Welcome Home

Kind of sad to see all the suitcases lined up in the hallways, waiting to be picked up by the porters. But we had a marvellous trip! After 5 weeks at sea, it felt like it was time to get home. Karl missed his computer and all the goings on with the economy, and I looked forward to getting back to a routine.

Brigitte and Richard were waiting for us at the airport with flowers and the most amazing "Welcome Home" sign! Once home, we realized that they had filled the fridge and pantry with all the necessities to see us through a few days and then some, including a homemade plum cake. Our tenants had really looked after the house and plants well and had some Hallowe'en chocolate waiting on the counter, then showed up with some delicious, steaming hot stew the next day. Neighbours had also been keeping an eye on the house, driving by slowly or dropping in to make sure all was as it should be. We are truly blessed to have such caring friends to come home to!

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Half Moon Cay is Holland America Line's private resort on Little San Salvador Island. Less than 100 miles SE of Nassau, between Cat Island and Eleuthera, the island is regarded by many Bahamians as the most beautiful in the Bahamas. Hard to argue when you see the beaches! Miles and miles of white sand that resembles white powder. And the water? Perfect for snorkeling or swimming or just to gaze at and enjoy!

Nothing like finishing a perfect day with a formal dinner.

Hallowe'en and other parties

It's Hallowe'en on the ship, and like any other occasion, the crew never misses an opportunity to celebrate. Canadian Thanksgiving was also done up in style, with a big turkey dinner and all the trimmings. We also had a beautiful "Officer's Black & White Ball" that reminded me of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Introductions were made one evening to all the "United Nations of the Veendam", since there were crew members who came from every corner of the world and worshiped in many of the major religions. We were entertained by both the Indonesian and Filipino crews on separate evenings. We had chocolate extravaganzas at midnight! Because we missed the Turk and Caicos Islands due to a tropical storm which prevented us from docking, the champagne poured to compensate. Music of our choice, be it classical or country or big band, could always be found at one place or another on the ship. (Karl and I particularly enjoyed the Gloria Strings, a Quartet from the Ukraine.) You might say that every night was a special occasion!

Parintins

The city of Parintins is located east of Manaus, on the island of Tupinambarana. It hosts the largest annual party in the Amazonas known as the Boi-Bumba Festival. The festival is a traditional folkloric festival that combines African and European traditions. It enacts 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 with the Boi teams - one red and one blue - comprising several thousand members.

The parades incorporate elements of Amazonian tales and legends. They are judged on their music, dancing performance and costumes. The spectacle is so glamorous and over the top that it rivals Rio's Carnival. Well, maybe not... It's like Carnival, but on a much smaller scale. The floats are pretty darn spectacular!

Rather than taking the bus back to our ship, we hired a tricycle and got to see more of the city.

Manaus & Ariau Towers Lodge

Manaus is the capital of Amazonas State and is a port on the Negro River (near its confluence with the Amazon River). It is large, not too clean, rather poor now that rubber is not being exported as in the boom days from 1890 to 1920. The most recognized building here is the Teatro Amazonas, better known as the opera house, an ornate building which seats 1000 people. We did not visit the town but immediately took a 2-hour boat ride to the Amazon jungle, staying at a resort called Ariau Towers Lodge. Aria is the name of the river it's on, and aria means potato; u (pronounced "oo" as in too) means big, so we were staying at the Big Potato.

Ariau Towers is designed to harmonize with the Amazon Jungle. The most extraordinary feature of this facility is its series of 8 observation towers, each about 3 - 5 stories, interlinked with a rickety catwalk system of approximately 4 miles, at the height of treetops. There is electricity, flushing toilets, and a shower that depends on the rain water temperature in the reservoirs. There is a knob to heat the water at source, but it wasn't working in our room.

No sooner had we settled into our rooms that we left in an open motorized canoe ride to encounter the jungle. We took photos of pink dolphins, birds of various sizes and colour, and even saw things slinking around on shore... We visited a native's house and learned how they make manioc and learned about the minimum agriculture they have to supply themselves with food. The jungle takes over so quickly that it is a full-time job to keep the encroachment of the jungle at bay.

We did some piranha fishing. With my hook loaded with beef cubes, I caught one that was medium in size but looked to have very sharp and very ferocious teeth! Karl caught one too, but not with a fishing rod. His backpack was between his knees and he was busy taking photos when one jumped right into his backpack and was flapping about! Without a moment's hesitation, he reached in and tossed the piranha back in the water. Our guide became very pale and warned us all not to do something like that because Karl's finger could easily have been lunch for the fish!

On our way back to the Lodge, the skies grew overcast very quickly and we were caught in a rainstorm. A torrential rainstorm. The kind that soaks you from head to toe, where your hat droops over your eyes, your clothes clings to your skin, and your toes squish in the pool of water in your shoes. The lightening was extremely bright and the thunder was incredible since it was right above our heads and echoed for a long time. Nobody had ever been in such a rainstorm, except of course our local guide and the canoe driver who didn't seem worried in the least. We all wondered if we could be hit by lightening, but apparently this didn't seem to be a concern. Oh yes, this all happened in one afternoon since we had not even had supper yet!

There were two dining areas in this Lodge, a little trinket store and an "open bar". By that I mean that the lounge was open to the great outdoors, with a thatched roof supported by posts and a plasma TV at one end. Yes, plasma TV. A few macaws sought shelter from the 2nd rainstorm in the lounge so we were able to observe them at very close range. The bar tender was taming a parakeet, and monkeys were jumping all around, eating the nuts and fruit that the Lodge put out to attract them. Other guests while we were there was the crew from "Survivor France". (The same idea as the American Survivor, but filmed by a French crew.) An entire tower was reserved for tourists from Israel who actually left to go alligator spotting during the 2nd rainstorm - brave souls.

