Santos, Brazil

Santos is a municipality in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, founded in 1546 by the Portuguese nobleman Brás Cubas. It is located mostly on the island of São Vicente, which harbors both the city of Santos and the city of São Vicente, and partially on the mainland. The population is around 400 thousands .The city is home to the Coffee Museum, where world coffee prices were once negotiated. There is also a football memorial, dedicated to the city's greatest players, which includes Pelé, who spent the majority of his career with Santos Futebol Clube. Its beachfront garden, over 5km in length, figures in Guinness World Records as the largest beachfront garden in the world.

We have been in Santos before. Five years ago and hired a driver that took us around, so this time I contacted him again to do a similar tour today.

The driver (Cesar) came right on time. Our first stop was Monte Serrat. Upon arrival we took a funicular to the top. Another option is to walk 400 steps.
There is a nice view of the city from the top. There is also an old casino building. The casino was open from 1927 to 1946. As of now it is a party house.
There is also a church that was build in XIV century.
Our second stop was beachfront right across beautiful Basilica.
It was a nice break. Inside was nice and cool.
We took a stroll along the beachfront garden and spent sometime at a beach cafe drinking cold water.
Most of high rise buildings along the beach are leaning due to the soft grounds.

Now it was time for lunch. Cesar took us to what he described one of the best restaurants in Santos. It is a Brazilian barbecue. The food was very good. I think we all had enough meat for few weeks.
Then we drove to Pele museum, but only went to a gift shop to buy a jersey for our grandson. Hope he likes it.
The heat and humidity got the best of us and we were ready to go back on the ship.
The traffic was extremely heavy. Glad to be back on the ship and take a shower.
No dinner this evening. Too full to eat.Read more