Nov. 12

Manaus, Brazil

Happy Birthday, Steph!

We actually docked in Manaus at 8PM yesterday, even though we weren’t scheduled to arrive until 8 AM today. We were only about 50 miles upriver, and the captain left his anchorage about 30 minutes ahead of time, then steamed full speed for Manaus. Apparently, we were just about out of fresh water. Although we on a large fresh water river, there is so much silt that the ship’s system can’t handle it. So he loaded fresh water at every port, but with the heat and nearly a full passenger load, it wasn’t enough.

This morning, for our tour, we boarded a river boat and cruised out to the “Meeting of the Waters” where the Rio S and the Rio Negro meet. Because the two rivers are very different – the Negro is acidic, the S is alkaline; the S flows very fast, at 9 knots while the Negro much slower, at only 3 knots; and and the density and temperature vary also. The two rivers flow next to each other for 10-30 miles, depending on the season, the Negro getting narrower and narrower until finally the two have mixed together as the Amazon.

Then we crossed to the other side of the Rio Negro, and into a channel leading into Lake Januarie. There, we transferred to the canoes, and continued to the lake. We got out of the canoes there, and walked along a boardwalk to see the giant water lilies. These can grow to a size of 2 meters. Each plant can have up to about 10 of these giant leaves, but only one flower. The flower starts out white, then darkens slowly to a deep purple before it dies. There is a bird that makes it’s nest on these lilies, and they’re a favorite place for alligators to hide. We did see one alligator, it made a quick appearance under the viewing platform just as we left to go back to the canoes.

We saw a pink dolphin on the way back, but again, they break water very quickly, they’re gone before it’s possible to get a picture.

Back on the ship, we watched the busy pier as we ate lunch poolside. Some of these boats will head down river to Santarem and Belem, and others will head upriver to Peru – a journey of 9 days.

Nov. 11

Anavilhanas, Brazil

About 60 miles up the Rio Negro from Manaus, this is the world’s largest river archipelago. We first anchored out in the river with nothing in site. When, by our tour’s departure time, the canoes hadn’t shown up, we were beginning to wonder. Then, about 15 minutes later, the Captain announced that he had been given the wrong coordinates, and the tour operator was about 3 miles further upstream! So we were told we had about an hour before he could raise the anchor, sail upstream, and drop anchor again . . .

Our tour did finally get off about an hour and a half late. Our “canoes” turned out to be small boats, holding about 10 people, with a canopy and benches with backs. Not bad at all for out in the middle of nowhere.

Our first stop was a small village. This one seemed real, no show or costumes or souvenir vendors like the previous one. We walked around; saw the school, a couple of churches, the library, and some houses, while our guide described life in a small village like this one.

Then we simply wandered around the waterways for a couple of hours, with the guide pointing out types of vegetation, birds, an iguana, etc. A fascinating close-up look at the Amazon Basin!

Back on the ship, I looked at the temperature, and thought, wow, it’s cooled down today. Only 115° F . . .

NOTE: my internet connection isn't very good, so for now I'm just uploading everything without arranging the text and pictures . . . will attempt to fix it next time I have a good connection, which may be when we get home . . .

Nov. 9

Boca da Valeria, Brazil

119.5° F. Yes, that’s right, it’s 119.5° F. at 1PM. Which means the hottest part of the day is still ahead! Glad we did our walk around earlier, when it was only around 100°, and we’re now back on the air-conditioned ship.

We arrived off this tiny little village around 8AM, but couldn’t go ashore until the “dock” – a term which, I assure you, was very loosely used, was set up for the tenders. The ship unloaded used equipment – deck chairs, basketball hoops, and even an old BBQ grill – before any passengers went ashore. Some of the deck chairs were carried off, probably to local houses, but much of the stuff was loaded on a small boat and taken up the river to the center of the village, where it was unloaded and put in what I would assume was the “town hall” or social center.

No organized tours here, , just the locals waiting to sell you something as you walked around their village. From everything we’ve learned so far, the broad flat area will flood soon, when the rainy season starts in a couple of weeks.

Some of the locals came out to the ship in canoes. Others waited on shore for the ship. Still others had their souvenir stands ready. There was a school, a church, what looked like a common social house, and of course, two bars. Inside the church, the chairs looked very familiar. I think I’ve seen those on a Princess ship! We saw one of the local women wearing a Royal Princess hat, too.

And of course, the children were all around – posing for ($1 US each, please) pictures, selling trinkets, etc.

Interesting to see, but my short tour was more than enough for me.

p.s. the temperature went up to 122° F, or 50° C, at 2:30PM before heading back down.

Nov. 10

Cruising the Amazon

It’s going to be another hot one today! 10 AM, and it’s already 115.5° F – so today I’ll spend looking out the cabin window.

High temperature for the day: 129° F, or 54° C. Even the ship’s crew I talked to, from Sri Lanka and the Philippines, think it’s too hot to do anything!

I never caught one, but lost count of the times they got my bait and escaped. All together, our boat caught nine. This is, of course, someone else's catch.

. . . and lots of locals fishing from their canoes.

