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.
