Santos January 19, 1942

Dear parents,

So you can get an idea of how well we're doing, I'm sending along a copy of the diary that I'm keeping in the notebook I'm carrying.

We left on Saturday. Everything went well. At lunchtime I sit at the Doctor's table since there's a guy who is going to Santos and the rest of us guys don't all fit at two tables. At night, we all sit on deck and converse in English with the Doctor and his wife. We see the lights of Montevideo. We're amazed at the way they're treating us. Tons of food.

Sunday, second day. Great weather in the morning nothing interesting except breakfast. I had an omelette with tomatoes and grapefruit juice. Just about all of us notice the change in diet, that is, contrary to what you'd expect, it's incredible the way we eat, like kings. At 3 pm, we spot a warship on the horizon on the starboard side. We pass it by at a distance of about 8 miles. It looks like a British destroyer, it looks a lot like the Dorsetshire that I saw back in Buenos Aires. As it passed us, while we were talking about it, an alarm bell rang. Fire drill. The practice is a good thing. They fill the swimming pool, we see another ship, a cargo ship, and we manoeuver well around it at a distance, we don't want them to pay attention to us. It carries colors that imply it's neutral, but it could be carrying spies. We do this:

                                                               the other ship                                                      o -------<
                           ---->----
                                      (
                                        (             us
                                           ----------------o

I had lunch and dinner with a Frenchman who is on his way to Santos. They call me he who introduces embassadors.

Monday. We cruise along with the coast in sight from the time we get up until 2 in the afternoon. We exercised on deck. There's a guy among us who's in physical education, so he teaches us. Pool. Lunch, I ate well, took a nap. Later I discovered that Americans drink their beer out of a can. Everything is in a can.

I made friends with the purser. He wants to practice Spanish and I want to practice English. Every ten minutes we switch languages. I talk a lot with the waiter too.

I write some letters, we say goodbye to Barbero, the guy who's going to Santos. And just when I'm about to go to bed, that is to say when I'm finishing up this letter, the choppy sea gets us up and dancing..

We're in Santos. We arrived at 5:30 am. It's a lovely view. We'll spend two days here. Later, I'll send another short note before setting sail for Rio.

Regards to all, kisses from

Ito

Weather very hot

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