Here also are the pink dolphins, we saw quite a few but the splash was as close as I got to a photo. :)

Santarém, population somewhere around 160,000, lies about half-way between Belem and Manaus on the Amazon River. It’s accessible only by water or by air for the most part, the only road is unpaved and, according to our guide, you get stuck in the wet season and fall in the potholes in the dry.

Mostly we passed just the river boats on their way downriver to Belém. We found out that people bring their own hammocks along for the trip, and hang them on the decks of the boats (where the plastic chairs where on our Belém tour). $40 US pays for passage for the 3 day trip from Belém to Santarém, or another 3 days from Santarém to Manaus.

Everywhere along the way, the river dwellers (known as Caboclos) came out in their canoes, or stood at the end of their docks, to watch the ship go by.

At two points, there were such sharp turns in the channel that the Captain had to literally stop the ship, and use his bow thrusters to pivot the ship in place to make the turn.

Cruising the Breves Narrows, Brazil

From Belém, our ship headed upriver via a series of channels through the delta known as the Breves Narrows. At 500 ft., our ship is within 10 feet of the largest ship that can navigate the channel. Larger ships must enter the Amazon through the northern channel of the mouth. We cruised the entire day in channels so narrow that the bank of the river was only a few yards away from either size. Even recent charts do no good in this area, as the river can change very quickly. A good local pilot who knows the river is a must!

Also insects, such as this friendly little guy.

Our tour boat cruised around some of the local channels to see the flora and fauna, and to see how the locals live.

From Belém, river boats make their way upriver to Santarém and Manaus.

This afternoon was the “Crossing the Line” ceremony, because later tonight we cross the equator. For us, this is the third time we’ve done that on a ship. Each one does it a little differently, but King Neptune and his Queen always appear, and the “Wogs” always get initiated. Glad we were on a large ship the first time, so only a few token crew members actually got initiated! Today, they initiated a honeymoon couple as well as some of the crew. OK, so they went easy on them . . .

I’m sure there were other prisons that were equally brutal, but it was easy to see how this one lived up to it’s reputation.

Notorious for being a French Prison (think of the movie, “Papillion”), this is actually a cluster of three tiny islands: Isle Royale, St. Joseph, and Devil’s Island. We actually visited Isle Royale, but the other two were just across a narrow channel. Today, the islands are still part of France, as French Guyana is a French department. Isle Royale held the Administration and the least dangerous of the prisoners during the prison era, which ended in the late 1940s, while Devil’s Island held the worst of the prisoners. St. Joseph’s was somewhere in between.

This is definitely my least favorite Caribbean island. We walked off the ship, and were immediately accosted by taxi drivers, would be tour guides, vendors, etc. Worse even than the beaches in Mexico or Jamaica. It was very hot, and I had several bug bites in a matter of minutes. Clearly this island has economic problems. There weren’t even any nice shops in walking distance of the ship. Within 10 minutes, we decided enough was enough and headed back on board for some nice air conditioning, and some peace.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines

We dropped anchor just off the main city on this small island. We stayed on board, spent the day on our balcony, at the pool, etc. We decided that there really wasn’t much on this small island except sun and sand, and it wasn’t worth the effort of the tender trip ashore. I was still tired and a little bit stiff and sore from all the walking and steps the previous day.

Castries was almost destroyed by fire in 1948, so very little is left of the colonial days. The house we visited was a replica of a plantation house, which had been furnished with antiques and items from all over the world by it’s owners, who have a shipping line. The view from the terrace was magnificent.

A view of the Atlantic side of the island, right before we headed back to Bridgetown to board the ship.

And there our luck ended. We spent the next couple of hours trying to sort out the problems with our cabin, neither the air conditioning nor the refrigerator worked. We ended up moving to another cabin, and keeping my meds on ice until we could get there and get the refrigerator turned on and cold. By the time we changed cabins and went through the lifeboat drill, it was time to get ready for dinner. No show for me tonight, it’s been a long day and we have a tour in the morning.

This little guy was as curious about me as I was about him!

It rained all afternoon and all evening, hard enough that water was coming in under the door from our balcony. Enough so that we passed on the local restaurant, and stayed in the hotel.

A lovely morning, sun and a pretty good breeze. Perfect for a walk on the beach, then a stop at the pool. More rain showers sent us in, giving me a good chance to download my pictures and catch up on my blog. Nothing planned for today except more pool, beach, and photo time . . . and maybe even a nap!

Well, we're here. Checked into the hotel and everything, despite being an hour late out of Miami. We boarded the plane, only to sit and sit and sit. First, we had to wait for luggage, I guess from some connecting flight. Also, because the flight was oversold, they had asked for volunteers to stand back and take the next flight. We thought about it, but didn't want to give up our good seats and then get in after dark. I really wanted to walk on the beach, watch sunset, etc. Someone did stand back, though, because we had to wait while they unloaded the luggage, searched for their luggage, and then reload all the bags. TSA rules - if someone isn't on the planes, their bags can't be, either. I suppose that's a good idea, but sitting on the plane for an hour was pretty annoying, too.

The wedding business is big here. We had one bride on our plane - her gown hung in the closet, then she carried it through customs. I saw at least two more women carrying large white bags through the baggage claim/customs area. Guess it would be a pretty place for a wedding if that's what you're looking for. For me, being at home with as many friends and family as possible sounds a lot better, save the exotic locale for the honeymoon.