St Maarten

Pulled into St Maarten this morning, and things were definitely looking a bit iffy on whether we’d actually get docked or not. Pretty decent swells in the docking area, and they were having issues getting the lines tightened properly (although even when they were satisfied, they weren’t tight by any stretch of the imagination, the lines would sag and tighten as the ship moved). The end of the gangplank was moving probably 2 to 3 feet, so not exactly great.

After two ports in a row with swimming excursions, I was quite frankly beat, and didn’t really have any desire to do anything. Cathy ended up taking a ship’s tour of the island with some beach time. Me, I found a chair on deck 5 and watched people getting off the ships, read a little, and half napped. When Cathy got back from her excursion, we walked into town for a little while to do a little shopping.

Oh, and Oasis of the Seas was in port with us. So we got a chance to take a look at it a little while in port. Someone at the port must have had a real sense of humour too, because they docked the Seaborne Spirit right next to the Oasis. Really made the Spirit look tiny.

St. Lucia

St. Lucia actually marks the first port that we’ve ever repeated, on this our seventh cruise. Turned out there were 4 ships in port today. Us, the Oceania Regatta, the TUI cruises Mein Schiffe, and the Queen Mary 2. For those doing the math, there’s really only about 3 spots to dock ships in St. Lucia. The Mein Schiffe and Regatta were docked over at the newer cruise terminal that we docked at when we were here on the Crown Princess. We were docked across the harbor at an area that might have been an older cruise terminal, but largely seems to be used for cargo these days. That left the QM2 outside the harbor tendering in. (And from some comments by their crew, I don’t think they were real happy about that.) The only reason I can think of that the QM2 would get the short straw is that it’s a big ship, and I don’t think it could dock at the spot we were at, and if docked at the main cruise ship terminal, I think they’d only be able to dock one ship there (I know when we were there in the Crown Princess it didn’t look like they’d be able to fit another ship there at the same time.) So if the QM2 had docked, there would have been 2 ships tendering.

We hadn’t really had any plans here, so ended up taking a ship’s snorkeling tour. They took us down the coast a little to a bay that appears to be some sort of marine reserve. We spent a couple hours there snorkeling. I’d rate the snorkeling there as adequate. We’ve certainly had better snorkeling, but also have had worse. Not much coral around here, and a somewhat limited selection of fish. Visibility was better in some places than others.

On the way back to the ship we ducked into Marigot Bay to look around. Nice looking place, a couple of larger yachts in the harbor there.

We were the first ship leaving port today. There was quite a crowd along the rails to watch the QM2 as we sailed by.

Oh, and shortly before sailing we got the news that the weather had been rough in St Barts today, preventing tendering. Since the forecast for tomorrow is more of the same, they’ve cancelled our call in St Barts and substituted St Maarten instead. Weather could still be iffy to get into port, but since it wouldn’t be a tender port at least there’s a greater chance of making the port stop.

Trinidad

We hadn’t really come up with what we wanted to do here in Trinidad, and looked at a few choices through the ship, but the first couple we looked at turned out to be sold out. (Although in hindsight, after talking with people that were on those trips, they may not have been that great anyways). So we decided to go to Maracas Beach, which was billed as one of the great beaches of the world. Taxiing there on our own was supposedly fairly pricey, so we went with the ship tour, although from the description that was supposed to be via a taxi anyways. Got off the ship and discovered that rather than a taxi they had a small bus for us complete with guide. This did seem to really annoy one couple, but to me it seemed reasonable. It also meant that instead of the unguided trip we expected, we did get some highlights of the city as we drove through, including going by the seven magnificent mansions or whatever they call them. Maybe at one point they were magnificent, but these days most of them are really in bad repair and aren’t really anything worth seeing. Although they did show some signs of there being an effort to renovate them and bring them back to their former states.

Getting to Maracas Beach involves going over the northern mountain range in Trinidad, following some very narrow twisty roads. Not sure exactly how high we got, but wouldn’t surprise me if we cleared 1500-2000 feet, which isn’t really something I’d expect in a Caribbean island. Drop back to sea level and you get to the beach. At first glance it seemed like a decent beach, a little bit of waves. It was pretty deceiving, and to be honest, I’m not overly convinced that it’s a good swimming beach. The waves coming in were coupled with a pretty violent undertow. Standing in anything more than about mid-thigh deep you could really get bounced around by the surf. Cathy managed to get hit with a pretty good wave that took her glasses right off, which needless to say weren’t ever found. (Why she was wearing them at that point is beyond me.) I got hit with a wave that ended up coming in at about 2 feet higher than me and it completely knocked me over, under the water. Was not a real pleasant experience. If you were careful on how deep you got it wasn’t too bad, but even then, you had to expend a lot of energy to stay in place. We had 2 hours at the beach, but that was really more than was needed given the conditions. As for a top beach in the world, eh, I don’t think I’d really rate it there. Personally I think I’ve been to several that I think I’d rate higher.

