December 31 - Bridgetown, Barbados

Weather

– 28º, sunny with some clouds,
hardly humid at all…perfect

Steps – 10,443

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM BARBADOS!!

This morning was one of the loveliest mornings to sail into port. Our side of the boat was in shade, and the temperature was just about perfect. That is until we actually docked. We had to turn so that our side of the boat

coconut sellers

was in full sun while we docked. Once we paralleled parked between 2 other cruise ships, I was back into shade. It’s fascinating how these huge cruise ships can parallel park between other huge ships. 

St John's Cemetery

I stayed out on the balcony until I realized that I wasn’t alone. I heard her, before I could see her. Once I laid eyes on her I nearly killed her (by accident of course), she was camouflaged into the balcony’s wood floor. My sail-in companion was a cricket, and she was big…I’d say about 2 inches. Between Chris and I, I am the insect wrangler (he deals with vermin) …I don’t mind them until they are this big. I watched her until I was confident, I could get back in the balcony alone. Once I saw safely on the other side of the glass door, I watched and watched. We hoped she would be gone by the time we got back from the tour, nope…Chris scooped her up and flicked her off our balcony, and he doesn’t like bugs!

Bathsheba beach

The water in Barbados is very, very blue. Ocean water is typically blue (unless you are in the Amazon), but this water…WOW!

Bathsheba beach

This is our first time in Barbados, so I added one to the countries visited list today – we’re up to 76!

Tours have been departing at very reasonable times this cruise. My recollection is that in the past, we’ve had to be up early every morning. Today’s tour met at 10:30, which meant time for the gym and a bit of a linger on the balcony. We were

St John's Church

tempted by caviar Sunday, but we passed – maybe we’re spoiled?? One benefit of early tours is that they usually get you back for lunch. There’s ALWAYS food available any time…always room service, and the ‘pool grill’ until 4PM. We always like to find food in town, but due to where the ship is docked this usually isn’t possible.

Barbados is the most easterly Caribbean island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies. We are docked atBridgetown (pop.110,000) the capital and largest city. Despite being in the Caribbean, Barbados rarely sees hurricanes.

Our tour today was mostly panoramic – driving around the island stopping here

Bathsheba beach

and there. These kinds of tours aren’t usually our scene, but today’s was good.

First stop was at a botanical garden, but we didn’t actually visit the garden. We had a rum punch, used the facilities, and watched monkeys for about half an hour. I was a bit puzzled by this being our first stop, seemed better suited to being at least second, but it was fine. The monkeys kept their distance…I didn’t feed any, nor did any hop on my back.

Second stop was at St. John’s Parish Church, a Gothic-style building from 1836 perched above the ocean. This was a short, but cool stop to check out the

sail-in friend

church and cemetery.

poinsettia

Our last stop is the beach at Bathsheba - a fishing village on the eastern shore. There are super cool rock formations in the water and quite large waves surfers were trying out.

Between these 3 stops we saw much of the island. Barbados is HILLY – not as hilly as some other islands we’ve visited, but we were up and down A LOT. The roads are pretty basic, so no usual coach busses…these were again the smaller Caribbean buses – today not packed, so we had room to spread out. Susan our guide narrated the entire trip with interesting information, including much about plants and trees we passed. One interesting tree was the poinsettia tree – pretty big, definitely not like the

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

small things we get at home at Christmas.

Frangipani tree

We also saw where Rhianna grew up and now lives…different places for sure.

A port beer was not to be for us…once again the port area was pretty industrial, so getting out was possible, but not at all convenient. Plus…it was a Sunday and New Year’s Eve so little was going on.

The evening was pretty fun. Pre-dinner entertainment, dinner, post dinner show, pre-countdown party, countdown party. 

December 30 - AT SEA

fav spot on the boat

heading to Bridgetown

Weather – 25º, getting cooler as we travel north, sunny with
some clouds despite a forecast of rain

Steps – 3,677

Thanks to everyone who is reading. Writing this blog started out as a way for my mom to know I was still alive and for me to keep an electronic travel journal. I had always written an old school travel journal with actual pen and paper but had just learned about blogging (in 2005) so I thought I’d try. Over almost 20 years, and 600 entries later I have a few more readers than just my mom. I love knowing you are reading and hearing from you – through comments, texts, emails, chats when I get home etc.

