South American Tour: Salvador, Brazil

Sunday, February 28, 1965 Enroute to Salavador, Brazil

Millie was sick with upset stomach during night and stayed in bed until dinnertime. Though quite warm, the wind blew at gale proportions and made the deck uncomfortable and the sea very rough.

Monday, March 1, 1965 Salavador, Brazil

Sea much more calm. The temperature of the sea at noon was 88° and of the air 84°. At that time we were exactly 15° south of the equator -- 900 miles. Actually the ship will travel quite a bit farther to reach the equator as it will go in a northwesterly direction as soon as it passes the bulge on Brazil's eastern shore line.

The ship approached Salavado about 8 PM. From the ship, the extensive lighting seemed to indicate quite a city. At 9 PM the anchor was dropped a mile of shore and the passengers knew that was it for the day.

Sao Salavador da Bahia de Todos os Santos to give the town its full name is the capital of Bahia state and fourth largest city in Brazil. The population is about 700,000. The city is divided into two sections with the Baica or lower part and the alta or higher part on a small plateau some 200 feet above. The lower city has the commercial quarter and the picturesque market with its negro vendors. The government building, shopping district, hotels and restaurants area are in the upper city reached by motor roads and four elevators and two cable car systems.

Tuesday, March 2, 1965 Salavador, Brazil

One note very few people with white skin here. It is claimed Brazil is the best or worse integrated country in the world and here is the best or worse city. The South American handbook (1965) states that in all of Brazil 61% are white and multiracial about 21% and 15% black.

It's the last day of the "Carnival" and our ship is still anchored out in the bay. Nine of us boarded a water taxi for shore, took an elevator to upper level area and walked over to the central square. There was a temporary reviewing stand with a large platform for the entertainers. It was 10 AM and there was only impromptu dancing going on and only a few in the stand. We asked the soldiers on duty if we could rest in the stand and take pictures. The Vector Bradford our new passengers handled the language barrier easily. They have lived in Argentina for years. They were told to go to their headquarters - about 200 feet away - and get a pass. Imagine our surprise when we learned the passes were good until midnight.

We entered the stand at 11 am and picked seats shaded by large trees. Still only a few people in stand. Millie and I staged until 7 PM. Most of our group remained until 11 PM. It was one continuous round of rhythm dancing by one group followed by another each allowed about 10 minutes. The populace were certainly on their best behavior which was unusual for a carnival. However we learned that the sale of liquor is forbidden during carnival time, which helps a lot. Also, there were many police stationed around. It was apparent that they were well trained from the way of handling the crowds and the individuals. I have never seen so many people packed so tightly in such small places. I took lots of movies.

Wednesday March 3 1965 Salvador, Brazil

"Ash Wednesday" Lent has started and the S.A. Carnivals are over until next year. Our ship came into dock in early morning and we are spared the trouble of securing a water taxi. The Fennertys, Millie and I took a taxi tour of the town and we were highly impressed by the beautiful homes and excellent landscaping.

Our ship is to take on a load - 700 tons of castor oil at the port, but no one seems to know where the oil is and the local agent can't be located.  The oil showed up late in the afternoon in a lighter being towed across the bay with a most decrepit tug. It took an hour and a half to get the large load in place and anchored, the steam line for pressure was broken and had to be extensively unpaired and other details. Then the crew wanted to attach the steam line to our ship's system. Our vessel is a motor ship (diesel) and not a steam ship. The only steam we have is a small boiler for hot water and not big enough to operate the steam pump on the lighter to raise the oil in the ten inches over the side of the ship.

In South America that's par for the course and now transfer of castor oil is really manana of all. so the little tug left with the large lighter full of castor oil and we stay right at the dock for at least another day.

Thursday March 4 1965 Salvador, Brazil

About 9 AM the lighter returns with the aid of same decrepit tug, but a heaither looking tug also shows up and ties on other side of lighter. Step by step, all of the preliminarals were reenacted.

10:30 AM transfer was started with the healthy tug furnishing the steam. I neglected to mention the number of experts needed for the operation C.O. Our ship had 3 officers, and 8 crewmen, the sick tug had crew of five who participated half heatedly, the big tug a crew of 8 who worked at the source with the four on the lighter. On the deck there were 6 stewardors and 6 more in the hold. Then there were standed supervisors, agents and assistants for the ship, ditto for shipper, the customs pepole and the checkers. There were probably more but I went to town. Now you know why a shot of castor oil is so expensive and this is only one little day in its life. Anyway the load of C.O. is for the air france and they are going to give it to their planes.

The C.O. was loaded by two and the ship sailed by 3 PM. I was worn out so I took a nap.

Our next stop is Bridgetown in the British West Indies on the Island of Barbados, 2471 miles away. It will be our longest water span so far.

South American Tour: Rio de Janiero, Brazil

Friday, February 26, 1965 Rio de Janiero, Brazil

We arose at 6:30 AM as the ship was coming into Rio harbor. There were about 40 ships in this Bay of Guanabara waiting for dock space and our ship joined them. Rio is a city of 3,300,000 people it covers an area of 431 square miles and is built on and around 365 mountain peaks with many bays and lagoons. The Santos & union airport for domestic flights is in the down town section and ocean going ships are docked off-port of the main street of the area. 

A word about their money. In "Pan-Am's World Guided," revised in 1961-2 it lists the cruzeiros as 190 to 1 dollar US. In the South American handbook it states that the value had dropped to 920 to 1 dollar US as of 8/14/1963. We exchanged U.S. dollars for 1810 to 1850 while we were there. What a shook to own a home or have money in the bank and watch nearly 90% disappear in less than five years. 

