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

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-one

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December 7 (Monday, Day 40, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil) -

The Regent Invasion of Salvador de Bahia

We woke up and went on our 4-hour shore excursion that showed a contrast between the old and new Salvador de Bahia. This port city is the third largest city in Brazil with about 3,000,000 people. 80% of them are from African descendants that were slaves in the sugarcane fields. To Snookums it almost felt more Caribbean than Brazilian since the music, skin color, native costumes and art were so different than what Rio had.

More after the jump . . .

Ladies in African dress

A town square, with Regent people

A smart old building

It was 83° and 80% humidity so the weather wasn’t too oppressive. Our bus took us up to the old city and we started our walking tour. Salvador de Bahia has more than 182 churches and we spent a considerable amount of time in two of them. The Cathedral of Salvador was the first church we visited. It’s a former Jesuit church of the city and was built in 1686 and is a fine example of Mannerist architecture and decoration.

The Cathedral of Salvador:

Then we visited the Convent and Church of São Francisco which is a Franciscan convent and church dating from the first half of the 18th century. It is an example of Portuguese colonial architecture and the Baroque decoration of the church is among the finest in Brazil and contains almost a ton of gold leaf.

The Convent and Church of São Francisco:

After visiting the two churches and hearing about their detailed history, we walked for about 45 minutes around the Pelourinho which was the city’s business district in the 18th century. Narrow cobblestone alleys are lined with colorful, restored colonial residences that now house art galleries, jewelry stores and souvenir shops. After this walk in the hot sun we boarded the air-conditioned bus and went to the Museum of Carlos Costa Pinto to look at 3,000 objects collected around the world by a wealthy family. While other people in our group were looking at crystal and silver, Filbert and Snookums found the museum’s snack shop and Filbert enjoyed a Skol beer.

Salvador street

We made it back to the ship at 1 PM and although the ship wasn’t going to leave until 4 PM, Snookums and Filbert decided to call it a day and ate a leisurely lunch before spending what was left of the day napping, reading or surfing the internet. We showered and ate dinner in Compass Rose and even skipped dessert since nothing really jumped out at us. Lights were out by 10 PM.

December 8 (Tuesday, Day 41, Cruising the Coast of Brazil) -

Filbert woke up with a headache and Snookums didn’t feel “right” either. We showered and ate breakfast where Snookums discovered that the doughnuts that look like raised doughnuts with a chocolate glaze are actually more like cake doughnuts (which she prefers) with good quality dark chocolate smeared on them (and not a cocoa and powdered sugar icing). She ate two. Snookums stayed on deck 11 in her favorite place (the big sofas near the pool) and read her book until 2:15 PM when she decided to check on Filbert. Filbert attended the 9:30 lecture about Brazil’s coffee and then stayed for Charlie Cook’s lecture on the 2010 midterm and 2012 presidential elections.

Snookums went to a fitness class and then we enjoyed dinner at Prime 7. The restaurant still didn’t remember our anniversary (which was supposed to be celebrated on November 22 at Prime 7) but our water glasses were kept filled and our orders were correct so we were happy.

Next: Come to Fortaleza! See the wind turbines!