Located 4 miles off the Brazil coast, 210 miles south of Rio. Population 30,000. Average temp. 75. Portuguese. Because of the strong winds and calm waters - 80 miles of coastline has earned this island's reputation as Brazil's national capital of sailing. The waters are green, blue, turquoise and sapphire colors. Ring-a-ding - Bell's beach located on the islands northwest coast gets it's name from rock formations which produce a bell like sound when the rushing surf crashes over the rocks. Among a bounty of seafood, prawns are the star of most menus.
This is our first tender port and it did not go smoothly. The ship blamed it on a medical emergency but they were only using 4 tenders with a capacity of 90 each. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the port from the ship but it took a long time to load each tender. They started tendering people off around 9 am and it was 1:30 before there was no longer a lineup to get off. It was fine for us as we planned to get off around then and spend an hour walking around the town but a lot of people were very irate.
It's a pretty island but an island is an island. There was the usual array of souvenir shops and cafes. The sidewalks are paving stones and very uneven so you have to watch each step. One lady from our ship tripped, fell and broke her nose. Don't expect that she'll enjoy the next few days. Our big purchase was again a 6 pack of local beer which we successful got through security.
Celebrity Infiniti is moored next to us. This is only the second port that we've not been the only ship in town but it will be different tomorrow when we get to Rio.
No comments:
Post a Comment