Rio de Janeiro
The same routine often gets tiring (if not boring) and for this reason your correspondent –although always reluctant to leave his comfortable sofa at home here in Copacabana—gladly accepted Thursday the invitation by Brazil´s top crooner, the immortal Brazilian pop music King Roberto Carlos to visit his transatlantic Italian ship, the Costa Pacifica.
Harbored in Rio de Janeiro´s Praca Maua waterfront, Costa Pacifica is advertised as a ship with “high technology, sophisticated and ecological with the design of the latest generation.”
It has fourteen decks, and measures 290 meters long and 35.5 meter s wide.
An entire cabin (per person) for a four day and night trip costs 6,800 reais (1,184 US dollars) to 7,900 reais (1,376 US dollars) depending where is the location and tips are listed as Rs 1,212 (211 US dollars).
Pacific Coast departed Santos, São Paulo’ s coast on 12 March, sailing a day until it landed in Rio de Janeiro on March 13 at the (in)famous Praca Maua, which Brazilian composer the late Billy Blanco immortalized as “a Plaza with a bad reputation attracting women of the night and where a visitor must beware.”
And so,the song explains this old fogie´s reluctance to visit the famous Praca Maua.
But the adventure seeker within got me to the ship on time at exactly 4 pm, or the last minute for a visitor to board.
Escorted on board by an assessor of the most famous Brazilian crooner still alive, I passed the test of dogs sniffing my bag for possible drugs and guards searching me and others passengers boarding as if I was going on a four-day musical cruise rather than an evening visit.
On board for the third time for Roberto Carloses´musical cruise I was pleasantly surprised by the spaciousness, luxury and good taste of the decks outfitted with spas, swimming pools, roulette wheels, bars, dance floors various restaurants for Japanese to Italian and of course the big entertainment hall, where Roberto gave his press conference at 5 pm and later sang for his drooling fans aboard.
What surprised this visitor –rooted in so-called classical music all his life—were the real numerous violins and cellos hung on the walls of bars of the ship and painted on even the bathrooms.
Indeed, the Costa Pacifica was is a musical ship and Roberto´s title “Alem do Horizonte,” or “Beyond the Horizon, “a fitting title for his new adventure of a long career of captain of his own ship on the musical sea’s year at this time.
It is funny, or odd(?) what age does to an observer…whereas in two past visits I doubted if I would be able to face four days and nights with Roberto Carlos, the aging Harold wouldn´t mind getting away from it all swimming in the ship´s pool, taking in the spas and sauna dining on fine Italian style cuisine and partaking in the four day´s and night’ s activities.
A complete refresher from the tiring daily routine!
Getting back to what this observer was invited to write about, at the press conference we learned that romantic (in song and life) Roberto,83, is “very intensely involved in a new romance with an unidentified young woman (who is reportedly 27 years old).”
Secondly, in answer to my question Roberto says he is very happy that the Oscar winning film “I´m Still Here” (“Ainda Estou Aqui”) includes at its end the song he and the late Erasmo Carlos composed “There´s a need to find a way”/” E Preciso Dar Um Jeito”) and that he was not dismayed or angry that the song wasn’t nominated or won an Oscar.
Asked why he got angry (“Shut up”) recently when a fan disrupted his show the usually good-humored crooner admitted “It´s my age…as we get older, we begin to become less tolerant and observe things which begin to annoy us.”
As I write this appreciation, “my” ship the Pacific Coast is somewhere on the high Brazilian seas headed to land tomorrow, Sunday,16 March in Santos, Sao Paulo …. without this observer aboard.
But there is always hope for next year!