Jan 28-30

January 28 Ilhabela (Sao Sabastiao)
Ilhabela is a charming, small island (130 square miles) off the coast of Brazil. It was the Prinsendam’s maiden call ---in fact, I think, Holland America’s first call. The island’s volcanic origins are evident from the steeply rising peaks covered by a dense tropical jungle. The interior and east coast are virtually unpopulated. The island contains almost 400 waterfalls and 85% of it is designated as a state park. Ilhabela means island of beauty. It is famous for its mosquitoes and sand fleas. Happily, we didn’t encounter either.
Ilhabela is a vacation spot for the wealthy from San Paulo. A few high end shops, very friendly people, and that was about it. We walked along the waterfront, past small fishing boats and marinas and then returned to the ship…..for a lesson in how not to approach a cruise ship with a tender.
We came alongside the Prinsendam and the sailor in the tender door opening was ready to throw the line to the ship. Unfortunately we never got close enough. We made a second try. And a third.
I'm thinking, "this guy won't get the employee of the month award," when we had to made a fourth try. For the fourth attempt, the crewman threw the line to the Prinsendam but the guy on the Prinsendam didn't get a wrap on it or secure it so he had to let it go or have his arm pulled out of the socket.
Fifth try. The sailor goes out onto the bow of the tender and tosses a line to the Prinsendam. Guy on the ship grabs it but ----surprise, it isn't fastened to the tender. Good thing it wasn’t an anchor.
At that point everyone on the tender is having a good laugh. Except the crew. And the guy who had to go to the bathroom.
Sixth try or maybe it was the 7th. Success at last! We didn't see any great current....and there wasn't much wind or seas. Just “ a bad day at the office” for the operator of the tender.
As we sailed away from Ilhabela and headed south, we made our way to the Captain’s Quarters for cocktails with the captain. We were part of the Cruise Critic group invited to meet with captain and drink his liquor. J
For anyone wondering how the master lives on the ship, his quarters are forward on the starboard side, just after t six or seven suites. He has a large living room with several sofas, chairs, tables, a bar, and bookcases filled with pictures of his wife and 10 year old daughter. A door led to his bedroom and sliders to a large balcony. As he explained, the room is also used for small parties and welcoming local dignitaries. Another door led to his office and then the bridge. According to him, he is just 35 seconds from the bridge when in his bedroom.
Our captain is very witty and personable --what else would you expect from a Norwegian.
Unfortunately, it was a tad rocky and I spent more time wondering how long I would last before I had to leave than enjoying the champagne and open bar. I made it to the end of the party but skipped dinner. Alan doesn’t have to worry that I will ever want a suite or the pent house high up forward on the topmost deck.



January 29 and 30. At Sea
Great entertainment….Ken and Casey….a man and his duck. We saw them on the Amsterdam last year and were delighted to see them here. I think it was the best show of the cruise and by the laughs and applause so did many others.
The night before we had a great pianist. I don’t remember his name but I enjoyed him so much I bought his CD.
Our position at 4:10 pm, January 30
34° 49.37S 052° 59.02W
Air temp. 77° F Sea temp 80.6° F
Barometer falling
Humidity 80%
Winds from the south --force 2
Seas confused.
Sunset 8:09 pm

I just looked at the Post of Rio. If you look very carefully at Cordovarda you can just make out the statute on the top. Above the clouds.

Today, the 31st, we're in Montevideo. More later.

pictures that didn't make it into the last post

Samba float base. Left - Samba school complex. Far left --samba performer on ship. sorry it's so dark.

cathedral outside and inside . inside picture is turned. cross is at apex.

January 26 and 27

Sugar Loaf from Cocordova

Rio from Corcordova

January 26 and 27
We had been advised to be up on deck early in the morning for the sail in to Guanabara Bay. When Portuguese explorers first sailed into the bay on January 1, 1501 they thought they were in the mouth of a large river. Hence the name, Rio de Janeiro, River of January.
As we sailed in we spied Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) above the clouds as well as Sugar Loaf and a hint of the cable car to the top. We were later to find out that the statute of Christ can be seen from almost anywhere in Rio. As can Sugar Loaf.

We approached the terminal with the dock on the port side and just as it appeared that we would run into the dock head-on the Captain swung the ship around and we tided up starboard side to. It was all rather remarkable. And impressive.
With no tour until afternoon, we wandered the streets around the terminal (not a very impressive areas), had lunch and then boarded a bus for the Cruise Specialist tour of the city and Sugar Loaf Mountain.
First stop ---- Catedral Metropolitana. This rather strange looking cathedral was constructed from 1964-1976 . Its radical style (it was called an upside down ice cream cone) was quite unpopular with local Catholics until a pope (maybe John) came to Rio and endorsed the structure. Inside it rises to 248 feet at the center with no interior columns. The cathedral has seating for 5,000 and will accommodate 20,000 standing. About the only ornamentation are four stained-glass windows which form a cross at the apex.
It was then on to Sugar Loaf Mountain. The Portuguese name for the mountain is Pao de Acucar. It is 1,300 feet high. Two separate cable cars are necessary to get to the top. The first ride takes you up 700 feet. You get off there and think the view of Rio is spectacular. Then you take the second cable car to the top and WOW! You can see all of Rio---the beaches, the statue of Cristo Redentor, the harbor, a race track, the soccer stadium, the apartment buildings and the favelas where the poor people live. Of course, there are the obligatory souvenir shops and a restaurant. We were fortunate as we had little rain and a fairly clear day with no sun. With or without sun, it was still pretty warm and steamy. We were told that with the sun it would have been unbearable.
Here’s what I wrote to Alexis’ third grade class about Rio (with a couple of additions.) As usual, I am sure the pictures won’t be in the correct places but I’ll keep trying.
From the top of Sugar Loaf we could look across to Corcovada Mountain. Corcovada is 2296 feet high. Perched on the top is the famous icon of Rio, the Statute of Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer. The statute is 130 feet tall and weighs 700 tons. It is made of concrete and covered with soapstone. The Brazilians started in in 1926 and didn’t finish it until 1931.
This is Christ the Redeemer as we saw it from Sugar Loaf. It was almost hidden in the clouds. The people who went up it the day I took this picture couldn’t see the city or beaches below because of all the clouds. They said it was like being in an airplane above the clouds.
We were lucky when we went because this is what we saw.
To get to the statute we had to take a cog railway trail through a jungle forest. It is the largest forest in the world that is in the middle of a city. As we were going up and down the mountain we saw many strange fruits and plants. This is what is called a jack fruit.
We had it one day on the ship. Yuck (in my opinion).
After we got off the train we had to take two escalators to get to the very top. Again, WOW what a view.
The cable car up Sugar Loaf Mountain and the railway up to the statute were nice but Carnival is fun. The people in Rio pronounce it Car knee val. And they love Carnival!
(remember this was written for 8 year olds)
Carnival is a celebration held in Rio and many other places in the world 40 days before Easter and marks the start of Lent. It started in Rio with groups of poor people who were making fun of how the rich held fancy balls and masquerade parties. That was in the 1800s. The celebration grew and grew and grew and now thousands if not millions of people celebrate carnival in Rio.
Carnival is all about the samba schools and the parade. In Rio today there are twelve samba schools. They are not really schools but are clubs with thousands of people in each one. They are large, well-financed organizations that work about eight months of the year to prepare for Carnival. For the carnival parade each samba school chooses a theme, makes enormous floats, has bands, dancers, beautiful girls (many half or more naked) , drums, and gorgeous costumes. The parade is a contest to see which of the schools is the best. This year’s themes will include evolution, fairy tales, the history of drums plus 9 others I forget.
Each school has about 3,000 people marching in the parade. Each schools parade lasts about 80 minutes. During the entire 80 minutes the performers must keep dancing, playing and smiling all the time. The parade is held two nights with six samba schools performing each night. 6 x 3,000 equals a lot of performers. On top of that, the Sambodroma holds 43,000 people.
And what, you ask, is the Sambodromo? Rio de Janeiro built a huge stadium (in just 120 days) to hold the carnival parade. It is called the Sambodromo and is just like a city street with seats and bleachers on both sides. The cheapest seats are about $30 and the most expensive one in “boxes” with air conditioning, food and drinks can cost $1,000 a person. Because so many people in Rio are very poor and can’t afford to go to the Sambodromo there are many parties and bands all over the city.
Huge traffic jams occurred when the samba schools took their floats and people to the Sambodromo for the parade. In 2006 the city built what they call the Cidade de Samba. There are 12 gargantuan buildings, one for each school. The doors are 12 feet high to get the floats in and out.
We went to the Cidade de Samba and saw costumes and floats from past carnivals. They let us look at some of the floats they are making for this year’s parade but we couldn’t take pictures because everything is supposed to be a secret. Oddly enough, the second tour group of the day was allowed to take pictures but had to promise not to publish them or give them to competing schools. Since the themes of the schools were known to our tour guide I couldn’t understand why all the secrecy.
Here are some pictures of the costumes and things that were on last year’s floats.
The dresses are very beautiful but can you imagine how heavy they are….and how hot they must be.
Oh, forgot I said I would tell you about the favelas. I am not sure if that is how you spell it. The poor people cannot afford houses in the city so they build little houses and shacks on the hillside. In America, the most expensive houses are high on the hills because people want to look out but in Rio the poorest people have the best view. The favelas are dangerous places if you don’t know your way around. There are about 800 favelas in Rio
where 150,000 people live. That’s a lot of people.
In this picture of the Cidade de Samba you can see a favela on the hillside.
End of school report.
Rio is crowded and noisy, and exuberant. After all it is home to 11 million people. The beat of the samba is heard everywhere. People seem to walk to the beat and while waiting for traffic lights to change their feet are moving to the beat. I think everyone wears platform shoes, even little kids in platform flip flops.
The carnival parades have a set order. There is the instrument section, (the Baterie), made up mostly of drums with rattles, tambourines and notched sticks added. The Passista girls dance to the samba beat in front of the instruments. The girls are very scantly dressed but complete nudity is forbidden (and they push the envelope), explicit sexuality is banned but not much else. One year a performer lost her pasties and the school was fined a half point. (We had a samba show on board the ship and I couldn’t believe the incredible bodies on both the men and women dancers. Needless to say, none of the men even noticed their platform shoes.)
Back to the parade order. After the Passitas come the floats. The “Destaques” are on the floats in the most expensive and incredible costumes. A celebrity or famous person may also be on a float.
We drove past Ipanema Beach, the Carmen Miranda Museum, numerous cathedrals and stopped at Copacabana Beach. The beaches were long, sandy, wide but on the cloudy day not covered in bodies and people like you see in the movies. Rio has more than a little bit of everything and a person could spend weeks there and not see it all.

