reallyjillytravels

  Sunday, March 12, 2023 Fortaleza, Brazil The ship arrived about 9:30 am. We didn’t have a tour scheduled, so took the shuttle from the pier to a beach hotel. The route the bus took off the pier was a new experience. Ports are always a little weird—razor wire and tight security. This road out was a dirt/sand road winding through buildings that looked almost post-apocalyptic, especially the building at the entry with guards. We later found out a huge storm had recently washed out the road and likely damaged the buildings we were seeing.  Forteleza is big—2.7 million people. When the shuttle bus arrived at the beach hotel, we were told by the representative on the bus that the hotel did not want us to enter the hotel at all. There was a beach across the street.  We were allowed to sit on a nice bench in the shade outside the hotel. We were trying to access wi-fi, but that didn’t happen either. The representative told us where the grocery store was. We wanted some snacks fo...

  Sunday, March 5 2023 Cabo Frio, Brazil Cabo Frio is a peninsula with about 230,000 people. A small town compared to many places we’ve visited. The ship arrived at 8 am and anchored in the bay. We took our time having breakfast and getting to shore. Once we arrived, there were women handing out maps. We walked around the unattractive town for a bit, thought about taking a taxi around but couldn’t find an English-speaking taxi driver. We decided to find Praia do Forte (Fort Beach) and go swimming. The interior of town was cut off from the cool ocean breeze so we started walking toward the beach near the tender pier. Charlie on shore in Cabo Frio with the tender pier in the background  The interior streets were stifling hot Things were better on the beach. It was cooler and lined with a path. We strolled by several small hotels popular with Brazilians. There was every kind  of water conveyance—boats, jet skis, etc. It was a pleasant walk, but it ended at a wall that extend...

  Friday, March 10, 2023, Recife, Brazil Recife is comprised of several islands connected by bridges. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a marching band (horns and drums) and two dancers in the customs building. It was very festive. We met our tour bus outside. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and spoke English fairly well. She also spoke several other languages. She never stopped talking and came across as a little AD/HD, jumping from one topic to another. We first toured Recife, which includes the islands of San Antonio, San Jose, and Recife. Our first stop was an ancient church. There were people in bad shape that appeared to be living on the sidewalk outside the church. We haven’t seen much of that before now. Gorgeous church There are beaches all over Recife, and we saw a lot of them. We didn't get off the bus much after the church and our next stop was Olinda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We went high up on the hill in Olinda, then piled out of the bus and went to a ...

  Thursday, March 9, 2023, Maceio, Brazil The seas were rough coming into Maceio, and we docked at the commercial quay. Thunderstorms were predicted, but instead we had wonderful weather. Before we got off the ship we watched dolphins playing around in the bay. We took a shuttle bus provided by the city to a mercado near Praia de Pajucara (Pujucara Beach). We walked from the Mercado a couple of blocks to the beach. When we got to the beach, a small Brazilian man tried to hook us up with an umbrella & chairs at the beach. We let him know we wanted to hire a boat to take us out to the reef off the shore to snorkel. He immediately ran down the beach and hooked us up with a man with a sailboat. None of these people spoke English.  Our sailor spoke a little Spanish, and Google translate helped with the rest. He indicated it would be about 20 minutes to get out to the reef. It was a nice ride. He threw water on the sail to make it go faster. Once there, we joined 4-5 other boats...

Saturday, March 11, 2023, Natal, Brazil We took the ship’s shuttle to a large craft market. Neither of us were in a shopping mood. We were advised by armed guards we could not leave the compound (except on the shuttle) as it was not safe. Many of our ship mates returned to the ship almost immediately. We decided we wanted to see the dunes that Natal is famous for. Not the best neighborhood The craft market itself was nice There was a man Oceania contracted with at the craft market who spoke very good English. We asked for help with a taxi to to the dunes. The first thing I asked the driver is whether he took a Visa card. Yes. We settled on a price and off we went, across the large bridge our ship passed under when we arrived, and into a rural area near the beach.  The taxi driver dropped us at business that had dune buggies. He would return in about an hour and a half to pick us up. We would pay him when it was all over. We climbed into the dune buggie, sitting up on the back, and ...