Manaus, Brazil - Day 2

We finally were given permission to dock at about 9:00 in the evening so by 10:00 we were docked at the floating pier.

We got up at about 6:00 as we had a jungle riverboat excursion booked; it left right on time and was very easy since we were docked and the riverboat was only a couple hundred feet down the pier. It was a very nice two level boat with wooden bench seats built in instead of the plastic chairs used on some of the others which also double as river transportation for the locals. The chairs need to be moveable so they can hang their hammocks from the rafters above - we saw many of these go by filled with people in their hammocks…. Not a bad way to do it.

This tour was pleasant, but not great. We traveled up the Rio Negro for about 30 minutes and then docked at a floating restaurant, gift shop and piers. There we boarded smaller 10 person canoe-type boats for a ride into the smaller tributaries. We saw a few birds and one dolphin (for a brief second) and some of the giant lily pads and then returned to the floating pier for a return to the ship. On the way back we went out to the Meeting of the Waters where the black waters of the Rio Negro meet the brown muddy waters of the Amazon. It is interesting in that they don’t finally completely blend together for many miles downstream.

If we hadn’t done the wonderful river trip at Boca da Valeria this probably would have seemed better, but it really goes to show to take more advantage of the possibilities offered at local stops.

Tomorrow the Boi Bumba show.

Manaus, Brazil

Interesting morning… we were approaching Manaus when we woke up about 7 this morning and we could see Royal Princess just ahead of us. I was looking forward to seeing her here (we did our World Cruise on her last year) before she is moved from Princess to P & O cruise line.

We neared the port and then both ships just sort of sat there. Soon the Captain came over the speakers and announced that there was some sort of a port dispute that included the Harbor Master, the Navy, Government officials and who knows who else and we would not be able to dock for a while. Every half hour he updated us with the announcement that there was no news yet. Finally about 12:30 Royal Princess was allowed to dock and we were told to anchor and use tenders. Although not a perfect solution it did allow those with excursions to go as they had all been rescheduled.

Jim and I were planning to go to the zoo today and not much else as we have a jungle river excursion here tomorrow morning. We decided to wait until later in the day when we were supposed to be able to dock, but it’s now almost 6:00 and we are still at anchor. The Captain just announced that he is still hopeful that we can dock sometime tonight. (this is an overnight port for us). So… it was a very uneventful day for us, but probably a good thing as I’m hurting a bit from the stop yesterday (but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything).

Boca da Valeria, Brazil

Boca da Valeria, Brazil

When we woke up this morning a little before 6 we were already at Boca. This is a stop that I’ve really been waiting for as it is a small primitive village on the bank of the Amazon. We ordered our room service breakfast and ate as we watched the ship getting ready for the tendering operation. At 7:30 I decided to head for the Showroom to get a tender ticket since I wanted to be there (hopefully) on the first tender… the showroom was empty - everyone else apparently slept in. There were about 15 of us on that first tender and we were greeted by about 100 people - mostly children. They actually let school out for the day when a ship stops. Many of the children brought their pets and others were dressed in costumes. The only thing that spoiled it was their cries of “one dollar” “picture one dollar” We ran out of $1 bills pretty quickly but I did get some good pictures and I got to hold a sloth and a toucan. The sloth was darling… I’d like to take him home - he could live on the patio with Fred. They move so slowly it’s hard to believe he was real and his face was so cute and tiny - his whole head was probably smaller than a golfball. There were several monkeys, but this one was the cutest by far… very tiny hardly bigger than a mans hand and the baby was sooo cute.

There were several new buildings made of concrete, a church, school and a recreation/gathering center. The houses were all wooden and built on stilts. Some houses were decorated with artsy-type painting. I was taking some shots of one and the lady invited us in. There was a porch surrounding the whole house and then three rooms, kitchen with a gas stove and a rusty looking chest freezer (no fridge), bedroom and living room which was probably also the childrens’ sleeping room. We thanked her and tipped her and then walked back to the area where the tender docked to take a canoe ride up the river.

