Day 13, Jan 14 and Day 19 Jan 20 Santarem

Background

Santarem has a population of about 250,000. 

Nevis

Nevis is a small island in the shape of a perfect volcanic mountain rising out of the sea:

It’s not big, about 5 x 8 miles.  I saw only one town, Charlestown, the biggest on the island. 

Nevis and St. Kitts, an island 2 miles to the north, together comprise a country. 

This was the first time Princess has ever stopped at Nevis.  To me, it looks like a good alternative port to St. Kitts.  (There were 2 large cruise ships at St. Kitts.  A “cat” came to the place we went snorkeling while we were there and there were a hundred or more people on it.  We had 12 on ours.)

This was a tendored port.  The tendor process was smooth.  I had to be ready at 7:45 to get to my tour- snorkeling.  When we got on shore we were met by a guide and the cat we were to take immediately came and picked us up.  We pulled away from the dock and went to sail only.  Our captain told us that this cat was a special one, made by a St. Kitts company.  It was made of wood and designed to be sailed by one person.  It had a 50 foot mast and was a few feet shorter in length.  He said he has sailed it to a top speed of 35 knots. 

We sailed across the 2 mile straight between Nevis and St. Kitts and then a ways up the west coast to a snorkeling diving area off a cliff and rocky shore.  On the way he told us that two years ago a hurricane came “from the wrong direction” and severely damaged the luxury hotel on Nevis.  It was filled with mud and sand.  It has yet to reopen.  More on this in a minute. 

I snorkeled about an hour.  There was some coral fans, but not much coral, mostly sand covered rocks.  The fish sightings were limited to a few of various species, but nothing like what you would expect.   Clearly the hurricane had laid sand down on this area and it has not recovered. 

We sailed back to Nevis, which seemed to take a lot less time, maybe because I wasn’t paying attention or because the wind and currents were more favorable. 

We had to return to the ship by 1.  We got back about 12:15, so I only had about 20 minutes to see the downtown.  It was quaint and very interesting.  I wish we had more time.  

Chris went on an island tour of a sugar plantation and a floral garden.  She didn’t say much about it. 

{videos and pictures to be added}

Days 14-16, Jan 15-17 Manaus, Brazil

Background

Amazonas State and Manaus

• largest state  606K
• 3.3 mil people
• Export consumer goods
• Geographic prox to Venezuela
• Manaus is the largest city, some figures say 1.7 million, others 1.2, others 2.0.  
• It is on Rio Negro.  Mosquitoes aren’t a problem.  The river that is considered the Amazon is the second river that joins the Rio Negro downstream from Manaus.  It is called the Solimoes Amazonas, or Rio Salimoes
• Today products are manufacturing assembly, timber, brazil nuts petroleum.  Manufacturers include Ebrarear, Harley Davidson, and most consumer electronics giants.  The incentive is that Manaus was made a free trade port.

• On the map, note that Manaus has only a couple roads out, and those aren’t good.  One goes north to Venezuela and Guana.  The other eventually goes south, though that is a bad road.  Better to head east.  So the only practical approaches to Manaus are by river and by air. 

Rubber

• Rubber was like a “gold rush” to Amazonia, with Manaus as center
• In 1786 a Brit botanist collected seeds and started growing rubber in plantations in East.  That ended the golden age.

Tourist info for Manaus

• MAN-OW-ews
• We dock downtown at a floating dock
• There will be shuttle bus from floating dock to terminal (about a third to half mile)
• ATMs in terminal
• Once into the terminal You will walk through an area that looks like a big beer hall.  They serve the beer 1 – 4 liters with a “stick” in it with ice to keep the beer cold
• There’s a green sign to follow to the city. You will walk on a long ramp.  Come to a open bus terminal.  Be careful.
• There are old buildings in the terminal area that will be refurbished.  For now, they are “ruins.”  
• Then you come into a gated park with an iron fountain from Glasgow.  Very, very important to have iron stuff.
• Walk past clock tower to Opera House… 20 minute walk. 
• Opera House: Not a working concert venue.  Mostly a museum- tourist thing.  Opera house is closed on Sunday.  Costs $10 or $5 for seniors for a tour.  Hand painted curtain.  Reception area has beautiful inlaid floor.  Chandeliers are spectacular.
• Not in walking distance, other place to visit:  Palicio Rio Negro.  Open week days, no charge.  Take cab.
• Big ships can’t go further than Manaus.
• There is a market within walking distance.
• Want a ride?   Promise a free shuttle bus to store. Those jewelry stores own the mines.  Don’t go unless you are interested in $1K or more.  Times are tough for jewelry, so might get a deal.  Price paid: don’t know if better than everyplace else.  It is 40 minutes plus a sales presentation  and then a 45 minutes to wait to go back to the ship. He wouldn’t recommend it
• There is a river boat cruise to see the rivers.  Also go to the island to see how people live.  See rubber demo and manioc again.  Can be very muddy.  Might see giant lily pads but this is not the season.  You will also see very colorful neighborhood
• One of tours goes to an army zoo.  Illegal to take pets from forest.  So army takes the pets and puts them in this “zoo.” 
• Manaus by night
  • Alive with music, performances
  • Stay on main street

Our Experience

In a sentence, Manaus represents the best and worst of the Amazon we visited.  The best was a tour that went by boat to Lake January, a smallish lake across from Manaus, between the Rio Negro and the Amazon.  It was a nature experience, which only works when you have a guide that specializes in bugs and birdwatching.  The worst, though still an adventure, is downtown Manaus.  Downtown is dirty and gives a feeling of impending doom.  You feel like you need to run back to the ship and get a bath.  The rush of people, the thousands of small stalls selling Everything, the dirty streets, the drop dead people lying in the streets, the drop dead beautiful women, before they get fat after having kids…  The city is out of a science fiction movie.  It had a opulent past that suddenly ended many years ago.  The entire downtown has been more or less left to decay since.  Maybe downtown Detroit is the closest example.

