Our last stop in Brazil would be the city of Rio Grande in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. We docked there on the morning of Thursday, March 13, 2014. We'd just enjoyed smooth passage down from Porto Belo which we left on Tuesday night. In between Porto Belo and Rio Grande do Sul, we enjoyed a day at sea during which we read, ate, rested and got caught up with some business and the news from home. We have really enjoying the wonderful service here onboard the Regatta and the crew are all exceptional.
We could have skipped Rio Grande do Sul though. It needs a bit of work. There is a few examples of some interesting architecture in town but it seems as if they are trying to hide it with billboards and what ever they are doing isn't working.
The funniest part of the day was the ride in from the pier through the seedier part of this port city. On the shuttle-bus someone from New Jersey said that it looked like New Jersey. I laughed to myself but the people from New Jersey were laughing out loud. So it must have been true.
We walked a few blocks around the downtown and tried to do a bit of shopping but couldn't find anything of interest. We did find a couple of structures that we were told were points of interest and one of them, the Igreja Nossa Senhora Do Carmo was indeed a very cool building. We took some pictures of the ornate exterior of the church and even got to go inside to see the exceptional stained-glass windows. I squeezed in a Hail Mary or two while I was visiting the Igreja. You never know who might be listening.
There was some other interesting architecture that we tried to photograph but not much else of interest. I felt as if that last stop in Brazil kind of took something away from all of the other great venues we'd visited since we left Rio. Too bad to have left the country with that impression.
That evening we sailed out into the Atlantic again and headed south. Sometime during the night we said obrigrado to Brazil as we crossed into Uruguayan territory. The seas were calm.
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| This is City Hall where the shuttle dropped us off |
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| This is the beautiful Mrs. Gym in Rio Grande |
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| This is the Rio Grande Customs House orthe Predio da Alfandega building |
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| This is Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo from the outside |
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| this is a shot coming in from the front at the alter |
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| above the alter |
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| a picture shot towards the front door |
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This building caught our attention. It is a three storey walk-up with
the stairwell in a riverstone tower at the front. |
These next shots are of interesting structures we found in Rio Grande. We believe that the architects might have been under the influence of something or other.
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| What would this style be? |
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| Greek? |
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This one wins hands down. It is a 3-storey building that is 10 feet wide
jammed into the space between two regular buildings. |
Just before we re-boarded the ship we saw something on the dock that we did not recognize at first.
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This huge pointy blades stacked up next to the ship on the dock are
windmill blades being imported to Brazil. Each blade is massive. |
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