Atlantic sunset

I spent most of the day reading Elton John’s book ‘Me’. I’m not sure I’ll get through it before I get home, but I’m enjoying it. The last few books I’ve read on vacation have been a bit depressing, memoirs often are and that’s what I tend to read. I picked this one out of the ship’s library and it’s not very depressing at all – it’s quite educational…about 70s and 80s drug use.

Atlantic sunset

Lunch was at our favourite spot on the boat, and the weather was perfect.

Atlantic sunset

That’s all I really have to say about today.

December 29 - AT SEA

Weather – 30º, sunny with some clouds

Steps – 4,815

Bright blue ocean greeted this morning as we opened the curtains – we are back in the Atlantic. We saw the mergings of the waters yesterday as we left the Amazon, but this morning is was obvious. 

We don’t often go for breakfast. I usually have an in-room yogurt with fruit and a couple of cappuccinos, but this morning’s restaurant theme was frittatas and sangria, PLUS we gained an hour of sleep, so we went…it was tasty.

We spent the rest of the morning on our balcony. We checked out the pool on the off chance there was room – nope. Chairs were actually occupied with people rather than books and magazines. I’m totally fine with no available chairs if people are actually occupying them. It’s when people drop books, hats and magazines and then disappear for hours that annoys me. I was happy (in fact I’m happier) to be on

balcony visitor

our own balcony.

Dinner tonight was at Prime 7, the steak restaurant. We typically prefer the main dining room, but during this cruise the main dining room has been BUSY. This means it takes us a long time to get out preferred table for 2 by the window. We thought if we had a reservation in the Steak place, we could plan our night a bit more. We hardly have anything to do or place to be, but eventually we just want to eat.

The show tonight was a guest performer who we saw earlier in the cruise. Her talent was good, but I didn’t care for her material. It was soooooo old. We all have our own musical tastes – I appreciate ALL music even if it’s not to my particular taste, but…I would like some, not all, but some to be from MY LIFETIME. I’m not a teenager – I’m 53 years old! How about some music from the last HALF CENTURY!?! Last time she opened with Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’, do you know when that was recorded? 1964!!! Things didn’t improve. Eventually she limped into the 70’s with some ABBA, so I guess music during my lifetime was represented, but for crying out loud!?! I left that show more than a little annoyed! I usually blow the old music situation off as it’s to be expected, but tonight I was annoyed (there seems to be a theme to this blog entry.)

I follow a British guy on social media who talks about how old fashioned the music cruises in general play, but he particularly noticed this when he was on

North Atlantic sunset

Regent recently. He notes that he is in his 60’s and finds the music old fashioned! When we first started cruising, we were in our 30s and chalked this old music situation up to us being much younger than the average people we cruised with… fine…majority rules. But now it is 20 years later, and NOTHING has changed. It’s not that big of a deal, I suppose, and I’ve only heard “Lady in Red” ONCE this cruise so I should be grateful, but sheese!

Unfortunately, tonight’s show was no better. TV and Movies was the show’s theme and the only ones mentioned in the last 50 years were “Donnie and Marie”, “Sonny and Cher”, and “The Carol Burnette Show”. The only song actually sung from my lifetime came from “Captain & Tennille”. Too bad, we usually really look forward to and like the shows.

One thing I was NOT annoyed with today was Suraj finding my ‘delicates’. The last time we put out laundry I seem to have written the wrong cabin number on the laundry form…UGH!!! Now my unmentionables had to be mentioned. Suraj came through and found them. Big pieces of clothing…pants, shirts etc. get an ironed-on tag with the cabin number, but small items don’t. Anyway…all is good now.

December 28 - AT SEA

equator crossing ceremony

Weather – 27º, partly cloudy, a sprinkling or rain

Steps – 6,871

Sometime in the morning we crossed back into the Northern Hemisphere.  The equator crossing ceremony went ahead this morning, after having missed it on the way down due to weather. It’s a charming, silly ceremony that we are happy to watch.

We are back to our usual sea day sched. After some time at the gym, we found a spot at the pool to watch the ceremony. As usual, most of the chairs have been

Brazilian beer

‘claimed’ but few people are actually in them – annoying, but in the end, we found spots.

Morning reading, blogging, equator crossing ceremony watching, followed by cool by the pool, lunch and we were back at the room for the afternoon. I see more of this to be in my near future.

We finally have some local beer on board. We don't drink a lot of beer on board, unless it's local. This is the first time we've had anything local. It was fine, but I think local beer tastes better locally.

