Day 16/16: Monday, January 20, 2020: At Sea

Day 15/15: Sunday, January 19, 2020: Salvador de Bahia, Brazil

This is a huge port and bay. We docked around 7:00 am. I thought we were did not have any scheduled shore excursions, but I was later informed by Stephen that we did indeed have a Salvador City Sights excursion booked. Oh, well, I found the roaming about on our own to be very rewarding.

The São Marcelo Fort

We had breakfast brought in again this morning. I tried the grilled peaches...delicious.

We left the ship around 9:30 am and headed into town. The main city is on a bluff well above the port. To access it, other than a dangerous trek, is via the Elevador Lacerda. We were warned that you needed to pay a fee to ride the elevator and they only accepted Brizilian Reais, each of which is worth about $0.25. Upon entering the terminal, there were two ATM's. I used my debit to take out the minimum withdrawal of R$350 or about $87US. This was much more than I wanted, but... And they gave it to me in seven R$50 bills.

The walk from the ship to the elevator was not long, perhaps half a mile. Along the way, we were bombarded with street vendors. One in particular was an old woman who was determined to make our duo a trio. She followed us and kept trying to get us to speak to her in any language we desired. Several times I told her, in several languages, to "get lost". She persisted up until we reached the elevator.

Upon reaching the elevator, the fee turned out to be R$0.15 or about $0.04US. They would not accept my R$50 bill! So we walked down the street aways and Stephen stepped into a convenience store and bought a couple of bottles of water to break a R$50 bill. He was only going to buy one bottle but the clerk insisted on at least two bottles. With the subsequent change in hand, we were able to take the 20 second elevator ride to the upper city.

Once up to the Upper City, we started to roam. Churches everywhere!

The Church of St. Francis was the stand out!

We lit a candle for Terri.

We did not go into the St. Dominc Church.

After the churches, we just wondered along streets. A lot of elevation changes.

We arrived back at the main square to watch some traditional street dancing.

Back to the elevator.