The performance

Last night, the 15th, we had a performance by a local dance group.   The theme was a history of dance in the region, starting with Indian dances and ending with Carnival.  It was interesting and both Chris and I thought the same thing:  dance hadn’t really changed over the entire history of the region.  You might even go so far as to say that the costumes haven’t changed either.  The group was mostly teens.  They were scantly dressed for most of the dances.  I’ll have some videos posted when I get home.

{Videos here}

Our Adventure Downtown

Saturday we thought we had a city bus tour reserved.  We didn’t.  The daily Princess Patter did not have the tour listed, so we looked on the tour schedule sheet and it indicated our tour was on “day 2,” meeting at 1:30.  Our ticket had a date of Jan. 16, so we assumed day 2 was Jan 16 and we were to meet a 1:30.  We went to the meeting place and no one was there.  After some asking around, we found the right person and she said that we had missed our tour.  It was at 8:15 or 8:30.  She had sent a special note around and she was sure we had received a it.  We certainly didn’t recall it.  Since I bought the ticket within the past 2 days, and she said that she sent the note out early in the cruise and then sent a reminder a couple of days ago, I think that we just got missed. 

So, we had no tour.  We were able to exchange the tickets for a Sunday tour. 

So we ventured into the town.  Walking around formed our opinion this was a dirty, almost surrealistic city.  Perhaps there are other areas of the city that would change our opinion.  Perhaps this is like downtown Detroit, outside the Greek town, and we would find a different scene in the suburbs.

We were looking for some thongs for our daughter, the famous ones from Santarem, but we could not find them.  We did see that, except perhaps for consumer electronics, this is an expensive city.  Since this is Saturday, the sidewalks, curbs, and stores were flooded with people, which added to the discomfort.

I’ll link to an album of pictures later, so you can see for yourself.

{Album here}

Travel Hints: As described in the lecture, we are docked near the port terminal.  The port terminal is like the Chinese rail station- the focus of travel activity for the city.  However, we are not at the one berth that has a walkway going directly into the city.  Instead, we are at a floating dock.  Therefore, in order to get into the city, take the free bus from our dock to the terminal, which is a ride of maybe 1/4 to 1/3 mile.   From the place where you are dropped off, go to the left side of the building to enter.  Once inside, you will be in a glassed in area build for receiving cruise passengers.  There is an information service and, most importantly, the only clean bathrooms you will find in the city.  Consider aligning your walking plans to these bathrooms. Walk to the left out of this enclosed area into an area that looks like a food court of a mall.  Start watching for the signs, in English, hanging from the ceiling.  You’ll continue more or less straight ahead, parallel to the river, entering a beer hall.  This is the hall that has the large beer reservoirs at each table.  There is a column down the center of the reservoir that is filled with ice to keep the beer cold.  It’s a lot of beer, so, unless you want to pee a lot and get drop dead drunk, you’ll need to be with a group of four or more. From there, take the ramp to the right, which leads to a suspended walkway to the street.  To your left note the formerly elegant facades of some crumbling buildings.  Once on the street you will be facing a roadway that has 3 pieces.  It is a busy bus stop, part bus station.  Be careful crossing all three.  The buses and cars come around a corner at a good speed, and if you miss seeing one, …  Once across all three, you can go a couple of ways.  You can visit the Cathedral directly in front of you, and then turn left after you leave the Cathedral by the long stair ramp.  Or you can turn right and go to the end of the block.  There you will see, to your left, a small clock tower.  Though this landmark isn’t very high, it does help orient you.  Just keep coming back to it.  Turn and go past the clock and continue up the street for shopping or to go to the Amazon Theater.  Go to the right to get into the common man’s shopping or to go to the Market.  Use the tallest building in town, labeled something du Amazonas… a government building, naturally, as a landmark if you get lost.

 

Our Lake January Tour

This was the best tour of the trip.  We disembarked from our ship and walked to a nearby riverboat.  We cast lines and started downriver, eventually coming to the meeting of the waters: 

In this picture, the cafe latte brown of the Amazon is joining the dark Rio Negro waters near the top of the picture.

We turned down a “shortcut” that lead to Lake January.  During this part of the cruise we were given a lecture on the destruction of the Amazon forest, how that and global warming had led to lack of rain, though last year was the highest rain total in 50 years, which he also blamed on global warming.  He then ranted about the government:  they weren’t doing this, they did this stupid thing, etc.  He emphasized the story of the Trans Amazon highway.  He said the engineers did not consider the annual floods, which can change water levels 30 to 40 feet.  Thus a good part of the roadbed would be or is under water for 6 or 7 months of the year.  The roads can’t be maintained, they led to deforestation, etc.  He railed about the bridge being built across the river, connecting Manaus to two villages of 25K.  He said it would have built so many hundred schools. 

He also told about a government program where everyone was given so much money per child, apparently considered a lot for the poorer segment of the population, to keep their kids in school.  The unintended consequence was that women had more children so they could receive more from the government.

I considered his entire performance inappropriate for a tourist activity.  It certainly had the opposite of the intended effect on me.

