Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Amazon & Carnival Explorer Cruise - Day 23: Ilheus, Brazil


Tuesday, February 26

Happy birthday to me, today is my 71st birthday and I would just as soon ignore it, but had a very nice birthday card waiting for me when I got up so I had to acknowledge that I am indeed a year older.  I am pretty lucky, here I am spending my birthday in Brazil, something I never imagined would happen.  In the last few years we have spent our anniversary in Greenland, Val’s birthday in Norway and Thanksgiving on the island of Sardinia in Italy.  Who would have thought we would be so lucky in our retirement.

Today, as we continue our trek south towards Rio, we are in Ilheus, Brazil.  Ilheus, with a population of 220,000, is a much smaller city than the other cities we have visited on our journey down the east coast of Brazil.  The economy of the city is based almost entirely on tourism with the main draw being its beautiful beaches.

We didn’t have any tours planned for today so we slept in and had an leisurely morning before going ashore.  We are docked in another industrial port so we will again be transported to the town center by bus from the port.  We left the ship about 10:30 and made the long walk to the shuttle stop.  It was very hot and humid outside with temperature getting above 90 degrees F.

We got right on the shuttle and were soon on our way for the 15 minute drive into town.  We were dropped off in front of the San Sebastian Cathedral which is right on the edge of the town square.  We went in and looked at the cathedral and then were off to explore the town.  The area around the square was mostly stores and shops catering to both the locals and the tourists with many places selling souvenirs and local handicrafts after browsing around for an hour we just couldn’t take the heat and humidity any longer and made our way back to the shuttle pick-up spot.  Along the way we saw a woman selling cases of water from a cart so we bought a couple and lugged them along with us.



Talk about a big sombrero.
 

I'm not sure what this show was about, but it did draw a crowd.
 










When we got to the shuttle it had just filled up so we had to wait for the next one, but it arrived in a couple of minutes and we were soon on board in cool air conditioned comfort.  We made the short drive back to the ship and then got off to haul our new supply of bottled water back to the ship.  I was carrying both cases of water and along the way a younger couple asked if we could use some help.  I said no, but they insisted and the man took one of my cases.  I felt self conscious letting him do that, but it was a big help as they were getting pretty heavy.  I guess they felt sorry for us older folks.

We boarded the ship and were soon in our nice cool room where we changed out of our damp (from sweat) clothes and rested for a short time before heading off to lunch.  After lunch, it was back to the room for some reading and of course, I updated the blog.  Val left for trivia and after I finished the blog, I paid some bills online (thank goodness for online banking).  When she returned, the ship was preparing to sail away from Ilheus so she went out on the balcony.  I decided to go out on deck so I had a better vantage point for pictures and watched the sail away from the Lido Deck.


The city of Ilheus from the ship as we sail away.
That's the terminal build where we were docked on the left.
When I returned, I downloaded the days pictures and we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing until it was time for dinner.  Our usual trivia, dinner and casino was anything but the usual tonight thanks to Val.  The trivia team competition is led by the cruise director and tonight he announced there was a birthday and then called my name and also added my age.  I was then serenaded by 70 or 80 trivia players singing happy birthday to me, it was both embarrassing and fun.  Val had told him before we stared that it was my birthday and I hadn’t even noticed.  Lost in the excitement was gifts of chocolate from Wally and Nancy who had gone on a tour of a chocolate plantation today, thank you Nancy and Wally.

After trivia, it was dinner time and another surprise.  We had our usual meal, but after our main course I noticed we didn’t get our dessert menus and I mentioned it to Val who just shrugged.  Suddenly a big piece of birthday cake was put in front of me and the dining stewards gathered around and sang the Indonesian birthday song.  Once again Val had tipped off the staff that it was my birthday.  It was fun and the cake was delicious, but the piece was too big for the two of us so we asked Dolly, our waiter, to take half of it over to Roy and Gabriella’s table who are seated near us.  All in all, a fun night.


Our dining steward Dolly serving me my birthday cake which is very, very good by the way.
I had hoped my luck would carry over into the casino, but no such luck.  I quickly went through my evening’s gambling money, but decided since it was my birthday to try one more slot machine.  Surprise, surprise, I won a small jackpot and won back the money I had lost this evening as was able to play longer.  I won a few more times and finally quit near even for the night, which was better than I have done for a while.

I wasn’t too happy about turning 71, but thanks to Val, I had a wonderful birthday and was able to share it with some of our shipboard friends.  Tomorrow is a sea day so there was no rush to get back to the room tonight so we lingered in the casino longer than normal, but finally called it a night.

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