The Hassan II mosque in Casablanca, the largest mosque in Morocco:
This ornately carved building is the courthouse in Casablanca and it's an eye-popper:
Agadir, Morocco features beaches and wildlife attractions. Here are a couple of views from the top of the old city. Yes, that is a camel. One of many provided for the tourists to ride. The old city, by the way, was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1960's and never rebuilt. It is considered to be a cemetary since many people were killed in the quake and remain buried there.
After Agadir, we visited Las Palmas, an island belonging to Spain. This place is really nice:
And then on to Cabo Verde, which was held by the Portuguese. Guess why they call the mountain in the background "George Washington Peak".
A little fun while at sea. Our master fruit-carver did a demonstration out on deck, and the bartender at the pool bar took over from there...Pati thought the duck was so cute she wanted to steal it!
Crossing the equator required the solemn King Neptune ceremony, presided over the the King himself and his court. The way this is done, on Regent anyway, is several "pollywogs" (folks who have not yet crossed the equator by sea) are covered in various types of colorful food and then tossed into the pool, thus becoming "shellbacks" (those of us who have crossed). Everyone is then invited to "kiss the fish" in celebration of the passing. They do bring a whole fish and lots of people do kiss it!
Welcome to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil!
They are very proud of this elevator, built to connect the lower part of town with the upper:
The Golden Church was certainly worth seeing.
Finally, we arrived in Rio de Janeiro. We took advantage of a city tour offered by Regent because it took us up to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. Here's a view from the trip up to the top via rack train:
But alas. As our guide put it, "he's in his feather bed today and he's not coming out". Up in the clouds, we couldn't see the view of the city...but then the city couldn't see us, either. Here, however, is what we could see!
What a fabulous trip! Next came the 14-hour flight home from Rio via Atlanta. The smart thing was that we upgraded to Business Class. Ahhh, airport lounge with free food and wine. Not so bad after all.
