Wednesday 27^th March – Alter do Chao, Brazil.

Both tenders were working today! (Although as we were not sure how well tender 2 could reverse, we made sure we were in tender 1).

Alter do Chao is a lovely upmarket beach resort but because it is the rainy season most of the white sand depicted on the postcards is under water! Nesta did find a small beach, however, and went for a paddle…

Later on in the evening, we managed both sessions of the Captain’s welcome party again!!

                               This used to be a beach!!!

                                See - the ship's lifeboat can be a tender!

Thursday 28^th March – supposed to be Macapa, Brazil.

Well – this was supposed to be a full day stop, the highlight of which was a trip to the equator where we can stand with one foot in each hemisphere but: the harbour master refused us permission to dock and also refused the request to use the tenders… so… we didn’t actually go there!

Eventually the ship managed to arrange for us to dock for an extra day in Trinidad so we set sail for Devil’s Island (again) earlier than planned.

Lots of rumours around the ship as to why permission was refused – the most likely being either that there was a fatal accident on the quayside earlier in the week and no ships were allowed in or the authorities realised that the six containers of food and supplies waiting for us were from Germany and contained nothing from Brazil so they refused us permission as a penalty.

Either way our food etc. cannot now reach us, apparently, until we get to Aruba!

We have noticed a decline in the quality and variety of meals on board. We dined in the Explorer tonight and had the Oriental menu which was ok but the service was not as good as on previous occasions.

We have spoken to Vladimir and Raffi about our concerns and they have said they will escalate them.

Later that evening, there was a Latino Party on the outside deck which was really good. Weather warm with a fresh breeze and we danced the night away!

 

Friday 29^th March – Day at Sea.

Nesta slept until 2-15am which was when we left the Amazon and turned north. There was a force 6 wind with a 5 metre swell from the side of the ship. Consequently on this ship (which, as you will remember “would roll on a damp lawn”) the movement was such that she spent the rest of the night in the library playing on her DS as she couldn’t sleep.

As we are now out of the Amazon, the lecture programme recommenced but there was nothing of interest for us. We have decided to make the Bridge Room on 8 our new lounge, so we spend time in their now when there is no bridge being played!

Unfortunately the evening meal in the Veranda was not great. It was almost cold as there is a problem with the hot-plates and there was little choice… oh well, only another eight days until we restock!

 

Saturday 30^th March – Devil’s Island, French Guiana.

These are a little group of three islands (Iles du Salut) of which Devil’s Island is the smallest. Difficult to land there (I suppose that was the point!) so the one we tendered to is called Ile Royale. There were prisons on all three islands so we visited the remains on the biggest island.

There was a big swell and it was windy so there was a bit of a delay getting passengers ashore - because the captain had to manoeuvre the ship as best he could.

Eventually we got on the second tender of the day but got held up for thirty minutes whilst two catamarans (the local ferries to the mainland) unloaded and picked up passengers…You can imagine how happy Nesta was bobbing around in a small boat for ages!

The island was interesting, once we got there, and we saw what were the cells, governor’s office, church and slaughterhouse… it was here that guard used to slaughter animals and pour their blood into the sea in order to attract sharks to discourage prisoners from attempting to escape by swimming!!

Despite the really strong currents, there were holiday makers (there is a small hotel on the island) swimming within sight of the “no swimming” notices – but not us, though!

We did, however, spot one of our passengers (Lenny) sunbathing naked… oh dear…

Had a drink in the hotel and returned to the ship for a shower and lunch.

Watched the port lecture on Port of Spain and then sat on deck 7 talking to Rich and Lin until it was time to get ready for our evening meal. The “twisted team trivia” starts again tonight so the usual team of Wes, Austin, Sue, Wally, Nesta and Ian (all “lifers”) will once again take on the brains of the rest of the passengers! We’ll let you know how we get on!

 

                        Devil's Island - we like the sign... surely that was the point!


                         Below are the old cell blocks

 

Monday 25^th March – Manaus, Brazil.

Even though we were back down on deck 3, we both slept well - although Nesta did wake early.

Did the ship’s tour “Highlights of Manaus”. Drove to the outskirts to visit the Amazonian Research Institute - which was a Botanical garden with a few animals. The guide was very enthusiastic and spent a long time explaining the lineage of various trees and gave us details of every exhibit in the museum!

On the way back into town, we saw how the poor housing is being replaced in time for the World Cup. Wooden houses on stilts have been destroyed and replaced with parkland, and the people rehoused a few hundred yards away in brick built three storey flats.

We then visited the Opera house which was very impressive, although the musicians on stage in rehearsal were practising a very discordant piece of music… Perhaps they were after all playing all the right notes, but not necessarily…!

