2005 - Amazon Cruise

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Dec 15 – Today we are back in France. The island of Guadeloupe (you don’t pronounce the e at the end) is a Department of France like Martinique. We have docked in the city of Basse-Terre, the capital. The island is shaped like a butterfly. There’s a strip of land no more than a mile wide that joins the two wings. Christopher Columbus landed here on November 3, 1493 during his second voyage to the ‘New World’. As usual no one stayed to colonize the island until the French came in 1635. Once again they encountered the hostile Carib Indians and gradually conquered them.

The French and British exchanged control of the island over 16 times in the next 200 years with the French taking final control in 1816. In 1946 it became a Department of France. In the early 1980s there was an active independence movement but following a series of bombings in 1984 the authorities outlawed the Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance and crushed the rebels. Things have been peaceful ever since. Proving, once again that the only effective way to deal with terrorists is to eliminate them, not negotiated with them.

Today we are going to visit Fort Louis Delgŕes (left) here in the city. It was built in the 1600s to protect the city from numerous attacks. It’s built from volcanic rock and much of it is still intact. The various levels of the fort are connected by wide ramps to facilitate the movement of cannon and material from level to level. The walls on the lowest level face the city of Basse-Terre to the west, those on the highest face directly inland to the north. The midlevel walls face north and east. One of the walls has a beautiful view of the main volcano on the island, Le Soufrière through one of its crenellations (right).

Louis Delgŕes was of African decent and led a slave revolt that resulted in slavery being abolished in the 1800s. The fort was renamed in his honor in 1989. Today it

houses the city’s historical museum. One of the more unusual features added to the fort in Delgres honor is a series of concentric circles with Stonehenge like standing stones. At the center of the circles is an 8-foot carved stone likeness of Louis’ head (left). It’s weird, but I’m sure the artist had some symbolism in mind. I just can’t figure out what it is. We trudged up and down the hills on which the fort was built. Some of the ramps were pretty steep and paved with very uneven stones. I was a little worried that some of the older folks on the tour would get hurt. But, with a little assistance, everyone made it safely back to the bus.

Our next stop was the city market (right). It was a place to buy spices, fruit, vegetables, meat and some alcoholic beverages (read rum). While Diana was shopping I found a small plaza where a man was cooking something on top of a large pan over a wood fire. He had a half coconut bowl with some flour in it. He would spread a small pile on the hot pan and then spoon some very interesting looking substance onto it (below-left). After it cooked a while he would spoon some more flour on the top and flip it over like a pancake. After it cooked on that side for a while it was ready for sale. The flour was very white and after it was cooked it browned a little in spots but the main color was still pale white.

I asked what it was and they called it ‘Cassava’. I immediately thought of the melon of almost the same name but realized there was no relationship. I asked what the flour was made from and he said, ‘Manioc.’ Now I knew that was the major starch in the islands. I asked what the filling was and he said, ‘Coconut jam.’ Now that sounded pretty tasty so I had him make me one.

It was not at all what I expected. When the manioc flower is heated it forms a very gummy, chewy pancake that is filled with coconut. It was very good. I expected it to be crisp from baking on the hot surface but it was dry on the outside so you could hold it without getting messy. The inside, however was chewy like a gummy bear, and the coconut jam inside was a little sweet and had lots of shredded coconut in it. I shared some with Diana and was very pleased when she only wanted one small bite. The chef and some of the women there danced some of the island’s dances for us. After a while our guide joined them. It was fun to watch, they are very enthusiastic dancers. At one point the chef took off his large straw hat and was using it to fan the other dancers legs. His way of saying, ‘Too Hot!!’

After that we crossed the road to the fish market. Our guide’s nephew has a stall there (left). He showed us his fish and explained what they were. Some were obvious; some were not (right).

After that is was back to the ship. Just before we were scheduled to leave a local dance troupe came on the ship and gave a performance. Drums accompanied them and the dances were very athletic and colorful. After the performance, they left the ship and danced for us on the pier until the ship pulled away. The French certainly had their best foot forward today.

Dec 16 – Today we are in Philipsburg, St. Maarten (below). We’re sharing the port with the Adventure of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean mega ship (right). Thank God there’s only one of them. The three thousand people they dump in the city can really jam up the system.

Just like Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, this island is shared by St. Maarten, which is Dutch and St. Martin, which is French. It’s not the only island that is shared by two countries but it is certainly the smallest. This island is only 37 square miles in area; the Dutch have 14 square miles and the French 23. It seems that the island was divided by treaty. Each country could pick a representative. They would walk towards each other and where they met would be the boundary. Well, the Frenchman took wine to drink and the Dutchman took gin. It seems that the Dutchman had to rest a while after getting tipsy and thus didn’t get as far as the Frenchman.

Like Guadeloupe, the island changed hands many times over the first hundred years of its settlement, but this time between the Dutch, French and Spanish. One person in history that St. Maarten and the USA have in common is Pieter Stuyvesant. As you know he was the last Dutch governor of New York colony, then called Niew Amsterdam. You may remember that he had a wooden leg. Well, he lost the leg here in an unsuccessful attempt to take the island from the Spanish. Pieter may be buried in the New York but his leg is buried in Curaçao, one of the ABC islands just north of Venezuela still held by the Dutch.

Our trip today is to take a ride around the island and take a short ride on a submarine. The Atlantis Company has several spread around the world. The bus ride from the Dutch side of the island to the French side took about 30 minutes. We boarded the sub and rode out to the reef. It’s a pretty nice reef, which appears to be making a comeback. There’s lots of fire, brain, red, fan and finger coral that seem to be well established and showing signs of spreading. The fish were abundant. Puffers, parrot, angel, trigger, jacks, needle and other types I couldn’t identify were all over. The only mollusk I saw was conch and there were lots of urchins and starfish.

A short way from the reef the bottom becomes very sandy and has patches of grass growing on it like little pastures. That’s exactly what they are because we saw sea turtles grazing lazily on the bottom. There were at least 4 down there munching away. Our presence didn’t seem to bother them at all. It a nature reserve so they live in peace there. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a ray or skate on the sandy bottom but no luck on that front. I was more impressed with the trip than I thought I would be. It was a pretty reef and lots of life.

After coming back to land we drove to Marigot, the capital of St. Martin. Just like Martinique and Guadeloupe, St. Martin is a Department of France and a thus a member of the European Union. The Euro is the currency but everyone takes dollars. We stopped at the city center and spent some time in the local market. I was actually able to find a tropical shirt that fit me and was in an acceptable design and color. Yikes!! At $20, I couldn’t pass it up. The shops sold local handicrafts, carvings, weavings and art of all types (right). The French in the home country could learn a lesson from these island Frenchmen about how to treat tourists. They were warm, cheerful and very easy to get along with.

When we returned to the ship there was a little market at the pier that we browsed while getting sprinkled by a tropical shower. It actually felt good to cool off a little. They had a statue of our old buddy Pieter Stuyvesant (left).

This evening we are not leaving port until 11PM so they had a BBQ outdoors on the Lido Deck. It was very good. Bratwurst, chicken, steaks and huge shrimp all grilled to perfection. Corn on the cob, baked potatoes, green beans, rice and all sorts of salads rounded out the menu. The scattered clouds passing over the just past full moon, the Ocean Bar band was playing old rock and roll songs and a gentle breeze made for a great night.

We have a fairly early tour tomorrow so we won’t be staying up too late tonight. This ship is looking very festive; they’ve started decorating for Christmas.

