Monday, January 27 - Itajai, Brazil

 Today brought an unexpected pleasant surprise.  We'd never heard of Itajai (pronounced eet-a-jai) but it turns out, it is a very nice place.  Our tour was "Camboriu Highlights and Cable Car".  Itajai is in the southeast part of Brazil, and Cambroriu is around 20 km south.  Itajai is a nice town once you get out of the immediate port area.  Once again, the port is primarily commercial.  But this part of Brazil is clean and, for the most part, well-maintained.  And once we got to Camboriu it was beautiful with lots of greenery and huge apartment/condo buildings.  There a few very nice beaches and the highrises are mostly centered to face them.  It is sometimes called the Dubai of Brazil, and it's easy to see why.

A view from our balcony as we sailed in

This is a very commercial port

We took a tram up to the first stop which was the Atlantic Forest Station.  Here, we took a walk around amongst the greenery and then down (and back up!) 80 steps to a beautiful lookout.  I brought the ship's umbrella which is like a golf umbrella to use as a walking stick on those steps, but it turned out that I didn't need it.  My hip complained a little, but I managed it fine.  At this station, you can ride a little train around the jungle, slide down a track on a small toboggan-like thing, or go zip-lining.  From the sounds, people were really having fun.

Getting read to ride the tram

He looks thrilled 

Houses below the tram

This was a very active tram stop

It looks like a Brazilian version of Miami Beach

We looked OK after the 80 steps down.  A picture after the return trip back up wouldn't have looked so fresh.

This was the little train that ran around the area.

The next station was over and down the other side to the beach where we had 40 minutes to have a look around and get a cool beverage.  (Our beer and Coke was $4.50 - it still amazes me how reasonable everything is.)  The beach was jumping and there were several restaurants and lots of shops selling beachy things.  

You can see the tram cars (red and yellow) heading to our next stop at the beach.

The view of the beach from our table

Then back to the tram for the return trip.  Michael went a little ahead and got into a different car - they only held 6 people.  I made the trip with a grandmother (Marta) her daughter (Sylvia), her daughter (Alicia), and grandma's sister whose name I have forgotten.  The daughter, Sylvia, spoke a little English and among us all, we had a lovely 15 minutes making conversation using some words, some sign language, and lots of laughter.  Alicia (5 yrs old) was learning English but was very shy.  However, she and her grandma did kneel on the forward seat and say "Weeee" as we went over the support columns.  Some things don't need translation.

The two newest highrise condos.  Julia said that most of these are only used for 6 months or so a year.  They are very expensive, so some rent them out for the remainder of the year to help with the cost.

On the bus ride back, we passed a hotel (more like a motel) that advertised R$59.50 (about US$10) for "2 horas".  Again, as with the MSC cruise advertisement I mentioned yesterday, I think we must be misunderstanding something.  Who would advertise something like that in a nice neighborhood?  Wish I'd gotten a photo.

Our guide, Julia, was excellent.  She's originally from Italy and her English was very good and she shared excellent information.  So all in all, this was the best excursion we've had so far.   

Roger didn't come to trivia, but the 4 of us still managed a decent 13/15 (another easy one) for 2 points.  We were all a bit worried about Roger and Inka, but Michael and I saw them go into dinner later, so hopefully all is well.  

Terry Bishop did a lecture today before dinner on the history of Argentina.  As Bo says, lots of warring to get where they are today.  But isn't that the history for almost every country?

We had another fine dinner at Compass Rose before turning in early again.