Amazon Cruise 9

Wednesday, December 5  --  At sea

Wednesday, December 5  --  At sea

Well, here I am back again. Today went very smoothly as far as the weather and sea conditions are concerned.

This afternoon's lecture was on the geology of the Atlantic Ocean. It was interesting, but not a lot that I didn't already know. This lecturer has been on for the whole trip doing a different program each sea day. He's from North Bay, Ontario where he taught secondary school for his whole career. His interests are eclectic but lean toward the sciences, especially geology and astronomy.

After the lecture, we began considering packing. That is, Margaret actually began organizing her stuff, while I just sat around considering the idea of packing. While organizing, Margaret found her Kindle which she had been hunting for this past week.

Tonight was the ladt Gala Dinner. We arrived to find our table det for 8 instead of the 6 we had planned for. There was the two of us, Sandy and Stew, and Linda and Dave who have been joining us recently. At promptly 8:00 p.m. Two young men of the ship's officers joined us. One is a junior engineer, and the other is part of the Deck Crew which means that he works on the bridge. They were all gussied up in their formal dress uniforms with gold braid on the sleeves, waistcoats with gold buttons and a watch chain. Very handsome. Anyway, a good time and a good dinner were had by all.

Thursday, December 6  --  At sea

Ah, last day of the cruise. Pack pack pack...all done by 3:30 p.m. except for what I have on. After a month of warm weather, I'm not looking forward to instant winter. And this really is the end of this trip account until I try to add photos.

Amazon Cruise 8

 Sunday, December 2  --  St. George, Grenada

We docked right downtown. Margaret went on tour early, and I slept in. It was glorious clear weather for touring or doing nothing.

Once up and out, I ambled out on deck to take some photos and check how much of a hike it was to the end of the pier. It was at least the length of the ship. Then I remembered that it was Sunday and not much would be open. End of debate...stay on board.

Margaret's tour was a good one. It went up and down the narrow roads and steep hills all over the island. One stop was at a rum factory (distillery) that has been in continuous operation for over 300 years. Taste tests included of their 150 proof version. The tour stopped at an upscale hotel for lunch before touring a chocolate factory. She didn't mention taste tests here, but did bring a bar of their product that we can taste at some later time.

Everyone must have returned to the ship early because we sailed about 20 minutes early. We had been out on our balcony watching the sun set, so stayed out for our departure. As we cleared the mouth of the cove where St. George is, lo and behold, there is another dock with the Croncwn Princess tied up to it! Then as we got out farther, we could see a very slightly smaller ship docked next to the Crown Princess, but we couldn't see the name on the stern or even the logo on the stacks. Our assistant waiter said it was a Silver Seas ship.

After dinner we tried some of Margaret's chocolate from Belmont Estate. It is very nice. Although it is labeled "milk chocolate," it is more toward dark chocolate than the kind of milk chocolate we're used to in the states. I think I would call it semi-sweet chocolate.

Monday, December 3  --  At sea (Caribbean)

Although we didn't get up and moving in time for it, the morning lecture was on astronomy and how to find your way around the night sky. The afternoon one was on Christopher Columbus and his various voyages to the Caribbean. We did go see that one, but mostly because we wanted to get our preferred seats for the Indonesian Crew Show following it. The Crew Show was fine as always.

Late in the afternoon the Captain came on the PA system asking for volunteer type O negative blood donors as the ship's Doctor is treating a critically ill passenger. Margaret is O positive but went down and turned her name in just in case. She said there were quite a few people there already with O negative plus several passenger doctors helping out coordinating the volunteers etc. Hopefully they will be able to get the passenger stabilized until he or she can be transferred to a hospital in Santo Domingo tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, December 4  --  Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Beautiful day! I actually got off the ship and took a tour. It occurred to me that this is only the second time in this whole month aboard that I have gotten off. It was a 2 hour tour of the city which is much like other Caribbean cities. I got lots of photos to add to my collection of photos of telephone poles taken through bus windows. Here in Santo Domingo:

          Tour + traffic + replacement bus = ~3.5 hours

It was nice of the tour company to provide a replacement bus when some passengers complained that the air conditioning wasn't working. Actually it wasn't that bad, and we were almost halfway through the tour. So we spent extra time waiting for the new bus in a souvenir/jewelry shop within a mile of the ship. Then one man got upset because the stuff he left on the (old) bus wasn't on the (new) bus. Doh.

We saw a number of museums and palaces for the arts both their education and performance. There were the usual government buildings for the capital city of a country of 11+ million people. We even went through Chinatown. The most unusual thing I saw was the enormous "Columbus Lighthouse" which is the mausoleum of Christopher Columbus. I could even see it from my cabin when I got back.

Margaret took her last tour of the trip to the National Botanical Garden. The guide on my tour said the country has 7,000 species of plants so I wasn't surprised that her tour ran late also. She said she enjoyed it but wished the guide at the garden had provided more information than just the names of the plants they saw.

We have two sea days after this and one travel home day. So unless something of importance  happens (other than packing suitcases and saying goodbye to new friends), this will be my last post for this trip. Once I'm home I hope to come back to this trip account and add some photos.