More pictures, let's hope no duplicates

dock area of village in rain forest

look closely and you'll see the man in the tree

hs feet with vine wrapped around them

fuzzy, friendly tarantula

pictures from Salvador

Elevator from lower city to upper.

Top picture----Brazil nut

other pictures ---street scenes in Maceio

January 24 Salvador da Bahia…..
Sending this off with pictures I hope. I’ll write up Salvador later.
Now I’m rushing off to lunch (can’t miss a meal) and then down to the internet café so I can get all this sent and not be left behind in Salvador.
Later in the day-------
Okay, the internet café was a waste of a walk in the hot sun, of an hour, and the princely sum of $4 US. I needed help getting online, aol came up in Spanish, I managed to figure out the Spanish, I couldn’t edit, insert pictures, I lost some mail after reading it (Sorry Frank, Lorraine, Kenneth and Alexis) and then my computer shut down. Naturally my laptop plug wouldn’t fit the outlet in the café.
So here I am back in the cabin writing about Salvador da Bahia.
Salvador da Bahia’s full name is Sao Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos, meaning Holy Savior of All Saints’ Bay. The city was named by Amerigo Vespucci when he sailed into the bay on All Saint’s Day in 1501. He was on his way to India, not trying to go east to west but being carried by currents and winds from the Mediterranean to South America and then crossing over to Africa and around the tip of South Africa.
Salvador is one of the oldest cities in Brazil and the country’s third most populous. During the heyday of Portuguese rule it was the most important Portuguese city in the world after Lisbon.
We rarely saw a white face (except for tourists) as the city is made up mostly of descendants of African slaves. The culture is very African but the architecture very Portuguese with the tile work on the buildings reminiscent of Lisbon. The slave trade in Brazil was worse than anywhere else in the world and it is estimated that five or six million slaves from Africa came into the country.
Salvador da Bahia is a city built on the bluffs above the harbor and the two levels are connected by an elevator. A fellow passenger told us the cost of the elevator ride was 2 cents US (each way). We were also told it is a great place to get your pocket picked.
It is also a city of 166 catholic churches which contain 1,700 pounds of gold leaf in their decorations. ( I wonder how they know that.) Prevalent in Salvador is candomble (Kahn DOM blay) a mystic blend of African ritual and animist belief. As in many part of the world the religions and rituals of Africa were hidden in the Catholic religion and icons.
We were on the wait list for a tour but it didn’t pan out so we took the H. Stern’s bus to the upper city. Alan went off in one direction and I in the other and eventually we met up back on board in mid afternoon. And then the fun began….
First, my disastrous attempts at using shore facilities for the computer. Then announcement after announcement from our poor beleaguered cruise director, Thom.
Early in the morning he had to content with busses not being allowed on the pier. It was a fairly lengthy walk over uneven cobblestones for some of the less mobile guests so a H. Sterns van was allowed to run back and forth the length of the pier. It was then cancelled by the authorities. Next the pier authorities brought in an open wagon with wooden planks for seats pulled by a tractor. After about 20 minutes that too disappeared from whence it came. Everyone managed somehow.
We were to have a Savadorian folkloric show at 3:30. At 3:15 Thom came on the PA system and announced that the performers hadn’t arrived but he was making phone calls and hoping. At 3:30, the same message. At 4:00 he said the drums had arrived. At 4:30, a few performers. Finally at 4:45 he said if that if enough performers were here by 5:00 an abbreviated show would go on. At 4:55 the doors opened, the passengers flooded in and the show began at 5:05. All this time the Captain is chewing his nails or whatever up on the bridge because it is a long sail to Rio de Janerio and the ship had to be there early in the morning two days hence.
The performance was worth waiting for. Drums, chanting, colorful costumes and incredible acrobatics. I think the acrobatics, handstands, flips, stick banging and all the rest were representative of a martial arts/dance they practice here. In any event, it was lively, energetic, colorful and as always, loud.
A powerful tug pulled us stern first from the dock and then turned us around so we could leave the fairly small harbor bow first.
As we sailed out we passed a half dozen or so Brazilian navy ships and a sub. All were docked at the pier and we were told they are not usually here in Salvador. We continue to marvel at how few people come out on deck for arrivals and departures. I guess most of the passengers have seen it over and over. There were more people on the dock watching us leave than passengers on deck.
It was full steam ahead as we sailed on toward Rio de Janiero.
January 25 At Sea.
The usual activities plus a morning talk on preserving your favorite photographs on fabrics, a video presentation on Charles Darwin, who in addition to his time on the Galapagos spent three years in South America, and a demonstration of how to make Chocolate Volcano Cake (I will continue to use a mix). Did you know Charles Darwin was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln? And that today is the birthday of Robbie Burns (Auld Lang Syne)?
Tomorrow and the day after RIO. The Captain told us to be on deck by 7 am for the sail in to the most dramatic harbor arrival in all the world. Greater than Sydney or San Francisco. There will be a commentary on deck as we see get our first glimpse of Corcovado with its 125’Christ the Redeemer statute, Ipenema and Cocacabana beaches, and Sugarloaf Mountain. We have tours morning, noon and night for two days, including a visit to the Ciudade do Samba to see how the artists and performers get ready for Carnival. Carnival isn’t too far off so it should be a lively scene.
Our position at 5:40 pm today is
20° 22.42S 039° 39.47W
Barometer steady
Relative humidity 70.4%
Sea temp. 82 F
Wind from the east, force 3
Seas slight 1.5 - 4 feet
Partially cloudy, still plenty of daylight




.