After that it was back to town to get to the ship. Walked through the craft market outside the port, and we did decide to pick up a small steel drum. Trinidad is apparently where the whole steel drum thing started.

Leaving port involves going down what looks to be a pretty narrow channel. The buoys marking the channel didn’t look to be too far to either side of the ship, and there certainly wouldn’t be room for two way traffic through there. What also struck me is that there also seems to be a lot of wrecks in the area outside the channel. You could see quite a few, which also implies just how shallow the area was, but It really didn’t look like they were making any effort to clean these wrecks up. Surprising, since at least one that we passed was clearly leaking fuel or oil, we actually passed through the slick while transiting the channel and you could smell it from the top deck of the ship.

Devil’s Island

Well, sort of Devil’s Island. Really what we’re visiting is Isle Royale, which had far more in the way of prisoners held, while Devil’s Island proper really wasn’t used as much. Tendered ashore, and getting on the tenders from the ship was a little iffy. Apparently this stop is missed fairly regularly. (We’ve talked to people on the cruise that say that this is their 4th stop here and the first one that actually made it.) Headed off up the long slope to the prison area by heading left from the dock. And it was definitely a long slope, and it was pretty brutally hot. Passed several monkeys on the way up. Wandered around some of the ruins up top, but it was kind hard to get a real good feel for things, there’s very little in the way of any sort of maps for the area, and not much in the way of signage. Oh, and for the little there is, it’s not surprisingly in French.

There’s a hotel on the island, although for the life of me, I’m not entirely sure why someone would actually want to stay here. Just doesn’t seem like much to do. Rates seemed to vary from as little as 10 euros for a hammock, to something like 235 euros for an air conditioned room. That higher rate may have included meals, it was hard to figure out reading their listing, once again, in French. Cathy bought some exceedingly overpriced postcards in the hotel shop.

From the hotel, we then headed down the back side of the island. From what little we knew, we thought it was supposed to connect back around to the place we’d catch the tender. Heading down this way did really give us our best look at Devil’s Island proper, over a small channel of water. Saw several egrets and sea turtles along this section. Eventually worked our way around back to the tender area to head back to the ship.

Christmas

Can’t really say there was much that we did today. I spent a lot of time out in a chair on deck 5, half reading, half napping, and half watching the water go by. Water color still hasn’t really recovered from the Amazon yet. Ship is doing a little more moving around, a surprising amount really because it doesn’t seem like there really is that much in the way of waves.

Crossing the Line

A nice relaxing sea day finally. Cathy of course had her usual array of things like trivia to do. For me the first real thing was the crossing the line ceremony (held somewhat in advance of our actual crossing). Amusing, but somewhat tacky too, not really the type of thing you’d go to more than once. We actually crossed the line around 1:30 ship’s time (which is actually 2:30 local time, for some reason we never changed times when we entered this time zone).

Watched the art auction, although nothing is really calling out to me so far.

Last Christmas cruise we took Cathy was kinda annoyed that we didn’t do the gingerbread house decorating because I figured it would be more of a kid thing (although we found out later plenty of adults did it too). So she was pretty insistent that we do it this time. And I have to admit I was pretty impressed at the turnout, there were quite a few people who did it. Cathy was kinda resistant to me putting a stripe down the middle of the house representing the equator, but did finally give in. We also had one of our gingerbread men falling off the roof of the house.

Watched the sun set over the Amazon from the balcony. It’s a real tough job, but I guess someone has to do it.

Santarem

Once again we really didn’t have much planned to do in Santarem. Cathy wanted to get to a point where she could see the meeting of the waters here since we didn’t get a chance to see it in Manaus. So we ended up taking a cab into town for 6 dollars and walked around the stores. As usual, a lot of stuff we can’t buy, although Cathy was able to find a couple of small souvenirs. We finally got to a spot where we could see the rivers joining, but then still climbed up a bunch of stairs to where there was an observation tower that gave a slightly better view. We also passed by where they were setting up some Christmas floats, and I have to tell you, see giant snowmen on floats near the equator was only slightly more surreal than when I walked by a house and could hear ‘Freebird’ playing inside. Cathy then found a place where should could buy a hammock, since these seems to be fairly common to be sold around here. (Hammocks are apparently a common choice since mattresses tend to mildew in the humidity.)