Z

Oh! The ship just sent us a nice little plate of fancy candies as a thank you for Margaret's volunteering to give blood. What a nice gesture.

Amazon Cruise 7

Wednesday, November 28  --  At sea (Atlantic)

And it's nice to see blue water again instead of reddish brown silty water even if the blue water means more rock and roll motion.

We had fun at dinner last night. The Canadian couple Linda and Dave  joined the Rosses and us. The conversation was varied to say the least. Several of us ordered the frog leg appetizer. I wound up with two legs, and Margaret only got one, so I shared. But I really did eat one. I've actually had frog legs before but don't remember where...probably on a cruise.

One lecture today was on yachts of the rich  and not-necessarily famous. There were photos of some gorgeous ships, some bigger than small cruise ships. The second lecture was on Magellan, Part 1. This ran from his childhood to his death in the Philippines. I hadn't known that he had sailed to the Philippines for Portugal before his westward expedition. So he was the first human to actually sail through all 360 degrees of longitude. No idea what Part 2 will cover.

Otherwise it was a quiet day. We did get our passports and health cards back today. I guess the Caribbean islands aren't as concerned about visas and yellow fever shots. The Brazilian visa is easier and cheaper online than it used to be, but is still a hassle. The yellow fever vaccination is a requirement for Devil's Island, and if you don't have it, you're not allowed on the cruise.

Another nice dinner this evening in the Pinnacle Grill with Stew and Sandy Ross. We are certainly lucky once more to have interesting table mates.

Back at the cabin, we each received a certificate (suitable for framing of course), purportedly from King Neptune, certifying that we have crossed the Equator 4 times during this voyage. I counted up that I've crossed it maybe 14 or 16 times now. If I'd kept all those certificates, I could probably paper a small wall with them.

Thursday, November 29  --  At sea

I didn't get up in time for the morning lecture and wasn't interested in the afternoon one. We went to a brunch in the main dining room that was okay. Then we spent much of the afternoon on our balcony watching the ocean roll by.  We're still in the tropics with good weather, so it's literally smooth sailing.

A couple of days ago it was another Gala Dinner night. The ship's photographer came by and, for a change, we let him take photos. We never expected that they would turn out well of both of us, but they did. I think it's been about a thousand years since I bought a ship's photo of myself.

Friday, November 30  --  Still at sea

I like days at sea because there's nothing that you feel any real pressure to do. As I said a few days ago: sleep late, eat some, maybe go to a lecture, crochet or knit, talk to people, sit on the balcony watching the ocean roll by, eat again, etc.

While crocheting in our usual place this morning, a number of people stopped by to see the finished shawl. It was fun showing it off. Then a couple of quilters joined us, and we had a nice chat about handcrafts in general.

By the way, the lecture on Magellan, Part 2 dealt with the aftermath of the voyage. It was interesting in several respects, but one I hadn't heard of was the day of the week  that the survivors arrived back in Spain almost 3 years later. On the ship, the man who had logged the whole trip had records that showed it was a Wednesday, while in Spain they swore it was Thursday. It was eventually referred to the Pope (Gregory the somethingth) and his stable of scientists. The final solution was to establish what we now know as the International Date Line.

Mid-afternoon we met up with Stew and Sandy in the Crow's Nest lounge. I showed them some travel photos we had talked about, and each of us women showed off our handiwork projects. Sandy does exquisite small mesh needlepoint. Meanwhile, as Happy Hour was approaching, I bought us a round of drinks...managing to forget that Happy Hour means 2 drinks each, or at least it means "second drink cheap and automatically ordered"! I have a ritual of having one Meyers rum and coke per cruise in honor of all the neat people I've met on past and present cruises. Well, I couldn't let that second one sit alone, so I had half of it too. I haven't been this blitzed since a Halley's Comet cruise in 1986...or was it 1985? Whew! And that time took a whole lot more drinks.

Saturday, December 1  --  Scarborough, Tobago

Well' so much for Tobago and on to Plan B again. As we approached Scarborough, the forces of Mother Nature conspired against us. The winds and currents prevented us from docking there. So the Captain made the decision to go to a little fishing village named Charlotteville (yes, Charlotteville without the "s") on the northeast coast of the island. There we anchored and launched the tenders around 10:00 a.m.

The tours were all canceled as the tour operators didn't want to relocate to the far end of the island. According to the Captain, there isn't much to do ashore except wander around the little village or go to the beach on the other side of the point. So, Tobago will have to continue its existence without my footprints. It is pretty to look at from our balcony, though.

All credit due to our Cruise Director, a woman named Stone, and her staff who super quickly rearranged the day's activity schedule and had a printed version of the changes along with a sheet of information about Charlotteville delivered to all cabins post haste. She got each of the guest lecturers on board to present an extra lecture. One was on Grenada which is our next stop, and the other was on a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. She also quickly lined up a local Tobago steel drum band to come aboard and play up on the Lido deck for an hour or so.

Of course Margaret went ashore in the morning and walked around the little village and up one of the roads headed up hill but which ran out of pavement halfway up. She even brought me a little rock as a souvenir of the place. Then after lunch we attended most of Stone's (she only uses the one name) new schedule. I especially appreciated the steel drum band.

