A Look At What Is Happening Today:
Cruising The Amazon River ✔ Enrichment & Other Activities ✔Dinner At Silk Road ✔
We departed Santarem, Brazil at around 5:00 PM yesterday afternoon. Santarem marked our last visit to Brazil during this adventure. In total, we visited twelve different ports of call in Brazil, and for us eleven of the twelve ports represented first time visits for us.
We have seen a wide range of places in Brazil from large cities such as Rio to a small village in Boca de Valerio. Seeing so many places in a very short time has given us a new appreciation of Brazil. This country certainly has its challenges, but at the same time it is very rich in natural resources and has the potential to be one of the largest economies of the world.
We found the people who we met in Brazil to be very friendly and that even includes the vendors. Yesterday, was an example of this. The city is a major trading area and the reason for all of these stores in the downtown area is because people come in all sorts of boats from small villages to purchase a wide range of products. We found the people in the stores just like the people at the local craft market to be very friendly and not pushy in contrast to some other areas of the world.
One challenge for Brazil might be its language so it will be interesting to see overtime if some type of change comes about as it does become a major economic world-wide player. We may never see this ourselves, but one has to wonder if there will be a change to Spanish at some future point in time or if it is taught along with english as second languages.
We had a great time last evening.
Although last evening we dined at Prego, these are the dining menus from the Crystal Dining Room. The theme of the dinner was the Neptune Dinner.
This is the entertainment program from last evening and the featured entertainment was the performance of Production Show Standing Room Only.
We began last evening by having friends Bob and Glo to our room for Canapes and some wine. Rao organized all of this for us.
This included some seafood, vegetables, and pigs n' blankets (little hot dogs wrapped in a roll), and some nuts and potato chips.
Anne Marie with Glo.
We had a fun time with Bob and Glo
Afterwards, the four of us went to the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant for dinner. Our reservation was at 7:30 PM. When we first arrived it was very crowed but interestingly enough they said that they were busy early but very few guests would be arriving after we did. Sure enough, around 8:00 PM the restaurant was no longer crowded.
Dinner was great. We enjoyed a wonderful conversation and the cuisine, service and overall ambiance was just wonderful.
Our waiter for the evening was Costa who took wonderful care of us as he always does.
Shortly after we were seated, Costa went over the additional items with us which included Halibut as well as a Pasta with Clams entree. The other item that Costa mentioned is the additional dessert which is the Soufflé. For those who want this item, they are asked to place the order for this dessert at the time they order their main courses. We have a running joke with Costa about this because we have never ordered this Soufflé, but he does mention it each and every time we dine there. We tell him that the day he doesn't mention it that might be the day we would have ordered it.
We began the meal with appetizers. We both had a warm lobster with poached in sage butter. Sorry, we didn't get a photo of this one.
For our next course Keith had his standing order salad and Anne Marie had the Caesar Salad.
For our entree, we both had the additional seafood entree which was Halibut. It was cooked very nicely and the sauce that accompanied it along with the risotto really adds lots of great flavor to this entree.
As most of you have figured out now, if there is an additional seafood entree in Prego we usually order it. If an additional seafood entree is not available, then more then likely we will order the Sea Bass that was added to the menu sometime after we sailed on the Serenity last year as we really enjoy that entree.
At the same time, if there is a pasta that interests us that is one of the two additional items then we will likely get a small sampling of the pasta by having it as an appetizer.
This is a photo of the Halibut. The cut was perfect and it was cooked to perfection.
This is the side order of Grilled Vegetables that Keith ordered.
All in all we had a terrific time with Glo and Bob as we always do when the four of us are together.
Keith slept very well last evening, although Anne Marie didn't sleep so well. Maybe she's thinking of all of the packing that needs to be done this week. LOL.
Keith was up a little earlier then usual and took advantage of that time to get our remaining laundry done. He put the laundry in the washer before he began his workout and then at some point during the workout he took a short break to put it in the dryer. It was good that he got it done so early because it wasn't before too long that the laundry room became busy for the rest of the day as many guests are still catching up on getting their laundry done from the days when the laundry rooms were closed while we were sailing the Amazon.
Keith did enjoy a nice workout and shortly after finishing the workout he had coffee at the Lido Cafe. He spoke with a few fellow guests, including friend Linda. He brought coffee back to the room for Anne Marie and she walked for about thirty minutes before breakfast and then she finished her workout after breakfast. We had an earlier breakfast then we normally do on a sea day because Keith was getting his haircut.
Keith had his final haircut of the cruise and thanked the hair stylist who has been cutting both Keith's and Anne Marie's hair since 2011 and also wished her all the best. Anne Marie will be getting her hair done this week as well.