My Soapbox: If his position is the rule, then it shows that the working class assumes the government should take care of them and solve all problems.  If they just had the right government, all would be fixed and they would have no problems. They have swallowed the global warming bilge hook line and sinker, blaming it for everything, even if they are referring to contradictory effects.  (One fact that is commonly mentioned, even in the Lonely Planet series, an admittedly leftist-leaning travel company, is that the Amazon creates 20% of the world’s oxygen.  OK, first, that’s wrong on the face of it.  Algae create most of the world’s oxygen.  (reference)  Second, then they should support CO2 generation, since it makes for healthier forests:  CO2 is the forest’s food.)  There are layers upon layers of contradiction coming from this guide and others.  A couple:  the “way it was is the best way, the one “in balance.”  Well, first, decay causes both CO2 and methane.  So the natural flooding creates a lot of pollution.  Methane is a more effective greenhouse gas than CO2.  Second, the soils are poor and cutting down the forest leaves a nutrient poor soil- they can’t grow anything on it.  OK, let’s look as S. Carolina’s red soil.  It has some of the same problems and probably, left alone would be as sterile as they claim the highland Amazonian soil is.  (The floodplain soil is topic for another discussion.)  But, what is happening now is that the  government is enforcing a policy where the small farmer, even those whose families have been here for millennia, can no longer subsist.  The laws are draconian and cost a lot for the poor farmer to implement.  The land will be sold to the state or to large companies and the farmers will be added to the city barrios.  The soil needs to be rehabilitated:  ph neutralized, and nitrogen and phosphorus added to make sustainable soil.  The issue is how to obtain those raw materials necessary to fortify the soil and how to do it given the rain cycle.  I’m not an agronomist, but I suspect growing soybeans, harvesting, then plowing the plants under or letting the fields set for a year, then growing soybeans and other crops that will enhance the soil is part of the solution, not the problem.  I don’t know the details of the geographic history, but I have read some information that suggests that limestone is the bedrock of the region.  Use that as the neutralizer.  Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough.   The guide was haranguing us as a captive audience, and he was, at the least, ignorant of the full picture, and suggested a corporate lack of initiative on the part of the Amazonians to do the heavy lifting themselves instead of relying on government.

In Lake January we docked at a floating “recreation” complex.  It had a knick-knack shop and a restaurant; kind of a Cracker Barrel on a raft.   We got into 12 passenger long boats for a cruise of Lake January.  I would say Lake January is actually a “bay” of the Amazon.  It has a narrow inlet/outlet and, at its widest, it is probably 1/3 mile wide. It is long and winding.  We were told that, as the rainy season progresses, the Lake becomes somewhat indistinguishable from the river around it. 

Since our guide was a bird watcher, we were able to see- due to his knowledge of bird calls and where to look, a number of birds species.  I won’t list them here and I don’t have a camera that can provide good pictures.  None-the-less, it was a treat. 

We saw the floating gardens, where the locals grow their food on old boats or rafts, to keep the gardens from flooding.  We also saw several fishing nets.  He said that the people clear an area of the ever present water grasses and reeds and put in a net.  They look like gill nets.  At 11 they go out to the nets and find the fish they want for lunch.  They cook and eat.  At dinner time, they repeat.  So they eat fish every day and don’t need to refrigerate or preserve any meat. 

When we returned, we took a long, wooden bridge over the forest.  He showed how far up the river rises- the trees have a water mark, which was perhaps 20 feet more than it was today.  We saw the big pond lilies, an orchid, and a couple new species of birds, including parrots and a woodpecker the same size or bigger than a piliated. 

We returned to the big boat for the cruise home, which was uneventful save for the haranguing guide. 

(Videos and photos to be added)

City Tour

Sunday we went on the city tour.  First stop was the Opera House.  It was interesting. 

Flashes weren’t allowed inside, and wouldn’t work anyway.  I found that videos did a good job.  So, rather than say a lot of words, I’ll let the videos speak for themselves. 

{Videos to be added here.}

Next stop was an Indian museum.  This was in a Catholic school.  The guide was an Indian who grew up in the rain forest and had even returned after his education to live as an indigenous Indian with his family.  He spoke good English.  I learned some things.  Here’s a picture of a way they kept babies and toddlers occupied while they went about their work.  Look familiar?

The next stop was the Military Zoo.  It was small, but we did get a look at some of the animals.  A slide show will suffice to illustrate. 

We were running late, so we went back to the ship.  On the way I took videos of our drive, so you can see the city for yourself.  I had to take the videos out the side, so things go by almost in a blur.  I did learn how to minimize the blur, so the pictures get better as time passed. 

{videos of city drive here}

2nd Visit to St Lucia

We arrived at about 8am.  Since we didn’t have any tour, we took our time.  In fact, we probably didn’t leave the ship until about 11.  We walked around town.  Some observations:

• The local people do NOT wear shorts, neither the men nor the women.  The men wear pants, period.  The women wear dresses or dress pants.
• The city is clean, very clean compared to Manaus. 
• Interesting buildings are scattered throughout the city.  It’s worth walking more than the downtown area to see them.
• There is no ATM in the terminal.  There is a big bank building- with a name something like the national bank of St Lucia, to down the street from the terminal entrance.  That bank is really not user friendly for ATMs.  There were machines in a couple of spots, but they didn’t seem to work.
• Don’t forget that the local currency is the Caribbean Dollar.  This is also the currency of Nevus and St Kitts.  However, it’s a relatively local currency, so saving it for another country doesn’t make sense.  They do take $US, but it is spotty, and they round up in their favor.  (Most touristy things are marked in $US.)  At least where we did business, we were able to get $US back in change. 
• Use the Scotia Bank for ATM.  There’s a Burger King near the entrance to the port.  Go down the side street that forms the corner the Burger King is on.  It is down a block and a half. 
• There is at least one public restroom in the town, but it is near enough to the port terminal, that I would recommend just walking back to the terminal for a WC.  It is located close to the door where you go out to the ship. 
• There is an internet cafe on the SECOND floor of the terminal building.  The cost is $US5.50 per hour, with a sliding scale starting at something like 10 minutes.  See the latest prices on a sign on the counter in the back.  You can sit in the little mezzanine in front of the cafe and use your own computer via wireless.  To use the internet, you can connect easily- it’s not secure, but the operator has to log you in. 
• I think everyone speaks English, but they use a different language to communicate to each other.  If it is French, then it is a distorted version.

{Slide Show}

2nd Visit to Trinidad

Our tour today was a 4x4 over the mountains to the xxxx beach.  We were driven by bus to a suburb “up the valley” from the center of town.  There, we transferred to large jeeps; our jeep held 7 passengers.  We headed to to the top of the northern range on narrow paved roads.  It was an interesting trip.  We had to hold on for dear life much of the time because the road was so step, with many switchbacks.  We stopped at a church along the way for a bathroom stop and to take some pictures.  Then we stopped at the top of the range for more pictures.  We also got a taste of ripe bananas, rum punch, a sweet bread, and some fried fish puff like things with a mildly hot sauce. 