Onward to Grenada. I like that island. Some friends and I used to send shipments of books there for the locals who liked to read. Our original contact has left there, so I have no way to find out how the books fared. I suspect that they got passed around the scattered villages until the ink wore off and the pages fell out.

Amazon Cruise 6

Sunday, November 25  --  At sea (on the river)

Sleep late, eat some, go to a lecture, crochet or knit, talk to people, sit on the balcony watching the rain forest roll by and the sun set, eat some more.

Today's lecture on animals of the Amazon was full of slides of beautiful birds as an intro, then piranhas, pink dolphins, caymens, anacondas eating things larger than their heads, river otters attacking most of the previous beasts, etc. interesting, but a bit grim in spots.

I forgot to report this yesterday. The Captain on the PA system as we were leaving Parintins, "Hello. This is your disembodied voice from the Bridge." Love it.

Monday, November 26  --  At sea (on the river)

See yesterday's first paragraph.

We picked up our last river pilot at Macapa last night about 8:30. A small but zippy boat brings him out, and he boards us via a rope ladder...unless the boat is tall enough for him to hop across to our tender port. We are headed to the vicinity of Belem on the south bank near the mouth of the Amazon. I say vicinity because we have evidently missed the correct tide to let us dock at Belem, so we will dock (or maybe tender) at a place called Icoaraci about an hour away from Belem. It's no bother to me as I hadn't planned to go ashore here anyway.

I finally finished crocheting a shawl for myself (unless someone offers me a whole pot of money for it). It's really bright rainbow colors, and mostly I've been working on it in one of the lounges where lots of people pass through. I made a little sign that says "DONE" and tomorrow i will spread it out on a table by my favorite chair for people to see who had asked about it during the past weeks.

The first program we went to today was an interview and Q&A session with Captain Dag. It was a fine program as he is an excellent speaker. I may have mentioned earlier that the Prinsendam has been sold to a German company and is currently leased back to Holland America until the end of its current cruise cycle in June. There were several questions relating to that which were interesting. Also of interest, Captain Dag will retire at the end of Prinsendam's last cruise. He has been working at sea since he was 17 and feels 63 is a good retirement age. He will be missed by many, passengers and crew alike.

Today there were two lectures as on most sea days. One was on Orion and the other was on lighthouses. The Orion guy was a better lecturer, but his innumerable slides of the night sky were difficult for my aging eyesight. The other one had almost too many photos of lighthouses, most along the east coast of North America but also a bunch of places around the world. It was fun recognizing places I've been, and in some cases, their lighthouses.

We spent most of today out past the bar of the Amazon en route from Macapa on the north side to Belem (Icoaraci is a bit more inland) on the south side.of the river. For most of the day the water was still silty brown, but we were getting more wave action.

For tonight's Gala Dinner Margaret had lobster and I had a piece of beef tenderloin at least 1.5 inches thick that was so tender I could cut it with /either side/ of a regular table knife or even my fork. Yum.

Tuesday, November 27  --  Belem, Brazil (Icoaraci)

I stayed on board today since Icoaraci will require almost an hour's local tender ride from our anchorage, and Belem is about another hour's bus ride from Icoaraci although Holland America is running a free shuttle bus. This unfortunate situation is the result of low water levels at the end of the dry season combined with the timing of the tides which is off schedule with our "touring" times we would need to be at Belem.

Margaret left before I woke up to tour up another tributary river and trek through more jungle. She reported that the tender and bus rides were truly about an hour each. Of course she got rained on. There is a wide difference in attitudes relating to the rainforest between this coastal state and that of Santarem. The latter wants to protect their rainforest while the former wants to make money off of it. However, on the whole she enjoyed the tour.

So we leave the Amazon River, and around midnight should be crossing the Equator for the last time on this voyage.

Amazon Cruise 5

Thursday, November 22  --  Manaus, Brazil

Thanksgiving Day

We docked around 10:00 a.m. at a floating dock right downtown. It seemed to take a while to sidle in, then we realized that the Crystal Symphony is occupying the other end of the dock space. We do have a great view of the city from our balcony.

After breakfast in the formal dining room where we met a couple of fun guys from the DC area, we sort of just lounged around until it was time for Margaret to head down for her 12:30 p.m. tour out to a rubber plantation. I headed up to the open part of Lido deck planning to soak up some vitamin D.

Plan B turned up in a hurry. When you travel to a rainforest, you expect to see forest and you expect to see _?_. Yes, rain. This storm was a real frog floater if I ever saw one! It was complete with lightning just a few blocks away and thunder that rattled your teeth! However, within about 10 minutes or less it was over. When I headed back downstairs to our cabin, I saw where the crew were very busily trying to fix and clean up after a major roof leak in a different section of the Lido restaurant just when other crew were putting up decorations for Thanksgiving dinner. There were buckets all over that area and one of the higher-ups was chewing someone out over the phone.

