LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Cruise to Rio: |
by Ron Bass |
Adventure, Intrigue, Robbery, Love and New Friends
The cruise started in Buenos Aires, Argentina so we arrived three days before the ship was to leave. Buenos Aires is a great city, like New York. We toured Teatro Colon, the city opera house, which took 18 years to build, has over a thousand full time employees, rehearsal halls and costume shops four stories underground. We visited most of the tourist sites, including Cementerio de la Recoleta to see Evita's second or third grave (I lost count). We toured La Boca district, an old port area, where residents constructed homes with left over material from visiting ships and painted them bright colors. Now, the neighborhood is maintained that wayand known all over for it. Buenos Aires is also known for tender beef. They must not need dentists if they think the beef is tender. I chewed like I was eating beef flavored gum; excellent taste but a lot of work. We walked all over the city without safety concerns. We saw the original subway line, with wooden cars and seats, but no air conditioning. But once out of Argentina we continually got warnings to be careful wherever we went. The cruise company was Oceania, the ship the Insigniaand this was the first gay group on Oceania. Throughout the trip the crew told us how much they enjoyed having us on board. They used terms like courteous, friendly, and considerate to describe us. The cruise itself was as much fun as the portsdays at sea with cash prize bingo and dances at tea time and at night. While there were several good acts, the best show on the trip was " Dixie Longate's Tupperware Party." Funny and ad-libbed, you forget that actual product sales are taking place. On board we met nine people from Rehoboth we did not know before this triptwo full time residents and several weekendersthe world keeps getting smaller. Punta Del Este, Uruguay We opted for a bus tour advertising the site of world-renowned film festivals, beaches and botanical gardens. Instead we saw real estate, rocky coastlines and a goat farm the botanical garden had blown away in a windstorm. Our bus also hit a parked car, getting caught on its bumper. Since police follow all tourist buses since 9-11, they were on the scene. After 15 gay men, the police, drivers and onlookers surveyed the accident, the driver managed to disengage the car from the bus. On my comment card I said the accident was the tour highlight. We received a partial credit. Rio Grande, Brazil After a day at sea, our ship docked next to some slums. We played at the pool, soaked in sun and read. Portobello, Brazil After a day at sea, we bravely opted for another bus tour and won this time, visiting landscaped gardens too beautiful to describe with words. We drove to a beach area, where cable cars provided aerial views of beautiful tropical forests. (We hit no vehicles on the way). Santos, Brazil Santos is the gateway to Sao Paulo Brazil, a city of 17 million people. We decided not to spend 8-10 hours with a lot of travel time and stayed aboard. Despite the advertised bohemian atmosphere, those who went described a massive hot city, not well maintained. Clearly South Americans are masters at brochure description. Parati, Brazil We toured a quaint town, like a movie set. Stone streets hundreds of years old wound around each other forming a lovely village. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil The true adventure begins: we arrived during Carnival. Like everyone I spoke to on the ship, I thought Carnival was a big party like Mardi Gras. Not at all. It's an organized competition among city neighborhoods on a scale that puts our parades to shame. We have no concept of what a float could look like if there were no safety rules, no nudity concerns and no cost limits. And after seeing just part of one night of Carnival, there cannot be any birds with feathers left in the country. Carnival is party with parades starting at 9 p.m. and still going at 8 a.m. three days in a row! Neighborhoods, called "schools," with up to 5000 participants, save all year to make costumes and floats. A neighborhood song is repeatedly sung as each school parades through the Samba Dromea regular downtown street with 80,000 bleacher seats. Of course you must pay for this spectacle, with seats ranging from $100-$500 per person. But after the first group to go from our cruise spoke about it in delirious tones we knew we had to go find a scalper. Here, our trip began to look like an episode of Law and Order. A cab dropped us off as close as we could get to the Samba Drome, then we walked aimlessly, trying not to look like we had any cash. Immediately we attracted people wanting to sell us tickets. After declining one sale, we were followed by a small crowd until we negotiated with somebody for reserved seats. As counterfeits are aplenty, and these were $100 for seats normally costing $250, we insisted we all go to the gate to be sure the tickets were real. We walked through city underpasses, alleys lined with people, jumped through broken fences and even crawled over stone abutments to get to the entrance gate. Our tickets were good! But during the long walk I was certain we'd be relieved of our money and our shoes (a supposed high theft item). But we made it to the bleachers to see a group moving slowly down the street, not unlike the Philadelphia Mummers if they were on drugs. Each neighborhood segment is timed and if the segment takes less than 40 minutes it's considered too fast. We saw only three and a half "schools" parade by in over five hourswith thousands of colored costumes, five story floats with waterfalls, skating rinks, neon, a spaceship and more. The people standing near us where shocked when we left "early," at 4 a.m. The next day we were to go to a Gay street parade, but all we saw were crowds of people in drag. After two hours, the crowd rushed to another street corner, creating a frightening stampede. My concern was simply staying on my feet. In the crush, it happenedmy pocket was picked. Some money and a ship ID card were laproscopically removed. I never felt a thing. All in all, even with the scalping adventure and some strange ports, this was a wonderful trip. The three countries we saw each had their own beauty. Our enjoyable Rio visit included a trip to Corcavadoyou've probably seen it in moviesthe huge 120-foot statue of Jesus with arms outstretched miles above the city. We reached it by a cog train that seemed to go up almost vertically. The cruise was great, and Carnival is a MUST. But it's not for the faint of heart. Ron Bass lives in Rehoboth Beach. He can be reached at by e-mail at tighebass@att.net. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 16, No. 3 April 7, 2006 |