Dec 17 – Today we are in Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (right & below-left). This is as close as we’ve been to the USA in a while. St. John’s, USVI is only 4 miles away. We’ve never been here before so we have booked a tour that goes around the entire island. Like St. John’s the island has numerous bays and beaches. It’s gorgeous!! Being British the language most used in English although it is spoken with a very ‘island’ accent and so fast that sometimes it is hard to understand. They have a lot of slang that confuses the issues a little as well.

Tortola is the northernmost of the islands that make up the Lesser Antilles. Once again it was ‘discovered’ by Chris Columbus during his second voyage in 1493 but not settled. For some reason in 1555 King Charles I of Spain ordered at attack that wiped out the Arawaks who had occupied the island for at least 1,500 years. The island was uninhabited until Dutch buccaneers came to the island in 1648. They abandoned the island to the British, including many Quaker farmers in 1666.

The Danish took possession of the western islands and established the Danish West Indies, which became the U.S. Virgin Islands at the end of WWI.

Have you ever wondered where the name ‘Virgin Islands’ came from? Our old buddy, Chris Columbus, named them in honor of Welsh Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins who were martyred near Cologne, Germany because they would not recant their Christian faith and marry Hun warriors. Gosh, don’t let the ACLU find out about this or they’ll file suit to have the name changed. We really can’t be having any governmental involvement with Christians, after all. I’ve always been surprised that they don’t try to do something about Bethlehem, PA. To make matters worse the city’s nickname is ‘The Christmas City’! How absolutely unacceptable!!

Editors Note: If you know me at all you know that I have no use whatsoever for ‘political correctness’ in any of its various forms. But I have absolutely no use for those who take the ‘anti-establishment’ clause of the U.S. Constitution and use it as an excuse to remove any vestige of faith from the public arena. That’s one reason it’s great to travel. The islands of the South Pacific are, by a large margin, very Christian. In the Dominican Republic, every public building (Including courthouses and military bases) had a manger scene featured prominently on the grounds. On Guadeloupe, St. Maarten, Tortola, Barbados and the ship religious Christmas carols are being played and sung by the bands that are greeting us. It’s great!! Reminds me of the US when I was young. Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, bah humbug!!

Merry Christmas!! Sorry, I just had to do that!


Back to travel stuff. We have never been to Tortola so we booked a trip around the entire island. It’s pretty small so it only took about 3.5 hours. It’s truly beautiful, lots of bays with fantastic beaches. The British have purposely kept large development and a lot of chain stores from coming to the island so the pace is slow and it’s a very low key feeling, somewhat like St. John’s in the USVI. St. Thomas has all the shopping and nightlife. St. John’s is not much developed and most of the land is now protected.

Tomorrow we have another day at sea. Yea!! After that it’s HAL’s own island Half Moon Cay and then off the ship in Fort Lauderdale. That means packing tomorrow. Ouch!!

Dec 18 – A relaxing day at sea, sort of. I’m having our cabin steward deliver our suitcases today so we can pack this afternoon and get it out of the way. Didn’t do much exciting today. The show this evening was a performance of ‘It Takes Two” by the cast. It was a new show and it was very good. The costumes were great and the singing and dancing was wonderful. Anton, the tall, thin, black dancer did Rollin’ on the River dressed as Tina Turner. He was a riot!! The first thing he said as he danced out onto the stage was, ‘Somebody’s got to pay the bills, Honey!’ Then he breaks into song. He actually did a good Tina right down to her dance moves. He brought the house down. This cast has been truly superb.

Tomorrow we’re on Half Moon Cay (pronounced Key). HAL acquired the island in 1995 but improvements took some time and the first ship came here in 1997. It’s a small island in the Bahamas between the southern tip of Eleuthera Island and the northern tip of Cat Island. It was previously named Little San Salvador, but was renamed when HAL purchased it. It has a crescent shape and this could account for its name however the actual homage is to Henry Hudson’s ship the Half Moon that is shown on HAL’s logo. The island is the largest employer of people from Eleuthera Island except for the government. HAL keeps a ship here to bring employees to Half Moon Cay from there. There are some living facilities on the island for the island administrator.

We were here in May for the first time and it is really a beautiful place. This time I’m taking my camera ashore to get some pictures.

Good news!! We get our hour of sleep back tonight.

Dec 19 – Today sunny, warm and clear. We’re in Half Moon Cay (right), Holland America’s private island. It’s small and fairly flat and covered with small trees, shrubs and palms. I understand that before HAL bought it there was very little vegetation. It was basically just a huge sand bar. HAL brought plants native to other nearby islands here and they took over. Looks like they were always here.

We caught a tender to shore and went out to a small cove where the stingrays live. They are being fed constantly so they stay there all year long. They have a large area netted off to prevent sharks and other predators from coming into the area, but it is taken in at night so the stingrays can go elsewhere. They have from 20-30 that come in every morning before the nets go up.

The guides gave us food to give them. They have a huge mouth and no real teeth. You hold the food in between your thumb and forefinger with the rest of your fingers closed over your thumb. Like a fist but with your thumb inside. The stingray swims up and over your hand and sucks the food right into its mouth. If you let your fingers stick out they can suck your whole hand into their mouth. They have no real teeth so you are not in danger of being bitten, but if you try to pull your hand out they are like a dog with a chew toy, they just suck in harder. The trick is to just let them take the 3-4 seconds they need to figure out that your hand is not something they eat and they will spit it out.

After swimming with the stingrays we crossed back to the other side of the island to the dining room and had a BBQ lunch. Very tasty indeed.

Then it was back to the ship to finish packing. Tomorrow we’re in Fort Lauderdale and they’re throwing us off the ship.

Dec 20 – We arrived in Fort Lauderdale a little early. We’re scheduled to get off the ship at 9:15AM but they never meet these estimates. Being eternally optimistic we head for breakfast at 8AM in the hope that this time they will. At breakfast we saw most of the members of the ship’s cast and got to thank them for the great shows they gave us.

Last night one of the staff in the Explorer’s Lounge asked me if I had seen Nancy Wright, our CSI escort. I hadn’t seen her since earlier that day. He told me that he had something for her; a letter to his girlfriend who is on another HAL ship that Nancy will be on in January. Nancy said she would take the letter to her. I saw him again this morning and he still hadn’t been able to get the letter to her. I said that I would take it and mail it to her so he gave it to me.

We went back to our cabin to wait for disembarkation number 7 to be called. As usual we had to sit through several announcements for people to come to the front desk to clear their accounts. I guess they figure if they wait long enough HAL might let them off the ship without paying. They won’t let anyone disembark until all the accounts are settled.

This morning they were making an unusual sort of announcement. They were paging specific people to come see Customs. I’m thinking that Customs must have looked at the ship’s accounts and found people that were over the tax exempt limit from the tax free stores onboard and still hadn’t shown up in the Half Moon Room to clear Customs. I was wondering when they would start that. It’s easy to do for the agents. You just have the ship sort the passenger files by amount charged in the ship’s stores and all the people over the limit will be right on top. You check them off as they show up for inspection and then page the ones who don’t. Quick and easy!

I usually go see them just to get my declaration inspected and cleared ahead of time. We often spend more that the Custom’s allowance, but since some of the items we buy are exempt from duty, we seldom have to pay anything. I bought Diana’s 25th anniversary gift on the trip and that pushed us over the limit. The item I bought is exempt from tax because the materials come 100% from Brazil and more than 70% of the processing done to it was also done in Brazil. In fact, 100% was done in Brazil. So you show up to the Custom’s agents on the ship with the item, the paperwork and your declaration. The agent inspects the item and the paperwork to confirm that the item is exempt. Once they do that they see that your total is now under the limit and they stamp and clear your declaration. With this in hand you always sail right through the Custom’s inspection ashore.