Then it was back to the ship via a taxi. First cab driver was looking for $10 to take us back, even though we were closer than where we’d been dropped off earlier for $6. Second driver offered $5, which was good enough for us. A little last minute shopping in some stalls at the pier (Cathy needed some post cards to mail even though they’re costing a fortune to mail), then back on the ship to relax for the rest of the afternoon.

Did notice that security seemed to be especially strict here at this stop in checking people for prohibited items. Also was somewhat amazed at just how many people seemed absolutely clueless that such restrictions were in place.

We did get a chance on sailing to see where the waters of the river that Santarem meet with the Amazon, and actually sailed along the edge for a little bit. It was starting to get a little dark by this point though.

Boca da Valeria

Boca da Valeria is the stop on this trip that definitely qualifies as most different. You know it’s a little different when the Captain tells you on arrival that the first tender takes the shore party over to do any repairs necessary to the pier before they start taking passengers over. This is basically a small river village where people lead a pretty simple life. When a cruise ship stops, people come from up and down the river to set up to sell things. Unfortunately, again a lot of the stuff they’re trying to sell is on the prohibited list, so we can’t buy it. Which is a shame, I did see some nice carved wooden boats that I liked. Also saw some paintings of canoes that I liked, but that guy ended up not still being there when we came back from the village (I found out later that apparently he was down from Parintins).

When you get off the tender, you start to get mobbed by kids, all looking for little trinkets or dollar bills. You’ll also pass more kids that all have their pets out, looking for you to take pictures and pay them. Anything from monkeys, sloths, birds, and a catfish. And when you show any real sign of actually having things to give out, you’ll really start to get mobbed. Cathy especially at one point seemed to have an absolute horde of kids around her. She was giving out some pencils, crayons, paper, plus a few other trinkets. Amazingly, what the kids seemed to like best were these cheap crappy plastic slinky type things we had. (Ultimately by the time we left, the kids even wanted the plastic bags she’d put things in to give out.)

We’d heard from some people that were on the cruise before that one of the things to really consider doing was to find one of the locals offering boat rides on the stream near town. Basically they were asking for $5/person for about an hour long trip. Since the sun had started going behind some clouds again we decided to go ahead and do this. The boats were a small wooden canoe or maybe longboat powered by a small motor with a prop on the end of a long pole. The water levels were low enough that the vegetation in the water was causing problems for the motor, and every now and then the guy would have to turn the motor around and clear out the weeds from the propeller. You start out in this really dinky stream that really doesn’t look like it would go much of anywhere, but around a couple of corners it starts to open up. Lots of birds near the edges of the water. Further and further back you start seeing more houses of the villagers. The place was actually quite a bit larger than I expected. The ride was fairly exposed to the sun, but definitely was worth the trip.

After the boat ride we wandered back through town. Getting later in the day there were definitely signs that things were winding down for the day. Villagers were starting to leave (including the guy selling the paintings that I liked). Cathy managed to give out the rest of her trinkets, and we got back on the tender to the ship.

Only other thing to comment on really was that evening while sitting in the dining room, we could see looking out the window and absolutely beautiful sunset. Oh, and tonight was Italian night, so Cathy could get her limoncello. (Which, to me at least, was amusingly stored in a recycled 1800 tequila bottle.)

Parintins

Parintins is a tender port. We hadn’t planned anything, and the only excursions Princess had were for a tricycle tour of the city and for a demonstration of the Boi Bumba festival. Neither of these really sounded particularly interesting to us, although we did think about the Boi Bumba thing. But I personally felt it was a bit pricey to sit a couple of hours for a dance. So we just got off the ship and wandered some of the streets. Again, definitely not a place that’s really touristy, and to me, just didn’t seem all that exciting. One of the things that we were told was that there’s several things that we can’t bring out of Brazil, and a lot of what the few vendors that were there were selling was made out of those materials (Primarily wood). Lots of neat wooden items, but we’re not supposed to buy it.

That’s about it for Parintins. Formal night on the ship, joy oh joys. The ship actually stays in port overnight here, but the last tender runs about 5:30 or so. They say there’s a strong current that makes doing it at night unsafe. (I’m not overly convinced there’s much reason to be in town at night anyways). The next stop is only 20 miles or so down the river, so not much point in leaving at night.