As soon as we had gotten off the tender we were adopted by about a dozen children and one young man… they stayed with us the whole time… the little girls taking turns holding hands with me. The young man had one of the boats and since we had said we would go with him I guess he didn’t want to loose us.

We got in the canoe and he headed up the river using a paddle at first and then a very small Honda motor mounted at the side of the canoe. We passed more houses - some with a cow or goats and a number with dogs. We also saw some different types of birds and then he turned the boat through the reeds and we were in a pond-type area that was full of the giant lily pads. Spectacular! He kind of paddled and poled us around there until we had our fill of pictures and then we headed back. I was about melted into a puddle of goo by this time, but that canoe ride was the best thing we’ve done since the Antarctic - it was actually worth the heat. But, good heavens the air conditioning felt good back on the ship.

We cooled off and then headed to lunch… then a bit more reading then Trivia and now we are sitting on the aft deck behind the Lido (at one of the three smoking tables) and I’m writing and running side to side taking pictures. We are just now going through a rain shower but it will clear in a few minutes. It’s hot and muggy but there is just enough breeze to keep it tolerable.

Tomorrow Manaus.

Santarem, Brazil

We arrived in Santarem later than planned as the current in the Amazon was causing us to run late. It didn’t matter to us as we didn’t have a tour booked.

This city was more to my liking; only about 250,000 population and no highrises. We rode the shuttle into the center of town where there were many stores selling regular day to day stuff. That is much more fun than looking at more masks, bags, and now dead Piranha fish in tourist stalls. There was a lovely church just off the main square, but I couldn’t get any pictures inside. We just wandered along a few of the streets and looked through the windows… nothing really for photographs but an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours. Then we came back to the ship in time to shower and change for dinner.

The morning was spent going back and forth from the cabin to the deck for photo ops. The river is at its widest here - about 9 miles so much of the time we weren’t near a bank, but when we were it was interesting to see both the rainforest and the houses built in random places along the banks and looking at the riverboats - some quite large with three decks and some very small.

This last photo is of the Lido staff. Alex, the supervisor (in the uniform in back), has become a good friend and has taken wonderful care of us since we eat dinner there everyday. There seem to be about 6 couples that have chosen to eat in the Lido as we see them every night. In this picture they are dressed for “Carnival Night”.

Busy Sea Day and Belem, Brazil


Yesterday just happened to be one of those sea days where there were many things I wanted to do. I started at 9:00 for the final session of our book club - we read ‘Letters from Paraguay’ this time. The book was interesting in that it took place in the general area we are visiting albeit in the late 1800’s.

After book club, I returned to the cabin for a quick drink of coffee before heading to a lecture on the upcoming port of Belem, then Trivia… then lunch and then a presentation by the Captain on the history of cruising. He says that not only is his profession cruise ships, but it is also his hobby. I did find bits of time to lie down flat to give my back a rest, but by the time we finished dinner I was ready to hit the bed and read. So far I haven’t had any problem finding books to read in Prinsendam’s library - it’s fairly large.



Belem, Brazil

We woke up this morning and looked out the window to find the brown water of the Amazon. Yup… no more blue sea - it’s truly brown. We were going very slowly as it is very shallow - so shallow that we need to anchor about 20 miles downstream from Belem and the transfers are being done via local ferries and then a long (45 minute) bus ride that has no air conditioning. I decided that I’m too much of a wuss for that kind of heat and the fact that both the buses and the ferries are running kind of a random schedule so there could be a very long wait for a return. It’s currently just after lunch and Jim still says he might just ride the ferry across to the dock and then return… I’ll let you know. I’m enjoying just watching the activity on the water; there are many little boats ranging from local ferries to small rowboats. The close-by village of Icaraza looks like it would be interesting to explore; very green (duh!) with many businesses and houses. I just watched a huge cloud build and then sweep across the river dropping rain and within 10 minutes clear out again. You can see Belem in the distance and it is another very modern city with many skyscraper (or at least very tall) buildings.