Also about this time Margaret turned up. It seems the storm was headed straight toward the rubber plantation, so the tour was canceled. She was just as happy since a) she'll get a full refund, b) she had already learned about rubber production on a previous tour, and c) she had her afternoon back to go to the passenger terminal hoping for free wifi. I've had no trouble logging on through the ship's internet access to get email etc., but she's had no luck getting through some weird firewall to her email account.

We will be here for most of tomorrow anyway. She has a morning tour, and maybe we will check out the shops in the passenger terminal in the afternoon if she sees anything worth looking at today. So far on this trip the only tangible things I've bought are a few postcards and a new toothbrush. I keep telling people that I've put more trip souvenirs into yard sales than most people ever see in their whole lives.

Thanksgiving dinner was excellent. Margaret and I both had the delicious ham entree mostly because the turkey entree looked like it was fancied up to a fare-thee-well by one or more of the celebrity chefs that set the menus on board. Stew and Sandy have given up on the "Anytime Dining" thing and come back to us, so we had fine conversation to go with the holiday meal.

Friday, November 23  --  Manaus, Brazil

More rain today, but not the violent thunderstorm of yesterday. This is the first of my many cruises that I can remember rain while in a port...not even Manaus in 2007.

I spent a leisurely morning mostly in our cabin, while Margaret went off on tour to a botanic garden and zoo. She caught up with me in the Lido where I was having lunch and filled me in on her tour. She liked the guide but thought some others on the tour found him too garrulous. She got photos of lots of greenery and some animals including several jaguars.

Near time to leave we went out to our balcony (which our cabin stewards had kindly dried off after the morning rains), but we just sat there. There were several official types standing around on the dock, and several more on the flying bridge, but nothing was happening. Then a tour bus came down the ramp to the dock, and we figured the ship was waiting for a delayed tour. The bus door opened, but only the driver got out and stood around talking to one of our guys. Eventually the Captain got on the PA and explained. Evidently it was some sort red tape snafu with some paperwork between the ship and the Brazil Tours company that someone didn't fill out right. We finally pushed off about half an hour late. That was too late to see the non-merging of waters between the Rio Solimoes (aka Amazon River) and the Rio Negro. Fortunately I have a nice shot of it from 2007 to show you when I get some photos edited in here.

Saturday, November 24  --  Parintins, Brazil

Margaret and I went ashore to see the Boi Bomba show. It is a sampler of acts  from a local annual festival that has fabulous set pieces, stunning costumes, and totally amazing high energy dance numbers. More later.

To get ashore we rode on double-decker local river boats instead of the ship's tenders. They were colorful, and best of all, their deck height above the water is almost the same as ours. This allowed use of a simple gangway and eliminated the dreaded "tender high jump" from the ship's tender to the bottom step of the big gangway when you return.

When we got ashore it was to one of these floating docks that can cope with the annual flooding. This is the end of the dry season, so the way up to land is very long and very steep. Happily, I was assisted up the dock by a couple of teenaged boy scouts in their scout uniform of khaki pants, a crisp white shirt and a colorful neckerchief. There were several other scouts around, and some were girls. I gathered that helping old ladies from cruise ships is one of their good deed activities. Coming back after the show, another scout helped me back down the long slope. Down on the dock, one scout was holding a donation box and another held a sign in English about donating to help scouting. I just about cleaned out my wallet for them.

Boi Bomba. Wow! 12 years ago it was held outside in mid-afternoon when even mad dogs and Englishmen sought shade. Now it is performed in an air conditioned convention center conveniently a block from the top of the dock ramp. The shore excursion folks on board had reserved seats for Margaret and me front and center and for other passengers with disabilities of various sorts.

The minute we were seated we were presented with a drink called caipirinha. Personally, I'd call it caipiranha as it was at least 75% rum-flavored moonshine with a shot of lemonade added. Whew! And some passengers were going back for seconds! It was a good thing that I didn't have to stand up until the show was over an hour later.

There were groups of young men and women in intricate costumes doing dances that involved enormous amounts of stamping and twirling at a frantic speed. Every so often a set piece would come out heralding a change of dancers, and often featuring one "star" dancer in an even more elaborate costume. Think Mardi Gras times 10.

One set piece was a huge cayman, another was a jaguar, another was a river boat. 3 of the stars were young women, 2 sporting big headdresses of feathers and a minimal amount of other clothing while the other twirled around in a huge hoop- skirted dress that would have done Scarlett O'Hara proud. The other two stars were men, one dressed as a shaman and the other with a bull costume.

All the stars interacted with the audience well. All of them, but especially the bull, interacted with the young girl sitting near me. She has Down's syndrome, and her family really makes sure she can participate in everything she can handle. In the local story that Boi Bomba is based on, the bull and the girl in hoops fall in love, so it was really cute that he also approached the young passenger several times so she could pet him.

I headed back to the ship while Margaret went postcard shopping among the vendors outside the convention center. I think one of us must have hit a time warp or been abducted by aliens because somehow she got back to our cabin before me.

Amazon Cruise 4

Tuesday, November 20  --  Santarem, Brazil

Okay, okay. I finally got off the ship! So my tour group immediately got on another boat and set off for Maica Lake. The regional boat is a typical river boat, small and maneuverable, several decks high, has mostly open decks with railings. These boats are the trucks and buses of the river hauling people and freight and serving as the only access to villages and even some larger towns that do not have an airport.