During Captain Okland's morning talk from the bridge he mentioned that the pilots who have been on board the ship since we entered the Amazon River would be leaving later today. He also noted that we would be out of the river by early this evening.
Today was another busy day on the ship. There were three lectures.
Special Interest Lecturer, Neil Leifer, who spoke on last years World Cruse presented Capturing The Olympics which featured photographs that he took for NBC's Today Show of American medal winners at the 2012 Olympic Games. Keith watched his talk when it was repeated on the Crystal Television Station. This was all new material and it was quite interesting.
Afterwards, General Tony Zinni presented 21st Century Leadership. He spoke about how in this Global and very faced paced environment the challenges that we have to prepare students for the workforce and to prepare people for increasing areas of responsibility and how leaders of today have to know so much more then before.
In the afternoon, Dr Donald J. Behnke spoke about Jazz from the Beginning. We will plan to catch his talk tomorrow on television. Evidently, he covered the top performers of Jazz.
In between the activities Keith worked out again at the Fitness Center. It was drizzling on and off today so no opportunity to play Paddle Tennis.
Anne Marie had another garment altered and then later in the morning she did some packing.
There was even an Equator Crossing Ceremony today as we crossed the Equator for the second time of this cruise today. Due to the rain, the ceremony was moved from outside to inside the ship at the Palm Court.
It was fitting that the movie shown this afternoon was Papillion. It was made in 1973 and stars Steve McQueen Dustin Hoffman and Vitor Jory and it is about two men who serve their prison sentence on Devil's Island. Tomorrow, we will visit Devil's Island.
We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe. We each made salad entrees. This was Keith's salad which included two types of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, some steamed vegetables and a little chicken.
In the morning and the afternoon the people who serve food and add food from the galley to the Lido Cafe Buffet work at one of the two specialty restaurants.
In addition, waiters from the Crystal Dining Room along with five Lido Deck Stewards assists guests at the table including bringing beverages, carrying their plates over to the table if a guest needs assistance, clearing and also cleaning the tables.
Sheila is one of the waiters at Silk Road. Her assignment for today was cutting the steamship round prime rib. Of course we didn't have any but Keith took a photo of Sheila and the Prime Rib.
This afternoon Keith wrote and read and also met up with friend Bob.
Anne Marie walked another hour inside the ship and also took the afternoon Yoga Class and did some additional packing.
This evening we will be dining at Silk Road with one of the Senior Officers. We will post all about that tomorrow.
We departed Santarem, Brazil at around 5:00 PM yesterday afternoon. Santarem marked our last visit to Brazil during this adventure. In total, we visited twelve different ports of call in Brazil, and for us eleven of the twelve ports represented first time visits for us.
We have seen a wide range of places in Brazil from large cities such as Rio to a small village in Boca de Valerio. Seeing so many places in a very short time has given us a new appreciation of Brazil. This country certainly has its challenges, but at the same time it is very rich in natural resources and has the potential to be one of the largest economies of the world.
We found the people who we met in Brazil to be very friendly and that even includes the vendors. Yesterday, was an example of this. The city is a major trading area and the reason for all of these stores in the downtown area is because people come in all sorts of boats from small villages to purchase a wide range of products. We found the people in the stores just like the people at the local craft market to be very friendly and not pushy in contrast to some other areas of the world.
One challenge for Brazil might be its language so it will be interesting to see overtime if some type of change comes about as it does become a major economic world-wide player. We may never see this ourselves, but one has to wonder if there will be a change to Spanish at some future point in time or if it is taught along with english as second languages.
We had a great time last evening.
Although last evening we dined at Prego, these are the dining menus from the Crystal Dining Room. The theme of the dinner was the Neptune Dinner.
This is the entertainment program from last evening and the featured entertainment was the performance of Production Show Standing Room Only.
We began last evening by having friends Bob and Glo to our room for Canapes and some wine. Rao organized all of this for us.
This included some seafood, vegetables, and pigs n' blankets (little hot dogs wrapped in a roll), and some nuts and potato chips.
We had a fun time with Bob and Glo
Afterwards, the four of us went to the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant for dinner. Our reservation was at 7:30 PM. When we first arrived it was very crowed but interestingly enough they said that they were busy early but very few guests would be arriving after we did. Sure enough, around 8:00 PM the restaurant was no longer crowded.
Dinner was great. We enjoyed a wonderful conversation and the cuisine, service and overall ambiance was just wonderful.
Our waiter for the evening was Costa who took wonderful care of us as he always does.
Shortly after we were seated, Costa went over the additional items with us which included Halibut as well as a Pasta with Clams entree. The other item that Costa mentioned is the additional dessert which is the Soufflé. For those who want this item, they are asked to place the order for this dessert at the time they order their main courses. We have a running joke with Costa about this because we have never ordered this Soufflé, but he does mention it each and every time we dine there. We tell him that the day he doesn't mention it that might be the day we would have ordered it.
