We are cruising the Atlantic about seventeen miles off the coast of Brazil, heading for Belem, Brazil, which is located at the mouth of the Amazon. A good day to catch up on this blog and learn more about Brazil.
Cathy attends an Angela Scheider Enrichment Lecture on the cuisine of Brazil at 9:00am, checked in with her needlepoint buddies and got another project to do, and then we met at 11:00 to hear an Enrichment Lecture by Peter Croyle on the city of Belem and more about the colonial era. He does a great job, but really doesn’t leave enough time for the colonial stuff, so we aren’t making a lot of progress on the history. But, hey, we have months to go.
We actually eat lunch in the Grand Dining Room today. Why? Because we were already on Deck 5 and the menu looked interesting. The Terrace Cafe is faster, but Steve still can’t get used to dodging people at the buffet.
Of course we nap after lunch, and then Cathy has her first of many spa appointments at 3:00pm. She returns in a hour all soft and relaxed….and with two more appointments. The Canyon Ranch Spa has her number. Every time she goes there, they offer her a discount for more appointments. She’s hooked.
Around 5, Steve talks Cathy into opening one of the two bottles of champagne languishing in our minibar refrigerator. We share the bottle on our veranda watching the sea. It has changed color from the previous day, and is an interesting green/grey when the sun shines on it.
Having polished off the champagne, we head up to the smoking area on Deck 9 and order wine from the Waves Bar. The smoking area, which is virtually outdoors and adjacent to the pool area and is only about 200 square feet, has been moved to the other side of the ship so that the crew can clean the customary smoking area. And clean it they do! We see them literally power washing the walls, windows and ceiling. Lord knows what they do to the furniture. By the way, smoking is allowed only here and in one completely glass-enclosed area in the Horizons Lounge. The people that are sitting in this glass-enclosed area look like they’re in some kind of display, like a diorama at the New York Museum of Natural History, Oceania also makes it clear that if you are caught smoking anywhere else on the ship, you will be put off at the next port with no refund. They tell us it’s because it’s a fire danger – the thought of a fire on board terrifies any ship’s crew – but I think that they are also trying to discourage the habit: period.
After a half hour conversation with Veronica and a woman from the UK, we head to the Grand Dining Room. For the first time since we boarded, we ask to share a table, and are seated with a couple from Vancouver BC and another couple from Tucson AZ. It was a very pleasant meal and it was fun to meet some new people. These folks are very well traveled, especially compared to us.
So all in all, it was a nice but pretty uneventful day. Probably just as well, because tomorrow afternoon is going to be really busy.
