BRAZIL

With 213 million people Brazil has a land mass that is the fifth largest in the world.  Brazil has a very long coastline.  Sailing from Rio to the mouth of the Amazon River, with a brief 6-hour stop in Recife, took more than 5 days.  Recife, the most easterly city, is closer to Africa than it is to the western boundary of Brazil.

The city of Recife, with its 4.5 million people, is not particularly interesting.  I did take a shuttle bus to their famous shopping center set in an old prison. 

 The best part of that trip was watching the bus driver try to navigate congested streets.  At one point the driver got out of the bus and ran down the middle of the street.  He apparently spotted a policeman who came and stopped traffic to allow us to illegally enter a side street and escape the jamb.

Our cruise schedule includes 8 days on the Amazon River.  This river is massive and disperses 20 % of the world's fresh water into the Atlantic.  It's output is 12 times that of the St. Lawrence back in Canada.  So much water comes out with such force that at its mouth the fresh water goes out about 100 miles before it is mixed with salt water.  The picture shows the brown color of the fresh water pouring into the ocean.

On the Marina there is a free laundromat on each deck.  For that reason one only needs to pack enough clothing for 3 or 4 days before washing.  However, the ship is not allowed to disperse "grey" water into the river and for that reason all the laundromats are closed for 8 days.  The picture shows guests early in the morning on the last day before the river waiting for the laundromat to open.

As we crossed the equator we attended the "Order of the shellback ceremony" whereby pollywogs become shellbacks.  A pollywog is first convicted of his/her sins, then is sentenced to kiss the fish and is then punished.  As Betty and I are both shellbacks we did not need punishment.