Paging all the recalcitrants has taken its toll on the disembarkation schedule. At 9:15 no one has gone ashore yet. However, once they started calling numbers it went quickly. We were off the ship at 10AM and, since we didn’t need a porter, we grabbed our luggage ashore and headed for a taxi to the airport.

Unfortunately we were taken to a van with other people going to the airport. This is a problem as they will all want to go to terminals and the rental car center is on the opposite side of the road from the terminals on its on elevated road. So we got off at Terminal One and took the elevators to the second floor where there’s a flyway over the roads to the second floor of the rental car center. Unfortunately, Hertz is on the third floor so we have to negotiate another elevator up there.

We got a Chevy Impala for the trip to Fort Lauderdale. It was a very nice car, comfortable, smooth and all of our luggage fit into the trunk. Quite impressive, actually! We have one very large suitcase, one large suitcase, a rolling duffel bag type case, a carry-on type roller, my camera bag and a fully packed backpack. I really like to have everything out of sight when we travel so that when we stop for lunch or dinner, no one is tempted to smash our windows to steal stuff.

Here in Fort Lauderdale they are giving us a Cadillac STS, YIKES!! It’s a nice car but our luggage doesn’t fit in the trunk. Two pieces, the large suitcase and the carry-on roller have to ride in the back seat. I’d say the trunk is about 13-14 cubic feet. On the Impala the trunk was at least 19 cubic feet. Other than that, the car is very nice. It has an unusual starting system. I looked for about 5 minutes to find a place to put the key into. No luck! When all else fails, read something. I looked at the instrument panel and there was a message to step on the brake and push a button on the dash that was green and lit up. When I did this the car started. You don’t have to hold the button in to crank the engine like the old days. You just push the button and the car takes over from there.

The other feature was the Hertz ‘Neverlost’ system. I guess they are trying to build demand for it and they threw it in for free on this trip. It’s a GPS system built by Magellan. There was a little plastic instruction sheet attached to it by a short chain but, being an instinctive ‘button pusher’ (as my friend George calls us) I ignored it to see how intuitive the designers had made it. I have to say that it was very easy to use.

First a little screen pops up that says you will not ignore your driving duties to fiddle with or look at the system. If you don’t select ‘I Agree’ and press enter they system will turn off. I see the work of at least 10 liability attorneys in this. After that it gives you a choice of how you want to enter your destination. I picked ‘Street Address’ since I have the address of the Holiday Inn Express in Demopolis, Alabama our first destination.

I entered the address and the system asked me if I wanted the fastest, shortest, freeway or freeway avoiding route. I said fastest and took some satisfaction in the fact that it selected the reverse of the route I had planned manually on the way to Fort Lauderdale. No need to enter where you are as the GPS knows exactly where the car is.

After the map is computed, the first segment pops up on the display. You can set it for several scales from showing the next 1/8-mile to then next 20 miles. When you set it to the 1/8-mile you see every little detail of the road ahead. At 20 you don’t see much detail at all. I found that when I was on the open road I liked the 10-mile range and when maneuvering in town or tightly packed interchanges I preferred the ¼-mile setting.

When you are approaching a maneuvering point, a voice alerts you to the next turn at two miles out by announcing what you are going to have to do. (By the way you can select a male, female or computer type voice. I’m so attuned to taking orders from Diana that I selected the female voice.) It repeats the instructions at 6-tenths of a mile and then warns you at 1-tenth of a mile and a little bar graph (like the ones you watch as a web page loads) shrinks and a gong goes off when you should be executing the turn. It even warns you to go straight at major intersections or highway junctions.

When you are on an interstate and you push the select button it shows you the next 7 interchanges and tells you all the services available at each. If you push it again it shows you the next 7 maneuvers and you can scroll down and select any one of them to see what the maneuver will be. It shows your route in fuchsia and an arrowhead shaped, yellow icon represents the car. If you have it on a detailed setting it even shows the water hazards on the golf course if you are passing one close by. In one corner it tells you how many miles it is to the next turn and how long the rest of the trip will take. In short, I loved the thing. A combination of the two things I like most, technology and maps. Now if the darn thing took pictures I’d really be hooked!

Our trip back was uneventful. Good weather and the traffic wasn’t too bad considering it’s Christmas week. Any time we went through a city the traffic was slow. I avoided going on Interstate 10 either way because the bridges are still a problem in Mississippi and Louisiana. Unfortunately that means you are on state highways all across Alabama to get from I-10 to I-20 and you have to negotiate a lot of cities and towns. The one nice thing about the route is that from Montgomery to Selma you follow the route taken by MLK and the voting rights marchers of the middle 60s. I was in Montgomery in 1965 while I was in medical school for the USAF. Things were really hopping at that time, lots of integration protests, sit-ins, etc.

We arrived home at about 8PM on December 21. Glad to be home and glad to have gone.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and all God’s best in the New: Year.

Thanks for taking our journey with us. Hope to see you on the high seas!!

(c) Rodney Longenberger - 2005 All Rights Reserved

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Dec 10 – Today we are on the island of Tupinambarana in the city of Paritins, Brazil. This is a very unique city in many ways the most amazing of which is the Boi-Bumba Festival they hold each year in June. It’s the largest party in the state of Amazonias. The three-day festival has theater, drums, dancing, music and a circus all combined. It’s a blend of European and African traditions. The festival reenacts the kidnapping, death and resurrection of an ox, which is a metaphor for their agricultural cycles. Over the years the festival has developed into a competition between two teams that live in Paritins, the red ‘Gaurantido’ (guaranteed) and blue ‘Caprichoso’ (careful) teams. Each team has several thousand members.

This rivalry grew out of a friendly feud between two families, the Monteverdes and the Cids. They hold a competition between the two teams in a 35,000-seat stadium built just for this contest. The stadium has two sides; one with blue seats, the other side is red. Each side performs in turn. When the red side is performing the blues remain totally silent while the red supporters whoop it up to the max, and vice versa. Everyone in town belongs to one team or the other.

To say that this festival dominates the entire city’s culture would be to completely understate the case. The people are red or blue to the bone. They have red taxis for the reds and blue taxis for the blues. The phone booths here in Brazil are traditionally blue, but in Patritins you will see red ones right next to the blue ones. A red person would never use a blue phone booth or taxi. In general the major directional signs are green and white like in the USA. Not here, here they are red in the red area of town and blue in the blue area. People wear blue or red clothes, paint their houses blue or red, at least the trim, drive red and blue cars. I knew the level of commitment to their color when I saw Coca-Cola cans in blue and white, rather than the normal red and white. If they didn’t have the blue cans of Coke the blues wouldn’t drink it. Amazing!! Some enterprising taxi drivers have half their car blue and the other half red. You just have to make sure you pick the customer up on the correct side of the cat. Double yikes!!

We are lucky in that this year’s winning team, the reds, has agreed to perform their show for us. 400 people from the ship are going to the arena to sit on the red side and experience Boi-Bumba. Diana and I are going for sure.

Parintins is a small city of about 27,000 people but during the festival there are over 300,000 people here. This makes the 35,000 tickets for the stadium competition a hot commodity.

When we got to the arena I was carrying all my cameras, of course. One of the staff saw them and motioned to me to go up into the building that overhangs the seating. When I got up there I found that there were box seats with a great view over the arena floor. I could not have had a better viewpoint. It was hard to take still pictures of all the action so I don’t have many. The video should be great. Only drawback was that the arena was in full sun making balanced exposure impossible. The shadow areas will be a little dark and the sun areas will be a little overexposed. No way to avoid it.

The show started with the band setting up a very strong, samba type beat. The band had lots of drums of all sizes, guitar, base and a singer. The music was loud but it was not overwhelming. It certainly set the mood for the show.

