Parintins

We're  nearing the end of our cruise.  Today  was our penultimate stop:  Parintins.

Parintins  is not a very large town.  It used to be a single  island, but is now 4 separate  islands as the Amazon is still finding its course.  

Today's  excursion  was a Boi Bomba Folkloric dance performance.  It was amazing and  honestly  it was worth coming all the way up the  Amazon just to see this.  

It was incredibly  hot today: 32c or 89f - but felt  even hotter with the humidity.  The performance was indoors  and although  there was supposed to be air conditioning I  don't think it was able to  keep up. I was hot, so I  can't imagine  how  hot the dancers we're.   Not only were they dancing around,  they were carrying  some very heavy  costumes  on their  heads and backs.  To give you  an idea of just how big and  heavy some of these costumes  were here are a couple of photos  of  one of the costumes standing  against the wall and then of the guy wearing it.

After  the performance  we shopped at the market stalls and  I bought a feather  headress of my own.  It's not quite as big as the one from the  show.  

I'm just going to fill out the rest of  today's  entry with more photos of this amazing performance. 

Santarem

 Today was our first proper stop in Brazil at Santarem.   Santarem is a city of about 350000 people about 600km (400  miles)  upstream from the mouth of the Amazon. At this point the Amazon is still about 30 miles wide.

We took the tenders to shore very early in the morning for the start of our tour.  We started off visiting the Cathedral and the Museum in the city itself.

After that we drove about 20 minutes outside the city to a tourist attraction in the forest where they showed us rubber being harvested from rubber trees, manioc flour being produced and brazil nuts being harvested.   There was a short trail through the "forest".  Unfortuntely the most exciting wildlife we spotted on the trail were some feral chickens.  I did actually see a toucan, but it was way up in the canopy and was moving about a lot, so there was no chance of getting a decent photo.

It had been an early morning trip and we were back at the dock by 10.45am, but it was already really hot and humid.   There were some market stalls set up by the dock with a nice selection of tat.  So we did a bit of souvenir shopping before heading back to the ship. 

The Tapajos river joins the Amazon here at Santarem and the 2 rivers flow alongside each other for a fair distance before merging.   The Amazon is the brown one and the Tapajos is the darker one.

Some people saw Amazon pink river dolphins from the ship as we were sailing away, but sadly I missed them.

In Amazonian Waters

 Yesterday was a  day at sea as we sailed from French  Guiana  around the coast of South America towards the mouth of the Amazon.   We stopped  early  this morning  in Macaba which is close to  the  equator. 

Macaba is not a large place and this was what they called  a "technical stop" to let the pilot and the Brazilian authorities onboard.  So we weren't allowed  off.

Shortly  after  leaving  Macaba  we crossed the equator and we all got a certificate  for doing so. 

We've  been  sailing up the river all day and we won't  reach our first stop in Santarem until  tomorrow  morning.   The scale of everything  is daunting. 

We spent some of the day enjoying the view from the ship and relaxing on our balcony,  but  later in the  afternoon  it rained a lot (which I guess  is  not surprising  as it's a  rainforest)

French Guiana

Yesterday  was a day at sea so Becky and  I  decided  to do our laundry.   We figured everyone  else would have the same idea so we decided  we'd  get up really  early. The clocks went  forward as well  so when  we woke up at 6am it felt like  5am. Despite  our early  arrival  at the  laundrette  on our deck, 2 out of the  3 washing machines  were already  in use. We put our clothes  in  and picked them  up again  on the way back from  breakfast.    

Today we arrived  at Iles du Salut. This is a  group of 3 small islands just off the  coast of mainland  French  Guiana. The islands were the  site of a notorious  French  prison  colony between  1852 and  1952.  The main prison complex  was on Ile Royale (where we landed).  Ile Saint Joseph  is a smaller  island where problem  prisoners were sent for  solitary  confinement.  The 3rd island,  Ile de Diablo  was where political  prisoners  were  kept, and  it is this  island  that gave  the penal colony its common  name  of Devil's  Island. 

The ship anchored off shore and we transferred to the small  dock by tender.  On shore it was very hot and  humid and we had to  walk for 20 - 25 minutes on a trail with an incline  to reach the site of the main  prison  buildings.  Unforunately you couldn't  go inside  any of  the buildings even though some  looked to be  in a  good  state of  repair. There were  some  nice views of the other  side of the  island though.

During our 20 minute  walk on the trail  we saw several  monkeys who were quite  interested in us. 

They checked  us thoroughly  back at the  dock to make sure we weren't escaping prisoners,  but in the  end  we were  allowed out for  good  behavior  (clearly  they don't  know us that  well) and returned  to the ship. 

Barbados

Today's port of call was Bridgetown, Barbados.  Once again, the excursion was a coach tour of the island.