January 20, 21,23

January 20 Inauguration Day. At Sea
Another sea day with speakers, dance lessons, casino, and more plus an ice carving demonstration and a bbq on deck. The waiters were decked out as Uncle Sam serving hot dogs, hamburgers, shrimp and other goodies.
The Queen’s Lounge was decorated in red, white and blue, had a buffet (even though we had just finished the bbq) and showed all the inauguration celebration on large screens.
The day was pretty rocky so I watched the festivities from the comfort of our cabin.
The wind was across the bow with the waves coming in a different direction. We were in a shallow part of the Atlantic (about 300 feet) and had 12 foot swells. Things were supposed to get better when the depth went to over a mile but I didn’t see any improvement. There is a big difference in motion between this ship and the Amsterdam. The Prinsendam is 669 feet long and 37,848 gross tons and the Amsterdam, 780 feet and 61,000 gross tons. The seas aren't as bad as we had in the Tasman Sea last year but they are more than I like.
I don’t know who planned the Captain’s Black and White Ball for January 20 but you can be sure it received several humorous comments. At dinner the men were all given black or white fedoras and the ladies feather head dresses. It was all great fun and almost everyone was in either black or white or both. In the lounge the Captain lead off with the first dance, most of the officers were present to dance with passengers and several prizes were given out….including a lovely pearl necklace and ear ring set from the jewelry shop on board.

January 21, Fortaleza, Brazil.
As we travel down the coast of Brazil we are beginning to see the white sandy beaches it is famous for. In and around Fortaleza the coast is tropical and beautiful but just inland are the arid interior plains regions where it is very difficult to eke out a living.
Fortaleza has nearly two million people and is the state capital.
We have onboard representatives from H. Stern, a jewelry company with stores in several South American cities. They provide shuttle vans to and from their stores. In Fortaleza the vans also took folks to the market, the Centro Mercado.
You could spend hours in the Mercado, a large metal building of several floors accessed by winding ramps and stairways circling around an open center. It was very, very crowded, noisy and the aisles narrow. This was the market for the people, although the merchants were more than happy to sell to tourists. You can buy leather shoes, lace tablecloths, foods, herbs, pocketbooks, clothing and everything in between. I’ve never seen so many “shops” selling baby clothes as here.
We were heading for the old prison which now houses artisans but it started to rain very haard so when we spied a Sterns’ van we returned to the ship.
Our departure was scheduled for 5 o’clock but about 5:30 our affable captain came on the speakers and announced that because of a medical emergency and the need to take a passenger to the local hospital we would be late leaving. About 45 minutes later the Captain was on again…..another medical emergency, this one involving a crew member. Because the ship had been cleared before the second emergency it had to be cleared again since someone left it. I think it was about 8 o’clock when we finally got underway.
We never found out what the passenger’s problem was but the crew member had broken three or four fingers in his hand either taking in the gangway or when a hydraulic door closed on it. It depends on who tells the story which version you get.
We were supposed to go to a cocktail party in the Captain’s quarters sponsored by our Cruise Critic Group but it was postponed as I guess they needed the Captain on the bridge more than entertaining passengers.
Tomorrow another sea day. And a cocktail party sponsored by Cruise Specialists.
January 22 At Sea
A wonderful relaxing day with a party hosted by Henk and Lucia Barnhoorn our Cruise Specialists (aka CSI) hosts in the early evening. Both the Captain and Cruise Director were in attendance together with most if not all of CSIs passengers. Most were familiar faces as it seems that once someone books with CSI they are with them for life.
January 23 Maceio (Mah say oh)
Another capital city, this one the capital of Alagoas, with a city population in 2006 of over 900,000. Maceio is famous for its beaches and has become a lively seaside resort area for Brazilians and Europeans with many hotels lining the road across the street from the beaches. In this area buildings cannot be more than 9 stories so you do not get the hemmed in feeling of some Florida cities.
This is the first time the Prinsendam has stopped at Maceio but things went smoothly. The night before the Captain announced he didn’t know which side of the ship would be next to the dock but we would be docked.
We took a Highlights tour with only three photo op (read buy local souvenirs) stops but we saw a great deal of the city from the cool, comfort of the bus. One of the stops was at a little neighborhood with only one street. The town/village/neighborhood seemed to consist entirely of tiny shops selling lace work. With the help (and a loan) from another passenger I bought a white blouse with lace inserts. According to the woman whose money I borrowed, the blouse would have cost me three times as much back in the states, and twice as much in a South American city. As we walked along the dusty streets and peered into the little shops we could see women (and a few men) making the lace.
Our final stop was at a national monument on the beach road with the predictable shops next to it. Another blouse. So far I haven’t seen anything that anyone in the family would want or use (or I would dare buy). We haven’t even seen good postcards but we keep looking.
Alan spent the afternoon reading, writing and attending lectures. I took a log nap---not like me at all.

Pictures from Belem

Class room

window in school

structure along river....can you see the clothes hanging on the line?

