Visa before we made this trip and

it was the most difficult we have ever had to obtain. It was

also very expensive. I definitely do not remember this from

last time. We had to give them two months of bank statements.

Only one computer at AAA could access the application.

Saturday we had a destination presentation and the port

lecturer was not allowed to make a live presentation due to

something strange relating to his Visa. I cannot begin to

understand their rules. More about this later.

With the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016, they

are going to make a lot of money on Visas alone. I want

to question people from other countries to see if they had

as much difficulty as we did and if they had to pay a large fee

Caroni Bird Sanctuary Trinidad 2002

                              When we visited Trinidad in 2002 we went to a bird
                              sanctury to see the scarlet ibis and white egret come
                              in to roost at sundown.

                             I hope you can get an idea of how beautiful they
                             were. because of the red, white and green,

                             It is often referred to as a Christmas tree.

Thursday we took a tour of Barbados. We visited a 300 year old

plantation house and had a demonstration of a couple of rum

drinks and a couple of appetizers.

We then went to Orchid World which had many beautiful

flowers.

After we returned to the ship, I took my computer ashore to

try to connect to the free wireless. Apparently there were too

many people trying to access it. I tried about 10 minutes then

gave up. Someone told me there were a couple of internet

cafés near terminal in Trinidad, so I will try again tomorrow.

There are some things I want to do but don’t want to use

minutes this early in trip.

 

                                  Orchid World

                                      Beautiful orchid