The show started with a chorus line of nine men and women in local costume performing a welcome dance. The story will be told by the entrance of a series of floats carrying the main characters into the stadium. The first was a girl in a large colonial style hoop skirt riding on a snake (left). Next came the white (the red team bull is actually white with a red heart on his forehead, the blue bull in black with a blue heart but we didn’t see him as we are watching the red show) bull riding on an alligator float (right). Both the girl and the bull dismounted and danced with the chorus dancers. It was hot and humid but the dancers didn’t seem to be effected at all.


Next came a line of dancers with horse costumes and very tall, Thai type umbrellas (left). They performed as though they were riding a precision horse drill. After they were done the original chorus line returned but they had added large feathered headdresses and shoulder fittings for this dance (right). The shadows cast by the costumes were fantastic.

The next float was a red Macaw (left) carrying another of the main characters, this one a girl with a flag representing the Guarantido team. They brought the snake float out to help her dismount from the parrot, as it could not be lowered enough. After she went from the parrot to the snake to the arena floor, an assistant brought her a large feathered headdress (right) and she danced with the chorus.



For the next dance the chorus no longer wore the feathers (left), and the men in this dance were reenacting some sort of fight. The next float was an iguana (right) or some sort of lizard, carrying a girl in a straw hat. She also used the snake for an assist to the ground. She also got a feathered outfit to wear. I’m calling the headdresses but they are more like the outfits you see in the Philadelphia Mummer’s Parade.

Cultural Note: I don’t know how popular the Mummer’s parade is outside Pennsylvania but it’s a big thing there. If you’re curious it will be on WGN Superstation at 3PM EST on New Year’s Day. It grew out of various New Year celebrations by various ethnic groups in the city of Philadelphia. Scandinavian, German, Italian, English and African traditions are blend into a riotous march down Market Street. It was formalized as a city event in 1901 but had been going on informally since the 1700s.



Next the men in the chorus donned skull masks and long straw colored grass wigs (left). As they danced a large spider float brought in a man dressed in the most elaborate costume yet (right). Long feathers fanned out from his head and shoulders (below-left). His face was painted. It appears he is some sort of shaman or witch doctor. Shortly after he alit from his float, some dancers came in dressed as flying insects of some sort and started attacking the men in the skull masks (right).









For the next dance the chorus was back in their original outfits and a large puma float standing upright on its two hind legs brought in the last main dancer (below-left). Even though this float was clearly the tallest it could bend down and the dancer could dismount without the aid of the snake. It carried a girl in another feathered costume (below-center). As she danced with the chorus the puma stood back up and danced in a very animated fashion.




After this everyone came out and danced together for the finale with the white bull at the front of the formation. Four men came out dancing in huge, float like shoulder rigs (above-right). Each one had a little panel on the front with a scene depicted on it and several large rings of decorations. They looked heavy, but the dancers didn’t seem to have any problems moving to the beat with them. One had two large feather circles and statues of two girls on it. The dancer carrying it was playing a drum.

After the dance was done they introduced the main characters (below-left). One of the girls was held the title of ‘Prettiest girl in the Reds’, another was the ‘Queen of the festival’, and another was the ‘Flag Girl’ of the Reds. After the show was over, the band played and the dancers invited people out to dance with them and pose for pictures. It was a very impressive show and a very good time.
Diana and I were some of the last people to leave the arena. There were a few little shopping booths right outside where we waited for our bus back to the ship. Diana bought 2 feathered headdresses from the vendors there. Four of the ship’s cast members were there, waiting for the last bus to the ship. They always let the passengers go first if possible. I had someone take out picture (right: l to r - Michelle, Ray, D, R, Melissa, Antoine ) with them. Diana was wearing one of the headdresses and Michelle from the cast wore the other one. After that it was back to town and to the ship as we are leaving at 2PM.

Now we have three days at sea! Yea!!

Dec 11, 12 & 13 – Ah the joys of sea days; talking to people, attending lectures, watching movies, writing my journal, naming picture files and, of course, eating. The only way it could be better is if we were setting the clocks back an hour.

We had a formal English tea during this stretch of sea days. (left & right) I don’t usually attend the 4PM teatime but I did for English tea. They had scones, little sandwiches, macaroons, chocolate dipped strawberries and dozens of other delicious goodies to pick from.


We also had the ‘Crossing the Equator” King Neptune Ceremony yesterday (left). As usual, members of the crew who had never crossed the Equator were made to kiss the fish and then after being covered in various brightly colored liquids, foods and pasta, dunked in the pool. Loads of fun, at least for the passengers who get to watch!

They set the props up at the Lido Pool. King Neptune and his Queen were on a platform on the hot tub. The jail for the Pollywogs was built around the small pool and the large pool was used for dunking. In between the two pools they set up the tables for the ‘doctors’ and ‘nurses’ (below-left) to operate on the Pollywogs, a process that transforms them into ‘Trusty Shellbacks’ (right).

The performers for these three days were a cellist, a pianist and a dance duo. The first two were very good indeed but the third was something very special. They used to be competitive dance participants until about 5 years ago when they discovered their love of performance dancing. They were trying to work out something that would make them different when they saw a magic act that included the art of quick-change.

Apparently in the 1800s in Russia there were a lot of practitioners of the art of quick-change but staring with WWI and continuing through WWII the art was completely lost. Then in the 1970s someone read about it and resurrected the art form. There are currently 5 couples doing it but the other four are all magic acts. Soul Mystique is the only act combining dance and quick-change. After they decided to include it in their act it took 3 years to track someone down who would show them the secrets. They spent a year constructing the costumes. They couldn’t use the ones that the magicians use because all they do is walk around in the costumes. Soul Mystique has to dance, jump, spin and move around quickly in theirs. After they had the costumes made they spent another year perfecting the techniques and fine-tuning the costumes.

Their act is only described as dance so the first quick-change came as a complete surprise. They were doing a Latin dance, probably the Paso Doble, a very bullfight music oriented dance. He brought out a red cape that he used as a prop in the dance. When he passed the cape over his partner at the end of the dance she had a different costume on when she reappeared. I mean, it was just that fast! He passed the cape over her like a matador does when fighting a bull, and there she was in completely different costume. The audience gave an audible gasp and broke into applause.

From there they did about 7 more costume changes each one just as fast. Sometimes he dropped a curtain attached to a hoop like a circular shower curtain over her head and yikes, there she was in a different costume.

I have to admit, I have no idea how it was done. If the costumes had gotten smaller and shorter every time they could have been layered and she was just ripping one off and hiding it somehow. But in some changes she went from a very skimpy outfit to a floor length dress. There’s no way that the new costume was hiding under the skimpy outfit because the skimpy outfit was way too form fitting for it to have been folded up inside it somehow. Obviously the new costume must be in the cape or the curtain, but it passes over her so fast that I don’t see how she can get the first one off and the second one on.

The final quick-change was the most spectacular. She had on a fairly small outfit when he brought an umbrella onto the stage. He opened it upside down and swung it over her head from behind. A cascade of blank and gold confetti dropped over her and when the confetti cleared there she was in a floor length black and gold dress. You can imagine how long it would take an umbrella full of confetti to drop to the floor. Not very long I can tell you. But there she was, arms raised and in an off the shoulder, floor length, evening dress. They got quite an ovation for that one.

I guess I should mention that they are excellent dancers as well.

Tonight’s a formal night and they will have the Black and White Officer’s Ball after dinner. Sometimes we don’t go to the balls, but I might tonight.

Next we have four ports in a row. Tomorrow, Bridgetown, Barbados. We’re going to be in the water again.