We went down the mountains on the other side, to the a mid level and then after winding up and down some of the smaller mountains, we arrived at the xxxx beach, one of the best beaches in Trinidad.  It was a good beach.  There were lifeguards and bath houses to change and shower.  The cost of the bath houses was a nominal 1 TT. 

Day 7 Friday January 8, 2010- Sea Day

This was a “do nothing” day.  We had lunch with a couple from our table.  Mike and ?… Mike was a physiology and PT prof at U. Pitt.  He looks like Yogi Berra.  We got tangentially into politics and from their into religion.  It is clear the Ms is “anti-religion.”  She considers the religious right as scary and dangerous.

I worked on genealogy in the morning.  I finished the Mayflower book.  I’m writing about the Leete family and Indians- there’s some key information in the  book about the chief that William Leete dealt with from the time he landed at Guilford. 

I did the genealogy of a couple of the early Leete women.  I can’t go on line, but I’m removing the information I had on them from the main William Leete tree and giving each of them their own tree.

I’m not eating lunch, but snacking about 3 or 4 on something.  Today it was some nuts and two oatmeal cookies. 

I went to the exercise room.  No one there!  I did a half hour on the eliptical and a half hour on yoga.  I feel much better. 

Then I went to the movie Papillion, which was filmed partly on Devil’s Island – the 3 island group.  We got an idea (true?) of what the penal colonies were like.  I assume we also saw some of the scenery around the area. 

Today is a rough day at sea.  Not as bad as the some of the Pacific days, but we are throwing some big splashes as we crash into the swells.  The weather is mostly sunny with temps “warm.” 

Day 11, Jan 12, 2010: Santarem, Brazil

Background

• People use boats to go to Manaus
• Major river confluence:  
• Darker rivers come out of rain forest tannic… acidic, not a lot of mosquitoes
• Resist mixing together: color is cafe con leche and coco cola
• Pearl of the Tapajos
• pop 300K
• dock in town, but 3 mi walk into ctr
• pretty much local shopping
• make flip flops here:  lexus of flip flops abt 8 dollars
• Visit the boats
• Fishermans Plaza is main square
• Hammocks are big thing for sleeping
• Meeting place of ideas
  • issue soy production.  has really soared… pressure on taming the jungle  2003 cargill completed a port for shipping soybean  Cargill failed to complete environmental impact study Greenpeace came in.. Suit.. Cargill given 6 mo for impact statement.   Indigenous managed to block.
  • How to balance need for food with need to preserve the env.
  • Brazil world leader in use of ethonol fuel efficiently produced from sugar cane, not corn
  • All wood is protected and cutting is rigidly controlled
  • By 2011 large farms must by law return 20 per cent of existing land to rain forest.  small farms may replant 20% in bananas or fruit trees. 
  • No cattle or wood product may be harvested and exported from Amazon basin.

The Day

We arrived at the port about 8:30.  Chris got up at 7:15, so we were ready to go by that time.  Since pictures don’t do justice, I took a couple of movies from the ship of the port:

Looking toward the city:

Imbed Movie

Looking the opposite way.  This may or may not be the opposite bank.  The river has many islands. 

Imbed Movie

Note that there is no development! 

Santarem now has a national highway connecting it to the national grid.  However, there is no way other than via the river to get to areas on the opposite bank. 

The Eco Ride did not meet expectations.  It was a bus ride to outside town, where we drive up 400 ft to the new “lay of the land.”  We turned down a one lane road and drove a couple of miles to an area that we learned later was owned by a US expat that was trying to keep his land wild through providing access for nature tours. 

The walk was an hour or so.  We did walk through the forest, but we didn’t see very much: a moth, a couple of lizards, some different kinds of trees, a brazil nut pod, a couple of those blue butterflies- they didn’t land so you didn’t get a good look at them- and some brazilian moonshine.  I will attach a video about the man who owns the place.  He has a couple of blogs that should be interesting.

The walk was not particularly hot.   It was muggy, but not overbearing.  We came back to town and went “downtown” to the Fisherman’s park.  I have some pictures of that.

As described above, it is about a 3 mile walk to downtown.  You should add another third of a mile to get off the pier.  The motor scooters appear to be a viable alternative.  They are everywhere.

HINT:  ATM Machine I wanted to get some reals for tomorrow.  The front desk didn’t know where, but said the agent said there were several just outside the gate.  The short of it:  It is a little less than a 4 mile round trip to the closest one I could find.  From the ship’s pier, walk down the road to the first light.  To the left is the main road to town.  Take that.  The river will be on your left.  Walk for TWO BUS STOPS.  This is over a mile.  After you pass the second bus stop, take the first main street right.  It will be a busy street with a hodge-podge of shops and veggie markets, very typical of Santarem.  It will be the first of these busy streets you will come to.  Go about a half a block to a large supermarket on your right.  All supermarkets I saw were open air.  Most don’t even have lights in them… probably to discourage the bugs.  There are two ATM machines at the left front of the store as you stand looking at the store from the street.  One of them doesn’t appear to take international cash cards; the other has Visa, Cirrus, etc on it.  That’s the one to use.   When you use the machine, insert and remove your card.  The instructions will be subtitled in English.  Hints: -  If you hit a number to enter a value, that number will be in whole reals; that is, the machine automatically adds the cents (two zeros) - After you enter the amount you want, hit the FIN key, which is the green key in the vertical row of keys.

Day 10, Jan 11, 2010, On Amazon River

We woke about 7 to an announcement that we had arrived at the place where the pilot joins the ship and immigration boards.  We are in the river for sure.  We are just up river from the town of Macapa.  The large port city of Belem is on the other side of a very large island, maybe 50 miles away.  We are also south of the equator now.  I’ve got some pictures, but the river is indeed cafe latte color.  I turned on the Magellan and it read 63 feet above sea level!  Let’s say I was 30 feet above the water on deck 5.  It’s hard to image that much water, 33 feet of it, “piled” up between here and the ocean. 

I started the malaria pills yesterday.  They are definitely giving me some discomfort:  gut pains, aches, tired.  We’ll see how it goes.  Chris started 4 or 5 days ago, and has been having trouble since. 

