Medary.com

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

December 5 (Saturday, Day 38, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) -

Turtles. You know it's going to be exciting when a day starts with a picture of turtles.

Today was another rainy day but much cooler with an expected high of 73°. Snookums bundled up (pants and a jacket) for our shore excursion to the Botanical Gardens and Tijuca National Park. We boarded our open-sided jeeps where everyone sat facing each other and drove 45 minutes to the 201-year old Botanical Gardens. They had turtles.

More after the jump . . . Turtles: a short photo essay:

We saw a lot of lush green trees, some orchids and a lot of rain.

An unnaturally straight waterfall

Orchids and stuff:

So it looks like the waterfall is coming right down on us. This was, in a sense, true.

After that thrilling adventure, we got back in the jeep for our “off-road” trip through Tijuca National Park on the paved roads. We stopped at Chinese Lookout where visibility was okay, but not great. Corcovado was shrouded in clouds for most of the time but then a circle cleared and we could see just the Christ the Redeemer statue. It was kind of spooky! We piled back in the jeeps and were driven to the next stop, Taunay Waterfalls. It was now pouring rain but we got out and looked at the very strong waterfall.

Then it was back in the jeeps (with very poor shock absorbers) for the 1-hour drive back to the ship. We almost died, too, when our driver slammed on the brakes to avoid rear-ending a car. Needless to say, none of the 9 people in our jeep tipped the driver or the tour guide (who couldn’t speak much English). Snookums wrote a letter to the Regent shore excursion people suggesting that jeeps NOT be used for this tour but instead a bus should be used. At least that way people could see out of the vehicle! Facing each other is not ideal for touring purposes. It made for a memorable shore excursion and we were glad we didn’t pay for it.

We sailed out of Rio de Janeiro in the rain and clouds and as soon as we left the harbor the water turned a little rough. The ship did its normal “bang, shudder, roll” a few times and Snookums was convinced we hit icebergs. The ship was rolling quite a bit, but no one minded. We showered, attended the “block party” to meet our new neighbors and Snookums was able to find two empty washing machines on our deck so she did laundry.

We enjoyed a nice dinner with Monica and Joel and their friends, Marlene and Kay. These two couples met on a prior cruise and decided to sign up for this 70-day cruise. We returned to our cabin and turned our clock back. We only have two more clock turn-backs left on the cruise.

December 6 (Sunday, Day 39, Cruising the Coast of Brazil) -

Snookums woke up and worked out (Muscle Mix and Get on the Ball) and then had breakfast. Filbert woke up and showered and attended the “Music and Dance in Brazil” lecture (while using his PC to surf the Internet) followed by political analyst Charlie Cook’s lecture on Obama’s first 320 days. Regent has a program on this cruise segment called “PTV at Sea” and four of public broadcasting’s personalities are scheduled to speak. After Charlie Cook spoke, Filbert met with him in the Observation Lounge for a more intimate discussion on Washington politics. Filbert said there were five other passengers there. The other three PTV speakers are David Fanning, Gwen Ifill and Neda Ulaby.

This cruise segment is also a spotlight on cabaret segment. Four cabaret performers are on board (KT Sullivan, James Followell, Craig Rubano and Marilyn Maye) for various performances.

After our formal dinner we went to “Ballroom Bravo” since the lead male Regent singer, Gabriel Alonzo Smith, was on a prior Regent cruise with us.

Next: Salvador de Bahia!