Dec 14 – Here we are in Bridgetown, Barbados (right). Barbados was named by the Portuguese in the 1600s but soon after was taken over by the British who anglicized the name and have been here ever since. In 1627 Barbados became Britain’s first overseas possession and the beginning of the worldwide British Empire. The first crops attempted were tobacco and cotton but the soil here was not suited to them and sugar cane quickly became the crop of choice. The island is still known for sugar and dark rum. Barbados’ Mount Gay Rum is world-renowned. We’ve been here several times before, including May 2nd this year. We really like it. It’s a favorite in the Caribbean for both of us. The people are friendly, as they are on all the British islands and English is the language. We’ve opted to go snorkeling this time.

As we arrived it was obvious we were not going to be lonely here. The Carnival Destiny, the Queen Mary 2 and the Sega Ruby are all in port today. (r to l Destiny, Prinsendam, just visible behind Destiny, Sega Ruby & QM2) The Destiny and QM2 both carry about 3,000 passengers, I don’t know about the Ruby, but at 700 I think we’re the runt of the litter. This is fine with me as Diana and I both like smaller ships. The port area is like a demented ant’s nest. Shuttles running to the Destiny, Ruby and QM2 scurrying everywhere taking people to and from the ship. We got the closest docking point on the piers so we just walked to the terminal.

Through the terminal was a clog of tour vans and busses taking tours from all 4 ships around the island. We had a very short bus ride to the marina to catch the sailing catamaran that will take us to Turtle Cove. It’s a very new boat with a friendly and very funny crew. After motoring out of the marina they set the sail and we headed north along the coast. On the way we passed many very nice resorts and homes. We passed the golf resort where Tiger Woods was married not all that long ago.

When we arrived at Turtle Cove and the diving began. There were lots of fish in the area including some of the largest spotted puffers I’ve ever seen. The main attraction was the green sea turtles. The guide diver was feeding them and they would swim through the group close enough to touch. The first one to show up was large. I’m not sure how many I saw but I was quickly out of film from taking pictures of them. Yes, sadly my underwater camera uses film so I won’t be able to send any pictures of the turtles home. The large one had to remora attached. These are the same fish that accompany sharks. They have a sucker on top of their heads that they use to hitch a ride and eat scraps that the turtle leaves when he eats. The water was great and the snorkeling fun.

After about 50 minutes there we got back on the boat and headed to a beach for some water sports. There was water skiing, banana rides (above-right), Big Mabel (above-left) (a big 4-passenger lounge shaped mattress they tow behind a boat). Diana rode the banana and Big Mabel twice, screaming all the way.

When everyone was exhausted we sailed back to the marina and transferred to the ship. I got a little too much sun and so after some shopping at the market place at the port we headed to the ship for a shower and some rest.

When we arrived in the dining room our window table framed a pretty sunset between the Ruby and the QM2 (right), a very nice setting for dinner.
To Follow the rest of this trip, click here: http://r-d-am4.blogspot.com/2006/01/dec-15-to-dec-21-back-to-usa.html
(c) Rodney Longenberger - 2005 All Rights Reserved

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Dec 5 – Last night we crossed ‘The Bar’ into the Amazon River. The Bar is the shallowest part of the river south of Manaus and must be crossed at high tide or there is not enough water to clear it. I didn’t feel a bump so we must have has plenty of space.

The Amazon River is 4,195 miles long and has 15,000 known tributaries, 4 of which are over 1,000 miles in length. The river discharges 46,000 gallons of fresh water every second. That’s 6000% more than the Nile. One day’s output of the Amazon is a whole year’s for the Thames in England. It varies from 1 to 35 miles wide and is over 250 miles wide at the mouth. Most of the Brazilian section is about 150 feet deep, but some parts are over 300 feet deep. The average temperature of the water in the lower part, Brazil, is about 80 degrees. The largest island in the river, Marajo, is larger than Switzerland. The 2,722,000 square-mile rain forest covers 40% of Brazil’s area and is responsible for producing about half the world’s supply of oxygen. Only about half of it is well known and much of it is yet unexplored. The land is very flat here so the lower Amazon flows very slowly, about 2-3 miles per hour.

Tomorrow we will be back in Santarém, Brazil. We were here in April at ‘high water’ season. This is ‘low water’ season so we’re anxious to see what difference it makes.

We’re planning to take a 2-hour walk in the Tapajós National Forrest about an hour out of town. It will be interesting to see how I hold up in the heat and humidity. I better take a lot of water.

At Macapá (left) today we had to stop the ship and anchor for the local officials to come on and clear the ship into the Amazon. In most ports this takes about 30 minutes to an hour. Here it takes 5 hours. They are retaliating for the fact that the USA now has strict visa requirements for Brazilians. Ah, the politics of travel. The same Amazon River lecturer that was with us on the World Cruise, Jean Paul Dössegger came aboard here as well. He’s originally Swiss but has lived in the Amazon near Manaus for 30 years. He’s very interesting and brings on lots of great slides to illustrate his lectures.

It’s easy to tell when you are in the Amazon; the water is tan to brown. The sediments suspended in the water account for the color. If you put some in a glass and let it set for a while the water will be perfectly clear after the suspended materials drop to the bottom. The color of the water is obvious when you are still 150 to 200 miles from the mouth of the river. It flows out so fast that the ocean water doesn’t dilute it for hundreds of miles.

Another successful day at sea.

Dec 6 – This morning we are continuing up the river, which at this point is heading west by southwest. We are due to arrive at Santarém about 10 o’clock.

The Amazon Basin has three distinct types of rivers that flow from the different shield areas of the basin. The Amazon is a ‘White River’ and they flow from the west in Peru where the river has its headwaters. White rivers get their name from the color of the water, which oddly enough is light tan. These rivers carry so much sediment that they look muddy, like the Mississippi in flood. They are actually pale yellow to light tan in color. The rivers that flow south from the Columbian Shield are ‘Black Rivers’. These rivers have a great quantity of dissolved minerals in them and are actually very clear. At most angles they look very black due to the oxidized material on the bottom and they have a wonderfully reflective surface. ‘Clear Rivers’ flow north from the Brazilian Shield land mass. They look a little green because they carry a large amount of small plant life out of the jungle in that area.

We are just passing the city now. We will be docking up river in a small industrial city. It’s amazing to see a city of 300.000 people just spring out of the jungle after hours of seeing nothing but widely scattered small huts and villages. We’re about 350 miles from the mouth of the river at this point.

Santarém is at the junction of the Tapajós and Amazon Rivers. The Amazon is a ‘white river’, has very silt filled water and is quite brown. The Tapajós is a ‘clear river and the water is a pale greenish color. The two don’t mix immediately and for a few miles down the river the water on the northern bank is brown and on the southern bank it’s green.

A youth band with about 40 musicians was playing on the pier for our arrival. Our tour doesn’t leave until 1PM so we had breakfast and hopped off the ship to do a little souvenir hunting in the market they set up at the wharf. They had lots of local crafts like preserved piranha, wooden masks, blowguns, straw hats and such but nothing we couldn’t live without. I did buy some postcards and stamps so we’re all set for Brazilian mailings.

The morning was cloudy, breezy and only warm. During lunch a rain shower passed though and the air behind the storm was hot and humid. When the sun broke out it got really warm. When we were here last April it was high water season. Now it’s low water season and the difference is very noticeable at the Santarém pier. When we were here before we walked straight from the ship across a walkway and directly onto the riverboats. Now they have to cross the walkway and go down about 35 feet to a lower pier to board them.

Amsterdam Sauer, a jewelry chain with a store in Manaus, has a girl dressed in an Indian costume (right) on the pier. Deal is you get your picture taken with her and then come to the store when we get there and they give you the print. I got a friend to take my picture with her with my camera. When we came back later the official pictures were being taken and Diana and I will have to go to the store if we want to get it.