December 27 - Alter Do Chao, Brazil (Amazon River)

crossing to get to the beach

Weather – 30º, humid…very humid

Brazilians know how to serve beer!

Steps – 5,763

Alter Do Chao is the Caribbean of Brazil. It is on a spit of land with sand on either side. This makes it a beach destination for Brazilians – and today us. This place is relatively undeveloped which means no organized tours, we knew this. We planned to wander a bit, get a beer, maybe a caipirinha and that’s about it…we met our goals.

beer drinking friend

The port area was also undeveloped – no where to actually sit for a drink. These ports we’ve visited don’t get many cruise ships, so it’s totally understandable. We soon found the beach. It was kind of like multiple beaches separated by strips of water. To get to the beach we had to wade through knee high water – if people hadn’t done it ahead of us, I don’t think we would have known that was what you were supposed to do.

Before we arrived, we wondered how the beach bars and restaurants would

artful caipirinha

cope with the rising and falling river level. The bars and restaurants stayed where they always are, and the tables moved with the water level. There was a

one last caipirinha

long line of plastic tables and chairs actually in the water and waiters would run food and drinks to the tables in the waters. This place was BUSY.

We decided to have a beer at a table at the bar area as there really weren’t any avail tables in the water. This was totally fine we had a nice chat with the bar manager.

stink bug

We got one last caipirinha - this is a Brazilian art form. This

pineapple and prosciutto

guy making them was meticulous – very specific about how he cut and muddled the lime, how much sugar and how much cachaça. We enjoyed these just standing on the pier before getting back to the tender.

That was it for Brazil. We are on to 3 sea days starting tomorrow and then back to the Caribbean.

BTW...I've become obsessed by my phone's ability to identify what's in my pics. We found a Brown Mamorated Stink Bug on our balcony.

I had an interesting dish tonight...super thinly sliced pineapple topped with prosciutto...would have again. 

December 26 - Parintins, Brazil (Amazon River)

welcoming us to Parintins

Weather –32º, humid, late afternoon

just checking out the world

thunderstorm

Steps – 5,753

Parintins is a small village in the Amazon. The main attraction today is the “Boi Bumba” folklore show. They have a Bio Bumba festival every June and this show gives us a flavour of it - the townspeople reenact the festival for visitors throughout the year. It’s not Carnivale, but it seems to me (the inexperienced) that it would be similar.

black vulture

The only excursion today is to see the Boi Bumba show. We took the tender about 90 min before the show was to

Boi Bumba show

start figuring we’d beat the rush and maybe find a beer – success on both fronts.

It was a hot one today and by the time we were off the 10-minute tender ride we were damp to say the least. We found the theatre and then found a beer.

Boi Bumba show

Brazilian beer culture should be adopted worldwide, or at least by the hot countries of the world. In Brazil, they sell beer by the 600mL bottle that are served in foam sleaves – like a beer cooler. You get as many accompanying small glasses for the number of people want to share with. These sleaves keep things cool, sharing does that too. These 600mL beers were 3USD. They were actually just over 2USD, so after the show when we got 2 it was more economical.

Boi Bumba show

The Boi Bumba show was great. Everything you’d imaging from a Brazilian parade show – loud, bombastic, with colourful costumes. The festival centres on a local legend
about a resurrected ox. I’m not really sure I got it. It is also a competition where two teams, compete in extended retellings of the story, each team attempting to outdo the other with flamboyant dances, singing, and parade floats. All of the music was performed live.

During the show there were free-flowing caipirinhas. We had 1 or 2, or
maybe 3?? This place wasn’t exactly air-conditioned, but it kinda was, and

Boi Bumba show

we situated ourselves right in front of 2 huge fans…comfortable. We also found a spot on the back at the side, so we could stand when ever we wanted, to

Boi Bumba show

take photos, see better, and dance up a storm!

To avoid the mad dash to the tenders back to the boat, we figured a couple more beers wouldn’t hurt us. We went back to the spot from before the show, found a place overlooking the water and hung out for a bit. We even got a bit of extra beer from a British 4-some who each got one 600mL and that was a bit too much for them – we try to be helpful. We sat, drank

Boi Bumba show

beer, enjoyed the water view, watched vultures perch on telephone poles, other birds fly in giant flocks, and boats come and go. We could see the tender situation, so when we thought the crowd had dissipated and our beer was done, we headed back. Just as we got back the wind became fierce and there was a huge thunderstorm – I’m glad we got back when we did.