house, boat and dock along river

mistake, duplicate

Jan. 19 (I think) Belem

Skyline of Belem from the Prinsendam

Sistership to our river boat

January 19, Belem
This will probably be very incomplete as it wrote all about Belem and our visit to a village in the rain forest a day or two ago and then lost it somewhere in the computer.
Of course I couldn’t lose a blog on a short sea day. Since Belem we’ve been to Fortaleza, Maceio and today Salvador da Bahia so it’s hard to keep them all straight. I never realized just how big Brazil is.
The ship was scheduled to anchor some miles from the center of Belem, tender us in quite a distance and then run shuttle buses for about a 40 minute ride to the city. Fortunately, and for what reason I couldn’t understand, we were able to anchor nearer to the city and only required a tender ride….a tender ride that was supposed to take about 30 minutes but ended up a little shorter.
As our tour was in the afternoon, Alan and I went ashore early and headed just down the main thorough fare for the local market. It was much like the other markets we have seen and we wandered among fruit and vegetable stands and what seemed like hundreds of stalls selling t shirts and soccer shirts. We passed the fish market and began to head back toward the ship. Alan wanted to go up the side streets but I dissuaded him as we HAD BEEN WARNED and warned and warned about the dangers of Belem.
As we were walking along the sidewalk with the market on one side of us and the busy street on the other we were approached by two local policemen. By gestures and sign language we finally established that they were telling us we should be with a group, should put our cameras in our pockets and should get back to the terminal. It wasn’t as if we were alone down a dark alley with villains lucking in doorways but we did as we were told.
We made a quick trip back to the Prinsendam for lunch and plenty of water and ice tea and then it was back to the terminal for our afternoon riverboat and Amazon village walk.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get pictures into this (I’m going ashore to an internet café with much better rates than the ship). The pictures probably won’t match the text but should include the Belem skyline, the riverbank 30 minutes out of the city, a dock and laundry, the village school, a warm and fuzzy tarantula, a man (no it’s not a monkey) in a tree, and who knows what else.
Shortly after leaving Belem we began our journey up a Rio Guama, a tributary of the
Amazon. The guides on the river boat were very knowledgeable and had some of the best English we’ve heard.
For about an hour and a half we slowly cruised up the river until seeing small boats, canoes, and a few houses along the banks or hidden in the trees. Arriving at the village dock it was apparent that the river was low as we were well below the sanitation level. We faced our first challenge ----getting off the boat. First we descended down a rickety 24 “ plank all the while hearing, “watch your head, watch your head.” The plank ended on a small raft or platform where we started up an equally wobbly gangway to the dock. It is amazing how some of the physically challenged passengers manage to get around either by being pulled, pushed, prodded or otherwise aided. And it’s all done with a smile.
Of course it was uphill to the main part of the village (a school and about a half dozen simple cement buildings with tin or thatched roofs. No glass in the windows and no doors--just openings.
Hens and little chicks scratched around in the dusty, weedy yards and smiling children showed of parrots and puppies. I was surprised at the amount of trash in partially burned piles right next to the houses. With an entire jungle around them I would have thought the people would have moved their “budding landfills” further away.
We started off single file down a narrow, rough path into the rain forest. It was a little difficult walking and we spent more time looking at our feet than looking around. Eventually we became more secure and started to look up and around. We saw birds of paradise, orchids, termite mounds about 4 feet high, plants with leaves as big as a six year old, ferns, vines, trees almost as big as redwoods, more vines, strange insects, (no snakes) rubber trees and Brazil nut trees.
The Brazil nut tree is a giant in the rain forest. It can grow to over 150 ft with a trunk 15 ft wide. The branches form an arch like an umbrella. The nuts are seeds encased in a heavy pod. They should really be called Amazon nuts, not Brazil nuts because they grow thoughout the Amazon---not just in Brazil. It takes a tree 20 years to produce its first fruit and the trees can live to be hundred of years old.
Soon we came to a small clearing where a wizened little brown man awaited us. We later found out he was 60 years old but it was hard to tell if he was 50 or 80 or anywhere in between. Wrapping a ring of vines around his ankles, he quickly scampered up a tall slender tree, reached across to another skinny tree and before anyone could even snap a picture he was back down on the ground. Amid ohs and awes he did it again for us. This time we were more prepared and got a couple of quick snaps.
By the time we arrived back at the dock area it was time to board the river boat and head downstream. Of course, we had to reverse the process of ladders, planks, and gangways.
Local musicians and dancers were on the riverboat to entertain us with their music and to explain the dances. The audience was invited to participate and Alan was dragged up to the front of the crowd. The song went on and on until he was begging the musicians to take a break.
About half way down the river came the rains, and the wind. A few braved it out on the open deck under umbrellas but after the umbrellas turned inside out we all crowded under the boat’s canopy. We shouldn’t have bothered trying to stay dry because when we finally arrived back at the terminal we had to dash to the tenders…..a long dash. It was raining so hard the hatches on the tender leaked, the water came in the window seams, and entrances. I was sitting where I could see the bilge pump light and it never went off.
Fortunately, it was HAL excursion so the ship waited about an hour and a half for us, the “drowned rats” to quote the cruise director, as we were welcome aboard with beach towels awaiting us at the check in.
Speaking of the check in ----each time anyone, crew or passenger, leaves the ship their key card is scanned. When the card is scanned your picture shows up on a screen. Returning to the ship, your card is again scanned, your belongs placed on a scanning belt and you go through a scanner. The procedure lets the crew know how many leave the ship at a port and how many return. If you aren’t back at sailing time, an announcement is broadcast asking you to report to the front desk. If somehow you have avoided the scanner and are on board you are check in. If you’re not onboard, they sail without you unless you’re on a HAL tour that has been delayed. If you’re left behind it’s up to you to get to the next port.

catching up Jan. 19-22 or 23

January 18

January 18 At Sea
Just a nice relaxing day….I guess you can call sleeping most of it relaxing ….the seas weren’t bad but not great so I did almost nothing. At least in comparison to most of the hectic sea days.
Alan went to the King Neptune ceremony. We both attended several lecturers on upcoming ports, etc.
Tomorrow Belem. We have been warned repeatedly of the high incidence of pick pocketing and muggings in Belem. According to the stories, last ear four passengers ended up in the ship’s medical center after being mugged in Belem. Every speaker tells us not to wander off alone, to stay in groups, to stay out of questionable areas, to wear no jewelry, to try and “blend in and not look like a tourist.” We had dinner last night with Kate Ross, one of our speakers, and her husband. Kate is a red head (very red with very white skin) and she said the only place she ever blended in was Ireland. As for the rest of us…..I don’t think so.
The history/geography lesson on Belem.
Belem Portuguese for Bethlehem) is the capital of the state of Para in Brazil. Many people from the Azores came to Belem for a better life. After them came the missionaries to save the Amazonian people. Belen has the dubious distinction of being the place where the first visiting bishop was killed and eaten by his would-be converts.
Belem is known as the city of the Mango Tree, due to the large number of mango trees in and around Belem. After cruising in the Atlantic Ocean after leaving the Amazon delta, we will sailed 77 nautical miles up the Canal do Espardante and the Para Rive to our anchorage at Belem.

January 17. Dead in the Water or Up the River without a paddle

It was a restful day at sea until 2 pm when Alan and I participated in the Escape from the Piranha Equator Swim. Along with about 30 other passengers we joined Thom the cruise director to “plunge” into the Lido pool and dodge piranhas. Thom, all decked out in his dinner jacket, vest, formal shirt, bow tie, long black socks and Bermuda shorts poured a glass of symbolic brown river water into the pool and tossed in a few plastic tropical fish. He waded in followed by his flock, more sensibly dressed in bathing suits.

Much to our surprise the pool was not very deep (and it’s not very big)and I was just able to stand on tiptoes with my mouth above water. By the time another 25 or 30 people were in I was almost over my head. I guess the theory about displacement is true.
We skipped dinner in the Fontaine Dining room as we wanted to see the movie, a delightful film call Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (don’t miss it), AND the evening’s entertainment, the “Incredible Magic of Marc Oberon“.
The magician was very good and even with him projected onto two large movie screens we couldn’t figure out how he did his tricks. About halfway through the show his mike failed. That was corrected. Then most of the lights went out. The cruise director came to the stage and told a couple of jokes. The lights came on.
The magician did a couple more jokes. The lights went out. Thom told a couple more stories and explained that there was a power failure (we had figured that out) and things would be restored soon. The poor magician tried to do a couple of tricks by flashlight. Not successful.
Most of the audience stayed put but I wandered out into the foyer. There was plenty of light from the emergency lights so I went down to the cabin for a flashlight ----just in case. Of course there was total darkness in the cabin but with the door open the hall light enabled me to find the flashlight.
On the way back to the upper decks I passed a woman in the hall in a jacket and woolen
hat clutching a small bag containing her passport and whatever else she felt she would need. She said she was sure we wouldn’t have to abandon ship but she wanted to be ready “just in case.”
Out on the deck and in the lounges (lit by the table candles) there was almost a party atmosphere. The river was calm, the temperature hot but there was a nice breeze and no one I talked to felt in any danger at all (except the woman in her winter hat). The biggest problem we had was the lack of air conditioning and running water. (About 3 in the morning the toilet flushed itself.)
The Captain and the crew handled the situation extremely well. Several times the Captain came on the PA system and explained what had happened and what they were doing. Crew members were stationed in the stairways handing out green glow sticks and giving explanations.
After some time had passed the anchor was dropped. We could see a few lights in the distance which the captain told us were fishing boats. I wonder what the fishermen thought of the darkened ship with little green lights bobbing all over it. We were also assured had all navigational lights were working.
Sometime after midnight I went to our cabin (Alan had been there since he left the show) and with the aid of my glow stick got ready for bed. Just about then on came the lights, up came the anchor, we got underway, and a while later the ac kicked in.
The explanation ---one of the three generators failed and the system overloaded and bled off the other two generators. The water cooling system failed and all power stopped.
The start-up had to be incremental so as not to start the whole failure process again.
Or something like that. In any event, it made for a more interesting night, we were never in any danger or discomfort (except for being a little warmer than usual) and we learned that Captain Gundersen and his crew are up to the challenge.
And speaking of the Captain-----most captains begin their broadcasts with “this is your Captain, speaking from the bridge.” Our captain often begins with “hello, it’s me again.” With his Norwegian accent we know who it is.
Tomorrow a sea day and the King Neptune crossing the equator ceremony.