On a tour we visited the Copacabana Beach, the celebrated bathing place, Hunchback Mountain (Corcovado), their one we drove to the top 2330 feet above sea level, the highest of Rio's 365 peaks and on top is a 120 foot statue of Christ the Redeemer. It was a great spot for taking pictures. Twice we tried to take the cable car to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar) but there was a delay of 2 to 3 hours because so many others had same idea.

We made reservations for four at the Copacabana Palace Hotel for dinner at 10 PM and nite show at 12:30. Cover charge 80,000 cruzeiros (about $43.00) for four. At 5 PM we decided to go back to ship to rest and freshen up for our nite on the town. The ship still anchored in Bay so we hired a water taxi for 8,000 cruzeiros. We could have waited until 630 PM and returned in agent's boat for free but we were too exhausted. In fact, we were so warn out that we passed up returning to Copacabana. When we thought of fighting the language barrier for food, water taxi and land taxi, especially at 2 AM we just didn't feel up to it. Coffee from Rio was loaded on the ship from lighters starting at 8 PM. I don't know when they finished their job.

Saturday February 27, 1965 Nite-Roi, Brazil

Sugarloaf

At 6 AM the ship pulled anchor and crossed to other side of bay to dock at the town of Nite-Roi, Capital of the State of Rio de Janiero where more coffee was taken aboard. We rose at 7 grabbed a cup of coffee, went ashore took a taxi to ferry to Rio. There were about 3,000 on their ferry and they run every 15 minutes. It takes about 10 minutes to cross the Bay. Then we took taxi to Sugarloaf to take cable car to top. There was a delay of 1.5 hours but we decided to wait. The trip is made in two stages starting from bahilonia Hill in Praia Vermelha (Red Beaches) to first stop at area 770 feet high. Then we walked across the top and entered a building where we waited forty-five minutes to take another cable car. Finally, our turn came and we went aboard with 20 other passengers. The car travels 2688 feet across land and water haging all of the distance from the cable with no ground support except at each end. At the top of Sugarloaf we are 1300 feet above the Bay from where the mountain rises. At each stop going up and coming down there was a delay to do so many families coming to Rio for the annual carnival which starts today. At noon and lasts until midnight Tuesday - actually each year until the beginning of Ash Wednesday. It was quite a day very humib and very hot in the direct sunlight. Distant scenes will not by too good in the pictures. I took because of the heavy haze. 

Before we left we were noted that ship would sail at three, so we were concerned about connections we would have to make getting out of Rio and the inevitable delays. There's a real language barrier in Portuguese speaking Brazil and it worsens when one is in a hurry, because with these people as with the Spanish it's always "Manana." The connections clicked and we were back on ship at 2 PM. Nevertheless, it had taken us 6.5 hours to make the round trip. The ship left the dock at 4:15 PM and sailed out of Guanabara Bay into the Atlantic at 5:10 heading for and due in Salvador (Bahia) Brazil) 748 miles Northeast, Monday Night.

South American Tour: Paranagua, Curitiba, Sao Paulo, Santos Brazil

Sunday, February 21, 1965 - Paranagua Brazil

Early Sunday morning we arrived in Paranagua, Brazil lying on a lagoon like harbor. The port is 18 miles from the open sea and is approached via the bay of Paranagua. It is a town of 18,500 and not too well known but it is the main seaport for paraguay which does not have one of it's own. At 1 PM we took the train for Curitiba, a city of 360,000 inhabitants and 3,000 feet above sea level. The trip took eight hours. It was a beautiful day. The train windows were wide open. The railroad is built mostly over bridges and considered a major engineering feat. We took Taxi to Hotel Lord where the ship's agent at Paranagua had phoned for reservations

Monday, February 22, 1965 - Curitiba, Brazil

In the morning we toured the town by taxi. It is the capital of the state of Parana which determines its economic prosperity from expensive coffee plantations in the North and East, timber forests in the southwest. At 12:30 PM we took the bus for Sao Paulo which is 250 miles away, all of it over mountain highways. We arrived at 8:30 PM.

Tuesday, February 23, 1965 - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Sao Paulo is the fastest growing city in the world - a house is built every 8 minutes and the largest metropolitan in South America - 3,850,000 population. Here there are 8000 restaurants and 184 movie houses. The city occupies 627 square miles of a high plateau, 1,675 feet above sea level which gives it a pleasant temperate climate. We stayed at the Excelsior Hotel - excellent accommodations. We took several tours and still did not get to see it all. Our Portuguese being nil, we had our language barriers all over again. We did have a car driver who could speak good English.

Wednesday, February 24, 1965 - Santos, Brazil

Packed, had breakfast, taxied to bus station to take bus to Santos where we could rejoin ship expected to leave at 10:30 AM, but bus was sold out so we waited for the 11:30 one, which left at 11:45.

The distance is only 40 miles and over good roads. The highways are usually much better than city streets. The highways are not wide but are paved an city streets are cobblestones. Try that in a 1940 taxi.

As we entered the city the bus was caught in a terrific traffic jam, caused by two trucks colliding, one turning over on a Volkswagen and spilling its load of heavy cases all over the street.

Finally, got into town and the bus driver put us off quite close to our dock. We didn't know that, but a five minute taxi convinced us.

Thursday, February 25, 1965 - Santos, Brazil

Santos is the leading coffee port of the world and is the gateway for Sao Paulo. It handles 24.4% of all Brazilian shipping traffic. Santos has a population of 300,000. The business area is somewhat decrepit, but the residential part is a real surprise with a large number of apartments facing a beach at least 20 miles long. After a tour we returned to ship and sailed at 5 PM for Rio.