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.