Are you out there?

Hi, If you're reading the blog, however, infrequently, please let me know via e-mail. Also if you have any suggestions or comments, let me know. Thanks.

Jan. 16, Alter da Chao

January 16, Friday, Alter de Chao, Brazil
I can’t believe I didn’t wake up until 9:15. Even then I had to waken Alan. It couldn’t be the wild nights. Must be the sea air.
Today’s port was quite a change. For one thing the water was blue, not murky tan. Second, there was a long sandy beach. Beautiful soft white sand with thatched huts strung along the beach, the result of a long sandbar in front of the town.
Alter do Chao is approximately 15 miles up the Tapajos River so we left the Amazon and passed one of our earlier ports of call, Santarem, on the port side.
We tendered in to a small dock and then had to walk through the sand for about 150 feet. Not a problem unless you were using a walker.
Of course, we passed several stands selling the usual beads, wooden whistles, hammocks and postcards, etc. Some of the masks were rather interesting being made from coconuts, piranha teeth, local grasses and stones. They were also a bit fragile to pack and carry home so we reluctantly passed them by.
I didn’t see any passengers rushing off to the beach but did see local family groups enjoying a day at the sea shore, or river shore as it was.
We walked along the waterfront. The people were very friendly and I observed several very blond little kids. Alter do Chao seemed to be a typical small town along the river, and typically hot and humid.
Alan wandered off in one direction and I in another. Of interest in all the villages we have visited are the blue tubs on roofs. They are for the collection of water. The tubs are of varying sizes some not much bigger than a large wash tub and other considerably larger. Most have the name of the same company on them. One I passed today must have been full because a stream of water was flowing out from the spigot. Or perhaps someone left the faucet on. Or it was filling a tank below. A high fence surrounded the yard so I couldn’t tell.
Speaking of fences…..most of the houses, even the humblest shacks, have stone walls or fences between them and the sidewalk. Yes, there are sidewalks almost everywhere.
One prosperous looking house was surrounded by a stone wall topped with sharp spikes, and with the added protection of three strands of electrified wife above the spikes. I had to wonder who lived there and what they were protecting.
If anyone has any idea what this strange green fruit a little smaller than a basketball is, please let us know.

Today was our last port on the Amazon before we enter the Atlantic Ocean. We have a sea day or two and then reenter the delta for our visit to Belem.

I'mhaving trouble posting so I'm getting behind

Jan. 15, Thursday, Parintins, Brazil
I have never been so hot in my life! That was heard over and over today from most of the passengers. Just to lick my lips was to taste salt. I can’t imagine how people live in this climate, not to mention work and dance. I guess you do what you have to.
Printins is a small 200 year old village on the Island of Tupiambarana, 350 miles down the Amazon from Manaus. I think the city's reason for being is to host a festival which runs for three days in June. It is called the Boi-bumba and tells the story of the kidnapping and killing of the ox of the wealthiest an in the village. It's a long story but it has happy ending.
The festival has developed into a competition between two Boi teams---one red and one blue. Each team has several thousand members. The cities’ building are painted either red or blue. The rivalry has grown so intense that Paritins is the only place in the world that has blue Coca Cola cans as the blue team supporters will not drink from red cans.
During the weeks surrounding the festival the local population of just over 30,000 people swells to 300,000 or more, many sleeping in hammocks or cabins in the numerous river boats crowding the harbor. During the festival, people sing and dance all day in the streets and at night they flock to the Bumbodromo for the show. The Bumbodromo is even built in the shape of a bull's head.
We were told that Boi-Bumba is becoming a rival to Carnival in Rio. I doubth the folks in Rio would agree.
Many people from the Prinsendam went to the Bumba show (at almost $100 a head). Plenty of others, including Alan and I, went ashore ,wandered the pier area looking at the various bead necklaces, postcards, feathered ear rings and head pieces, plus other souvenir reminders of the bull and the show. We hired a man with a bicycle converted to a rickshaw type conveyance. It was the best idea we have had. The poor fellow had to pedal in the heat while a cool breeze kept us alive. Each time we pointed the camera at something he would stop or slow down so we could take pictures. We toured most of the village including a stop at the Bumbodromo where we could hear the music. Alan also bought a video of last year’s show (which in many parts has costumes or lack of them to rival Las Vegas shows.)
Our driver even stopped at a general store an area far from the souvenir shops. As we passed the store, I spied something I had been looking for and by gestures pointed it out. Our driver/pedaler turned around and stopped. I bought a couple of Christmas presents. Sign language works!
The tenders continued all afternoon bring hot, sweaty passengers back to the ship.
One of our tablemates returned from his overnight in the jungle and kept us amused with his stories of being awakened at 5 am to walk the jungle and hear the animals come awake and of showering in water collected in tanks on the roofs. The water was the temperature of whatever it had heated up to during the day.
The evening entertainment was a comedian. Alan went to the movies----he was one of an audience of three or four.
I forgot to mention that in Boca da Valeria we bought a wooden carving of a couple of parrots. Upon returning to the ship we were instructed to go the “wooden collection” table. I had seen the sign and erroneously thought they had a collection of wooden carvings for us to view. Wrong. All wooden items must be turned in, wrapped in clear plastic wrap, and a form with a description and cabin number filled out. The articles are then placed in a freezer for 48 hours to rid them of any bugs or other creepy crawlies.
I had hoped they would store them in the freezer for the remainder of the cruise to save us space but a couple of days later our parrots appeared in our cabin.

Jan 13 and

The 10 foot fish. It wouldn't go in the text where I wanted it.

A model of the Opera House made with Legos.

Tuesday, January 13 and Wednesday January 14 Manaus, Brazil

In the middle of the rainforest, along the banks of the Rio Negro, lies Manaus, a city of approximately two million people. The original settlement was founded as supply port at the junction of the of the Rio Solimoes (the Amazon) and the Rio Negro. The population rise and early prosperity of the area was a result of the rubber industry.


Manaus from our ship

The industry was controlled by the German rubber barons who built enormous, extravagant homes. The rubber barons were so wealthy they had their laundry sent to Paris. It wasn't an overnight flight in those days so you can imagine how many changes of clothes they needed.

As the rubber industry grew, slaves were brought in to gather the "sap" from trees. Gathering the latex was extremely difficult. Slaves were brought in to climb 50 or more feet into the trees, cut a slash, place a catch cup under it the slash and then move on to the next tree; cutting hundreds in a day. The cutting was done at night and in the morning the tree would be re-climbed, the cup's contents collected, heated over a fire in the forest to form a ball and then stored until enough was gathered to be shipped down river.

The extremely wealthy of Manaus decided they would build an opera house both for their entertainment and to show off their wealth. Every material necessary for the construction was imported, including three kinds of marble from Italy and chandaliers of Marrano glass.

The elegant opera house or Teatro Amazonas took 17 years to build and earned Manaus the title Little Paris of the Jungle. The audience soon discovered that noise from the carriages as they arrived after the performance had started. was distracting. The solution was to dig up the road in front of the opera house, mix rubber and cement into bricks and relay the roadway.

They next discovered that it was incredibly hot and humid inside so they installed fans in the theatre. Another distraction ---the noise from the fans. Solution --pipes were installed in the floor between the rows of seats. Air from large fans located outside was then forced through the pipes. Unfortunately, the air being forced in was at least as hot if not hotter than the air inside. Solution --have the ships down river make blocks of ice, transport the ice up the river and placed it in front of the fans.

