When we docked in Tenerife the plan was to go to see Mount Teide in the national park. But when we first got there the fog was so thick that it was virtually impossible to see anything. 

However the fog eventually burned off and we were treated to some spectacular scenery in Teide National Park. 

Not surprisingly, the park is centered around Mount Teide, the highest mountain in Spain. Standing at 3, 718 meters tall it is the third highest volcano in the world, measured from its base on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The landscape of the park, which resembles a moonscape is kind of eerie looking. Actually our tour guide told us that NASA used the park as an astronaut training site for, among other things, learning to drive the rover on the surface of the moon. In addition, scientists from a Spanish university are doing some geological experiments in the park. Not too surprising since the Canaries were formed by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago.

The terrain of the park is rugged, spectacular and full of visitors. In fact, it is the most visited national park in Spain with over 4 million visitors in 2022. It was named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in June of 2007. 

All in all definitely worth a look next time you are in the Canaries. 

JFB

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. 

We went on a tour that brought us to the towns of Arucas and Teror. One of the first things we saw upon arriving in Arucas was the Church of St Jean the Baptiste (San Juan Bautista). Begun in 1909 it opened for worship in 1917 and was finally completed in 1977. 

After that, we bumped into a town square in the Old Section with its beautiful traditional European architecture. 

The next town we visited was Teror. 

Among other things, the town looks like it was almost designed for tourism. Not for tourists dragging a crew of 8 year-olds around mind you, but for tourists who really want to see some old world elegance. 

As if they wished to emphasize the point, a few of the shops had flower petals strewn about on the street in front of them.

A bit of the modern world invaded though as the photo below shows a young man wearing headphones while he sits on a bench in town.

That said, it was good to be back in Europe and Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands certainly fit the bill. 

JFB

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 securing independence from Portugal, Cape Verde became a one-party state, dominated by Marxists. However in 1990 the one-party state was abolished and a multiparty democracy took its place. Since then, Cape Verde has had a stable functioning democracy and its economy has improved markedly. 

There is a large diaspora of Cape Verde natives, many of whom live in the US and Portugal. Both the US and Portugal maintain strong ties to Cape Verde. The people who moved to the US did so way back when to work in the whaling industry. They had developed the necessary skills to succeed in that industry. And Portugal has welcomed Cape Verde natives. 

Interestingly enough, even though it is a West African nation and a member of the African Union, the people of Cape Verde (if our guides are to be believed) consider themselves to be more like Europeans that Africans. They may have a point. The islands of Cape Verde seemed to be a lot more developed and much cleaner than the countries of the mainland. 

We visited 2 cities on 2 different islands in Cape Verde: Praia, on the island of Santiago, and Mindelo on the island of São Vincente. Praia, with its beaches is the largest city and capital of Cape Verde. Mindelo is a cultural hub, known for its architecture and traditional music. 

On our visit to Praia we went to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the fort of St Phillip (Forte Real de São Filipe). The fort was originally built in order to thwart pirate attacks. 

We also got to see a rooster up close and personal and we peered down at one of the cities beaches. 

When we went to Mindelo, we drove up to the summit of one of their mountains, where it was extremely windy and chilly. The guides kept insisting that we shouldn’t stand too close to the edge of the road because of the high winds. A little less than comforting.

Not to mention that the roads were nothing to write home about. 

As we drove along, hoping the bus didn’t get too close to the edge and go over, we saw some isolated houses built alongside the mountains.

All it takes is looking at those (few) houses and the coastline below to realize how far away you are. 

Anyway, we are off for the Canaries (Europe!) and will report in soon. 

JFB

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 going to Carnaval we made several more stops in Brazil. Specifically, we visited the islands of Ilhéus, Salvador and Recife. As we were leaving the “new world” for the old, our first stop was in Ilhéus, which means “beautiful island”. And it certainly is beautiful. For instance, there were scores of colorful houses.

A chocolate store named “dengo” snared us; we bought some chocolate bars and other goodies. A photo of a sales lady from the store is below. 

Another building featuring large green wooden doors of varying heights also caught our attention.  

The next stop a day or two later, was Salvador. Not to be confused with El Salvador. Among other things, we stopped off at an ice cream store. The store was across the street from a bay full of boats where some of the locals were hanging out. Note the cell phones.

Finally we went to an island named Recife. When we got there they were busy dismantling a stage that they had erected for a celebration of –wait for it–Carnaval.

After we saw that we headed off for a tour of the Jewish section of town and a tour of a synagogue. It must be a major tourist area because it was loaded with visitors and buses that had “Tourismo” written all over them. There were also quite a number of Military Police as it turns out. 

Anyway we have finished up with South America and now we are on our way to the coast of North Africa and then on to Europe. We’ll post from there soon. 

JFB

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 most of the city and its beaches. Some of the beaches were empty because the water was polluted by the oil of the boats anchored nearby. The other beaches were packed—including Copacabana beach.

To get to Corcovado mountain which is opposite Sugar Loaf, we took a 20 minute open air train ride up the side of the mountain. Corcovado mountain has the iconic Christ the Redeemer monument that overlooks the city. 

