COAST OF BRAZIL

Our second stop in Uruguay was at Punta del Este.  This beautiful coastal city is filled with magnificent summer homes of both Uruguayans and foreigners. 

While Betty stayed on the boat I had a bus ride through the city and then to the countryside where we stopped briefly at an art museum. 

This was followed with a drive to an olive farm for a tasting.  The farmer was very interesting in his presentation of what makes good oil.  We tasted 3 oils with lunch.  Perhaps it was no surprise that they were better than the expensive oils I buy at the Italian market in Halifax.

This trip is actually a pair of back-to-back cruises.  The first cruise is from Buenos Aires to Rio, and as distances are short, it has only one "sea day."  On our "sea day" we were among a group of 30 passengers who took in the Sommelier's luncheon and wine tasting.  This event included six courses and seven wines.  Each wine came with optional refills.  Needless to say we would like to have skipped dinner, but we had accepted an invitation to dine with the Executive Concierge.  I did manage to down a small bowl of soup and some mashed potatoes.

Options for going ashore include just walking around, asking a local taxi for a tour of a couple of hours, taking a tour from an international company such as Shore Excursions.com or taking a tour organized by the ship.  The ships' tours are the most expensive, but we now mostly do those as they are "free" by using our shipboard credits.  So far we have gone on 3 ships tours, two of which were great (the steak tasting and the olive oil tasting).  The third was a bit of a bust.  It was described as a scenic drive through the cities of Itajai and Camboriu.  The drive through Itajai had only one stop at a cathedral.  However, upon arrival at Camboriu we were dropped at a huge beach for a two-hour stay. 

Fortunately, we found a local restaurant where we had a decent lunch and were able to try the local beer.

We had a stop at the city of Santos, but it was pouring rain so we stayed on the boat.  We had tours booked at Parati, which is described as the most beautiful town on this coast.  However, the bay is very shallow so the ship anchored very far away, giving a one-way tender sail of 45 minutes.  A total of 1.5 hours sitting on a hard bench jammed among other old fat people seemed a bit much so we cancelled.

All guests on board get one invitation to a Captain's cocktail hour.  As "platinum" guests we get invited to all of these parties.  So far we have attended three.  Add these boozy events to the ship having giving us bottles of wine for our stateroom, and the sommeliers fearing discipline should a guest's glass get empty at lunch or dinner and we have a good buzz a lot of the time.  Being more disciplined than me Betty now foregoes wine at lunch while I am now reducing lunch wine to one glass.