The opera house holds 701 people, has an very palatial foyer which was used by the governor for cocktail parties and receptions. There is a lavish room upstairs with very large mirrors, chandeliers and a painted ceiling. No matter where you stand in the room the gaze of one of the women in the ceiling painting follows you. The floors in parts of the building are alternating dark and light woods signifying the meeting of the waters. It has been refurbished twice, the last time in 1990.

A model of the Opera House built from millions of legos.


Rubber trees were only found in the Amazon until an Englishman named Wickham stole 7, 000 rubber tree seeds and took them to London. Eventually the small trees grown from the pilfered seeds were sent to Malaysia and the rubber industry in Manaus collapsed. And along with it, the wealth.

Back then Manaus was, and still is, a city surrounded by the rain forest and cut off from
the rest of Brazil. In spite of the thousands of cars, trucks and busses, there are no roads into the city and no roads out. Until airplanes, the only means of getting in or out was by boat. Today there are over 90 thousand boats plying the river between other cities and tiny villages.

We watched ferries of all sizes come and go loaded with people and their possessions. We could have spent our entire time in Manaus watching ferries being loaded with everything from truck loads of beer to toilets. And it was all done by hand with the exception of two or three two wheel dollies. Depending on the destination, the trip up or down the river can take days. People hang hammocks for sleeping, bring domestic and farm animals on board, eat, cook and do whatever else they have to. Nothing like our cruise ship with all its amenities.

Our first day in Manaus we walked portions of the city. And found sneakers! Our ship and many of the larger ferries dock at a floating dock which rises and falls with the level of the river. A large section of wall is painted with the water levels for various years.

Manaus reminded us of cities in Asia. Streets were lined with stalls selling everything from hair products to CDs to cobbler services to Brazil's version of fast food. Because of the climate wooden buildings decay rapidly while stucco or concrete buildings turn a moldy green. There are modern high rises and falling down shacks all in the same block.

Traffic is horrendous! On a tour it took us about 30 minutes to travel less than a mile.

After lunch we took a free shuttle provided by H. Sterns, a large jewelry company in South America. It gave us a chance to see the city and visit the Tropical Hotel about 40 minutes away. Just after we arrived at the hotel, the rains came down, and down, and down. Thunder and lightening and torrents of rain.

In the evening, the ship hosted a folkloric show----very energetic, colorful and loud.

For the second day we had booked a shore excursion with Cruise Specialists. Under umbrellas we boarded a comfortable bus and took off to see the Opera House. Then it was on to the Palacio Rio Negro, the private residence of a rubber baron and later government offices. One man
and his wife lived in the house and their 22 servants were housed next door.

In the still heavy rain and heavier traffic our bus crawled to the market. What a place! The first section was the wholesale fruit and vegetable market. We saw bananas 14-15” long, millions
of watermelons, and every fruit and vegetables imaginable and then some. Our great guide
explained the exotic fruits and vegetables and then took us across the street to the fish market. One interesting fish was the peacock fish. It has a large circle on its tail very much like a peacock feather. According to our guide, it swims backward toward a school of smaller fish who think the circle is an eye.










Another unusual fish had a name I can't remember but it grows up 10 feet. It has no bones but a few in the tail. Some of the meat is eaten fresh, some salted and dried and the scales made into nail files.

This is one of the ten foot fish hanging in the market.


Our excursion ended with us wet and weary back at the ship. And much more informed about Manaus and the rubber industry.

Sunday, Jan. 11 Santarem 2½ ° south of the equator
As we cruised up the Amazon we saw our first meeting, marriage or wedding of the waters. The tan colored muddy Amazon was joined by the blue Rio Tapajos. The two colors of the water were very visible as they ran along each other for several miles without mixing. Further along the Amazon we will see the same thing when the Rio Negro enters the Amazon.
A brief shower came and went as we stood on the deck to watch the approach to Santarem as well as to oversee the docking. Just before we reached our dock we passed a very large conveyer platform built out over the river. It belongs to the American company, Cargill, which has soy crop plantations and processing plants here in the Amazon. Some believe that soy is the future economic savior of this region. Others bemoan the loss of the rain forest. I believe most of it is shipped to China.
A transoceanic highway is being built from the Atlantic to the Pacific which will make it cheaper and easier to transport soy to the Asian countries.
Getting back to the docking of the Prinsendam -----for sailboat people it is hard to believe how relatively easily this 669 foot ship is slipped sideways into the dock with the thrusters. As the dock lines where thrown to the dock I could hear Alan silently screaming "get a wrap on it." I guess there wasn't much chance of the Prinsendam slipping away from the dock as the dock hands didn't rush to secure the lines.
As we hadn't booked a tour we took the port shuttle service to the center of town. It was described as running every 30 minutes "depending on traffic." I don't know how much traffic there is in Santarem weekdays but on a Sunday we didn’t see more than a dozen cars and a half dozen motorcycles. All but one gift shop was closed but the enterprising people of Santarem had a few stalls on the dock selling native jewelry, carvings, musical instruments and dried piranhas of all sizes. (We have been informed that both piranhas and anacondas were given a bad rap in all those old movies as the fish do not immediately devour you if you fall into the river (in fact they like decayed matter rather than tasty humans) and anacondas do not drop out of trees to wrap around you and squeeze. Nice to know but I worry more about the monster bugs.)
There wasn’t much uptown but a few ferries boarding. People were getting on with luggage, cardboard cartons and one TV. The bows of the ferries were on shore but unfortunately we weren’t there to see how they got off the sand and out into the river.
On the bus ride back I did see a ferry with the bow in the shallow shore of the river and people wading ashore. This was a commercial ferry of probably 60 or 70 feet , not someone’s little river boat. The water was about knee or thigh deep. Happily the children were carried in arms or piggy backed ashore.
We toured the little museum which had pre-Columbia artifacts as well as colonial documents and artifacts. I particularly liked the burial urns which contained pieces of bones. I’m sure they weren’t the original contents but who knows.
Yes, it was hot. Yes, it was humid. Yes, we are learning to walk very slowly.
We don’t sail until 8 pm ---why we can’t imagine as I think everyone has been back to the ship for at least a couple of hours. Tomorrow Boca da Valeria.
A little about Santarem. (there should be an accent over the “e”. If anyone has the sheet that gives foreign letters, etc., I’d love it if you could e-mail it to me.)
Santarem is about half way between Belem and Manaus and is the Amazon’s third largest city. It was settled in 1661 by Jesuit missionaries, 30 years after the first European explorers first came into contact with the native people. The settlement grew as escaped slaves made their way to the upriver areas. In 1758 the remote town was named Santarem by the Portuguese.

Saturday, Jan. 10, Macapa

• 
  Saturday, Jan. 10 Macapa, Brazil ,and then on up the Amazon toward Santarem.
  We awoke to the predicted Amazon rainforest rain. And was it raining. Luckily for us by 10:00 or so it had stopped and a half hour later the sun was out. We had tickets for the 11 am shuttle which left just about on time. The bus was much nicer than we had expected....a pleasant surprise as we were picturing something like the busses we rode in Tonga and Samoa. Today's had plush seats, windows and air conditioning.
  It was about a 40 minute ride to Macapa from our dock at Santana. The dock was part of a bark mulch plant's operation with no frills or welcoming dancers. I think we were on the only paved road from Santana to Macapa as all we saw were one lane dirt/mud roads leading off to very run-down shacks. As we got closer to Macapa, the capital of the state (Brazil is divided into states like the U S), we saw more substantial houses but nothing grand. The area is very poor by our standards but the people very friendly and smiling. No one we encountered including shop people and cab driver spoke any English. But why should they? Macapa is certainly off the beaten track and only two or three cruise ships stop there in a year.
  Macapa itself is right on the Amazon River and is a bustling, hot, humid grid of shops of all sizes, selling all manner of things from baby clothes to appliances. It seemed that every store had a loud speaker blaring music into the street.
  Alan 's sneaker sole parted company from most of the upper part of the sneaker so he is duct taped together. We spent the better part of the afternoon going from one shoe store to another. There must have been 15 or so that we found just by walking a couple of blocks. Nothing suited Alan so he looks like a homeless person but we'll have to live with it until Manaus which is supposed to have many, many shops.
  While standing on a street corner we were approached by a couple from the Prinsendam who wanted to know if we'd like to share a taxi to the Monumento do Marco Zero do Equator. We did, and took each other's pictures standing on the equator. Alan is in one hemisphere and I am in the other. Our fellow traveler had a GPS with him but he said it did not read 00° 00.00 but came close.
  
