At Sea for a Week

Well, last night we set sail for the "Old World". Six days at sea until we see Portugal. We left port in Salvador (a dirty, scary Brazilian city that I would not recommend to anyone) at 5:00 PM. It was warm and continues to be warm, although we expect it to get colder after we cross the Equator and draw closer to Europe. The young crowd aboard ship (limited in numbers) have to make themselves happy with sunning themselves at the pool, deck parties and loud contests like today's "Mr and Mrs Splendour" in which the winning couple does the fastest job of smashing a blown up ballon between their bellies as they hug. The rest of us jocky for spots out of the sun and noise where we can read our books, talk quietly to kindred souls and enjoy passing our time in the quiet pursuits the young find BORING.

We selected late dinner when we booked this trip but after receiving our confirmation and finding out that it begines at 10:00 PM, we reversed our decision and now eat at the 7:00 PM old people and kid seating. For the first time, we requested a table to ourselves which has turned out to be delightful. We have fine dining with all of the wait staff's attention that you would find in a world class restaraunt. Most nights the dinners are tremendous, although last night was an exception (Chicken madeira for me and Atlantic farmed salmon for Mike). Our filopino waiter, Roderick and his Brazilian side kick spent most of the first night hanging with us, because their other table was absent. It turns out that the Brazilians took several nights with lectures from the head waiters before they understood the concept of showing up at dinner at the prescribed reservation time. They just assumed they could come whenever the spirit moved them. Even after four nights they still wander in during the first hour of the meal, expecting to have their appetizers as the wait staff is cleaning up our entrees.

Our waiter rooms with one of the four head waiters that divide the dining room up. Roderick introduced us to Rolly, his filopino roommate on the second night and now he is a regular at our table. Our own head waiter, Marvin, a tall black man from Costa Rica looks as if approaching a table full of Brazilians is more than he can tackle, so he has adopted us. He comes and stands next to our table for at least two visits of ten minutes a night, and we crane our necks up to try and make eye contact with this gentle giant, and to try and read his lips as his quiet voice barely makes it to us over the din of dining Brazilians.

I think I have commented previously about the meals. We have enjoyed the dinners so much that we have taken to eating two meals a day...breakfast and dinner, with a snack of fresh fruit or beans and rice for lunch. We have been sleeping outrageously long hours for people who's day is taxed with only walking from lounge chair to breakfast, to coffee room, to library, to dining room. The dark interior cabin has been lit by only a tiny bit of light slipping in around the edges of the hall door and the blinking light of my toothbrush charger. Now we unplug the charger and we have total darkness. Enough to sleep nine or ten decadent hours a night. That means breakfast at a respectable 10:00, snack at 2:00 and dinner at 7:00. The late night entertainment, such as Helvis, starts at 9:30 and goes for an hour. Easy to make it to bed by 11:00 or 12:00 for another ten hours of sleep!

Sorry about the typos, but when you use google blogspot from a foreign country spell checker doesn't work, and you know how we all are in the post-spellchecker era.....we can's spell for beans!

Love you all,
Deanne