The final part of the trip was a visit to the fish market which again was impressive.

We dined in the Veranda as Vladimir had (jokingly) told us off for eating downstairs last night! He says that he can arrange for us to have steak and chips in his restaurant in future because we are “nice people”!

During the evening, we noticed that the ship was doing over 20 knots rather than its usual 15 or 16. Presumably this was because of the strong current that exists in the Amazon.

                                  Poor housing being replaced in time for the World Cup

                                What it's being replaced by

                                The Opera House in Manaus

                                 Inside the Opera House

                                 Fish in the market - before

                                              and after!

 

Tuesday 26^th March – Parintins, Brazil.

A large town on the banks of the Amazon – and like every other town around here there is no road access to the interior. The locals use the river as their roads and there are houseboats and canoes everywhere.

The ship anchored and we used riverboats to tender as the current was too strong for the ship’s tenders.

We decided we would just walk round and explore the place. It was very hot and humid. Took the tender back to the ship at around lunchtime, which proved to be a wise decision as a sudden squall blew up, resulting in the ship dragging it’s anchor. Tendering had to be suspended while the ship repositioned itself and lowered its anchor again.

The people ashore had to wait in the rain to come back and the trip to see a version of the world-famous (?) festival show “Boi-Bumba” had to be delayed. Still, as the show was being put on especially for the ship, everyone got there.

                                The boat we used as a tender

                                      Statues of native indians

 The festival in Parintins is the only place in the world, Coca-cola allow blue rather than red

                                  The captain, hiding in the tender!

Wednesday 20^th March – Day at Sea.

Arrived at Macapa Pilot Station at just after 7am but were delayed by Brazilian immigration until 2pm – what a surprise!

Spent a lovely afternoon sitting on our balcony looking at the bank of the Amazon through our binoculars. Apparently the authorities have banned any live lectures during our time here – why? – We have lent our laptop to Sandy so that she can show one of Bernard Magee’s lectures to the bridge players instead of her doing her planned seminar.

Received a letter from Alex (cruise director) asking us to see her… She gave us two bottles of Malbec even though Dindo is still insisting we had drunk all ten bottles. With these two and the bottle the captain gave Nesta for her birthday, we are happy now!

Also had a letter reminding us that we are moving back to 3110 on 24^th…

The Amazon has not been as hot/humid or buggy yet as we had feared.

Thursday 21^st March – Santarem, Brazil.

Sailed through the wedding of the waters, on our way to Santarem. We went ashore at about 3pm when the weather had cooled a little (well, there was a bit of a breeze anyway!)

We walked past houseboats with families living in them and riverboats loading and unloading their wares – really interesting.

We stopped at the fish market and some of the locals were tying unwanted fish onto ropes and throwing them in the water to encourage the pink river dolphins to come and feed. We saw a pair of them – and they really are pink! Not sure if our photos will do them justice though…

On the way back we were given “gifts” of Amethyst crystals to encourage us to visit the Amsterdam Sauer jewellery factory in Manaus… We might just do it!

In the evening we entered the pub quiz – but, true to form, we didn’t win it!

                               Excellent choice! Dannillo shows us how to make cocktails

                      The wedding of the waters - the Amazon and Rio Negro

                       Farming, Amazonian style!

                             A pink turtle (honest, it is!!)

                                       Santarem

                                   The Brazilian three men in a boat

                              A village on the banks of the Amazon

Friday 22^nd March – Boca de Valeria, Brazil.

 This was billed as visiting an authentic Indian village on the banks of the Amazon. Our experience was that it was a bit of a tourist trap. Don’t actually know who was exploiting whom the most. Kids from surrounding villages were “boated in” to show people around and have their photos taken at $1 a go. The trip was quite interesting and at least it wasn’t raining because we would have all got very muddy!

The announcements on the ship were almost persuading passengers not to go ashore – but this could have been because there is still only one tender that works!

                             A sloth - the animal, not the woman!

                                My job is to look after the parrots!

                              No wonder they build houses on stilts here

                                 The church in Boca de Valeria

Saturday 23^rd March – Manaus, Brazil.

We arrived at 9am to an unusual sight…very few tower blocks!

The ship has parked next to lots of riverboats and within walking distance of the main street.

We had no booked trips today – which was just as well as there was a huge thunderstorm with torrential rain around lunchtime. We did venture as far as the port terminal and availed ourselves of the free Wi-Fi. We did manage to Skype the girls, but David was away for the weekend and no matter how much we tried, we couldn’t get it to work well enough to speak to Martin. (Had to communicate the old-fashioned way – by text!)