We could make our way (kind of) around Sugar Loaf Mountain, and get some spectacular views of the city.  But Corcovado mountain was teeming with people and it was impossible to get around. (After all, this is the height of the tourist season.) Not to mention that some not insignificant portion of the tourists / visitors acted like Instagram “influencers”. And it seemed like they all had selfie sticks. 

Anyway, then it was on to the culmination of the  Carnaval competition in the Sambadrome. The various Samba schools apparently spend all year making floats and practicing for this annual competition. 

Carnaval lasts for  about 4 days. The “unofficial” block parties start pretty much every night around 10:00 PM and lasted until 7:00 AM the following morning. And it seemed that everyone in the city got dressed up—or perhaps undressed—for the occasion. 

We left for the Sambadrome the final night and got there around 9:00 PM, where we had seats in a VIP section that was stocked with food and booze. It was like a sky box at a baseball game or the Super Bowl. And it had additional places at ground level, where most of the Crystal crowd stayed. 

The competition began around 10:00 PM and the sound of the bass and drums was deafening. Each group of competitors (there were 3 that night) had 80 minutes to perform their routines. We, along with about a third of the Crystal crowd watched the first group and then left around midnight. But we know some people who stayed until 4:00 in the morning and didn’t get back to the ship until 5:00 AM. 

I couldn’t help but think that the Carnaval participants would be way better off spending more time taking geometry classes and less time building floats, but such is life. Anyway we will have a few more days in Brazil and then we will cross the Atlantic, headed for Europe. 

JFB

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 a spectacle. Stay tuned.

But before we get to Carnival…we visited São Paulo and Santos, as well as 2 Brazilian islands: Ilhabela and Paraty.  São Paulo is one of the largest cities in South America and it is a cultural hub. But São Paulo is a mixed bag. 

It has some very posh areas, like where we had lunch at Fogo de Chao. But it also has very poor areas; what appears to be a large homeless population, and (according to our guide) a significant problem with crack cocaine.   

Santos, a port city, appears to be more balanced, but it too has its rough spots. Santos has become a vacation area for locals and it encourages tourism. While there we visited a Museum dedicated to the football (soccer) great, Pele, who originally hailed from Santos; we visited the Coffee exchange and took a small train ride around the city. 

We also went to 2 notable islands: Ilhabela and Paraty.  Ilhabela whose name means beautiful island in Portugese, is located 4 miles off the coast of São Paulo. While it used to be a place where sugar cane was grown on plantations by slaves, today it is known for its sandy beaches and tourism.

We anchored by Paraty Brazil, but didn’t venture out because, among other things, the Brazilian authorities changed our anchor position at the last minute. The change would have put us 4 nautical miles (and about an hour) away from the dock. So we declined going ashore. However we did get some photos of the sunrise over the island, shown below. 

JFB

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 terminals are sparkling, with lots of tourism information, shops and dining places within – you barely have to leave the cruise ship to experience some of the local culture.  If you look online for images of the Barcelona cruise ship passenger terminal you will see that it looks like a beautiful new shopping mall.  

Other ports are primarily commercial shipping ports – big, noisy, gritty, and organized around mountains of containers that carry goods round the world.  When a cruise ship docks there, the bright lights and noise of the port can be enjoyed all night by the passengers – not so great for sleep.   As a cruise ship passenger, you are bundled off the ship and shuttled by bus around the edges of the port to a safe gateway into the host city.  

Attached is a short video from the port in Valparaiso, Chile.  There were huge numbers of trucks lined up to catch container after container being mechanically unloaded from enormous cargo ships.  I took just about a minute or two for each container to be taken from the cargo ship and deposited onto the waiting truck.  

https://youtu.be/e4CYcrZSeMA

And then there are ports like Santos, Brazil, which hosts both commercial cargo ships and cruise ships carrying passengers, without very clear separate areas for each. These mixed-use ports are fascinating to observe because you are close to the action of the cargo movement, but you are carefully shuttled by bus through the port so that you don’t get hurt by a big truck or container – no walking around is permitted.  The passenger shuttle buses weave around the forklifts, the trucks, and the other vehicles – sometimes for miles- getting passengers to the safety of the port exit.  You can see the workers and the details that go into the action. Again, a quick online search of Santos, Brazil shipping port will give you aerial shots and others that capture some of the scope of this incredible port.

Santos is the largest port in Latin America when it comes to cargo – it serves as the export gateway for massive amounts of dry goods and liquid goods from Brazil.   

Soy beans are the biggest export by far (to China) but sugar, coffee, corn and citric juices are also big business here.  Oranges were formerly one of the big exports, but local business owners discovered that they could process the oranges into juice (a value-add) and it was more profitable.  This change in the nature of the product flowing through the port generated growth in the surrounding area, so now the city of Santos has more industry (and profit) than before.  Most of the orange juice goes to Belgium but that doesn’t mean Belgians drink it all – from its entry there it is distributed throughout Europe.  

While docked in Santos we have visited the city, and the large city of São Paulo (about 80 km/ 50 miles away).  More about our excursions in Brazil later.  

MA 

Mary Anne McDonald

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