I’m awake early again – bummer – but lie in state until my cup of tea arrives.
Johanne and I need to do some provisioning, so after getting the address of the local supermarket, we head off with Anna and Barbara from Basia in a taxi. Since none of us speaks a word of Portuguese, Susanna has written the name of the supermarket down and we just show it to the taxi driver and hope for the best.
We get there without mishap and spend a happy hour wandering up and down the aisles amongst familiar and not so familiar products. We end up with some things in our basket because they look interesting. It’s one of the things we both enjoy doing.
We manage to squish everything into another taxi for the return trip and haul it all back to the boat in the blazing heat.
After the customary afternoon nap, we get ourselves ready for the evening and go over to Crazy Horse for a drink. Johanne not only has to get off our boat but onto Crazy Horse via Wild Tigris’ gang plank, which is waving ominously at her, two feet off the ground and rocking from side to side. Johanne nearly has a fit but manages to get on and along it, wobbling all the way. Then she has to climb over the side from one boat to another which she manages without embarrassing herself although she definitely looks like she needs a drink afterwards! Rosemary and Bill make Johanne and Steve feel really part of the fleet and are wonderful hosts to us.
It is the weekly festival in the town tonight, but by the time we leave Crazy Horse it is gone 8 pm and we are not sure whether to bother as we have been told not to wander around the old town much after 9 pm. In the end, we decide to go anyway and make our way over to the Lacerda elevator, the huge lift that takes you up from the lower city to the Municipal Square in the upper town high above on the hill. Work started on this landmark in 1869 using steel parts imported from England.
For 7 pence you get crammed into a windowless box which shoots (thankfully) very quickly to the top and spills you out into the beauty of the old town.
It’s already dark and we decide to find somewhere to eat quite quickly and after a few minutes walk find the Cafe Bahia which although is an internet cafe, is a restaurant and hotel as well. We can see at a glance that it is local food and head straight in.
Amazingly the waiter speaks some broken English, and the menu has English too which is quite unusual. We all order shrimp and crab stew. We hear it coming before we see it, bubbling red hot in cast iron pots, themselves in huge wooden bowls – quite a terrifying sight until it is set firmly on the table. It is served with white rice and something which is a bit like ground maize (or sawdust Mike says) but actually when it’s mixed in with the rice and the stew, is pretty good. The whole meal is delicious and we are all glad we made the effort to go out.
Photo: Steve and me
Photo: The four together again
Photo: Rio Branco Palace
We stroll back to the elevator and get rammed in again, shooting down to the bottom at breakneck speed. We have been told that the area outside the marina is a bit on the dodgy side at night so we don’t hang around but leg it back inside the security gates.
Of course, more traumas await Johanne as she has to get back on the boat, but having managed with Wild Tigris and Crazy Horse she grits her teeth and jumps, managing not to take a dip.
We pour ourselves an Amarula (Jutta kindly bought me four bottles in Cape Town as I forgot) and go out to sit on the trampoline and watch the stars, listen to the music still playing in one of the squares in the old town and generally being content. On the trampoline with a drink in her hand, Johanne knows she is now on holiday!
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