2008 Mann/Hill World Cruise

January 20, 2006

We have another sea day, so a little time to reflect. I tried to get Alemitu to write, but she has been laid low with seasickness again. Poor kid.

Alemitu and I were waiting for Carter to finish with clinic so we could go into Recife on the 18th. Then we found out that Alemitu had to do a special crew clinic on Antarctica. Carter and I had done it the day before, but I agreed to sit thru it with her since she didn’t want to be alone. It was rather on the boring side, but she survived. Then just as we were going to leave the ship Carter got called about an injury so we took off on our own.

We took a shuttle bus into the town and were dropped off in a relatively unsavory place. There were no street signs, just general directions from crew who were returning from the shopping center, so we headed off on foot, trying to memorize the buildings and landmarks so we could find our way back to the bus stop. The sidewalks were so interesting because they all were made the white and black stones in a mosaic design. Some of them were in disrepair with huge holes of sand, but they were easily jumped. As we walked we kept remarking that the buildings looked European, almost like St. Petersburg, with similar loud colors. We walked for about 20 minutes, over several bridges, passing unbelievable traffic that paid no attention to pedestrians, and finally decided the shopping mall was going to have to go down as a missed opportunity. It was windy, thank goodness, to combat the 90 degree temperature, and for some reason the humidity was less than it had been in days.

We did manage to find our way back to the bus stop without mishap, other than multiple stares. They don’t have many people as pale as I, plus I was the only person around wearing a hat. Once at the bus area we had to wait for about 20 minutes. There were some very aggressive beggars who Alemitu felt looked healthy enough to have regular jobs. The one that horrified her the most was one who was about 8 months pregnant and smoking.

Tomorrow we land in Rio. Some passengers will be leaving the ship and others joining. Some of my gym friends are the ones leaving. I’ll miss their support.
Winnie

posted by Hills @ 7:28 PM