Today I’m typing from the lounge, where we are about to watch a cooking demo and tour of the facilities. We have a Portuguese Maitre De.  We have a German chief chef.

The demo was hilarious.  The chef and Maitre de were like Martin and Lewis.  There were lots of snafus because… hmmm, not sure why.  They made the most of it. 

We got underway about noon and I’m up in the front lounge, which gives a good (and air conditioned) view of the river.  Photos don’t do it justice.  I took a movie panorama when we first started, but now the river has narrowed; I should say that we are sailing through multiple islands. 

The landscape is constantly changing, with dark rain clouds here and there, as well as patches of blue.  Obviously, being still in the delta, the landscape is mostly flat, but it looks like the forest comes right to the water’s edge; there’s very little evidence of human habitation, other than an occasional small boat.   You know, I haven’t seen any birds. ???

I worked on genealogy most of the afternoon, taking time off only for the King Neptune ceremony.   It was fun, not nearly as drawn out as the one we had in the Pacific.

Now I’m sitting in the place where the entertainment is, waiting for the show to start.  It’s handy having the computer to keep me occupied.   Chris doesn’t sit with me.  I like sitting near the front.  She like sitting in some straight bar chairs in the back.  I am not comfortable there. 

Day 9, Sun, Jan 10, 2010: At Sea Entering Mouth of Amazon

Up at 7:30.  We had breakfast at the panorama buffet as usual.  On return to our room, I did genealogy until 9:30, when we both attended a lecture by Dr. Richard Detrich, the former preacher and current cruise lecturer and coffee grower. 

Some Notes:

Amazon

• Largest drainage area in the world.  This year rain is late rain… So river is low.  June, July is peak.. 
• Amazon is 120 mi wide in some places  Length 4222 miles.  Longer than Nile by 65 miles
• Amazon’s origin is Peru
• 1.4 billion acres of rainforest.  40% in brazil.  Represents over half of all rainforest in world
• Sq kilo contains 75K trees and 150K species of plants
• 300,000m3 of fresh water enter the Atlantic Ocean each second
• Theodore Roosevelt… Read “The River of Doubt” 
• People plant gardens in boats raised up 10 ft or so.   This is because they will be flooded up to that boat.  This is to cover their food needs during the rainy season floods.
• Francisco de Orellana 1511 1546  1433 jointed Pizarro. 
  • On Rio Negro
  • Saw people don’t have hair… fierce fighters… etc men looked like women… so recalled myth of Amazon and called the river that.

Brazil

• Pop 193.7 million Avg age 28.6 slightly smaller than US
• 74% catholic and 16% prot, but pentacostal and evengelical; expect 60% is prot
• Was a disagreement bet RCs and Prot over use of cross on buildings.  Evang have to use dove on outside to resolve issue.
• Economy is good
• Currency 1 real = approx 68 cents

Does and Don’ts

• Keep hands, fingers, and toes in boat.  A piranha bit is considered more an act of carelessness
• Don’t pee in river.  Small fish will swim up your stream and plant spines in you.
• Be aware of ship restrictions on crafts:  can’t bring onto ship anything that is wood.
  • Hot and humid; dress accordingly
  • take toilet paper
  • buses are best available, but that doesn’t mean great
  • Respect the activity level notifications; ie, if the tour says active that means active
  • Watch where you walk:  pavement uneven
  • It’s an adventure.  It will rain; tours run rain or shine
  • Be a traveler, not a tourist.

He discussed ports of call.  I’ll move that discussion to the appropriate blog day. 

After the lecture we attended the church service.  This got us to about noon. 

After that, I did a lot of housekeeping and worked on these notes. 

Dr. Detrich said he doesn’t take malaria meds.  He says not many mosquitoes because of the river.  Well, we paid a lot for our med, so I guess I’ll go ahead and start taking it.  Today is the first day.  We are taking Malarone 250/100, whatever that means.  I’ll take it at lunch.  (I ended up taking it for 3 days, but it made me feel so bad I stopped taking it.  I writing this at Manaus, and to this point I have yet to see a mosquito! )

I don’t remember anything else about this particular day. 

Day 8 Sat, January 8, 2010 Devils Island, French Guiana

Background

• 3 islands… called triangle island at first… then called Salvation Islands.  Originally settled by French that evacuated French Guiana after economy collapsed in 1800s.
• Pop of all French Guiana now 221K
• Heavily dependent on France
• There is a space center there.  Good location because of proximity to equator.  Accounts for 25% of GDP.
• Unemployment 20-30%
• Maroons:  ex slaves fled into rainforest around 1848
• French established prison colony- 4 camps on mainland, and one on each of the islands
• The most famous of these are called Devils Island, but that was the smallest of the prisons
• Actually going to Isle Royal, not Devils Island.  This was a large camp.
• Abt 80000 were eventually sent there.  1852-1902. Prisons closed in 1952.
• Have to tendor in.   Very difficult currents, so chances of actually visiting are low… (Why did they advertise…?)
• Hard to walk in: take it slow, very steep slope, take rain gear.  There’s a lighthouse and cemetery of prisoner and guard children. 
• See ruins and monkeys.

Our Experience

We were fortunate!  The possibility of actually getting on the island was talked down.  We were told 50-50.  Well, to make a long story short, it was favorable and we were able to complete make the visit.  On the other hand, you can see why the chances are so low.  The seas around the islands were rough.  The winds were favorable with respect to the anchorage, so it worked.

The island we went is more or less round and we walked around it. 

Warning:  THERE ARE NO RESTROOMS.  The maps indicate a restroom, but that one is closed.  The only restroom is at the small hotel at the top.  The beer isn’t a bad price, so be sure to take $$ and buy a beer and a pee.  Of course, the bushes work for men… it isn’t that jungley, but women would have a problem, as Chris did.

The ship anchored maybe 400 meters from shore. 

Oh, since we are getting a video at the end of the cruise, I’m not going to say much about what we saw.  We took a look at the video from yesterday and it does a good job.  In fact, it helps us understand what we need to see when we go back. 

