Friday, March 9

Another sea day...lovely sunbathing weather. At the moment I write this, we have just passed between San Juan and the Dominican Republic en route to the Bahamas area. Only 2 days left. Those passengers who are perpetual hurriers and worriers spent the day lined up to talk to the representative of the company which will be shipping luggage home. I’m happy enough to wait until tomorrow or even Sunday to deal with that.

I’m beginning to think about packing, but so far haven’t done any. It’s a good thing they gave us that extra suitcase. Today we received a box that’s about 16x16x3 inches containing a Royal Copenhagen Blue Delft serving plate. It will take up almost as much space as the parka!

Saturday, March 10

We visited Grand Turk today. I had taken the "usual" island tour back in 1985, so didn’t do it again. As you can see, the hike to the brand new cruise terminal was appreciable. Jill did it and reported that there were mostly the usual kinds of shops, so I elected to give it a miss.

This evening we are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day a week early. Over the past few weeks, since Jill found a skein of bright green yarn in Puerto Chacabuco, Chile, I’ve crocheted a bunch of shamrocks for us to both wear and share with others. I also made a great green shamrock award for John who has kept us so entertained every night at dinner. It should be lots of fun.

Tomorrow is a last sea day for a bit more sun and a lot of packing and goodbyes, so this is the end of my weblog about my trip around South America and to the Antarctic. I hope you’ve enjoyed my adventure...I certainly have.

Wednesday, March 7


An excellent day at sea. Was invited to lunch with the Captain and was actually seated at his table. He is a very personable man with a great sense of humor. He has been with this ship since the beginning, and was her first Captain when she was the Royal Viking Sun. When she went to Seabourne, he went with her, and the same when she was transferred to Holland America in 2002=2003 to become the Prinsendam. It was also a lovely lunch.


Thursday, March 8


Today we were at St. Lucia, docked at the capital, Castries. Jill and I hired a taxi to take us on a 2 hour tour, much of which we spent at Caribelle Batik (which I knew she would enjoy, and she did). We also got as far down island as Marigot Bay which is lovely as you can see here.


St. Lucia has the highest per capita number of Nobel Laureates of any country in the world. They have two, but their population is about 160,000. Interestingly, both were born on January 23, so that day is now a national holiday!


Back on board in the afternoon, we were treated to a concert by a fabulous steel drum band. Those kids played absolutely non-stop at top speed for almost an hour! then then moed down to the dock and played about another 30-40 minutes as we prepared to sail. What energy!! And many of their numbers, at least in the concert, appeared to be original compositions, although they did play some Caribbean favorites down on the dock.


I think I mentioned that the ship has been giving us presents of one sort or another all along...tote bags, binoculars, books, a parka, etc. Today they gave each of us a great suitcase to take it all home in! It’s even got wheels and a pull-out handle. I swear that it’s big enough that with it and the matching tote bag I could probably do a one-week cruise with just those two pieces of luggage!! The sad part is that I need to start packing soon as we only have 3 days left!

Sunday, March 4 to Tuesday, March 6

Sunday we sailed down the Amazon all day, only slowing down to let the pilots off at Marapa. About the middle of the evening we crossed the bar into the Atlantic again. The Indonesian Crew Show was that evening. Our assistant dining room steward, Fausta, was the master of ceremonies and did a fine job of that and of a ballad. Our dining room steward, Indra, was also in the show. It was one of the very best crew shows I’ve ever seen.

Monday was rainy and bouncy...a perfect day to do not much but read.

Today, Tuesday, we are at Devil’s Island, French Guyana. Actually, there are three islands called Iles du Salut (Iles of Salvation). The main prison facility is on Ile Royale which is the only one we can visit. The other two, Ile St. Joseph (where they kept the prisoners in solitary) and Devil’s Island itself (where they kept political prisoners like Dreyfus) are smaller and virtually inaccessible due to extremely treacherous currents through very narrow channels (650 yards in one case) between the islands. The prison was phased out between 1938 and 1947 and virtually all that’s left are ruins and a small hotel that occupies what used to be the wardens’ mess hall. Having seen enough of prisons in recent years, and the fact that we are going ashore in tenders and there’s nothing to do there but walk around, I am not going ashore today. In fact, the weather is so hazy and humid that the islands look like small palm-covered lumps, so even a photo isn’t very interesting. After lunch we head out for St. Lucia.

Friday, March 2


Another superior tour today! I was really exhausted this morning, but determined to go on the second river tour anyway. I actually felt better at the end of it than at the beginning.


It was most interesting to see the area in daylight. The canoe ride was a lot longer, and we saw a lot of fascinating stuff: monkeys jumping in the trees, a black ring-neck hawk, a blue-capped heron, egrets, an Amazonian kingfisher, one of those bright blue and black butterflies (I forget the name...starts with "M"), lots of different kinds of vegetation. Then there were the kids in canoes offering to let you hold various sorts of wild life like good-sized caimans, three-toed sloths, and an anaconda that was about 9 feet long. I petted the caimans and had my picture taken wearing the anaconda. It was pretty big...my hand just managed to go around its neck...and it was very strong. That was fun, but showing the photos around back on board was even more fun. I declined to hold the sloth as I was quite aware of its microflora and didn’t wish to discover its microfauna, but as I was sitting right next to the guide, I got several good photos of it also.

Antarctica was interesting, but the Amazon has really been the highlight of this trip for me.


Saturday, March 3


Half the day at Parantins, Brazil, the fourth largest city on the Amazon. We were greeted at docking by fireworks and again at sailing. There was also a charming troop of young boy scouts directing traffic and tourists on the dock.


I attended the Boi Bumba show which was most spectacular. It’s a piece of an annual festival that lasts 3 days and celebrates a local legend with lots of drums, music dancing, fabulous costumes and enormous set pieces as you can see. There were also a horde of local girls wearing not much who continuously circulated serving strong rum drinks and (fortunately for me) cold water.


Getting back to the ship, I was finally able to break my lifelong streak of never seeing a dolphin from a ship. I wasn’t able to catch them on camera, but I did actually see both species of freshwater Amazon dolphins, the grey and the pink.

Thursday, March 1


What a totally fantastic day!! This morning we saw the confluence of the Rio Negro (which really is black water) and the silty, yellowish brown Rio Solimoes (aka the Amazon which is the name downstream from here). The two rivers remain distinctly separate for almost three miles before their waters mix.


In the afternoon, I went up to the port terminal here in Manaus (using only my canes, but I did take the shuttle up the slope of the floating dock they have here). That felt like a real accomplishment, but it wasn’t a patch on this evening!


Just as it got dark, I boarded a river boat which crossed the Rio Negro to Lake January where we transferred to 8-person canoes and went looking for caimans. What an experience! Floating almost silently along waterways in the flooded forest, with a full moon overhead and a young man with a flashlight on the bow spotting caimans. After several misses, he actually caught a young one, and I even got to pet it! Add in some amazingly good star-viewing (despite the full moon) when I got to see the Southern Cross, and it was an awesome evening.


Tomorrow I’m going back to Lake January in daylight when the canoes will take us actually into the flooded rainforest. I’m totally skipping the city tour here...seen enough cathedrals and opera houses already.