After lunch we boarded a bus to take us to the Tapajós National Forrest. It’s about an hour drive up from the river to the hiking trail. The bus was not air-conditioned but with all the windows open and the driver flying low, we were cool enough during the drive.

The rain forest is preserved old growth but the drive up was mostly through secondary growth forest. The main difference between the two is that the old growth forest has some very old, large trees and the new one does not. Otherwise their composition is the same in this area.

On arrival at the park we were met by two Forest Rangers that will guide us on our hike. Unlike the USA these rangers did not have a uniform but did have a side arm incase we ran into anything hostile. Panthers, of which the Amazon has four types, are often encountered in the old growth and one of the four is a very aggressive cat.

Inside the forest it was very humid and hot. It’s dark because the canopy high in the trees cuts off the sunlight but it also stops any breeze from coming to the forest floor. The lack of breeze has me soaked in no time. The simple term ‘hot’ is really inadequate to describe the feeling. Even roasting over a bed of hot coals does not completely capture the sensation.

Nevertheless, the walk was very interesting. The ranger would stop every now and then to point out a tree, bird, nest of wasps or termites of various varieties. He also cut the bark, leaves or wood from several plants for us to smell, feel or taste. We found a cohoba tree from they take cohoba oil. They just drill a hole in the trunk of the tree and out comes the oil. They jam a stick in the hole to stop the oil flow. They use the oil on cuts as a disinfectant and on insect bites to help heal them.

They had one tree they call the ‘Cow of the Forest’. If you cut the bark a white substance comes out. We could wipe some on our fingers and taste it. It actually does taste like milk, although it’s thicker. He says if you use it in coffee you would never know it was the sap of a tree. He cut a branch off a palm tree that, when cut at both ends and split, had layers about the side of a Venetian blind slat that felt like plastic. You could split these layers and weave hats, fans and other items that are usually made of straw. If you didn’t disconnect them from each other you can bend them at 90 degrees and weave a mat. The actually use this system to thatch the roofs of their houses.

We saw various types of bird’s nests. The neatest one, and the easiest one to photograph, was the nest of a weaverbird (the long dark thing hanging on the right side of the picture above). They weave the nest of straw and twigs. It hangs down from a branch and looks like a Christmas tree in shape. Very cool.

It is so damp that various fungi are growing everywhere. Any trees that fall to the forest floor are quickly turned into compost. I found a fallen tree that was covered in tiny (1/2 to 1 inch tall) mushrooms. It looked like a miniature forest (right).

We walked for about two and a quarter hours in the forest. It was hot, sweaty going but lots of fun and very interesting. At one point the guide showed us how Tarzan could have swung from the vines that hang everywhere. Of course, Jane (Diana) couldn’t resist showing that she could do it as well (left).

The guides supplied us with lots of water before and after the walk and we all drank every bit of it and more.

Back at the pier we were walking from the bus to the ship, about 200 yards, when we passed two girls in the t-shirts of the guide organization we had been with. One of them looked very familiar to me so I asked her if she new a girl named ‘Krishna’. Her response was just what I had hoped for. She said, ‘I’m Krishna’, and then ‘I remember you!!’ I called Diana over and she recognized her immediately. During our last trip to Santarém, we took the Jari Canal boat trip and Krishna had been our guide. She and Diana had talked a lot during the trip. I’m pretty jealous, Diana got three hugs from her, and I got zip! She told us in April that she was studying physical therapy and her report now is that classes are going well and she is learning a lot.

Author’s Note: Most of you know that I have some trouble with names. You may not know that I have an uncanny memory for faces. I’ve spotted people I haven’t seen in 40 years and knew them immediately. I guess that’s to compensate for the fact that I might not remember their names for 40 minutes.

I think Krishna had changed her hair color a bit but Diana says not. I still think I’m right; after all, I was the one who spotted her. (That’s Krishna with Diana in the picture on the right, from the Jari Canal tour in April)

We got back too late to make dinner in the dining room so we trekked up to the Lido and had a great meal. The entertainment tonight was a variety show featuring the last three performers we’ve seen doing a short program each. They’ll be getting off in Manaus and some new ones will be getting on.

Tomorrow we stop in Boca da Valeria, Brazil. A city so small there are no tours. You just ride the tender into town and interact with the locals. This should be great!! That’s what I like most about travel. We have a Portuguese crib sheet to help us with the language.

Dec 7 – Here we are in Boca da Valeria (left). It’s a small village on the southern bank of the Amazon. They call the people who live on the river ‘Caboclo’ (River Dwellers). They are generally Mestisos, a mixture of Indian and Portuguese. The village appears to be very small. Because we are stopping here people from neighboring villages are also here bringing wares to sell. They set up a small arts and crafts center of thatched roof, open-air booths in which they displayed their handicrafts. Wood carving and weaving seem to be popular. There were some clay pots and handmade dolls also.

There’s only a rickety wooden pier (right) so we have to tender in. The tenders have to be careful because if they hit the little pier very hard they’ll destroy it.

There are lots of people out to see the tourists. Children are everywhere. As we walked up to the village from the waterfront we accumulated a small crowd of children. As we continued walking and it became apparent that we weren’t handing out anything all but four left us, three boys about 11, 9 and 5, and a girl about 11. They walked with us the entire day.

All along the way from the tender to the village there were people dressed in native Indian costumes waiting for us to ask to have picture taken with them. All ages were there. One man had is 3 children dressed up as well as himself. I took Diana’s picture with the group (left & below-right).

After some shopping we came to a round elevated open round building that appears to be the village restaurant and snack bar. Diana, our four escorts and myself went up and I bought three cokes and one orange soda. The man at the bar gave me four cups and we all had a cold drink. It didn’t take long for the kids to understand that they had a choice of coke or orange. Two of the kids opted for each one. We sat at a table and tried to pronounce their names and get their ages. The names were not Spanish or Portuguese so they must have been Indian. They all had sounds that do not come easily to the tongue of a native English speaker. We did the best we could to their great amusement.

After our rest we were ready to head up the hill and into the rainforest. With our four guides in tow we headed out. Part way up the hill we encountered a lady with a pet toucan. At first it was in a tree (below, left) but later she had it in her lap and was feeding it. A little further up the hill we met a man of about 60 and he invited us to take a little side trek off the main path to his house. It was about 20 yards up a path, built on the side of a hill.

The house (below-right, with the homeowner and our 4 guides) was a simple affair made of wood with no way to close the doorways or windows. They had some curtains that were all pulled aside that they must use in the rain. It was all elevated off the ground, the front about six feet and the back about two. It was divided in half forming two rooms running lengthwise. One room was apparently the living and sleeping space; the other had laundry hanging in it and appeared to be workspace. The living room had two hammocks hanging in it and that seems correct because the man said only he and his wife live there.

Just out the rear of the house and uphill about two feet was a covered area that contained the kitchen. On the end closest to the house was a fairly large stone and concrete oven. There were tables at standing height to prepare food and a table at sitting height at which to eat. There was also a hammock where the lady of the house was sitting.

Back on the main trail we continued further into the rain forest for a few hundred yards and then returned to the village.

The most attractive items in the little craft mart were carved tablets that have figures of local sights on them. There were about 6 booths with carver’s wares and in most of them the carver was working. Diana chose a fairly large on that has two parrots, a monkey and a toucan. Parts of the wood are completely removed making the carving fairly light considering its size. It’s ocoùma wood, the same one they get the oil from that has healing properties. The carver and his entire family posed for a picture (left) with Diana holding her purchase.