  
  
  
  
  (At 5:00 a short while after leaving Santana our position is 00° 08.86S. 051° 12.69W.)
  Although we drank water during our time ashore we consumed plenty of ice water and ice tea when we returned to the ship.
  
  A few facts on the Amazon River and the Rainforest
  Prepared by Kate Ross one of the Explorations Lecturers on board
  *the total length fro the source is 4020 miles or more depending on the source of information
  *the drainage are is 2.3 millionsq. miles
  *in Brazil alone it runs for 1,960 miles
  * it carries 7 million cub feet of water per second--the largest volume in the world and one fifth of all freshwater entering oceans.
  *it carries 60 times more water than the Nile, the second longest river
  *over a thousand rivers and streams flow into the Amazon
  *17 of its tributaries are over 1,000 long
  *the Rainforest takes up nearly 1/2 of the country of Brazil and parts of 8 other South American countries.
  *the mouth of the Amazon is about 125 miles wide.
  *the river is navigable 2,310 mile from the delta in Brazil to Iquitos in Peru
  *it is the longest navigable natural waterway in the world
  *it has no bridges, crossings are made in all manner and size of boat from ferries to canoes.
  *there are 30 species of monkeys
  *230 snake species
  *40 turtle species
  *1,500 to 3,000 species of fish
  *insect species can only be roughly estimated at 70,000 to 2 million.
  *over 4,000 butterfly species
  *600 mammal species
  *from the source to Atalaya on the Rio tambo, the river drops 14,600 feet in altitude. *From there to the Atlantic it drops only 630 feet.
  
  
  

January 9, approaching the Amazon

Friday, Jan. 9 Day 7 of our journey
It's been just a week and 2427 miles since we boarded the Prinsendam and we are just hours from crossing the equator. Unlike other cruises, the crossing ceremony won't take place at our first crossing or even the second but on the third, in the Pacific. For this time we will cross in the wee hours of the morning so there will be no Neptune ceremony until later.
Our position at 1:45pm is 01° 30.32'N 49° 04.25'W. The seas are less than a foot, the water coffee-with-cream brown, the relative humidity 90, air temp 78F. Our heading is 324.5 The wind is 5 knots coming across the deck at 90° . The water color is a result of the waters of the Amazon flowing into the Atlantic but more on that later.
We have been told several times that the Amazon and Antarctic portions of this cruise are an adventure, more of an expedition than a cruise. I think it is the ship’s way of saying don’t expect much ashore other than primitive conditions. Today the port lecturer told us that as of tonight we are no longer passengers on a cruise ship but explorers. He said we will visit the Amazon region on its terms, not ours and it will be nothing like our expectations.
We’ve received several notices to please conserve water during our days on the Amazon as the ship cannot make fresh water from the river as it does at sea. According to the Captain's one o'clock announcement from the bridge ) we are cruising at only 11 knots in order to cross the bar outside the Amazon. During the captain's daily announcements we would like to strangle most of the passengers who talk though it making it difficult to hear. From what we could hear we may have only 6 or 7 feet beneath the keel during this crossing. I'll try to get a verification later. (Confirmed: We had 6 feet)
From the Captain's comments it sounded like the trip up the Amazon was not for the faint of heart navigator. It is not expected to be rough but the stabilizers cannot be used as there is much debris, including large fallen trees, in the water. Because of the serpentine twists in the river, there will be a great deal of rudder use, causing listing of the ship in many areas.
The channels and delta area change from cruise to cruise so the ship's officers rely heavily on local pilots. At some points in the river we will not be able to see land, on others we will travel very close to the shore on one side or another.
We expect to see land on the starboard side between 6 and 7 pm tonight and on the port between 8 and 9. We'll travel up the river, drop anchor about 4 am off Macapa* where the ship will be cleared by local authorities. We will then proceed to dock at a small pier at a sawmill operation.
HAL had arranged for free shuttle buses for those not on tours but I don't think there is much to see in Macapa whether you're on a $50 tour or a free shuttle. We will visit a village school that is supported by HAL. We're brought along colored pencils and markers for the kids in the school.
After dinner I saw a half dozen or so people looking out the doors to the promenade deck. When I went over to take a peek out this is what I saw.

The little guy was about the size of our June bugs and his buddy HUGE. And yes, those are pincers. And, they weren't alone.

I'm rethinking forays into the jungle if this is what lands on the ship in the middle of the river.




*With apologies to the romance languages, the program I am using does not have special characters for accents and my cheat sheet is back in Falmouth so you will have to use your imagination on some spellings.

A couple of pictures

Hopefully this will be the newest resident of Devil's Island and a view of Devil's Island from Ile Royale. The shot in the previous post is our ship the Prinsendam as seen from the shore of Ile Royale.

January 8, Devil's Island

Thursday, Jan. 8
It was hard to reconcile the natural beauty of Ile Royale, Ile St. Joseph and Devil's Island with the history of the islands when they served as a brutal prison settlement for France.
The day arrived rainy so we didn't hurry to get ashore until the weather had cleared and the sun began peaking out. We were anchored off a beautify, lush green island of palm trees and jungle like conditions. A short tender ride and we began our walking tour of the island. There was a rough, uneven stone and dirt path (all uphill of course) about the width of a car that took us past the children's cemetery and up to the main prison complex. Except for chapel and the building that is now a hotel and restaurant, the structures are pretty much in ruins but there is enough remaining to give one a sense of the helplessness and horror the prisoners must have felt.
The cells were made entirely of stone with small barred windows set high in the walls.
Some were about 6 x 8 and others a bit smaller. Even with a faint breeze blowing off the ocean, it was unbearably hot and extremely humid.
We stopped into the hotel bar for a coke and bit of shade. Alan continued the walk around the rest of the island while I took the “stairs’ back to the tender landing. The stairs were barely more than rough cuts in some of the stone with no handrails and as slippery as ice.
Alan wandered down a path for about 8 hot, humid minutes thinking he was on his way to the tender landing. However, just after passing several roosters, chickens and pigs he came to a dead end. It was either make a flying, deadly leap off the cliff or retrace his steps. He made the smart choice.
As they say, “A beautiful place, but you wouldn’t want to live there.” I think it was a test for how well we will be able to tolerate the heat and humidity of the Amazon.

January 6 and 7

Tuesday, Jan 6. Bridgetown, Barbados.
We were here two or three years ago and Alan had recollections of a tour which included St. John's church. The only thing I am sure of is that I didn't do the tour and once I saw it, remember the terminal at the pier and the steel drum band playing for the tourists.
Holland America ran shuttle buses from the pier to the terminal, a distance of probably 1/4 to 1/2 mile, but hot and windy and rough walking. The terminal contained the usual duty free shops of jewelry and cosmetics, a few shops of brightly colored clothing, liquor stores aplenty and shops selling rum cakes.
A quick $2 per person cab ride and we were uptown. the shopping center of Bridgetown
was somewhat run-down with expensive jewelry shops next to stores selling fresh fruit and vegetables. We spent a considerable amount of time looking for tonic water for Alan's in cabin evening gin and tonics. For a British island tonic water was in short supply and when we finally found it, Alan bought all they had ----14 16.9 oz bottles.
We were back on the ship in time for a late lunch and a restful afternoon.
The evening entertainment was a singer/comedian who worked Las Vegas in the days of the Rat Pack and the movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Alan tried them both and I read my book.