At first we followed the line in the water where the Tapajos meets the Amazon. The Tapajos is a 1,000 km very old river that comes up from the south. It has dark, clear water and carries no silt, so when it meets the silty Amazon, it takes about 5 km before they get mixed together. Here at Santarem the Amazon is so wide that a ferry takes 3.5 hours to cross it. All these numbers are just mind boggling!

We saw a number of river dolphins and some were pink! Usually, if there's wildlife to be seen, I'm on the other side of the boat/ship/bus/etc., but this time I saw them!

Once we got to Maica Lake (which was more like a side channel of the river), our boat nosed into the bank and spools of fishing line with baited hooks were available to any who wanted to fish for piranha. I did not catch one. For our boatload of around 30 people, one man caught a red piranha. I thought the poor little thing would expire before everyone finished taking pictures of it, but they're tough little fish. Several other people caught slender silvery fish of various sizes that the guide called sardines. Several people managed to pull a piranha out of the water but unhooked so it got away. Most of us simply fed their bait to whatever was down in the opaque water that was good at stealing bait. Still, it was a fun excursion.

Margaret went off on a tour of both primary and secondary growth rainforest. The Brazilian state of Para has enacted very strict laws protecting the rainforest. The neighboring state (Matagrosso?) hasn't done that, so great tracts of forest have been destroyed to make room for things like cattle or soybeans. The guide on her tour was full of information about the native plants and their uses, so she was a happy camper.

In my book, one of the Heroes of the Prinsendam is the little man who dips ice cream up on the Lido deck. Standing in a space about the size of a phone booth, he dips and dips and dips for a never ending line of passengers.

We had a pleasant dinner with our former table mates Stew and Sandy and the Canadian couple from 2 nights ago Dave and Linda. After dinner we crashed pretty early as it had been a long day.

Wednesday, November 21  --  Boca da Valeria, Brazil

This is truly a wide spot at the mouth of a small tributary. When we stopped here 12 years ago, it was one woman's house where you could tender ashore and maybe see a few of her relatives who lived back in the rainforest and had come out selling handcrafts. Now it's a much bigger place with 3 real buildings (a bar, a church, and a school) plus more houses and relatives with more handcrafts for sale. Now it's a real indigenous village. Since it's a tender port again plus probably muddy ground ashore, I gave it a miss.

Margaret went ashore and, sure enough, she and everyone else got thoroughly rained on, albeit briefly. She said she enjoyed seeing the place. Evidently one of the main features these days is a horde of very young kids one of which attaches itself to each passenger to steer their purchase power to particular vendors. Margaret's tagalong attachment was of the 3 or 4 year old tot size who merely followed her around.

About 2:00 p.m. we hoisted anchor, made a u-turn, and headed upstream again. At one point we passed the Silverseas Silver Whisper out in the middle of the river with tender service to a city on the south bank that was probably Parantin.

This evening we had a leisurely dinner in the Pinnacle Grill which is always nice. There is a Pinnacle Grill on each Holland America ship, but I think the one here on the Prinsendam feels the most special.

Hard to believe that tomorrow we are halfway through this trip!

Amazon Cruise 3

Sunday, November 18  --  At sea (on the river)

Or at least not formally in any port. We did stop at Macapa, Brazil for a few hours for the ship to "clear," but nobody was allowed to go ashore. That pretty much means "take care of all the red tape for entering the country with a passel of gringos on board." Of course it's Sunday, so all the necessary officials were either at home or at church.

At about 6:20 a.m. we crossed the equator. The Captain blew a tiny blast on the horn as the nose of the ship crossed. Margaret says she thinks that it woke her up, and I slept through it entirely, but both of us have crossed the equator multiple times before. Let's see...I think I've crossed 'em all: Equator, Int'l Dateline, both Tropics, Arctic Circle, and Antarctic Circle, and...oh...Greenwich Meridian. Not much left on the ol' bucket list.

Once we finally got going about 10:30 a.m., heading up river is both slow and smooth sailing. Most of what we can see is the banks of the river with plenty of jungle vegetation and an occasional boat moored at the side. Sometimes we're closer to the north bank, and sometimes it's the south bank that's closer. And sometimes the river is so wide you can't see the other shore. Knowing the channels is why we have a series of pilots on board the whole way. The Amazon pilots have to be retrained every year as the river changes.

Margaret and I, along with maybe half the other passengers, spent several hours today watching 2 more lectures and the Filipino Crew Show. The most interesting and entertaining lecture  was the one on "Teddy Roosevelt and the River of Doubt." I had heard of this expedition by Teddy and his son, but there was a lot more detail in this lecture. I may have to look up the book on it when I get home.

Our table mates, Stew and Sandy have abandoned main sitting and us for what is called "Anytime Dining." This evening we were joined by a couple from Alberta, Linda and Dave. They're also on "Anytime Dining" but were later than their usual, so ate with us. It was a fun dinner. Dave ordered the thing we were all curious about and said it was very good - Seafood Pot Pie. None of us had heard of it before.