Traveler’s Note: One of the great things about digital cameras, besides those I gave you in my last report, is going into primitive areas and showing the subjects of your photos their own picture. This was true here for sure. Children are often pleased to see their picture, but here adults were equally eager to see the results. The carver from the next booth came over to see the picture I took of Diana with the other carver’s family. He got the biggest grin when he saw himself standing in the background of the shot. Often a big and somewhat shy smile was the response. I was wishing I had a battery-powered printer to give them a copy.

We stopped by the nicest building in the village the school. It also serves as the government offices here. School was not in formal session in honor of our visit, but there were still a lot of kids there for Diana to interact with (right). After a leisurely stroll through the village and the craft booths we boarded the tender for the trip back to the ship and lunch. We’re leaving here at 2PM.

As we sailed away from the little town several canoes of kids came out to bid us farewell (left).

At 3PM the Amazon lecturer gave a presentation on Manaus and Parentins, our next two stops both in Brazil.

The lead singer of the ship’s cast, Jen Mize, was tonight’s performer. She also did a solo show on the World Cruise and we were eager to see her again. She has a great voice and did not disappoint us in the least.

Tomorrow we arrive in Manaus for a two-day stay.

Dec 8 – Today and tomorrow we are in Manaus, Brazil. Manaus is the capital of the State of Amazonias. Manaus was founded in 1669 by the Portuguese and was a rubber boomtown from 1890 to 1920. It’s a city of 2,000,000 people in the heart of the Amazon Basin. After over 1,000 miles of small towns, villages and lots of just plain rainforest, it’s an amazing sight to sail around a bend in the river and smack into a large city with tall buildings, large factories and all the elements of urban development.

One really surprising thing here is the Teatro Amazonas (left). It’s a European style opera house that seats over 1,000. That in itself wouldn’t be surprising, but to find that it’s been here since 1896 when the city was very small and that everything in it was imported from Europe except the woodwork. Now that’s surprising. While the wood may be Brazilian most of it was sent to Europe to be carved and then returned to Brazil. The marble and glass are from Italy, the ironwork is from Scotland and the whole thing sets here in the middle of the Amazon rainforest and has for 110 years. The interior is beautiful and the acoustics are wonderful.

It has not been continuously in use for the entire 110 years. In the late 1800s Brazil had a monopoly on rubber production and Manaus was known as the ‘Paris of the Tropics’. Twelve very wealthy families, known as the ‘Rubber Barons’ paid for the opera house and their names are inscribed on the front. The greatest entertainers from Europe and North America came here to perform. This boom may have lasted longer but in 1876, Henry Wickham, a British adventurer, managed to smuggle 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of Brazil and take them to England. These seeds were germinated and then sent to the Far East to plant and formed the basis for very successful and much cheaper rubber source. By the 1920s, cheaper synthetic rubber put the entire rubber industry here out of business.

As the result, Manaus sank into decay and obscurity. Wickham became known as the ‘Executioner of Amazonas’. During this time the opera house was unused and fell into disrepair. It was renovated in small ways over the years but it wasn’t until the 1970s when Brazil declared Manaus a duty free zone that the city began to regain its former prominence. Coincidentally in the 1980s with the collapse of state funded institutions in Russia and the Eastern Block countries two events happened that made the opera house a very special place again. A Russian orchestra came to play there and loved it so much they stayed. A year later a Bulgarian orchestra came to play and also decided to stay. Now the opera house has a permanent orchestra made up of mostly Russians and Bulgarians that is the best in South America. The opera house was completely restored and is in wonderful condition today.

Our ship is docked at a floating pier to assist in docking in both high and low water seasons. It was built in 1906 and is still in use today. It’s connected to the shore by a long arm that has a roadway and walkway on it. During high water season that arm is almost level, right now it’s about a 20-degree climb at the steepest point. Riverboats of all sorts dock across the pier from the ship. (ms Prinsendam and a riverboat-right) When we arrived in the morning trucks and vans were on the pier loading goods of every type on them. Most of them are 2 or 3 decks above the water. They load cargo on the first deck and passengers on the 2 and 3 decks. They were loading produce and all types of dry goods all day long. The cargo has to be carried on one box or bag at a time because the configuration of the ships doesn’t allow for mechanized loading. People can travel for as long as 4 weeks to get to their destinations on these ships. The decks are completely open. They use molded plastic chairs like you can get for outdoor use in the US. The decks have hooks all along the ceilings. The passengers hand their hammocks from these hooks for sleeping. You have to bring your own food on board or buy it at stops on the way.

Our first venture from the ship was out to a resort on the edge of town. After a 10-mile ride we arrived at the Hilton Hotel & Resort. It’s a very nice place for sure. It has botanical garden like grounds, a small zoo, complete spa and a fantastic beach, clothing optional of course. We looked around and had lunch. These guys are great!! They make a very American style cheeseburger with one addition. They put a fried egg on top of the cheese. It was fantastic!! I wish I had taken a picture because it looked great also.

Traveler’s Hint: There’s a small advantage in traveling to areas of the world that have malaria. If your medical professionals are up to date they will not give you anti-malaria drugs, they’ll give you 100mg tablets of doxycycline. You take one a day starting 2-3 days before you get to the malaria area and from then until 4 weeks after you’re home. This has several advantages besides the obvious malaria protection. It helps you ward off any bacterial infections that may be passed around the ship and also prevents traveler’s diarrhea. I eat local food off the ship whether or not I’m taking it but taking it gives me an extra sense of security. You just have to be more careful about water, ice, produce and unpeeled fruit if you’re not on it.

After doing a little shopping in the very upscale shopping center at the resort we returned to town. We walked all over. We went to the opera house first. It is a very beautiful building. I forgot to mention before that they used tiles and other decorations from France. The Palace of Justice, their courthouse, is a colonial building directly behind the opera house. It’s in very good repair also. From there we walked to the handicraft market so Diana could see if she’s missing out on any local craft bargains. From there we went to the Mercado Adolpho Liboã (left). It’s a smaller copy of a famous French market that has since been destroyed. Looks very art deco in the manner of the Paris metro station. The ironwork was fabricated in Scotland.

From there we walked to the central plaza and saw the Nossa Senhora Conceicão Cathedral and the Custom’s House (right). The Custom’s House was built in Britain in 1902 and then disassembled, stone by stone, and moved to Manaus. Gives a whole new definition to pre-fabricated. There’s some talk of selling it to a hotel chain for use as a downtown hotel.

It was a hot, sweaty afternoon hiking around town. We headed back to the ship for a shower and some rest before dinner. We have a night tour this evening.

This evening we are boarding a riverboat to head out to Lake January. The lake is a nature reserve formed by the confluence of the Amazon and Rio Negro (Black River). When we arrived at the lake we transferred to small canoes (below-left) to search the lake for Caiman. They’re in the alligator family and some species get to be about 12 feet long. We’re searching for smaller, young caiman that feed earlier in the evening than the large ones. They do this to avoid being eaten by the larger ones. That’s right, they eat anything meat including each other.

The plan is that 10 of us will go with each guide, helmsman and caiman hunter. Our guide is in his late 20s but both the helmsman and the hunter are teenagers. The ride though the waterways of the lake was fantastic. There’s half a moon on a partly cloudy night and there’s enough light to see pretty well. The sounds are unbelievable. Insects and frogs joining in an impromptu concerto that rises and falls in seemingly orchestrated crescendos. Various groups chiming in like the sections of an orchestra. As we searched for the caiman the pilot would occasionally shut his motor off completely allowing us to hear the concert in its fullness.