Wednesday, Jan 7 At Sea
And a somewhat rough sea it is. Not too bad but I did end up skipping the afternoon lecturer, getting a sea sickness pill from the medical center and resting in the cabin for a couple of hours.
Today was packed full of activities with Kate Ross speaking on the Amazon, the Amazon Basin and the rain forest in the morning. A quick cup of coffee and it was time for Maureen, the shore excursion director to talk on upcoming ports and excursions. I spent some time talking to Henk and Lucia Barnhoorn, our Cruise Specialists, Inc., Onboard hosts.
The afternoon speakers were Palmer Acheson with “Introduction to the Languages of our Grand Voyage and plus another talk by Frank Buckingham, the Port Lecturer.
The travel agency we used for this cruise (with apologies to Amy, our wonderful Falmouth travel agent) is an outfit out of Seattle which specializes in long cruises, particularly on Holland America. They have one or two escorts travel along with their clients. Henk and Lucia have "office hours" each sea day for questions, comments and the like. They are also very visible during the day and evening. We will be taking several shore excursions with them, at a much better price than the Holland America tours. So far we’ve had a Cruise Specialist morning get together, a cocktail party and received windbreakers and travel bags.
Gifts from Holland America (which I will now type as HAL) have included journals and travel bags.
Tonight will be our first look at the Prinsendam Singers and Dancers. It might be interesting how they modify their dance numbers as the ship is a bit rocky. Not to mention that the theater is about as far forward as you can get. the movie is Get Smart. In our opinion, HAL missed an opportunity to show Papillon.
For anyone tracking the cruise on a chart our 6:07 pm position was
08° 02.34 N
54° 54.36 W
Our heading was 134
Water temp 80.6F Air temp 78.8F
Our speed 19 knots and the seas 5-6 feet (I don’t believe that one)

Tomorrow --Devil’s Island. A little history.
Devil’s Island is one of three small rocky islands off the coast of French Guiana. Anyone who knows of the French Captain Dreyfus or the book and movie Papillon knows that Devil’s Island was a French penal colony with horrific conditions. The largest and main island, Isle Royale, is about 45 acres and can be walked in about an hour or so. Ile Ste Joseph is the third island.
Before becoming a penal colony in the early 1850s, the islands were known as Iles de Salut, (the Salvation Islands) as the sea breezes kept mosquitoes away and people from French Guiana spent summers on the islands escaping the mosquitoes and malaria.
The most notorious of the three islands, Devil’s Island or Rocky Ile du Diable is almost completely inaccessible due to strong currents. Not to mention the shark infested waters. It was reserved for political prisoners such as Dreyfus. A supply cable provided a means of getting supplies from Ile Royale to Ile du Diable.
Today Ile Royale is home to macaws, monkeys and large wild guinea pigs. It has a small hotel with dining room and a bar, a lighthouse, ruins of old barracks, cells and the hospital. There is also a small cemetery on the island which contains the remains of just children. Families of the wardens and jailors lived on the island and as might be expected lives were short. Inmates bodies were dumped into the sea. I have no idea where the staff and jailers were buried when they died.
Of the 80,000 prisoners sent to the islands, only 30,000 lived beyond their sentence. 70 percent of the inmates of Devil’s Island died while incarcerated. Considering that only 30 prisoners were housed on Devil’s Island at a time the odds weren’t very good. If a criminal was sentenced to less than eight years and survived, he then had to spend an equal period of time in French Guiana as the French were trying to populate French Guiana.
Across the water in Kourou, French Guiana, is one of only 16 space centers of its kind in the world. Another is Cape Canaveral. The Kourou center is run by the French who sometimes cross to Ile Royale for tracking and observations.
More after we have visited this infamous place.

A few more days

Monday, Jan 5. Our second day at sea. Silly me, thinking that yesterday, our first sea day would be one of rest and relaxation. Both today and yesterday were filled with lectures, seminars, bridge, and other things to keep us busy.
But first, our dining experience. We were scheduled for the first seating but after day one decided that 5:30 was just too early so we requested the second seating at 8 pm. At 7:55 on Saturday we arrived in the dining to claim our places at our newly assigned table. As we walked toward the table for eight we spied 6 people and one empty chair. Back to the dining room manager who then lead us to table 154. By the time our appetizers had arrived we were still the only two people at an eight seater. Our waiter then asked if we would like to join the two people at another eight seater behind us. We did and enjoyed the company of a couple from Pennsylvania.
After dinner it was off to the Queen's Lounge for the musical comedy of the Taylors,
a husband and wife who combine dance, singing, comedy and acrobatic adagio.
The third night, last night, we arrived at the dining room and were lead to a table for eight. Again we were the only ones at the table so once again it was back to the dining room manager. The third time's a charm. We have found a home at a table for eight with a couple of from Canada, a single lady from we don't know where yet, a couple from Cleveland and a single gentleman from Toronto. All are very pleasant, interesting and cruising enthusiasts.
It was the first formal night, and interestingly about 90% of the women were in black.
Instead of the usual long lines to meet the captain we were able to say hello immediately upon entering the Queen's Lounge after dinner. Captain Halle Thon Gundersen introduced a few of the ship's officers and after a champagne toast left the stage to the evening's entertainment, Bettine Clemen a flutist.
Yesterday was very busy. After the first meet and greet of the Cruise Critic group at 10 am immediately followed by a cocktail party with the Cruise Specialists group at 11, we barely had time for lunch before it was time for David' Smith's first lecture. We were happy to see David and his wife Anna on board. Last year on the Amsterdam, David gave lectures on digital photography and Anna talks on fabrics.
Today Monday, started off with breakfast, followed by a "morning show" by the cruise director during which he imparts tidbits of advice and interviews the ship's entertainers. Next came Kate Ross, with her first Explorations Speaker Series talk, The Geography & People of South America, an excellent introduction (and refresher for those of us out of school for many years) to Latin America.
There wasn't even time for a quick cup of coffee before the port lecturer's talk on Bridgetown, Barbados, tomorrow's port of call. Frank Buckingham is very British, very humorous and a wealth of knowledge on all subjects.
Here are a few quickie facts about Barbados. The island which gained independence from England in 1966 is known as a little England of eternal sunshine. It is one of the windward islands, and consists of 168 square miles. The name is believed to have come from the vines on the fig trees which looked like beards to the early explorers. The island is moderately tropical, has few streams but many underground waterways which flow through the limestone.
There are about 280,000 people, 91% of whom are black. Life expectancy is higher than on most Caribbean Island--71 years for men and 74 for women. 40% of the inhabitants practice the Anglican religion of England.
In the early years of the island fortunes were made from sugar with the work force being mostly slaves from Africa or people from Ireland. Many of the workers lived in what were called chattel houses. When work on one plantation was finished the small houses could easily be broken down and reassembled on another plantation. A forerunner of the trailers of today's migrant workers?
Organized activities we didn't do today included the morning walk-a-mile, aerobics class, mass, tai chi, interdenominational devotional, yoga, the art of collecting seminar, ping pong tournament, gambling in the casino, a younger looking skin seminar, sit and knit, team trivia, dance lessons on the mambo, crazy golf in the atrium, slot tournament, teeth whitening clinic, wine tasting, art auction, movie goers get together, digital photography lessons, arts and crafts (quilling), croquet target shoot, afternoon tea, watercolor class, culinary lessons, bingo, Friends of Bill, and happy hour. Anyone who is bored on a cruise ship has only him or herself to blame. (Friends of Bill and Happy hour are scheduled at the same time....no conflict there)
Tonight's entertainment will be a comedian, Jimmy Carroll, followed by a 50s and 60s sock hop. I think we’ll probably skip the sock hop. Maybe we’ll take in the late movie, the newest batman one.