Monday, November 19  --  Alter do Chao, Brazil

This one is a tender port. The good news is that, here in the river, getting on and off the tenders will be a lot easier as there isn't the wave action to bounce things up and down when you're trying to get back on the gangway. The better news is that I never lost anything in Alter do Chao that I need to go look for.

After a walk around the outside deck, I staked claim to our favorite spot in the Explorers Lounge on Promenade Deck. It has the most comfortable chairs on board. It has good light for crocheting and knitting, is close to food, drink, elevators, and restrooms, and is an excellent people watching spot.

Margaret had a tour in the morning while I lazed around on board. She came back very happy because this tour went to open air fish and local craft markets as well as a place that sounds like a demonstration farm for growing and processing manioc.

It appears that Alter do Chao is built around one of the few hill-type formations in the area. One of the lecturers yesterday said that recent archeological finds show that this area has been inhabited by humans for several thousand years. An easily defensible landform is a good thing to have handy.

This area is at the juncture of the Rio Tapajos with the Amazon. Rio Tapajos is one of 11 major tributaries of the Amazon. There are  over 3,000 smaller ones feeding those 11. This juncture is a huge area with lots of channels and islands. In some if not many places, the opposite shore is only a thin white line on the horizon. The white line can be an actual sand beach, or it can be the lower part of tree trunks etc. that are flooded during the rainy season. We are here during the dry season, so we can see things that are under water in the wet season.

Here's a bit of trivia for you. The water in the Amazon River does not flow. It is pushed. From Manaus to the Atlantic, the river drops only about 2 inches in over 800 miles. The darned thing is virtually flat! It is the pressure of more water from rainfall upstream that moves the water down the river. And that's a lot of water. Think of a railroad boxcar full of water. Now think of 1,200 boxcars of water. That's how much water the Amazon puts into the Atlantic EVERY SECOND!

We set sail again at 4:00 p.m. and arrived at our next port, Santarem, at 5:30 p.m. right across this wide spot in the rivers. Although we could've, we didn't get off during the evening while docked in the who-knows-which outlying suburb of a Brazilian city.

Amazon Cruise 2

Wednesday, November 14  --  Bridgetown, Barbados

Bright sun this morning after a night of being "rocked in the cradle of the deep." We were first to dock here at Bridgetown this morning followed by the Carnival Fascination and the Celebrity Summit again.

Heaven knows that I'm getting lazy in my old age. I just couldn't summon up the energy for an early morning bus tour. Again, Barbados is an island that I've been to several times. The first time I was here with my parents back in the mid-1980s, we were invited to the home of Lady  the widow of the last British governor of the island, whom my parents knew through paperweight collecting. At 10:30 in the morning she plied us with an absolutely lethal rum punch and hot hord'ouvres "whipped up" by her cook. After we meandered through the house which was really a museum of Barbadan history, she had her chauffeur take us back to our ship. On a much later visit to Barbados I did all the usual touristy things.

Today, a nice balcony. Perfect temperature. Light breeze. Big, comfy wicker armchair and footstool. Harbor activity to watch. Big cranes unloading cargo containers. Little cranes on wheels zipping containers back and forth along the dock. A freighter being winkled sideways into dock between two other ships. Who needs to go ashore?

Around noon Margaret went off on a tour around the island to the Botanical Garden and elsewhere. The guide for her tour was evidently a font of information about the island's geography as well as its history etc.

I finally signed up for 24 hours of internet access at the non-bargain rate of $24.99. At least I was able to make a blog post and check email. It will probably be several days at least before I buy another day's worth.

We left Barbados around 6:00 p.m. Back into the bouncy Atlantic. And bouncy is an understatement this evening! We made it to dinner, but walking the corridors was definitely not easy. And we'll be at sea all day tomorrow.

Thursday, November 15  --  At sea

When we first got up this morning, the ocean motion was alternating between rocking in all directions with irregular timing like last night, and a motion I can only describe as wallowing.  Both were conducive to just staying in bed late.

Things eased up considerably in the afternoon. Margaret went to several programs, then came back to the cabin for the "Block Party." The Captain announced this event during his noon message. (I like this Captain because he has a sense of humor, and he reads a different poem each day at the end of his noon message.) Anyway, for the Block Party we were all supposed to go out in the corridor at 4:30 to meet our neighbors, and bring an empty glass. The Captain, Hotel Manager and other senior officers circulated around the various decks as did a large number of dining room staff carrying bottles of wine, champagne, orange juice, etc. We met most of the folks in range of our cabin, then the party moved to more space in the elevator lobby to join folks from the port side cabins where it went on for another 30 to 40 minutes. Someone said that the Captain has done this Block Party thing on other ships he's been on. What a fun thing to do on a sea day, and even more fun on a sort of rainy sea day!

Tonight was one of the Gala Dinners. Our usual table mates were at one of the fancy restaurants on board. A delightful, chatty English lady named Pauline was seated with Margaret and me. She was full of stories about living many years in The Netherlands and traveling the world.