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Well, I got interrupted as I was writing above. It’s now late afternoon and people are returning. Those that just rode the ferry over to the little town said it was wonderful, many little local bars/cafes right on the edge of the water and a great local market. The few that have returned already from the long trip into Belem aren’t quite as thrilled with their day. It looks like I missed a really great port - I seem to do that on every long cruise. Oh well, we have a few more to go, but time is getting short.

Fortaleza, Brazil

Another city of about 2 million people. We took the shuttle into the city early as it dropped us at the Central Market and a block away is one of the largest Cathedrals in Brazil.

The Central Market was a disappointment in that it really seemed to be a huge tourist market rather than a market where the locals would shop. The cathedral was huge and beautiful and had many many stained glass windows, but either was fairly new or had been totally refurbished and had none of the old architectural interest that I love. We debated on walking a few blocks, but all we could see were more shops so we came back to the ship. It was 95 degrees and bright sunshine… as the Cruise Director said later… a heat index of 350 degrees. Ok, I’m a wuss, but the heat just knocks me these days, I was so poopled when we got back to the ship I didn’t want to move off the bed (I had a nice cold washcloth over my head!).

Jim said I should post this picture of me with two of the dancers that welcomed our ship into Recife a couple days ago.

Recife, Brazil and Random Thoughts

Recife is another big city - a couple million people live here. We were docked a distance from the town so there was a shuttle that took us into town. We left the ship just before 8:30 - again trying to beat the heat and it was good that we did as it got hot really fast. We wandered several streets on one side of the river and looked at the market stalls and then crossed one of the bridges and did the same on the other side. There were a 5 or 6 churches in a very close area and I had to check each of them… I still love seeing the ornate interiors. One, St. Anthony’s, was covered in gold plate and they didn’t object to photos as long as you didn’t use flash. The highlight of the day… I finally found a shop that had hair barrettes so I can get my hair up of my neck! It was a quiet rest of the day and we placed last in trivia by 2 points. We are certainly maintaining well… and we are having fun where we hear some of the other teams fighting.

 

I don’t have any really interesting pictures here, so I’ll skip uploading any.

 

 

 

Random Thoughts

 

I love the small ships - ok, you are probably getting tired of hearing that, but they are so much more ’ship-like’ that the floating hotels. They aren’t geared toward families so kids would probably be very bored, but for adult travelers they are perfect.

 

• Prinsendam was built in the 1980’s (the exact year escapes me right now) and she is needing constant maintenance on the large systems. They have been constantly working on the sewage system and water systems and occasionally the air conditioning system. So far the outages have been not too bad and the Captain has rewarded the passengers with wine or drinks for our patience. The AC in our cabin is on its last legs… the little flap that moves to change the airflow (how you control the temp) is almost rusted out so Jim has had to move it by hand, but once we figured that out it really hasn’t been a problem for us but it needs replacing.
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• The Captain was asked recently if he felt Holland America would keep Prinsendam and he replied that since she almost always sails completely full and people love her it looks good for her to remain in the fleet.
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• While some of the lecturers have been very good, some have been pretty poor. With all the ships today looking for speakers this would be a perfect time for anyone with the urge and the talent to join the speakers agency. You would need to be a good speaker and very knowledgeable about your topic as cruiseship passengers aren’t too forgiving and will walk out on bad lectures.
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• There have been no complaints about the food - both the Lido and the dining room have been getting great reports. I’m particularly impressed that they can serve lobsters that are fairly large and cooked well. I had given up on ordering lobster on ships several years ago as they were never good. The beef is all cooked very rare and if I want it more well done they just toss it on the grill for a minute and it comes out perfect.
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• In listening to the passengers it seems that the Asia/Australia Grand Voyage is the choice for most for their next cruise -- or the World Cruise. It really does seem that once you have taken a long voyage that is all you are interested in doing.

 

That’s it for now - more later.