The taxi dropped us off in the shopping / beach area of Santos - Gonzaga, we split up from Nellie and Arnold and headed for the beach. It was a glorious day and everyone was at the beach, walking or jogging, this seemed to be the place to come if you're "retired of Santos". The oldies were taking their morning constituions, enjoying the sea air and chatting with their friends. Fullsize footall pitches with permanent goal posts were marked out on the beach and brazilian guys were doing their thing, they're a pretty fit bunch so I decided not to mix it up with them. There were dozens of little bars with deckchairs and umbrellas staked out for folks to sit in the shade and enjoy a cocktail or two.

After our stroll along the beach we headed in to town to escape the midday sun (I've still got that 'shrimp' look) and bumped into Nellie and Arnold writing a handful of postcards to their pals in Switzerland. We headed into Santos which is a large town, acting as the port and weekend seaside retreat for Sao Paolo, with bars, restaurants and shopping arcades (there was even a Coats 'n' Ats i.e. C&A). We popped into a McDonalds for a sundae and a quick drink before wandering back to the beach. The Brazilian army were on a recruiting drive with a makeshift camp setup on the edge of beach complete with tents, motorbikes, an armoured personnel carrier and some sort of anti-aircraft gun which was being manouvered with great gusto by one of the soldiers. We sat in the shade of a group of palm trees and watched the brazilian version of the world go by.

We took another walk, in the opposite direction, along the beach, which must be at least six miles long. We got a chance to look at the buildings lining the beach front, alot of them were leaning at all sorts of angles like vertical crazy paving - perhaps its a case of being safe until they fall down. After a second sundae we sat for awhile before catching a taxi back to the ship at 4 p.m. We were met by a small group of grave-looking crew and got a good telling off from the Chief Officer for not informing him that we were leaving the ship and to find out what time we should be back (everyone else knew and we'd been told that the ship was going to sail at 5pm). Apparently they had finished (un)loading the cargo at 3, that didn't stop them sitting around for the next 50 minutes after we'd arrived, until the Santos Pilot sit turned up to guide the ship out of port. I watched from the top-most deck as we glided out of Santos harbour past the marinas and sailed away with the beach and appartment blocks disappearing behind.

Tomorrow is Itajai (another change to the itinerary) and I'll make sure the Chief Officer knows that we're going ashore and what time he wants us back. Ciao.