We joined the ship in port of Santos which was a 2 hour drive from Sao Paulo airport.  Very industrial port not much to see.

This section will full of pictures and commentary on our 4 days in Rio de Janeiro

There are many, many things to see and do in Rio but be careful we had a number of people on the ship fall victim to pickpockets

The picture to the right of the statue is the view from the top of Corcavado Mountain.  That's one of many parts of Rio with the Formula 1 racetrack clearly visible.

But enough of this nature stuff with Kathie drinking and dancing, lets move on the more refined cultural aspects of Rio that I'm interested in :-)

There were two museums just down the street from where we were docked in Rio.  The one on the left is Museu do Amanha, which according to my fluent Portuguese means Museum of Tomorrow and the one on the right is Museu de Arte do Rio which means, well I think even you guys can interpret that.

The last few pics will show you examples of Rio's street art.  You can't go to any big or little city in Brazil without seeing street art.

One final picture.  Do you know what this is without using Google camera to tell you.  For everyone that gets it right I'm buying drinks at the bar by the pool

The next series of pictures will cover our next port of Salvador

On our second day in Salvador my beach bunny Kathie took over and we headed to Praia (beach) da Boa Viagem.  Back in 2007 the Guardian (British newspaper) voted this the 3rd best beach in the world....could have fooled me.  Anyhow here's Kathie and the beach and the...

Kathie and I adopted a few pets in Recife.  As you can see below hers is BIG lion and mine is chicken I named Stephen (inside joke).

There wasn't much to see in the old center of the city but Kathie found a new outfit to wear to dinner and I found a new friend.

Since the center of Recife was less than spectacular we headed to Olinda a nearby city that was founded in 1535.  Built on a hill it offered a panoramic view of Recife and an opportunity for Kathie to get comfortable in her natural setting.

And now for the highlight of our trip to date.  The second day in Recife we ventured 40 minutes outside of Recife to two different facilities that shared a common benefactor - Francisco Brennand.  Google him to get a complete picture of his impressive accomplishments. The first facility was a repurposed tile factory that is now the home of an incredible display of ceramic art.

Next is a self-portrait sculpture of Francisco and a demonstration of his love for women with big boobs.

I have many more pictures of his ceramic art

Our second Francisco Brennand facility was a museum and grounds (and some wild life) patterned after an English Tudor Castle complete with a moat around it.  The museum spanned three buildings - one with paintings, one with paintings, sculptures and historic artifacts and third was an armory with over 4000 knives, swords, guns, armor, etc.

First the grounds and wildlife.  Bamboo entrance arc and a herd of capybara (largest rodent in the world)

Here are some artifacts and sculptures from one wing of the museum.  The large carved ivory tusk is from a woolly mammoth and the second smaller one is from an elephant tusk.  Look closely at the  woman wooden sculpture and then look at the reflection in the mirror - what do you see???? 

This last set of pictures comes from the 3rd building which housed the Armory.  Knights in their coats of armor, the mother of all Swiss army knives and combination knife/gun.

After a wonderful day at these two very impressive facilities, I bring you a dramatic sunset as we leave the port of Recife.

For reasons to detailed to discuss here, our last port in Brazil was the city of Belem.  Population 1.5 million and considered the gateway to the Amazon territory...oh and by the way its the capital of the state of Para in Brazil.

Here's a few pics of the skyline of Belem, churches in the old city and fruit stalls in a giant outdoor market next to the port.

The real attraction that Belem is known for are two gorgeous combinations of zoo, museum and botanical gardens.  The first one I'll show you is Rodriques Alves Parca.  But first just  a slight digression....Kathie and I were in Brazil 2 years ago and took a 5 day cruise deep into the Amazon were we saw minimal wildlife, except for the other people on the boat.  But these two gardens were full of Amazon wildlife as you'll see below......owls, snakes, tortoise and Kathie in front of giant tree root ball...when that baby fell all of Belem heard it.

In between botanical parks we needed to take a break so we headed to the local outdoor market for a little food and refreshment.

The second zoo, museum and botanical garden was the Emilio Goeldi garden.  This space is right in the heart of Belem and was established in the late 1800's.  They purposely set the land aside to protect all of the native Amazon plants, trees and animals.  From left to right, top to bottom I bring you - South American Agouti & Tapir, Leopard and Macaw, Scarlet Ibis and Turtles, turtles and more turtles.

My last two pics are meant to demonstrate just how big things get in South America.  The first picture is Kathie standing in front of a Angelim Vermelho tree.  These trees can grow to be 350 feet tall and live for over 400 years.  My second demonstration of size is the fossilized head of a Purussaurus (giant crocodile).  These giant crocodiles were longer and bigger than a T-Rex.