Friday, November 16  --  Devil's Island, French Guiana

We are anchored off Devil's Island, and the tenders are lowered although the rumor is that the water's a bit choppy. There is bright sunshine and more than plenty of heat to go around. There is some haze that should burn off soon. I am somewhat amazed that we are sharing this spot with the Crystal Symphony. I haven't looked up her itinerary, but my guess is that if she's come this far south, she is also headed up the Amazon.

This place is 3 little islands that were once a notorious French prison. After the prison closed, the place was turned over to the Guiana Space Center. Sorry I don't have internet access to look up what the Space Center may have used it for.

The first time I stopped here, on this same ship back in 2007, the weather was awful enough that, as I seem to remember, they didn't even lower the tenders much less take anyone ashore. Evidently about all you can do here is walk around and look at old prison buildings. Not my cup of anything.

But of course Margaret went and walked. Her report back included slow tender service due to choppy water. Other details included hot and humid conditions (several others who went agreed). There was a troop of monkeys cadging breakfast off the tourists and doing other funny things as monkeys are wont to do.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the Explorer's Lounge with knitting, crocheting and iced beverages. Hmmm...it occurs to me that I haven't mentioned any activities after dinner. There's plenty going on in the evening, but much of it is not of vital interest to either of us, so by the end of dinner around 9:30, we generally return to our cabin, and I read or write this blog.

My choice for dinner this evening was "Chef Rudi's Southern Fried Chicken." I should have known better. It came with an almost microscopic bit of corn on the cob a full 1.25 inches in width, about 6 green beans, and 3 bites of potatoes mashed almost to soup and drowned in brown gravy. There were 3 small pieces of fried chicken that all turned out to be white meat, but you'd never know it until you got through the heavy carapace of breading. There was no rhyme or reason to the shapes of those 3 pieces of chicken. The grain of the meat went in every direction even in the same piece. I believe they must have cut the bird up by tossing it through the ship's propellors!

By the way, for the grammar police among my readers: yes, I know that I often bounce back and forth between present and past tenses. It mostly depends on when I write a given paragraph. Please just live with it.

Saturday, November 17  --  At sea

Sailing along smoothly with just the smallest amount of motion to feel like you're on a ship. I think it's because we're in the tropics near the equator. I remember how smooth it was crossing the Pacific in 2015 when we stayed in the tropics and close to the equator all the way.

We went to lectures both morning and afternoon. Both lectures were about the Amazon, and both lecturers were excellent. In the morning she talked about the archeology and anthropology of the Amazon basin and about the first Spanish exploration from Quito to the Atlantic. In the afternoon the guy covered  the equator in detail with lots of humorous bits to make lots of math tolerable. Holland America does an excellent job of choosing its lecture series people. This trip's lot is really excellent.

Around 4:00 p.m. we actually reached the bar at the mouth of the river. The Amazon has a mouth, not a delta because its tidal bore carries the silt out to sea instead of it building up a delta. Once we were past the bar (where we had a 14 foot clearance below the keel), the color of the water abruptly changed from ocean green to red-orange silt. You might almost imagine that you were looking at part of the Andes.

Amazon Cruise

First of all, my apologies for delayed postings. We're saving on internet charges by only buying service one day at a time. Also, sorry for no photos which I hope to add after I get home.

Thursday, November 8

Taking a limo from home n C'ville to the Richmond airport is THE way to go (unless you're flying out of CHO). Ambassador Limo Service was on time with some big black Lincoln (called an MKX?). Our driver Stewart did a great job and had a great sense of humor to boot.

The flight to Ft Lauderdale went on time and smoothly except for a couple small bumps in the air. I will say that the only thing I did not appreciate about JetBlue is the shortage of knee room. Of course they would be delighted to sell you an upgrade of a few extra inches.

The adventure began when trying to check into our hotel. While I am more or less a fan of Hampton Inns, This Fall I have learned that requesting an accessible room if you are using the Hilton website does not work well. The request just does not get transmitted to the local level. This leads to problems when I try to check in. Add to that a desk clerk who appeared to be new at the job. But all was eventually sorted out after Margaret made a trip upstairs with the maintenance man to be sure this was what we wanted.

So we finally got to our room. Then we ordered in some dinner. Next Margaret discovered that the bathroom door was locked from the inside, so we had to call for yet a different maintenance guy to come get it open. Evidently the latch mechanism is rather touchy and was tripped accidentally by the first maintenance guy. That's okay, our dinner finally arrived and was just fine. Next time I'm here I'll certainly order delivery from Sarpino's again.

Friday, November 9

Late morning we took a taxi to the pier. The hotel has a shuttle, but I had so much trouble climbing up into it yesterday that I just couldn't face it. I think that my fall last week has caused my CMT to take a giant step or two forward in a not so good direction. 

Boarding the ship was a breeze. After a light lunch, we were in the cabin when our luggage started arriving. Much of the rest of the day was spent unpacking. We've got loads of space in our cabin both for storage and moving around plus a good-sized balcony.

Saturday, November 10  --  At sea

The whole day we sailed south on calm seas with low islands occasionally visible to starboard. We spent most of the day reading or doing needlework.