At 5:00 a.m. the next day, we were awoken so that we could head out to watch the sunrise on the Amazon. The 24 people in our canoe didn't say a word and we heard the jungle wake up, watched the pink dolphins frolic around our canoe, heard the swoop and coo of various birds, and watched this incredible sun rise behind a few clouds that lingered from the storm the night before. It was magical! On our way back for breakfast, I spotted a cayman (alligator) on shore and the guide jumped out of the canoe to catch it. I held it, perhaps a little too tightly for the cayman's liking, and thought I was Crocodile Dundee for a moment!

After a quick breakfast, we left again in our canoes, this time for another village about 2 hours away, to do a jungle hike. I stayed in the village and learned how to weave hats while Karl went on the jungle hike, seeing all kinds of prickly trees and a close-up look at the luxuriant vegetation. The local guide had no shoes as he navigated the jungle trail.

Karl was very interested in the story of huge flying ants because he had actually been bitten by one a few days earlier. The guide explained that when natives get bitten by this bug, they feel blessed because it is their way of warding off malaria. The flying ants disgorge a sticky substance in the cracks of tree barks, hoping to attract mosquitoes. They eat mosquitoes that carry malaria and have developed immunity to the malaria over the years. By biting someone and inserting some of their liquid, they are providing the recipient with a vaccine booster for malaria!

I also bought a little souvenir canoe in this village, made of the local wood. The sales lady threw in a scale from the piracuru fish which is so abrasive that it acts as a nail file. The sales lady is the one wearing her best blue dress, with an adornment in her hair looking like the 3 birds on the branch in the photo up above. She is so beautiful!

On our ride back to the Lodge, the nurse who had accompanied us from the ship did some first aid to our guide who had a termite lodged in his eye. Here's this canoe going as fast as it can on a 2 hour return trip with the poor guide lying on the seat of the canoe, a passenger holding a hat over him to provide him with shade, and the nurse washing out his eye. He said he had better help than had he been alone in the forest, which made us realize how truly fortunate we are.

After lunch we said bye-bye to the Lodge and returned to Manaus and our ship. The trip was hot, humid, and exhausting. But what an experience!

Boca de Valeria

Boca means "mouth of" and this tiny town is at the entrance to the Valeria River. Despite centuries of effort to overcome the dominance of nature, people have made little impact on the Amazon. No bridge spans the river and except near its mouth, the Amazon watershed constitutes one of the most thinly populated regions in the world.

Much of the territory has never been thoroughly explored and you may fly for hours over the tropical forests and see no sign of human settlement. Because of its vastness, the Amazon is often called the Ocean River.

The economy continues to be dominated by primitive agriculture, hunting and fishing, and the gathering of various forest products. We saw much flora and fauna, including the capybara (the largest rodent in the world that can grow to 4 feet in length and weigh 100 pounds); toucans; tiny little frogs camouflaged under leaves; and of course the pink dolphins. These dolphins are born white, but with the iron-rich sediment in the water, they slowly turn pink. The older they are, the pinker they get.

Villagers in dugout canoes came to greet our tenders. This village is a typical "Caboclo" village (river dwellers) and still maintains a very primitive lifestyle. Notice the poor school and the houses. We strayed away from the village accompanied by 2 young local girls and they pointed out incredibly beautiful butterflies, parakeets, various trees, 2 types of banana trees - and all accompanied by a cacophony of sounds, the sounds of the Amazon.

As we left this town, we soon passed the deepest part of the Amazon River at 300 feet deep, then the narrowest part. There are many tributaries to get to Manaus, but we took the northernmost route.

Santarém

Santarém is nearly impossible to reach overland and is set at the junction of the Rio Amazonas and the Rio Tapajos. The Santarém region has a history dating back to about 10,000 BC as a human settlement. In fact, the earliest known human creations, in the form of rock paintings, can be found about 100 km northeast of Santarém.

The later history of the area includes rubber trees, gold rushes, and trade in hardwoods, Brazil nuts, black pepper, mangoes, soybeans and fish. The local museums have interesting collections of stone pieces and pottery dating back 6000 years, and display women's clothing and fabrics made from natural grasses and wood pulp, including a reproduction of a dress made for a Belgian queen, a tablecloth for Pope John Paul II, and colourful festival costumes.

Look at the worker cutting into the rubber tree in a herringbone design, enabling the "sap" to pour down to a central location. We were able to feel the fresh sap and it felt just like an elastic band! It's a lot of hard, back-breaking work. Today, rubber comes mostly from Venezuela and other countries because the rubber tree was exported, without realizing the economic hit that the Amazon region would feel.

We saw many plants, fruit and veggies that I was not familiar with, including the jack fruit which is kind of slimy and smells awful. As for the "pharmacy", it is to be found all around in the plants and the "pharmacist" hangs all these herbs and roots in bags at the market and mixes whatever you need on a rickety old table, worn out with years of business! There are also tables filled with tinctures and other mysterious mixtures good for anything that ails you.

We also had a demonstration on how to open a Brazil nut - one of the hardest nuts in existence. The locals open it with a machete! (Those poor fingers...) The outside looks like a mini coconut, and once opened, it has segments that look like an orange, but each segment has its own hard shell which we know as the Brazil nut. The whole nut can keep for a year, and the segments for 3 months without going rancid.