On March 22 we docked in Europe by way of Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are part of Spain even though they are only a few hundred miles from the coast of West Africa. And it shows. The towns are clean and elegant and they definitely have a European vibe. […]
Read More »Officially Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, is named the Republic of Cabo Verde. But everyone calls it Cape Verde. It is a small country; an archipelago with a population of about 500,000. First colonized by Portugal, it won its independence in July of 1975. All did not go well at first. After […]
Read More »We have been on the Atlantic Ocean for the last few days slowly making our way to Europe via Cape Verde and the Canary Islands. The Canaries are off the coast of Africa and while they are not on the European mainland, administratively and politically they are part of Spain, and therefore Europe. Now, after […]
Read More »We are about to leave Rio de Janeiro—the home of Carnaval. Before we went to the Carnaval festivities though…we visited both Sugar Loaf mountain and Corcovado mountain. We got to Sugar Loaf by means of a cable car that went almost straight up the mountainside. When we got to Sugar Loaf we could look over […]
Read More »We have already spent quite a bit of time in Brazil—and we are due to spend some more. We expect to arrive in Rio tomorrow, and then go on several tours over the next few days. The big event will be Carnival. We will be in attendance in the Sambadrome. It promises to be quite […]
Read More »
We have just been in the port in Santos, Brazil, and it reminds me that the ports we encounter are interesting in different ways. Some ports are designed and used exclusively for passengers on cruise ships. The newest have ramps that connect to the cruise ships like jetways connect to planes, and the […]
Read More »We will be spending a considerable amount of time in Brazil. That includes being shepherded into a special seating area, compliments of Crystal, to watch the parades at the Sambadrome, which is the main event. But before all of that, we made our first Brazillian stop in the port city of Balneário Camboriú. It is […]
Read More »We have just spent 3 days in Buenos Aires. Located on the Rio de la Plata, it is the capital of Argentina and its largest city. The city proper has a population of only 3.1 million, but the greater urban metropolitan area has a population of 16.7 million, making it the 14th largest metropolitan area […]
Read More »We have just spent a couple of days in Uruguay, that small country tucked in between Argentina and Brazil. The history is complex, as with so many South American countries. For example, there were both Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, and while Uruguay has a relatively small population of indigenous people (mostly Charrúa descendants) the vast […]
Read More »