This evening was a Gala Formal night. Food on board is always beautifully served, but this evening was particularly elegant. We have 3 table mates in the dining room for the 8:00 p.m. sitting: Sandy and Stew from southwest Florida, and Jean from Gettysburg, PA. Margaret spilled the beans about my birthday, so of course I got serenaded with the Indonesian birthday song.

Sunday, November 11  --  At sea

A lazy sea day spent sitting around various parts of the ship, knitting or crocheting and chatting with other passengers. We had gone down to the dining room for a late full breakfast, so skipped lunch.

We attended an interesting lecture on the geology of the Caribbean. The speaker had lots of gorgeous slides of various islands and in some cases the volcanos that created them. I had not known of the group of islands that originally formed near the Galapagos then moved via plate tectonics through the area where Panama is now to the east side of the Caribbean. (The isthmus as we know it reformed about 5 million years ago.) I remember a feisty geology professor at the University of Virginia who was very vocally opposed to even the idea of plate tectonics back in the 1970s. These migrating islands would have really set him off.

Monday, November 12  --  Philipsburg, Sint Maarten

Margaret went on a tour this morning.  Since I have been here several times before the huge cruise ships came along, and have done all the local tours that interested me, I just stayed on board. In addition to our ship, the docks were graced by only 2 others: the Celebrity Summit which Margaret thought was huge compared to us until she saw the Carnival Breeze which is much closer to gigantic.

In the afternoon we just hung around in public spaces with our knitting and crocheting and drew in another knitter. When we got back to the cabin, I got a really nice birthday present from the Hotel Manager for the ship. It's a $50 credit coupon for the Spa and Salon. The extra nice thing is that I already have a hair appointment for tomorrow afternoon. 

Tomorrow we will be at Guadeloupe which is one of the islands that I have not visited. I'm hoping to go ashore even briefly, but as it is a tender port, it is very weather-dependent for me. I no longer have the jumping ability that is often required to get from a bouncy tender back onto the ship. We'll see what the weather is doing.

Tuesday, November 13  --  Terre-de-Haut, Iles des Saintes, Guadeloupe

This island is French like Martinique, New Caledonia, etc. The French govern their island territories pretty directly. For example, if you mail a postcard from Martinique, it goes to Paris to be sorted and sent on. At least that's how it's been in the past. I hope the few we sent will get home before we do.

It's a rather lumpy bumpy island like a lot of conical tree-covered hills randomly stuck together. In a word, it's cute. The main bay where we and the Crystal Symphony were anchored looks somewhat like the remains of a volcanic caldera, but I don't know for sure that it is. 

It rained overnight and the weather this morning has been intermittently misty and drizzly although the sun has finally peeked through after lunch. Given the weather and that this is a tender port, I decided not to go ashore. However Margaret went ashore and walked all over the town and up some of the hills. On return she noted how clean the place was compared to Philipsburg on St. Maartin. Well that's the difference between 3 ships with over 5,000 tourists and 2 ships with around 1,500 tourists. The photos she took seconded the idea that this island is cute despite all the damage from hurricane Irma.

Not long after we sailed from Guadeloupe, the ocean got quite bouncy. We are out in the Atlantic after all. I decided that it was foolish to risk a possible fall by going all the way to dinner, so I stayed "home" and called room service. While it certainly isn't the roughest I've experienced, with my reduced sense of balance these days, it's rough enough.

Amazon Cruise - Nov 8 - Dec 7, 2018

Thur, Nov 8 Fly to Fort Lauderdale, FL

Fri, Nov 9 Depart Fort Lauderdale, FL

Sat, Nov 10 At sea

Sun, Nov 11 At sea

Mon, Nov 12 Philipsburg, Sint Maarten 

Tue, Nov 13 Terre-de-HautIles des Saintes, Guadeloupe 

Wed, Nov 14 Bridgetown, Barbados 

Thur, Nov 15 At sea

Fri, Nov 16 Devils Island, French Guiana 

Sat, Nov 17 Crossing the Amazon River Bar, Brazil

Sat, Nov 17 Cruising the Amazon River 

Sun, Nov 18 Macapa, Brazil 

Sun, Nov 18 Cruising the Amazon River

Mon, Nov 19 Santarem, Brazil 

Tue, Nov 20 Boca da Valeria, Brazil 

Wed, Nov 21 Manaus, Brazil 

Thur, Nov 22 Manaus, Brazil 

Fri, Nov 23 Parintins, Brazil 

Sat, Nov 24 Alter Do Chao, Brazil 

Mon, Nov 25 Cruising the Amazon River

Wed, Nov 25 Crossing the Amazon River Bar, Brazil

Thur, Nov 26 Barra Norte Sea, Brazil 

Thur, Nov 26 At sea

Fri, Nov 27 Icoaraci (Belem), Brazil 

Sat, Nov 28 At sea

Sun Nov 29 At sea

Mon, Nov 30 At sea

Tue, Dec 01 Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago 

Wed, Dec 02 Saint Georges, Grenada

Thur, Dec 03 At sea

Fri, Dec 04 Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic 

Sat, Dec 05 At sea

Sun, Dec 06 At sea

Mon, Dec 07 Fort Lauderdale, Florida 

Mon, Dec 07 Fly to Richmond, VA then home