To be honest all these Caribbean islands are much of a muchness.  Antigua had some historic forts and Nelson's dockyards, but with most of them there's  not much to show us apart from beaches and pretty views.   The only buildings they could find to show us in Barbados were the house Rhianna grew up in (the street has since been renamed as "Rhianna Drive") and her new house (a 32 million dollar mansion).  The major difference between Barbados and the other islands is that it's a lot flatter and therefore the roads are better.  The rum punch was also much stronger than on Antigua.

Bridgetown is obviously a popular cruise port as there were 4 other cruise ships in there at the same time as  us.  One was a huge MSC ship, then there were 2 Costa cruise ships and the little German one on on the end....

 

St Lucia

 We docked in Castreis, the capital of St Lucia, at around 8am.   Our booked excursion "Panoramic St Lucia" was not until 11.30am, so as the port seemed to be near the centre of town,  Becky and I decided to go ashore and do a bit of exploring by ourselves.   We hadn't considered the weather though.   We were half way up the 1st street when it came bucketing down and we had to hide under a storefront until  it stopped. Then we managed to make it to the top of the street before there was another cloud burst and we had to take refuge in the cathedral.  To be honest there didn't seem to be much to see in Castries, so at this point we decided to head back to the ship before we ended up getting soaked.   We did do a bit of souvenir shopping though - Becky bought some bags and a t-shirt and I bought a dress.

At 11.30 we hopped on our mini bus for our panoramic tour and I very foolishly sat in the window seat.   What followed was a 30 minute white knuckle ride that I pretty much kept my eyes closed for - no panoramic views for me.   St Lucia is very hilly so the journey was up and down these switchback narrow roads that were barely wide enough for 2 vehicles.   One side of the road would be a really deep drainage ditch and the other side was a drop of several hundred feet.   The driver would rev the engine to get up the hill and would be going far too fast on a narrow road for my liking and then another bus would appear around the corner coming in the opposite direction and our driver would swerve right over to the edge to avoid it.   I don't like heights, so the last thing I wanted to see was us swerving quickly towards the edge of the road where there was a big drop. Needless to say I made Becky take the window seat on our way down again.

The most interesting thing about the island is the way the houses are buit.   Because it's so hilly there is very little flat ground.  Perhaps a quarter or a third of a house will be built on actual ground and then the back of the house sits on stilts and juts out over an incline. Doesn't look very safe - I hope they don't have any earthquakes around here.

Our eventual destination was a house with a botanical garden called Story Hill at the top of one of the larger mountains.  We were treated to carambola drinks (no rum punch this time unfortunately) and other snacks like fish cakes and banana cake while we browsed the gardens.

After the tour it was back to the ship for a dip in the hot tub.   

Amazing Antigua

 We docked this morning in Antigua and  this was the view from  our  balcony 

Antigua  is  a  tiny island., only 11 miles by 14 miles. The majority  of the population  live in the capital,  St John.  Industry  used to be  sugar production,  but that ended in 1970 and  today tourism  accounts for  75% of the  economy. 

Antigua's national sport is cricket, and the island is the home of legendary cricketer Sir Viv Richards.  Strangely, none of the Americans on the bus had heard of him.  You'd think they didn't play cricket in America or something.   When I was a teenager I had a season ticket at Glamorgan County Cricket Club and the West Indies cricket team were touring the UK that summer.  I went over to Swansea cricket ground to watch the Windies take on Glamorgan - it was a weekend and the carnival was going past on the seafront road outside the ground.  After Viv Richards had hit 2 6's in a row out of the ground and  into floats, they had to stop the game for 15 minutes until the carnival floats had all gone past.  Swansea cricket ground is also famous for being the place where another great West Indian cricketer, Gary Sobers, once hit 6 6's in an over off Glamorganshire bowler Malcolm Nash.   Perhaps I should stop talking about Glamorgan Cricket Club's "achievements"....

Our included tour today was a bus trip around the  island visiting  the most beautiful  spots like Shirley's heights - which overlooks  English Bay.

Then we went  to  Nelson's  docklands. This is the  best preserved  Georgian Era dockyard in the world  and was home  to  the  British  Navy Caribbean  Fleet  during the 1700s and 1800s. Today the dockyard is a UNESCO world heritage site and  as part of our visit  we were treated to  some Antiguan rum punch.  We'll after  having a Pina colada in  San Juan I could  hardly  refuse a rum punch  in  Antigua  could I?

The bus dropped us off near the  dock and we  took a short detour to  see St John's  cathedral before  heading  back to the ship. 

A tour of Viking Sea

 We've  been  aboard  2 days  now and  it's  time I gave you  a  run down  of  our cruise  ship, the Viking  Sea.

