Dec 19 & 20

We had 2 days at sea going from Salvador to Fortaleza, arriving at the dock around 7:30pm.  On the first morning we were awakened around 5:00 am by cawing and a bright sun.  A flock of masked boobies was soaring next to us.  The bow pressure wake of the ship was forcing flying fish out of the water and the boobies were having breakfast.  They were the first pelagic birds we had seen since our cruise began.  We had an early morning deck walk while watching the boobies soar & dive deep into the water and occasionally one would snatch a flying fish in flight.  There were lectures and games and nothing spectacular except that it was quite windy.  On the 20th we had an enrichment lecture about the Amazon from a professor who lectured as if we were in class.  Following that Terry Breen gave a talk about the supposed Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world.  Terry is an anthropologist who can actually read the Mayan Glyphs and she explained how the calendar only finishes a several century cycle and then begins anew.  The circle shaped calendar shown on all the network stations wasn't even Mayan - it was Aztec.  In the afternoon there was a wine tasting followed by a crepe teatime and, before dinner, we sat in the forward top deck Observation Lounge watching the sail-in to Fortaleza and squeezing in between t cargo ships to dock.  There was no evening entertainment due to arriving in port.