Return to Boca da Valeria

Travel Blog -Thursday, January 9, 2014

Return to Boca da Valeria

One week ago, we visited the village of Boca da Valeria.  We were enchanted by the simple lives of the people here, especially the children.  In many ways, the settlement is reminiscent of a century ago. 

We decided on today’s visit to take a ride to the backwaters of the area aboard one of the wooden canoes operated by the villagers. Unlike a century ago, the canoes now have outboard motors, of a fashion.  The chugging outboards more closely resemble lawnmower engines connected to very shank propellers.  Even without a reverse gear, they navigate the shallow backwaters handily.

The two of us were the only passengers in the canoe and the watercraft’s owner, Paolo, spoke no English.  We traveled through narrow channels, beneath overhanging branches and viewed homes sitting high on stilts, ready for the next rainy season.  This was a rare opportunity to view how so many of the residents of Amazonia live.

Typical Boca da Valeria home

Although threatening clouds that mark the start of the rainy season appeared to be heading our direction, they held off for us.  The temperature was much more pleasant than our visit last week and we returned after an hour, ready for some cold drinks, before boarding the tenders for our return to the ship.

The children, with warm smiles on their faces, gathered around us, ready for any handout we might have had.  Unfortunately, we had disposed of many of these on last week’s visit.  We didn’t think we could get away with bringing one of the little girls home, but the thought was on the mind of nearly every one of our shipmates.

After our one hour duty at the Port Lecturers’ desk, we headed to an excellent dinner and a fantastic music/comedy show.

We turned in earlier, ready for the time zone change and another busy Friday.

New Years on the Equator

Travel Blog  
Tuesday-Wednesday, December 31, 2013 -Jan 1, 2014

New Years on the Equator

It is traditional to bring in the New Year with chanting, “Out with the old, in with the new!”  The turn of 2013  Tuesday morning brought us the outer waters of the Amazon.  Land could not been seen, but the abrupt change in the color of the water from blue to brown signaled that we were dealing with a flow of fresh water off the land, carrying tons an sediment and silt with it.  We continued up the north branch of the river all day and were pleased when we could finally see land.  The tremendous flow of this, the world’s largest river, is almost incomprehensible.

the Lower Amazon

into 2014 was a perfect example of the truth of this.

Our trusty handheld GPS gave us a good idea of our location and the speed of the ship.  At first we were wondering why the Pacific Princess’ speed had dropped off and after a bit of thought realized that we were bucking the current going upstream and our speed would be reduced, of course.

Our afternoon program, a presentation on Brazil and the ports of the Amazon was packed.  Some members of the audience were forced to stand for the lecture and we received rave reviews from the guests.  This program was televised the next day for those who were not able to catch it the first time.

Our ship anchored in the river two miles south of the Equator, which we had just crossed!  There were no announcements about this in anyplace but our show, since we had the Crossing the Line ceremony on Monday.  We just explained to the audience that King Neptune doesn’t do rivers!

Celebrating New Year's Ever with our tablemates

We both love New Years Eve and have brought in every year together, starting in 1966.  We have celebrated the New Year three times at sea, once on a riverboat in Oregon’s Willamette River and countless times on land.  This would be the first anchored on the Equator!  We had a wonderful formal dinner with our tablemates and went out to the celebration in the Cabaret Club.  We enjoyed the fireworks that the nearby town set off as the year passed from old to new.

Every year in the past, we had watched the ball drop in Times Square to signal the event.  It almost felt as   This year was different.  Due to our time zone, we were able to start the festivities two hours before the Manhattanites.  Take that!  Brazil and Greenland have got you beat! We turned in at about 12:30.
New York, you don't own New year's Eve!

 Wednesday, Jan 1 2014

Typical Delta view

Unlike most revelers, we awoke early on New Years Day.  We threw our laundry into the machines on the way to breakfast on the fantail at about 7:30.  Our breakfast was timed perfectly.  Our washing was just finishing and ready for the dryer when we returned.  Laundry on a 28 day cruise can be problematic. Timing is essential, if one is to beat the crowds.  We picked the perfect time for it!

Our final presentation for the first cruise, Voyage of the HMS Beagle, was scheduled for an early 9:45.  Attendance was better than expected and we had some nice comments.

This was the first afternoon in quite a number of days where we did not have desk duty in the afternoon, so we decided to kick back for the afternoon.  We retired to the Promenade Deck lounges for a number of hours and caught up on our reading.

We have missed a few things on board.  Internet coverage is slow and expensive, but better than any other ship we have been on.  We have had trouble following the Seahawks.  ESPN has continued to ignore their fantastic season.  We have been able to connect with Kari and Jim on Skype and are reading important email every few days.