When our hunter spotted a caiman he would use a flashlight to signal the helmsman to steer one way or the other, slow down or cut the motor off. When we got close to one he would lay down on the bow of the boat and reach down to snatch it up. He then gave it to the guide who would bring it back along the side of the canoe to show it to us and let us take pictures. We caught a small one first and then a large one, about 4 feet. They are about half tail. While we were on the canoe I was the only one who wanted to hold him. It was weird because they pretty much play dead when you have a grip on them. I relaxed my grip a little too much and he tried to get away. Fortunately, I was able to keep him under control.

Our guide knew we had a large one so he took it back to the transfer point, a floating restaurant, for others to see. Also, he wanted to make sure everyone would see on in case some canoes didn’t catch one. When we were in the lights of the restaurant Diana decided, at my urging, to get a grip on one (above-right). She was looking at it like it was from Mars but she did hold it.

After that we reboarded the riverboat and returned to the ship. All in all it was about a 3-hour trip and a fantastic experience. When we got back to the ship the cruise director had brought on a local folkloric show (left) so we rushed up to the Queen’s Lounge to catch part of it. I will have to admit that the dancers we’ve seen in Brazil, both this time and last time are among the most energetic we’ve every seen. I’m sure it’s due to the hot weather here, but the dancers wear the smallest costumes that modesty will allow. Some might say much less, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Dec 9 – Our second day in Manaus we have booked an 8-hour tour that goes back down the Rio Negro to the confluence with the Amazon to view the ‘Meeting of the Waters’. Then we will go back to Lake January for some sightseeing on the canoes and a walk in the rainforest. After being there last night I’m anxious to see it in the daytime.

Once again we boarded a riverboat for the trip down the Rio Negro. The view of Manaus from the boat confirmed the fact that this is a big city in the heart of the Amazon Basin. We passed the floating gas stations (above-right) that service the riverboats. They not only float, but they are out in the open water, little islands of gas pumps. We returned to the Lake January floating restaurant where we boarded the small canoes for the nature trip. The lake itself is quite overgrown with water hyacinths. It looks more like a marsh with channels running through it. The floating mass of plants will support birds and some other small animals but a human would drop right through it (left). When we were here in high water season, large rafts of the plant were washing down the Amazon. The heavy water flow breaks pieces off the larger areas like icebergs off a glacier.

Lake January and its environs have small villages of homes on land and groupings of floating homes scattered here and there. There were birds all over, from large white egrets to small dark birds that nest in the floating islands of water hyacinths.

We saw several raptor type birds, sea eagles or hawks of some sort; I couldn’t identify them. Passing through one small village three small dugout canoes came out to greet us. Each canoe had two or three children in it holding animals for us to take pictures of or hold. They had Anacondas, Boas, caiman, turtles and sloth. I took pictures of several. One little boy held his sloth out to see if I wanted to hold it. I love being up close with animals so I took it (left). They have huge claws but they are so docile and move so slowly the claws are only good for grasping. They are like little children. They get a hold on you and just look around, very calm and serene. It was a lot of fun. Reluctantly, I have it back after Diana took a picture. We gave every kid a dollar, for which they seemed very grateful. At one stop, Diana held a little girl’s Macaws (right).

We saw lots of local fishermen setting nets or line fishing. One was on his way home (right) and stopped by our canoe to show us his fish. He had several species, one of which looked like a plecostmus; you know those sucker fish you put in an aquarium to keep the glass clean. Through our guide he told us that they were all very good to eat.

A little further on we stopped at a small group of floating homes for a closer look. As we were floating by a woman came to one of the windows (below-left). The guide greeted her and she invited us to stop and chat. She looked to be almost 70 and was very friendly. Through the guide she told us that they had moved to Manaus years ago but moved back to the lake after a very short time. Too noisy and dangerous in the city, she and her husband much prefer the simple life on the lake. Just on shore they had a small garden of manioc and other vegetables.

Manioc is the main starch along with rice. One species has a natural poison in it that repels insects, perfect for growing in the rainforest. When they harvest it, they peel it and then load it in a canoe filled with water and let it soak for days to remove the poison. Then they pound it and dry it to remove the last of the poison. The dried manioc is ground and used as flour for baking or cooking. They mix rice and beans and then sprinkle the flour over it. They have a small plot of sugar cane as well. Right next to the house they had a small floating garden of cooking and medicinal herbs.

Her husband came out to talk to us as well (right). He showed us the garden and talked about fishing and life on the lake. It’s a very simple life and they seemed to love it. In the background we could hear a battery-powered radio playing softly.

From there it was back to the restaurant for lunch. This is the same place we used as the canoe transfer point last night and today. It’s entirely open air with simple tables and chairs. Lunch was buffet style (below). They had rice, beans, manioc, salads (onions, green beans, beets, eggplant and tomatoes), beef stew, yams, arapaima catfish. the largest freshwater fish in the world and a type of cod found in the Amazon. The cod was battered very lightly and fried. The catfish was poached or steamed. Both were delicious. The zebra catfish is a large fish and it was served in big chunks of meat like a salmon steak. I put manioc flour on my rice and beans. When I asked the guide how much to put on he said that it varies by person, ‘but the more you put on the more it gets like cement!’ After he told me that I was very judicious with my application. For desert they had fruit and fried plantains, large harder bananas that are wonderful fried with a little caramelized sugar.


After lunch we reboarded the riverboat to head for the area where we were going to walk in the rainforest. The main attraction to see here is the large Amazon water lily (right). The leaves are huge and certain types of small birds build their nests on them to avoid egg snakes and other predators. It’s a whole separate ecosystem floating on ponds just off the lake. On the way there we passed through the Meeting of the Waters (below). This is where the Rio Negro (a black water river in the foreground) and the Amazon (a white water river in the background) meet. The Rio Negro comes from the north and the Colombian Shelf, one of the oldest rock formations on earth. The water is very alkaline (ph 4.7), very clear and very warm, averaging 87 degrees. The Amazon comes from the west and the Andes Mountains. The water is of normal Ph, about 7, very full of sediment and cloudy, and much cooler at about 80 degrees. For about 9 miles downstream the southern half of the river is cloudy Amazon water and the northern half is clear, dark Rio Negro water. The differing Ph levels and temperatures keep the waters from mixing.

An amazing animal lives in this environment, the pink freshwater dolphin. We saw several on the trip. The adults are a bright pink while the young are grey. The sides turn pink first then the top and face. They are very active in the meeting of the waters area because they fish in the black water and the fish won’t swim into the cloudy water. They use the Amazon water as a barricade to corner and eat fish. If only the fish knew they could swim into the cloudy water and hide. Ouch!!

Editor’s Note: I know, I know!! The Brazilian Rum is very good and they make this delicious drink with rum, sugar and limejuice. Tastes like limeade but packs a real punch. I have not been overindulging; the dolphins are freshwater and very, very pink! They are so unpredictable and don't really leap from the water so I could not get a picture of one. You'll just have to use Google to look them up. Actually, I’ve done that for you and included the picture I found on the right.

After that it was back to the ship for dinner and sailing. As our riverboat pulled into the floating wharf we passed a riverboat getting set to sail upriver (left, you will have to click on the picture to see the hammocks). The second deck had so many hammocks hanging from it that you couldn’t see through the deck to the other side. The first deck had cargo and some hammocks, the third deck had those molded plastic chairs. What a way to travel!

The ship’s cast performed a show of mostly Latin music this evening. Jen Mize, the lead singer has a very beautiful and versatile voice. This cast is by a big margin the best I have ever seen on a ship.

Tomorrow we are in Parintins. From what I’ve heard this is a very unique city.

To continue our voyage click here:http://r-d-am4.blogspot.com/2006/01/dec-10-to-dec-14-cruising-down-amazon.html

(c) Rodney Longenberger - 2005 All Rights Reserved