Viking are best known as a company that does river cruises, but a few years ago  they decided to  branch out into  ocean  voyages as well.  Their approach  is  somewhat  different  in that they are aiming at a very specific market,  namely the sort of older, retired people  who are  predominant  on their river cruises.   At 900 guests maximum  their ocean  going ships are big enough  to  have plenty of  facilities, without  being  the sort of behemoths that the rest of the  cruise  ship  industry  is  currently  churning  out.

No children are  allowed  on Viking ocean ships, so you  won't find families  onboard. The entertainment  is  firmly aimed at the older set. No water slides or karaoke  bars - just plenty of quiet  spaces to relax.

There are 10 passenger accessible decks. The top deck is the sports  deck, complete  with putting  green and a walking track. But it's so hot here in the  Caribbean  that I haven't  seen  anyone  up there.  Deck 8 is an outdoor sundeck thar looks  down into  the main pool area on deck 7

Deck 7 is one of the main entertainment  areas of the ship. There are 2 pools: a small outdoor  one and and an  indoor  one. The indoor  pool sits under a retractable  roof which is  usually  left at least partially  open  when  we're  in Port and it's not raining.  Once the ship is out at sea it gets quite  windy, so they usually  close the roof. There are  also  2 sizable hot tubs.  One outdoor  and  one in the  area with the  retractable  roof.

The pool bar and grill  serves burgers, hot dogs and  salads and it's a very  popular  place  to  eat  in between swims.   Also on deck 7 is the World Cafe, which is the buffet  and is a cut above the buffets on the larger ships -  which often have to  devote a lot of their  offerings  to  children.  There's  also the  Wintergarden, a glass roofed lounge area where afternoon  tea  is  served daily.

Deck  7 is rounded  off  with the Explorer's  lounge and bar, which has a superb view out of the  front of the  ship and also serves interesting  Scandinavian  snacks.

Decks 6, 5, 4 and 3 are all passenger  cabins. Each passenger  deck has  its own customer  laundrette.

Social areas pick up again  on decks 2 and  1 where you find the Star Theatre (mostly  given over to lectures), 2 cinemas and Torshavn (which is the nearest   thing to a nightclub  that you'll  find onboard).  The atrium is an open lounge area that spans 3 decks with a lounge bar at the  bottom.   There is often live music happening  in  the atrium and  also in the  Explorer's lounge, pool area, Wintergreen and the outside seating area of the World Cafe. Music is usually of the classical variety  although the  string duet in the  atrium  did do a stonking version of  the Star Wars theme  the other night.  

There is a spa and about 3 shops selling jewelry and other  upmarket  items  such as unique  Nordic clothing and glass and silver ornaments.  There's also a  tiny shop selling  items  you  might have  forgotten like deodorant  or electrical  adaptors, etc.   The remaining  restaurants are  the main restaurant,  an Italian restaurant  called  Manfredis and a more upmarket restaurant  called the Chef's Table.  All the restaurants  are  free and there is also at least one free excursion at each port of call  - even if its usually  only a walking tour  of  the local town.   Alcohol and tips are extra, but other than that there's  very little of the  nickle and diming that you find on the large cruise ships.  Of course,  this might  be  due to  the fact that a Viking  Sea  cruise  is a lot more  expensive  in the  first place. 

Becky and I  think this is one of the most  beautiful  ships  we've  ever  been  on.

A walking tour of ol San Juan

 This morning we went  on a walking  tour  of the old city, or San Jose, as  Becky just can't seem to stop calling it.  I'd always  heard that Quebec city was the oldest  walled city in north  America,  but San Juan  is even older, dating from the  1500s. Perhaps  San  Juan  doesn't  count as  North  America  even  though  it's a  US territory. 

The walls surround the  old city and there are  plenty  of these sentry boxes which are sort of unofficial  symbol  of  Puerto  Rico 

Despite the  fact that  we started  our walking tour at 7.45am (and believe  me, it was hard to get up that early after being in the  road for  36 hours  without  sleeping  to get here) it was already 28C. (83F) by the time we finished  the short tour and got back to the ship. 

Right now the festival  of St Sebastián is going on, which is the final  celebration  of the  Puerto Rican Christmas.   Yes you heard me right - it's the  third  weekend of January  and  it's only now  that Christmas  is over for  them.   They used to  say they had the longest  Christmas in the  world  but had to  stop because  the Philippines  has a longer  one. The Philippines  Christmas  covers all the  months  that end in ber. So they start celebrating at the  beginning of September  and  don't  finish  until  the end  of December. 

San juan  also  boasts  4 castles. We saw 2 from  outside and  then took a tour around a third  before  heading  back to the  ship.

San Juan's  main industry  is  pharmaceuticals (drugs) and rum production  is also up there.  The other biggest industry is tourism.  So basically  they  make drugs and alcohol  and  sell them  to the  tourists.