Tuesday, March 7, 2017

At Sea

Slept till 8:30 then went to a port lecture on Salvadore. We haven’t booked any excursions there (there were only 2 offered). Looks like we can walk to the market and old town. Cobblestone streets may wear me out!

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Salvadore de Bahia, Brazil

No excursion for us today. We opted to take a taxi to the top of the town and shop our way downhill. The Pelourhiho, the historic center of the city is up on a hill, accessed by elevator as well as the usual streets. The elevator is the most direct way to go from the harbor area. They say nobody in Salvadore will go to Hell as they have 165 churchs in this very small town. Historically, Salvadore is a mixture of the Portugese settlers and the African slaves that were imported. Salvador’s old town features some beautiful, albeit desperately in need of restoration, old buildings. This is one of the oldest cities in Brazil and home of a Carnival celebration more elaborate that the famous one in Rio!

On the shopping front, we discovered that everything on the top of the hill could be purchased at the Central Market at the bottom of the elevator on the way back to the Port.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

First of five sea days in a row. On Saturday, we will cross the equator. I got back into my rhythm of swimming laps and water aerobics though there isn’t a fun group to exercise with. One of the pools ranges from 5’ to 7’depth – perfect for me, but not quite the 25 meters the pool at Palm Aire is. So I’m still doing my 40 laps, but those and the ½ hour of water exercise/stretching counts double maybe because it’s like swimming in the surf! The pool water sloshes with the movement of the ship (which is surprisingly noticable even though the seas don’t look more than 3-5 feet. Wind is basically on our nose now at around 15 knots).

Mah Jongg in the afternoon. So far, I am ahead around $3! Tomorrow, I shall learn to play Chinese Mah Jongg from the Memphis Mafia – a delightful group of friends from my home town. Well, technically Collierville and Piperton – just East of Memphis.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Day 2 of 5 in a row at sea

The usual, Swam laps, water exercise/stretching, enjoying the surf-like motion of the pool. And Chinese Mah Jongg! Fun to play and a different challenge than American Mah Jongg. Think I’ll see if I can find a group in Sarasota to play, maybe teach a table or two!