Maria - Passports Overloaded

Montevideo, Uruguay

December 16, 2016 and December 21, 2016

December 16, 2016

We went to Montevideo for two days flooding kept us from Punta Del Este. Before we arrived in Montevideo Terry Bishop the lecturer on the ship told us all about the saga of the famous WWII German warship, Graf Spee, whose sunken remains rest on the floor of the ocean a short distance outside the harbour. John and I decided to walk to the pier and get a cab to drive us around. We were lucky to meet this guy named Jaime he was such an excellent guide he was very knowledgeable and spoke perfect English. The first stop on our tour with Jaime was Battle Park named for Jose Battle y Ordonez, Uruguay’s president from 1911-1915. We also saw the monument dedicated to the Fallen Soldiers of the Navy.

We visited the nicest hotel in Carrasco called Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco, an imposing building which overlooks the coast and is full of Uruguayan tradition and history.

Jaime also took us to this neat building which was the Gaucho Museum. The inside of this house was fabulous. To end a great day we had lunch at the famous meat market. It’s this big building full of different restaurants that all have tons of meat being cooked on spinning grills.

December 21, 2016 – Second time to Montevideo (back to back cruise)

Today we drove north to the Carrau Winery, a major exporter of Uruguayan wines located in the Colon residential area. Situated in a park-like setting, this winery was constructed in 1894 and is the site of an ancient granite cave. We were treated to a tasting of fine Uruguayan wine and champagne, accompanied by a light snack of cheese and ham. The only problem we had with the winery was the room was too big, and it was full of people, and you couldn’t hear the sommelier explaining the wine even though he had a microphone.

After the wine tour, we took a steam train ride and took some photos of the landscaping of Uruguay.

Our tour ended with a visit to Casona Mauá for a Tango Show. Casona Mauá was built in the 1870s and has an outstanding architectural and heritage significance. The venue belonged to Baron and Viscount Mauá, an influential businessman, visionary, and entrepreneur who founded among other things, Mauá Bank, the first bank in Uruguay which opened its doors in 1857 and the first one to print currency within the country. Nowadays and after an excellent restoration process, Casona Mauá maintains its original beveled glass, Carrara marble, floors, ceilings, skylight, and moldings, making it a bastion of Montevideo’s historic Old Town.

John and I had such great lunch the last time we were in Montevideo at the meat market that we chose to grab a bite to eat there again today and once again it was great.

I found it amazing that they were turning this huge cargo boat with such ease that I posted this video.

The story we heard behind all these sunken ships was that the Asian fisherman would come to Uruguay and they fell in love with it so they sank their ships as an excuse to not have to go back.

Maria & John at Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco

Inside the Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco

Maria & John Inside the Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco

Maria Inside the Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco

Men’s restroom in the Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco

Women’s restroom in the Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco

inside the women’s restroom in the Hotel Sofitel Casino Carrasco

Montevideo Meat Market (Mercado del Puerto)

Maria & John – with our friends George and Richard

Rio Grande, Brazil

December 15, 2016

Today we walked into town and visited a lovely church called
Church of Our Lady of Carmo built in 1938.

Porto Belo, Brazil

December 13, 2016

Today we took a walk to the pier and walked around and shopped at the little markets set up in tents and bought the little wooden painted boat and a few pieces of handmade costume jewelry.

Sao Paulo (Santos), Brazil

December 12, 2016

Today we arrived in Sao Paolo, and we didn’t have any tours set up we decided to take a cab to the local mall and walk around and do some shopping. We spent about two hours walking around the mall and on the way back to the ship we shared a cab with the Food & Beverage Director’s wife Samantha. Today was a relaxing day nothing scheduled and no time restraint.

Ilha Grande, Brazil

December 11, 2016

Today we took a ride on a schooner boat to the Blue Lagoon which is an isolated beach on the north side of the island. The ride was about an hour long, and we saw lovely views of the lush forest and shoreline. The entire island is protected environmentally, so nature reigns supreme. We had a chance to snorkel which I didn’t participate in, but John did he said it was nice but once you’ve seen the Great Barrier Reef it’s hard to beat.

Parati, Brazil

December 10, 2016

Today we had a really cool tour a schooner boat picked us up right from our ship and took us around the different islands to take pictures and they dropped anchor and John and some other people jumped in the water and had a nice time. Some of the islands we visited were Ilha Comprida, Praia Vermelha, and Ilha do Mantimento.