We began the meal with appetizers. We both had a warm lobster with poached in sage butter. Sorry, we didn't get a photo of this one.
For our next course Keith had his standing order salad and Anne Marie had the Caesar Salad.
For our entree, we both had the additional seafood entree which was Halibut. It was cooked very nicely and the sauce that accompanied it along with the risotto really adds lots of great flavor to this entree.
As most of you have figured out now, if there is an additional seafood entree in Prego we usually order it. If an additional seafood entree is not available, then more then likely we will order the Sea Bass that was added to the menu sometime after we sailed on the Serenity last year as we really enjoy that entree.
At the same time, if there is a pasta that interests us that is one of the two additional items then we will likely get a small sampling of the pasta by having it as an appetizer.
This is a photo of the Halibut. The cut was perfect and it was cooked to perfection.
This is the side order of Grilled Vegetables that Keith ordered.
All in all we had a terrific time with Glo and Bob as we always do when the four of us are together.
Keith slept very well last evening, although Anne Marie didn't sleep so well. Maybe she's thinking of all of the packing that needs to be done this week. LOL.
Keith was up a little earlier then usual and took advantage of that time to get our remaining laundry done. He put the laundry in the washer before he began his workout and then at some point during the workout he took a short break to put it in the dryer. It was good that he got it done so early because it wasn't before too long that the laundry room became busy for the rest of the day as many guests are still catching up on getting their laundry done from the days when the laundry rooms were closed while we were sailing the Amazon.
Keith did enjoy a nice workout and shortly after finishing the workout he had coffee at the Lido Cafe. He spoke with a few fellow guests, including friend Linda. He brought coffee back to the room for Anne Marie and she walked for about thirty minutes before breakfast and then she finished her workout after breakfast. We had an earlier breakfast then we normally do on a sea day because Keith was getting his haircut.
Keith had his final haircut of the cruise and thanked the hair stylist who has been cutting both Keith's and Anne Marie's hair since 2011 and also wished her all the best. Anne Marie will be getting her hair done this week as well.
During Captain Okland's morning talk from the bridge he mentioned that the pilots who have been on board the ship since we entered the Amazon River would be leaving later today. He also noted that we would be out of the river by early this evening.
Today was another busy day on the ship. There were three lectures.
Special Interest Lecturer, Neil Leifer, who spoke on last years World Cruse presented Capturing The Olympics which featured photographs that he took for NBC's Today Show of American medal winners at the 2012 Olympic Games. Keith watched his talk when it was repeated on the Crystal Television Station. This was all new material and it was quite interesting.
Afterwards, General Tony Zinni presented 21st Century Leadership. He spoke about how in this Global and very faced paced environment the challenges that we have to prepare students for the workforce and to prepare people for increasing areas of responsibility and how leaders of today have to know so much more then before.
In the afternoon, Dr Donald J. Behnke spoke about Jazz from the Beginning. We will plan to catch his talk tomorrow on television. Evidently, he covered the top performers of Jazz.
In between the activities Keith worked out again at the Fitness Center. It was drizzling on and off today so no opportunity to play Paddle Tennis.
Anne Marie had another garment altered and then later in the morning she did some packing.
There was even an Equator Crossing Ceremony today as we crossed the Equator for the second time of this cruise today. Due to the rain, the ceremony was moved from outside to inside the ship at the Palm Court.
It was fitting that the movie shown this afternoon was Papillion. It was made in 1973 and stars Steve McQueen Dustin Hoffman and Vitor Jory and it is about two men who serve their prison sentence on Devil's Island. Tomorrow, we will visit Devil's Island.
We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe. We each made salad entrees. This was Keith's salad which included two types of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, some steamed vegetables and a little chicken.
In the morning and the afternoon the people who serve food and add food from the galley to the Lido Cafe Buffet work at one of the two specialty restaurants.
In addition, waiters from the Crystal Dining Room along with five Lido Deck Stewards assists guests at the table including bringing beverages, carrying their plates over to the table if a guest needs assistance, clearing and also cleaning the tables.
Sheila is one of the waiters at Silk Road. Her assignment for today was cutting the steamship round prime rib. Of course we didn't have any but Keith took a photo of Sheila and the Prime Rib.
This afternoon Keith wrote and read and also met up with friend Bob.
Anne Marie walked another hour inside the ship and also took the afternoon Yoga Class and did some additional packing.
This evening we will be dining at Silk Road with one of the Senior Officers. We will post all about that tomorrow.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY............
“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.” – Leon J. Suenes
“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.” – Leon J. Suenes
Keith and Anne Marie
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