We invited our new Antipodean friends, Andrew and Alison, for drinks and to play cards on what was our last night in a balcony cabin.

Nesta and Alison retired to bed at about 11pm whilst Ian and Andrew sat up drinking whiskey and putting the world to rights until 1-30am.   

 

 

 The Amazonian version of a container ship - a boat pushing a barge full of new cars up the river

Sunday 24^th March – Manaus, Brazil.

It was still raining this morning, but not as hard. Packed up all our stuff and moved back down to cabin 3110 again. Joel had cleaned it and moved the furniture round just as we like it and it was almost like “coming home” as we put up our postcards to decorate it again!

We will, though, miss the extra space from the cabin upstairs and the fridge to keep the drinks cold!

As we found out in Santarem, there is an Amsterdam Sauer jewellery factory in Manaus - so we took the free shuttle from the port 20 minutes up the coast to the Hotel Tropical in Ponto Negro where they have a shop. As none of the various items of jewellery had a price tag on, we didn’t buy any but the hotel has a zoo… We spent a pleasant afternoon looking at a Jaguar, some monkeys, parrots and of course the capybara (we all know what they look like, don’t we)

There was also a path down to a beautiful white sandy beach (Manaus is situated on the River Negro, just before it joins the Amazon) but it wasn’t swimming weather unfortunately.

We made it safely back to the ship in time for afternoon tea and have decided to eat in the Discovery restaurant this evening for two reasons… Firstly we didn’t fancy the menu much so we can have steak and chips in the restaurant and secondly we may meet some “like-minded passengers” at their first meal aboard.

It’s hard to credit that we are now at the end of the seventh leg of our journey but we are still looking forward to number eight which starts tomorrow!

                                   There's a nice Jaguar!!

                                     The real thing

 

 

 

Friday 15^th March – Fortaleza, Brazil.

Happy Birthday Nesta!

We arrived off Fortaleza and guess what? The waterfront was a forest of tower blocks (again).

Unfortunately there is no breakwater here and the swell in the harbour was too big for us to dock. (We wondered why there were five other ships at anchor!). Anyway the Captain made the decision to sail on to Devil’s Island but first we were going to wait for a delivery of fresh fruit. This wasn’t as straightforward as it seems as the same swell stopped the delivery boats from leaving the dock. Six hours later we were finally on our way!

On the bright side, there was no excuse for being late to Nesta’s birthday party!

We started at 17:45 with the Mr Bridge welcome party (and the obligatory free drinks) then on to the lookout lounge for canopies and champagne (again kindly paid for by Martin). Then we went to the rear deck of the Veranda Restaurant for a meal. Claire joined us to make up the eighth person as Mary was too busy again!

Nino gave us a bottle of the ship’s red wine. (Still no sign of our Malbec) The Captain wished Nesta a happy birthday and actually gave us a bottle of Malbec, which we didn’t get round to drinking…

Can you spot a theme here?

For her birthday, Nesta got a litre bottle of gin from Rich and Lin and a bottle of Pisco Sour from Glynis and Kevin… What are they all implying??

In all, though, it was a lovely and memorable day.

 

                               As near as we got to Fortaleza!

                                 Nesta with some of her presents

                            Wow! a birthday cake

                                      The party!!

Saturday 16^th March – Day at Sea.

Had a lazy day today – Ian playing Football Manager on the laptop and Nesta playing Plants and Zombies on her DS…

Well you have to make the most of having a nice cabin to relax in!!

We did go to the Bridge seminar and Ian may actually decide to play some afternoons!

                                   Crossing the Equator!

Sunday 17^th March – Day at Sea.

Another day of doing very little. We went to the church service in the morning and then went on a bridge visit to hear Alex’s version of the job compared to Neil’s. Alex regaled us with such tales as trying to dock a ship with the stabilisers still out (not recommended) and also told us of the previous ship’s problems tendering ashore at Devil’s Island… (Gave a bit too much info, and we’ll now see just how big the swell is before we decide to land or not.)

There was a St Patrick’s Day quiz in the evening which we didn’t win. L

                            The Captain at the bridge - the sea is behind you!

Monday 18^th March – Devil’s Island, French Guiana.

Bizarrely, we are back in the land of the Euro. French Guiana is an overseas Department of France, so the language is French!

Arrived at 8am but it was quite windy with a bit of a swell. Glad we’re not on trip that got tendered ashore and then went on a catamaran to the mainland 8 miles away…it was very “bumpy” on the way back to the island.