I check out washroom facilities the world over. I’m not a princess when it come to taking care of business – when you gotta go, you gotta go. I’ve used a hole

Lisa Bumba

Chris Bumba

behind a wall in the Egypt desert after dismounting a camel, I’ve squatted in Asia, I’ve used high tech loos in Japas…the ones that wash you, dry you, fragrance you and play music to mask any untoward sounds you might make. I’m always fascinated by international facilities. Often paper has to be put in a trash can rather than down the toilet to preserve fragile plumbing…the Eco Lodge required this - this is nothing new for me, but for Chris this was new. It’s OK for

these boats are all over the Amazon

#1, but for the other…it’s a bit to get used to.

Anyway…the facilities at the beer place

2 toilets...one room

was a room with a shower, a sink and 2…yes, 2 toilets with no separation. I can’t imagine a circumstance where 2 toilets in the same

giant storm on the horizon

space would ever be necessary, but what do I know?

December 25 - Manaus, Brazil (Amazon River)

best rain shot of us I could muster

Angelo

DAY 2 at the Eco Lodge

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Weather – 25º during the torrential downpour, 30º when it stopped

Steps – 13,270

It didn’t take much to wake up this Christmas morning. It wasn’t yet light, but we heard what sounded like rain, or was it just wind. I peeked out and didn’t see rain. I hopped that’s all it would amount to…nope…soon it became TORENTIAL!

jungle fungus

UGH! We came semi-prepared for rain. Shoe

ant colony

condoms (that Chris abstained from and in the end couldn’t compete with the Amazonian downpour), umbrellas (not useful in the thick jungle), and emergency ponchos (these were surprisingly effective.) The only thing I think I’d do differently (not that I’m likely to do that again, but I highly recommend it) is to bring water-proof hiking shoes. However…other than rubber boots, I’m not sure how effective anything would be. Other people in the group were totally kitted out with gear – (no rubber boots though) and got just as w

huge tree, half the trunk

et as we did, some were wetter.

It was quite lovely to sit outside our little eco cabin under the covered porch first thing in the morning and watch the storm, it was warm, maybe 25º …I didn’t last long…BUGS! BTW, the vast majority of the bugs we encounter are the ones that feasted on me last night. I had expected more like the occasional scorpion or such, but nope.

We trekked during the main part of the storm of course. We had no choice - it was now of never. We had to head back to the ship this afternoon. About an hour into our 2-hour trek the rain let up. Unfortunately, the animals don’t like the rain and

random Manaus building

mostly hid. Angelo pointed out another tiny frog camouflaged on a leaf – I asked him how he even saw it, he said he saw it jump, so the movement caught his eye. We also

blue dot = Eco Lodge

saw a cricket…that was it. As the rain lessened, we started to hear animals – birds, monkeys, but none were to be seen.

The jungle was exactly as I expected…thick, dense, vines. We were kind of walking on a path, but sometimes I wasn’t sure if we were on a path at all. Thankfully we had Angelo…had we been on our own we would have been very lost.

cutting grass of prop

This trek was definitely not for the mobility challenged – we were climbing over fallen trees, under vines, dogging spiky trees (one in the group got 2 spikes in her finger, she only got 1 out and is planning to keep the other one) all the while watching for snakes – Angelo warned us that snakes come out of their flooded holes in the rain. 9 of the 2 of us

one more FROG

decided to go on the hike. Numerous times, Angelo brought out his machete and blazed a trail for us…exactly like in the movies! The rain kept me from taking too many photos.

We so glad Angelo suggested we do the monkey visit yesterday. I’m not sure if we would have even done it

group photo

today. If we had, it wouldn’t have been nearly as fantastic as it was yesterday.

One thing about the rain, was that it kept the heat at bay. In fact, it was the perfect temp…to be wet.

Back at the lodge, we dried off, packed, had one last beer, showered, ate lunch and were

Boogie and Kasia

back to the ship.

Once back at the boat we immediately sent out our wet, dirty laundry, Facetimed my parents, sent some Merry Christmas texts and were off to Christmas dinner. Chris had turkey…I had fish.

It was an amazing way to spend Christmas…one I’ll never forget.

In the evening (as usual) we had a pre-dinner drink while being serenaded by Boogie and Kasia.