In our walk around the island’s perimeter we saw those agouti’s, which look like:

It’s strange to me that we didn’t see much else in the way of wildlife other than a gang of monkeys:

There were various structure at the top.  Some were more or less ruins.  Others were in use.  There was a small contingent of families that permanently live on the island.  The breadwinners of the households work at a tracking station for the “space port.” 

Here are a few other pictures: (to be uploaded separately)

Day 6, Jan 7, 2010 Port of Spain, Trinidad

Background from Lectures

• Get rum punch  don’t miss it (unfortunately, we did this pass through)
• capital is Port of Spain, where we will dock.
• Originally a Spanish contact:  Columbus arrives in 1498.  Named after Holy Trinity
• It had a wide open port; Spanish governor lived of bribes
• 1797 and Sir Ralph Abercromby, with fleet of 18 ships, takes Trinidad
• Be sure you know what dollar they are talking about- $TT 1 is $US.15. 
• Taxi is $10.  Walk to town.. right to hyatt, then right to downtown.  You will go to Independence Sq
• Chinese, Portuguese, and India(ns) were brought in as indentured workers. 
• More than 147K Indians brought to Trinidad
• 40% are descendants of Indians
• 38% are african
• The Red House is the Parliament.
• Queens Park Savannah… take cab to get there  Was an old sugar plantation.  North is Royal Botanic Gardens 
• Magnificent 7 are mansions  across from the savannah
• Best tour is Trinidad Highlights and Scenic Drive.Winding drive.
• Stop and get sweets:  Chip Chip.. Coconut and mixed with fresh sugar
• If you like hot and spicy, try Tamarind Balls…  lots of red pepper.
• Maracas Beach.  gorgeous beach.  You should have a “bake and shark”  Get it at Richard’s. 
• Carnival Feb 15-16. 
• Steel pans, calypso, soca, and limbo all started in Trinidad

Our Experience

Our tour was mid-day.  I had an hour so I walked into town early in the morning.  What a change since I was here last, some 15 years ago!  Then it was a a few several story buildings but mostly a ramshackle downtown.  Now, thanks in part to government spending for a series of hemispheric and world-wide meetings, and thanks in part to rising gas and oil revenues, there were many new high rise buildings.  The most conspicuous was a new hotel and convention complex, built for the dignitaries, and the twin towers of a government complex.  (In fact, I think it is a key observation that the biggest buildings in any of the towns we visited were government buildings.) 

Here’s another picture from the road leading over the mountains.  The Royal Princess can be seen just to the right of the larger buildings.  Well maybe you can see it. 

I really enjoyed that walk.  I went down the main boulevard of town, which was nice, and then went to the left toward the parks.  I visited a park, saw a church and the Red House (The Parliament) and visited the national library.  This is the Red House, which is under renovation. 

Our tour was a bus tour that drove past the city’s highlights and then went to the House of Angostura distillery, which makes a variety of famous Trinidadian spirits, including the famous “Bitters.” 

The tour part went to some of the places I had walked to and it went to the new performing arts center.  I don’t think I got a good shot of that, but it is brand new, made of stainless steel, and looks like the Sydney Opera House. 

We went past the Magnificent 7, but they are mainly tourist hype. 

Then we drove into the mountains to the distillery, The House of Angostura.  We toured the room where the Bitters is made.  The Bitters is made of a number of spices and plant derivatives.  It’s ingredients are a trade secret.  However, the order was of cloves and/or nutmeg (probably the latter, since I think cloves is from the far east, not indigenous to Venezuela).  It also had a citrus element and something very close to vanilla.  It probably also contains ginger.  When they have ground all the ingredients together, water and alcohol (44.7%) to make the final product, which is then aged for a few months.  The result is delicious and is supposed to cure all kinds of stomach ailments. 

It is used as a flavoring in other drinks and in cooking.  It is not meant to be drunk straight. 

Angostura makes many other spirits.  A picture of their product line:

When we got back to the ship we didn’t have time to go out again.  Too bad.  Well, we’ll catch other sights when we return.

Day 5, Wed, January 6, 2010, St. Lucia

Lecture on St. Lucia

French for a long time and finally Brit in 1814

Capital is Castries, which, at 60K people, is a pretty big town

Francis Le Clerc, a pirate was first European.  Used Pigeon island to hid for piracy

Sugar was a established as a main crop. St Lucia became epicenter of rum and sugar

Many Africans brought in for sugar work.  Slavery abolished in 1834.

In 1979 St. Lucia became an independent country, member of Commonwealth

Regulated taxi fare

Reduit Beach is great 20 minute drive $20 each way.

Day at Jungle Reef Beach is a great tour.

The Day

We arrived without event.  The harbor was crowded with 2 large and 1 medium sized cruise ships. 

The weather was partly cloudy, with warm temps.We had a 9:15 tour- snorkeling.  Well, we got to the “holding area” and waited.  And waited.  At 10:45 the person in charge finally said that anyone that wanted to could get their money back.  We decided to stick it out and 5 minutes later the boat showed up between the ships.   We finally left on our snorkeling adventure at about 11:15.  We went down the coast toward the Petons, but didn’t actually get to a place where you could see them.  We pulled in to what was an area crowded with tourist boats. 

I snorkeled about an hour and 15.  Not even good snorkeling.  Some fish and plants.  I did see a squid- first I’ve seen.  It was about 4 inches long and translucent.  There were some schools of the usual fish, but nothing impressive.  The water bordered on a kinda rock wall, and the waves created bubbles that limited visibility.  In all, not a good tour. 

We stopped at Montego Bay (?)on the way back.  I took some pictures, below.  Just interesting.

I walked around town for a while after Chris went back to the room.  I found it interesting.  In fact, there is a large market, perhaps 6 blocks square, near the ship.  That is an exploration. 

In general, since the ship docks close to everything, there’s no need to worry about WCs. 