Just for a change, there was a problem with using both lifeboats as tenders (good old lifeboat number 2 failing once again… I really hope we don’t have to use it in an emergency.) So this meant that once again it was 12-30pm before our turn to go ashore arrived. We again decided not to bother and spent the day in our cabin. Maybe next time!!

Realised that as there are two more sea days to come until we arrive at Santarem, it will be 6 back to back days without getting off – like crossing the Atlantic again!

 

                                   Devil's Island

Tuesday 19^th March – Day at Sea.

Nesta is getting a little fed up now. (Not bored, you notice!) The sea remains lumpy and the wind quite strong. Added to this the sun is not shining although it is still 29 degrees.

We are having a “crossing the line party” at 2-15pm even though we don’t cross the equator again until 7am tomorrow morning! Cannot understand why we didn’t have the party on 16^th March when we crossed the equator at 3-30pm on a bright and sunny day! At least it would have really been some of the passengers first time across then… Editor’s note: You will, of course, remember that our first crossing occurred in the middle of the night, courtesy of the Voyages of Discovery scheduling.

The entertainment team put on a really good show and at least the rain held off.

The busy Mary has finally been able to get some time off from Reception and we have invited her to our balcony to help us celebrate our birthdays!

                               The ship's doctor at work

                         The Court of King Neptune

                          Lee enjoying his pasta!

Sunday 10^th March – Day at Sea.

Formal evening with the Captain for the passengers leaving the ship on Tuesday. We managed to make both sessions!

Other than that we just spent a quiet day sitting on the balcony and enjoying our cabin space…

 

Monday 11^th March – Recife, Brazil.

Happy birthday Ian!!

Had our full day trip to the beach, one and a half hours away. I knew Emerson Fittipaldi had retired, but didn’t know that he had got a new job as a coach driver in Recife!! Some parts of the journey were a little scary to say the least…

Beach was ok, if not crystal clear, but the main problem was that when the tide came in, it disappeared completely! From being a nice lagoon fringed by coral reefs, it became the sea! We ended up having to sit in a beach-side restaurant for over two hours until the coach took us back to the ship where we returned at 17-45 which was just the time we should have been in Martin’s cabin sipping champagne!

After a shower, we did manage a glass of champers before dining in the Explorer Restaurant. We had two tables of five (Ian, Alex, Lyn, Richard and Glynnis and Nesta, Paul, Jade, Martin and Austin).

Kevin managed to pop in for one course but Mary couldn’t make it due to the fact that she was in charge of all the embarking and disembarking passengers.

The Captain even came in and tapped Ian on the shoulder and wished him a happy birthday in his best Ukrainian accent.

Martin was “well-oiled” and began to entertain the rest of the dining room and Alex somehow found out about our bottles of Malbec and Nesta’s limerick… Good stuff this alcohol!

The evening finished off with seven off us trying not to be too noisy drinking in our cabin!

A good party to end our sixth cruise!


The beach before the tide came in!

 
Kevin, Alex, Glynnis, Rich, Lin & Ian

                         Nesta, Austin, Martin, Jade and Paul

Just look  at that cabin number!

Tuesday 12^th March – Recife, Brazil.

Another hot, humid day J

Took the shuttle into town and had a little walk round. Discovered the shopping mall had free Wi-Fi!

Returned at about 6-30pm and managed to skype all of the kids and Graeme!

Fab!

 

 

 

Wednesday 13^th March – Recife, Brazil.

Did the ship’s Recife and Olinda trip and really enjoyed it. Our guide, Francisco, was excellent.

It’s Jade’s birthday today, so went to watch the entertainment teams “introduction” show.

Lee did a special “leaf plucking” moves as a special tribute to us! (It’s a long story). Had a drink with the entertainment team on the Lido deck, whilst Paul sang, until 11-30pm.

Despite a rocky sea, Nesta managed to sleep!

 

                       Watch out - the ship's behind you

                         Typical road in Olinda

                               Really pretty town

Thursday 14^th March – Natal, Brazil.

Arrived here at 7am and did the ship’s “Sights of Natal” tour - but not that impressed because even though we’re only here until 3pm the tour included a one hour stop at a local artisans market. We would have preferred less time here and either a beach stop or time allowed to walk out to the fort guarding the city,

The cashew tree was interesting though! (The largest tree in the world and still growing…)

                        Natal - another Brazillian city of skyscrapers

                                Only just enough room to leave the river!

                             The biggest tree in the world - from above

 

Wednesday 6^th March – Rio de Janeiro.

Nesta was on her own for the trip, today, and went in the company of Claire, one of the American “Road Scholars” on board.

Driving around Rio they saw lots of damage from the storm last night. Rows of cars pushed bumper to bumper at the side of the road with rubbish and water all around (and inside) them. There were also trees down so the traffic was heavier than ever.

