Destination – Back to Brazil (Cadiz, Lisbon, Tenerife, Salvador & Rio de Janeiro) – The (long) way home
So we board the “Splendour of the Seas”, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship heading back to Brazil on a 14 day cruise. It’s yet another beautiful day in Barcelona with lovely weather and blue skies making it just that little bit harder to leave this fabulous city. The ship is good, much smaller than the previous two we’ve been on but being our third cruise, we know the deal. It is a repositioning cruise which makes it cheaper than usual as they relocate the ship to Brazil to work during the summer, so we won’t have as many stops as usual but it is packed with plenty of Brazilians. It’s also a curious feeling, after such a long time, being surrounded by Brazilian people again and most of all, being able to understand everything and even to identify which part of Brazil people come from by their accents. It’s beginning to feel like home, a very noisy, huge, busy home. As I said before, it’s pretty much a big hotel on water and if you just manage to stay away from the recycled buffet and the ballroom dancing, you should get by just fine. On the plus side, it is a very relaxing way of travelling requiring no planning at all after you board, a really big change for us. The rest of the food is good and plentiful, the room is nice and comfortable, the cable tv is fine and so is the on-board gym. We also get to revisit some places we loved (Cadiz and Lisbon) and visit Tenerife. Want more? We can to do as much shopping as we want, and of course we do, including wine, as there is no baggage limit on board, sold yet?
After one day at sea we reach the lovely town of Cadiz and we walk around its lovely streets all over again. One more day at sea and we are back in Lisbon, one of our favourite cities, for more walking around and soaking up the day. The sea starts to get rough and the weather is not very good so we retire to our “chambers” and in between books and movies we manage to talk to loads of people we have absolutely nothing in common with but who are extremely nice and happy to be here. Yeah, relaxing and having fun already. Another day at sea, even rougher than the previous one and a lot of people get really sick, makes you wonder how their selection process works, as with this massive kind of operation the company can’t really afford to have their workers off sick every time we hit rough seas, go figure. Anyway, another day at sea just getting smoother, and we arrive on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife. The weather doesn’t cooperate and we just take a peak at the gorgeous mountains and bays, going out only to buy some wine spending the last of our Euros. After Tenerife we have 6 straight days at sea during which we begin to feel the onset of balmy evenings and sunny days confirming we are heading towards warmer climes, we can almost taste the Brazilian summer in the air. The 6 days go fast and we are rapidly approaching the Brazilian coast. Meanwhile we celebrate 2 year and 7 months on the road, yet another milestone on the way home. We arrive in Salvador, the capital of Bahia where we meet a couple of friends who give us a warm welcome and some great cachaca as well as lively conversation. We have a great time. Back to the ship, another day at sea and the next morning, we’re in Rio de Janeiro, being picked up by family, sheer luxury. It’s good to be back on dry land, and it is even better to be back home, maybe it was just one too many cruises or maybe we are just getting “too old for this ship”!