Day 4, Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010, St. Barths

Background

• Tendor location; can be difficult and may have to cancel
• St Barths is small:  8.1 sq miles
• We are going to capital, Gustavia, tendered to town center
• pop 8.5k
• Currency is Euro $1 = .69 Euro
• Very expensive island, playground of rich and famous
• Ruled by France and England at various times, then given to Sweden (1784-1878), then back to France, which has control today
• Taxis 80 euros / hr for 2 people
• Don’t take photos of locals without permission
• French pirate:  Daniel Montbars (1645-1707.. aka Montbars the Exterminator   Will see references to him around island.
• Sea shells can’t be taken off island
• Resorts:  Nikki Beach… The “in” hot sexy beach resort.  All the celebs go.  Port agent likes to go to Nikki beach and hang out with celebs.  Peter Higbee wrote an email to the beach owner and the reply was that we could visit beach free.  So… you can go.  If they challenge you, say Peter Higbee said it is OK. 
• All beaches public and free

Our Experience

We arrived as another cruise ship was leaving.  Rumor, afterwards confirmed, said it was leaving because it could not tender in.  Our captain announced that we were maneuvering the ship to attempt to provide enough cover from the wind (from southeast) to launch and recover our tenders.  He estimated the chance of success at 50-50.  Well, we came out on the good side and were in port by about 11ish.  The ride over wasn’t all that rough. 

Before we left I had looked at the options on the Internet.  The most common activity was to rent a motorbike or car and see the island.  You could stop at the beaches, etc.  I didn’t think Chris would go for the motorbike and I started the process of renting a car.  The price was about $70 plus taxes and fees.  However, the commentaries described the traffic situation as chaotic.  I didn’t think Chris would manage that well. 

I thought about using a taxi to get to one or more of the beaches, but the cost would have been high and I wasn’t sure how we could arrange a pickup.  (In retrospect, I think the process is to be dropped off at Nikki beach, since there is a resort there.)

I investigate a bicycling alternative, but the one email I got back said that the company was out of business.  So… my plan was to find a local snorkel outfit once we landed- there were several on the internet. 

Since we arrived at 11 and the last shuttle left about 4 I guess I was glad I didn’t rent a car for the day or plan anything else.  I tried to find a snorkel company and didn’t find one in the immediate neighborhood- that is, I couldn’t see any.  We walked downtown, in the direction of the sign that said “tourist information” but couldn’t find the tourist information.  So we retraced our steps back to the ship tender landing area. 

On the way, I saw a diving/sports shop and went in.  French is the primary language there, and while I waited I heard no spoken English.  I waited until I could talk to the proprietor.  I started in French, but found the gentleman could speak some English.  He said there was a snorkel place right next to the the tender landing area.  In fact, he actually walked us over to where it was.  There was no sign.  He said there was a boat, the Blue something or another, and that they had apparently left and would be back for an afternoon run. 

So we had some decisions to make.  Chris was already tired and complaining, so I told her to wait and I would try to find the tourist information place.  After asking a few people I was given what turned out to be the right directions.  It was not well marked.  Here’s where it is:  From the tender dock, go to the right.  You’ll go through a long parking lot.  Turn right at the first street you come to.  The building is the last one on the right, next to the pier.  There is a very small sign sticking out from the building, partly hidden by a vine.  You’ll notice a large women’s restroom to the right of the door. 

The office is not well staffed:  one person.  If two ships had been in port, it would have been overwhelmed. 

The person was not fluent in English, so questions had to be kept simple.  I found a handout that included diving and snorkeling places.  She indicated those that had offices and those that did not, such as the one we had just visited.  But she couldn’t give me directions on where they were.  She said to call, but didn’t volunteer to make the calls for me.  On the way back to the dock, where Chris was waiting, I couldn’t find a local phone.

Chris and I talked it over.  She wanted to walk to a beach we had seen coming in, but, to make a long story short, there was no way to walk there.  After some debate, we decided to take a cab to the other side of the bay, where I could see a diving insignia on a building.  The minimum taxi fare, so we were told, was $15 US (10 euro).  We paid it and were off on the mile or so ride to the other side.  We learned first hand the traffic problem… all traffic seems to funnel to one point.  Anyway, we got there. 

Turns out that all the diving boats were out.  We asked a person who was in the know, and he said that, basically, we were out of luck.  The Blue boat was the one we could have possibly taken, but it had hours of 9, 11, 2.  We had just missed the 11 when we arrived and we could not take the 2, since the last tender left at 4.  He recommended we go to Shell Beach.  He showed us how to get there.  It was a 10 minute walk, at Chris’s walking pace, to get there.  It is more or less a five minute walk from the end of the bay. 

The beach is covered with shells.  It is rocky and within 10 feet of the start of the water, it fell off to an undetermined depth, so deep that, when I snorkeled, I couldn’t see the bottom, given the sand stirred up by the waves.  I assume that the waves were a little higher than normal, because the wind blew directly into the beach.  The undertow was treacherous.  Since the beach was mostly shells, falling meant cuts on anything that hit the beach.  Chris got cuts in several places and a man’s back got bloodied. 

Chris didn’t want to go snorkeling and spent the time searching for shells and glass.  She also found a bone that looked to be part of a human leg (thigh) bone. With my snorkel equipment, I could limit the risk of falling and was able to move in and out of the beach fairly easily.  We spent about an hour there:  I snorkeled and saw NOTHING; just floated and swam… good exercise. 

We walked back toward town.  Along the way, I noticed a stone stairway up a hill and started climbing to explore.  Chris didn’t want to go, saying it was probably private property and she didn’t want to climb stairs.  When I got about three quarters of the way up, I found a clock tower of some historic importance and a church.  The view of the harbor was superb.   I persuaded Chris to come up and she enjoyed the view.  I took some photos, which follow. 

We went back into town and slowly worked our way back to the tender dock, stopping at points of interest along the way.

Chris didn’t want to wait until the last tender, so we got on one about 3:30. 

We lifted anchors (the anchoring was a complicated array to hold the boat steady and shelter the tender operation) and were away about 4:30. 

Pictures will be attached when I have more bandwidth.

