Natal, Brazil

The plan for this port had been to Uber it to a beach since there was nothing else of interest in the immediate vicinity. This had been confirmed by Paolo, our guide in Recife yesterday.

But Mui returned from his morning wake-me-up-coffee and announced that he didn’t want to have a beach day. He said that he didn’t much care for ocean swimming with rough surf.

Instead, we decided to take the port-provided shuttle to the Centro de Turismo. We figured that was the town center and from there we could find our way to some museums or something. Hah!

Turns out that the Centro is a handicraft market housed in a former church. Nothing to do anywhere nearby. Very seedy looking neighborhood with no transportation … and definitely not someplace we would want to walk. We asked the tourist rep who greeted the shuttle for ideas. He confirmed there was nothing to do. Sigh!

I asked Mui if he was sure he didn’t want to go to the beach … even if it was just to sit … maybe have lunch somewhere. Nope … he didn’t want to do that.

So, we wandered around the centro for about 30 minutes. But only because that’s how long it would be before the next shuttle arrived and this one would be free to return to the cruise terminal. We did enjoy some nice views of the city from the windows in different parts of the building.

So, for all intents and purposes, this was “a day at sea on land.” At least I got to write up our great tour yesterday in Recife. And after dinner, the internet finally cooperated and I was able to post the footprint. (Not sure why the internet has been so problematic these past 3-4 days. Maybe it really was Brazil’s 5G network interfering with the satellite reception … which is what someone suggested was the problem.)

Speaking of dinner, tonight, we dined with a friend of a friend we made when we joined Insignia for a segment of RTW2022. Jo-Anna joined us in Rio and will be with us until Singapore. We had a lovely time and will, I’m sure, see Jo-Anna around the ship in the days ahead.Les mer