We were supposed to go up to Corcovado first, but the train line was being cleared of trees so we drove round the beaches and then caught the 10am train. This was great as it was the first of the day so when we got there, not many people were around.

Our guide took photographs of us all, with our own cameras, “holding the pose”

As a souvenir, Nesta bought a Rio umbrella/parasol/sunshade.

In the afternoon, Glynnis and Austin visited us (not together!) in our new abode and both agreed that the upgrade is money well spent.

In the evening, we went to only our second trivia quiz of all six cruises (hard to believe isn’t it Graeme!) with Wally & Sue and Austin and Wes. All of us are on for the whole trip so we called ourselves “what the Ls” (“L” standing for Lifers, as it seems that we’re on here for ever).

Unfortunately we didn’t win!

                               Christ the Redeemer - impressive isn't it

                                      Had to be done!

                                     The train that goes up to the statue

                                  Copacabana and the statue at night

Thursday 7^th March – Day at Sea.

Watched another patronising port lecture from David, but as it was on the large TV in our cabin, we were able to comment to each other freely!

Jade came for a visit to the cabin after lunch and we sat on the balcony putting the world to rights.

In the evening, our newly formed quiz team took part again – and won! We got a “Discovery pen” and a cotton Voyages of Discovery bag each…

 

Friday 8^th March – Day at Sea.  

Well – we thought we might be bored today… but no.

We woke to find that we had had a letter delivered during the night informing us that our cabin (7204) – which we booked and paid for six weeks ago – has someone else in it on the cruise from Recife to Manaus… Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing!!

We have been asked to move to 7104 on the starboard side of the ship instead. We are not happy.

Eventually we managed to speak to Eddie. He knows we booked 7204 and isn’t able to give a satisfactory explanation of what has happened. At least there was another cabin for us to move to. An Australian couple agreed to pay for an upgrade from Recife to Jamaica into Cabin 7203 and were advised that they could move in this morning.

They were actually packed and had their cases outside the door of the cabin waiting for the cabin steward to let them in when they were told that it had been booked in the name of someone else for the first cruise… To make matters worse there was no other balcony cabin available - so they had to return to their original cabin and unpack!

A “you’ve broken our contract” discussion is probably being held at this moment!!

Regular readers of this blog will know what I think of the Company… Voyages of Discovery seem to think that once you are on board, you don’t matter but now their whole administration seems to be falling apart… Cabins are booked via computer on the ship but then these bookings seem to be over-written in the UK and booked again – and when push comes to shove it’s the new customers who get the benefit rather than customers already on the ship who have after all only paid thousands of pounds to come on holiday.

Anyway – rant over!

We decided, just for a quiet life, to move ourselves into the new cabin and at least Eddie has promised us a bottle of wine!

In 7104 the fridge and shower seem better but the TV didn’t work. The engineer said he had a small TV if that was ok - so we suggested that he go into cabin 7204 and give us that TV instead!

He did, so now we are alright.

In hindsight, we’re looking at the whole experience as an excuse to invite everyone back for more drinks in our new cabin!

In the evening our quiz team won again!!! This time our prize was a Voyages of Discovery notepad.

 

Saturday 9^th March – Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

We thought this was going to be a pretty place, but it turns out that it is the third biggest city in Brazil!

We were booked on the scenic tour around the peninsular stopping at a beach for a quick swim.

Some of the beaches we saw were quite nice but houses that were on the esplanades have been, and are being, pulled down to make way for tower block after tower block of new apartments etc.

The beach stop was for two and a half hours where we sat on red plastic chairs at a restaurant buying drinks so we could use their shade!

The sea wasn’t suitable to swim in - big waves, rocks and strong currents – but Nesta did have a paddle!

On the way back to the ship we went through the business district and Favelas! (Slums).

We have since learned from other passengers (and yes, from Graeme too!) that the old colonial town is really pretty – but we didn’t do that trip. D’oh!

We decided not to go back out this afternoon as it is still over 40 degrees and we need to keep our fluids up!

In the evening rumour has it that salt has got back into the drinking water – so we are back on bottled water! (Can’t help feeling a little déjà vu here… hasn’t this happened before?)

Editor’s note: Please see our blog of the first cruise across the Atlantic!

On a positive note: there was a pub quiz tonight with over 80 questions… guess who won again for the third night running?

This time we actually won a bottle of wine (between the six of us!). Think we may have to think about retiring unbeaten to let someone else have a chance!

                                Arriving in Salvadore

                                   The old lighthouse

                                      Beach - Brazilian style!

                                       Sunset over Salvadore