Day 2, Sunday, January 3, 2010: First Day at Sea

This was an orientation day.  We went to a short church service.  The cruise director, Peter Roberts, led it.  He’s not a pastor and he read neutral morality tales. 

A picture of Peter: 

After lunch we went a lecture on the first 3 ports.  Most of the notes I’ve embedded in later day blog entries.  Here’s some of the spare notes:

The presenter was a pastor for 30 years in Cal.  He now lives in Panama; has a coffee farm; It has a perfect spring-like weather, 80 high in day, 60 at night.  Has a desk, there 3-5.

He started with history.  The main cast of characters are Spain and England.  Columbus got only as close to N. America as San Salvador, Dominican Republic. 

He went on to describe, in generalities, the history and points of interest for the first three islands.  I’ve included appropriate points in the blog entries for those visits.

This trip is not going to be all trivia and bridge.  However, I did joint a trivia team and we won.  I got a high quality tote bag.  That was nice. 

Most of my “free time” is spent:

• Reading.  The first book I got from the library is “The Mayflower”  It is about the people, the voyage, and the first hundred years after the landing.  The theme is the relationship between the Pilgrims, Puritans, and Indians. 
• Genealogy.  I am labeling all the pictures, census pages, registration cards, and ship’s records I’ve collected.  When they are loaded from Ancestry.com, they are labelled by number.  That doesn’t do any good in understanding what the image or pdf file is and who is in it.  I have hundreds, so it is going to take a long time.
• I am cleaning up the records, such as resolving the conflicting information, adding missing people etc.  (I’m writing this late in the voyage and I find that I’ve added over 500 people.) 
• Practicing barbershop
• Yoga and elliptical (but not as often as I would like)

The gym facilities are much nicer than at the time of the R2.  There is an exercise room and many more machines.  The room is better than in the larger ships on which we have had experience, since it is on a high deck in the front, with glass windows giving us a panoramic view.

Day 1 Sat Jan 2, 2010: Embarkation

This was embarkation day.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn on Griffin Rd, southwest of the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. It was nice enough, brand new, but the older and supposedly cheaper Springhill Suites in Charlotte was better:

• Nicer room.. or rooms.  The Springhill Suites room had a bedroom, a sitting room, a small kitchen, and a nice bathroom, with separate toilet room. 
• The Fairfield Inn room was just large enough for 2 queen beds.  The bathroom was on the small side, and did not have a separate toilet room. 

We went over to the Bass sports store again.  Chris returned the swim goggles I got her the day before.  She has trouble with mask sizes:  they were too big.  I got one that covered only the eyes, not the nose and was made for women.  She wanted the nose covered and didn’t want to use a nose clip.  Anyway, she found a youth size that seemed to work.  

We took the shuttle to the port.  It cost $16.  I thought it was supposed to be free?  I guess things have changed.  It was bedlam at the hotel.  The lobby and sidewalks outside the hotel were completely covered with people and luggage.  I guess there were five or more ships leaving today, including that biggest one from the Royal Caribbean line.  (In fact, our departure was delayed several hours because we had to wait for the larger ships to depart.  That decision was interesting because we just had to proceed directly out from our berth:  no turn around or other maneuver required.  The others had to at least back out to the center of the port and turn 90 degrees to exit.)

Once at the port, there was no wait at all.  I guess that’s the difference between a small ship and a large ship, . 

Our room is on deck 6 is near the front stairway, room 6030.  It has a window with a partly obstructed view; there is a small red jet craft kind of in the way. 

However, it’s not a bother at all and I thing I would stay in this room even if I have the opportunity to upgrade to either an unobstructed view or a balcony.  It is very handy to everything.  We do have to watch it when opening the door to make sure the person inside is decent.  With the arrangement of the mirrors, you can see right in to the bathroom!  Some pics:

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When we got our ID cards, we discovered we had obtained first seating.  We had been rather far down on the wait list.  We soon found that all the couple save one had second seating and were on a wait list.  It was as if they created a table for us.  ?? 

There were 5 couples at the table, which would make conversation among all difficult anyway.  But the real problem is that it was at the back of the dining area, in a corner.  The vibration and associated noise was terrible when the ship was at cruising speed.  I couldn’t hear much of the conversation.  The vibration was uncomfortable and, at times, nauseating.  Unfortunately, we enjoyed the group and probably didn’t have an option anyway, since the seating was full. 

Our other dining options were the buffet and the fancy eating venues, of which there were two.  There is a cover charge of $15 or $20 each at those venues.  I can’t see the value in that, compared to the dining room.

The buffet had a limited menu in the evening.  It wasn’t a buffet, but sit down.  I’ll let you know how it is if we try it.  Others have said it isn’t as good as the dining, even though they have table clothes, etc. 

Coffee:  we learned early on that the coffee in the dining area was not good.  The coffee in the buffet was good, as least to Chris’s taste.  (I have cream and sugar, so I can tolerate all kinds of coffee except “weak.”)  We also learned that the ship sells  premium coffee.  This is ground coffee like you get at a coffee shop.  The price ranges from $1 for 12 ounces plain on up to above $3 for a fancy 16 ounce coffee.  A “coffee card” is offered that costs something like $24.  You get a little price break with the card. 

The cast for the shows is really terrific.  They are all young and the dancing is very athletic.  We learned that the cast not only does the show, they also run many of the passenger get- togethers, games, etc.  Double workload.  They just have time to sleep, eat, and exercise.  No social life. 

We got to know 3 of the cast, Ann(ie), Ryan, and Jade.  Here’s a picture of Chris with Jade. 

There’s a story behind this.  Both Jade and her husband Ryan- I need a picture of him, were in the Regal Princess cast! I recognized her and Chris recognized him.  Ha!  At the time, I think they were either friends or engaged.  Anyway, her parents got on the ship in New Zealand and sailed with us to Sydney.  Ryan is from Sydney.   They are both very talented. 

In the evening, we participated in a scavenger hunt to get stamps in various departments around the ship.  At 10 there was a raffle.  Chris won a video of the entire cruise!  So this blog will be complimented by a “professional” video.