Maria & John – with our friends Neil and Valerie

Buzios, Brazil

December 09, 2016

Today we sailed to Buzios we had another city tour but unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and the island is so small that other than the beach views from the cliff above there really isn’t anything else to really see.

Once a small fishing village, Buzios gained instant international fame after Brigitte Bardot vacationed there in the 1960s. Her visit was so influential that the townspeople erected a statue of the French actress sitting on a suitcase gazing out to sea. Thanks to Bardot, Buzios soon became known as the St.-Tropez of Brazil, an appropriate nickname because of the wonderful beaches.

F ollow us on our journey the next destination is Parati, Brazil.

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

December 07th & 08th, 2016

Today we started our journey to Rio de Janeiro. The flight leaving Florida was delayed by four hours so John acted quickly and booked a different flight to Atlanta so that we didn’t miss our connecting flight. Everything was smooth from then on we caught our connecting flight and after a 10-hour flight, we finally landed in Rio de Janeiro. Since we were in Rio overnight we decided to take it easy the first day and relax and get ready for the next day.

December 8, 2016

Today we got up early in the morning and had breakfast in our room to get ready for our first tour of Rio de Janeiro. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and nice although the tour was very long we saw a lot of cool sights. We saw Christ the Redeemer on sugar loaf and a city tour of Rio. After our visit to sugar loaf, we had a traditional Brazilian Churrascaria lunch at a local restaurant.

Grand Anse Mahe, Seychelles

June 18th – 22nd, 2016

June 18, 2016
Today we arrived in Mahe, Seychelles. This was the tail end of our adventurous trip to Africa. We decided to take it easy and hang out at the hotel and the beach. We stayed at the Hilton which was a nice hotel. The room we had was amazing we had a private pool and an excellent view.

June 20, 2016
One of the days we hired a boat and just rode around on the water and ended up going to a someone’s house for lunch. It turned out to be a nice lunch the family was friendly and made a killer meal.

We got on the little boat and went to a private island that had huge turtles on it. We hiked around the island which took about an hour, and after that, we headed back to the hotel.

June 21, 2016
The next day we took a private driving tour around the island, and we ended up meeting this french guy named Jean-Louis Marchesseau. He was commissioned by a museum in Paris to build a replica of one of the French ships. We ended up purchasing a ship called La Maquette. Every piece on this ship is handmade which is amazing.

Once again we are excited to pack and get ready to go home. There’s no place like home!

Andasibe, Madagascar

June 15th – 16th, 2016

June 15, 2016 – Today we left in the morning for a three-hour drive to the Vakona Forest Lodge. The name of the area is Andasibe. The drive was cool because we got to see a different side of Madagascar because what we’ve seen so far is not good the central city Antananarivo is impoverished, dirty and unsafe. On our way to Andasibe, we stopped at this amazing crocodile farm which had 40 of the largest crocs we’ve ever seen and about 60 different species of lizards, moths, frogs, and snakes. It was pretty amazing. From there we proceeded to the lodge to check in. When we got to the lodge, it was located in a forest which was jungle like it was a very cool place to spend a night.

After we checked in our tour guide took us to see the lemurs on lemur island. It wasn’t too far from the lodge which was good because we spent about 3 hours in the car already and we had enough. When we to lemur island we took a short canoe trip to where the lemurs are they don’t swim, so there is no need for fencing they are pretty safe where they are. This was the first time John and I had ever had any interaction with these cute animals. As you are walking in the forest they just jump on you looking for food; we were given baby bananas to feed them. At one point I had one on my head grabbing onto the rim of my hat. As I was walking I had four jump on me, and I can handle one or two but having four on your arm, shoulder and head were a bit much, but we still had a very good time.
After lemur island, we headed back to the lodge to get ready for dinner. The dinner we had was fantastic I had a traditional Madagascar dish made of zebu which is a type of cow with horns. I have to say it was incredible it was called Malagasy Romazava it’s a sort of stew served with white rice.

June 16, 2016 – This morning we decided to leave Vakona Forest Lodge instead of tomorrow which was our original plan because the drive back to Antananarivo was three hours long and the road is pretty much one lane all the way there and back. We had a flight to catch tomorrow to go to Seychelles, and we didn’t want to risk missing the flight in case there any problems on the way to the airport. Either way, we had a great time hanging out with the Colonel and his associate. We ended up meeting up with the Colonel and had dinner at the best restaurant in Madagascar called La Varangue. After dinner, we hung out at the bar and talked to the colonel for about 2 hours and headed upstairs to finish packing and get ready to leave in the morning.

Alphabetic Links of Where We’ve Been