We do not miss Pacific Northwest weather, but it wasn’t a problem in our winter home of Desert Hot Springs. 

After dinner at the buffet, and drinks with friends, we attended another excellent show by our comic, Tony.  He brought tears to ours eyes from laughing for the second time.  He is a real pro.  We turned in tired, but happy at about 11:00.

What a wonderful day to start a new year!

Tomorrow, Santarem, our first Amazon port of call.

Devils Island & Approaching the Amazon.

Travel Blog   Sunday and Monday, December 29-30, 2013

At sea in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of French Guiana

On Sunday morning, we presented our third show for the guests and we had a full house in the show lounge. We were presenting information on our “visit” to Devil’s Island our stop for the following day. Since this was one of the high points of the cruise, many of the guests were eager to learn everything about this former French penal colony located off the coast of French Guiana in South America. We were very pleased with this new show that we had produced and the guests complimented us on it. It was broadcast on the stateroom TV continuously after our live show ended.

We had been told that we would be landing on one of the islands and would spend a few hours exploring the remains of the prison located on one of the three Iles du Salut (Salvation Islands). We anticipated walking in the footsteps of Papillion, the most famous escape Baynard (prisoner). This determined man who escaped during the Second World War and subsequently wrote an excellent book on his life in this French prison system. His memoirs later became an award winning movie by the same name.

A few days after we embarked on this cruise, we were told that we would not be landing on Devil’s Island but would be spending two hours cruising around the island and the cruise director wanted us to narrate the experience for the guests. Many of the guests were equally disappointed in the decision to not land on the island. We had a short amount of time to prepare for our on the spot lecture on Monday.

We decided to forgo the late dining hour on Sunday as we knew that we would be changing out clocks and losing an hour’s sleep so we wanted to go to bed earlier and be ready for this unexpected “play by play” on deck in the morning.

Upon waking, we felt that our first week on the Pacific Princess had been a success and we were ready to offer our comments to the guests who crowded the pool deck and jogging track on decks 9-10 in anticipation of viewing Devil’s Island. We answered numerous questions and took turns relaying information on this infamous penal system that gave a ‘black eye’ to France’s modern history.

Later in the day we watched the silly ceremony marking our crossing the equator. Many members of the cruise staff, who had never done the crossing were doused with various liquids and thrown into the pool. Even the ship’s captain allowed himself to be tossed into the pool in full uniform. It was a delight for all who participated and for those of us “shellbacks” happy not be included but just watch the proceeding on the pool deck.

We are now off to the mouth of the Amazon and will not be ashore again until Thursday.

Beginning our Amazon Adventure

December 21, 2013

Desert Hot Springs, California

Today is the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.  It is the shortest day of the year.

We are trying to get all of our last-minute bill-paying and packing done in preparation for our latest adventure.  An old friend, Gary, arrives today to act as a cat sitter and house sitter.  I hope Ocho, our black Persian, doesn’t terrorize him too much.

Today is a typical winter day in the Palm Springs area.  It is a mild morning with blue, sunny skies and very little wind.  You couldn’t ask for better weather.  We fly to Florida tomorrow to embark on our cruise.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast for much of the US is not promising and we hope that we can get to Florida by Monday, when our cruise departs.  This is also one of the busiest air travel weekends in the USA.  We are especially concerned about making our connection in Minneapolis.  I guess whatever happens will happen.

We will be working as lecturers on two separate 14 day back-to-back cruises which will leave Ft. Lauderdale on Monday and end in Manaus, Brazil, 1000 miles up the Amazon.

We have three ports of call in the Caribbean, a stop at Devil’s Island, French Guiana, and four stops in the Amazon.  We will spend Christmas and New Year’s Day at sea on the southbound trip. Our ship, the Pacific Princess, will offload its passengers in Manaus and bring on a new load of passengers on our northbound voyage.

We sincerely hope that Murphy’s Law does not kick in for us on this trip.  We will try to update this blog when possible.

Smooth sailing and Happy New Year.

John and Donna

You might be able to catch us during our travels on Skype at j.mollan

Minneapolis forecast

SUNDAY	SUNDAY NIGHT	MONDAY	MONDAY NIGHT
Cloudy	Cloudy	Snow	Snow	Chance Of Snow	Mostly Clear
Hi: 19°F	Lo: 14°F	Hi: 17°F	Lo: -6°F	Hi: 4°F	Lo: -14°F
		POP: 70%	POP: 60%	POP: 20%