Back to Buenos Aires - and Home

Our flight from Iguazu got us back to Buenos Aires in mid-afternoon, and we made our way back to the Claridge Hotel where we retrieved our stored luggage and got a new room assignment.  As evening approached, we walked down Calle Florida to the Marriott Hotel where our friends were staying.  From there we took a small bus to a restaurant for dinner and a tango show.  We enjoyed a similar evening three years ago in BA, but this time the show had a theme; tango throughout the years.  A small band, two singers and six dancers presented musical numbers representing the tango as it began at the turn of the 20^th century, the extremely popular tango of the 1920’s, the modernization of the dance in the 1950’s, and the tango as it is performed today.  It was a most entertaining and informative evening, and the food was also excellent.

The following day was our departure day from BA, but our flight back to the US was not until 10:30 PM.  So, we decided on some more sightseeing during the day.  After breakfast, we finished packing and checked out of our room; the front desk again storing our luggage until it was time to depart for the airport.  Then we walked the Calle Florida in the opposite direction from the Marriott.  We planned to meet our friends for lunch at a café that has been in operation since 1858.  It was a several block walk, and while on that walk we had a very disturbing occurrence.  We had stopped on a street corner to check our location on a map, when Debbie felt someone touching her shoulder.  At first she thought it was Tom, but suddenly fingernails scraped the back of her neck, and her gold necklaces were jerked.  She screamed louder than I’ve ever heard and we turned just in time to see a man running down the street.  Fortunately, she still had both of her necklaces, although the clasp on one was broken, and the chain was stretched out of shape.  After making sure she was okay, we continued to our destination, looking furtively around us as we walked.

National Cathedral

We arrived at Café Tortoni ahead of our friends, so we got a table and ordered a coffee to help calm us down.  Soon our friends arrived and we had a nice lunch.  After finishing lunch, the six of us walked a few blocks to the National Cathedral and Presidential Palace, then back to Calle Florida toward our hotel.  Once there, we all sat in the bar and had a beer.  Soon it was time to leave for the airport for our long flight home.

 

In most ways, airport security in other countries is not as strict as in the US, but on flights ending in the US, security is sometimes even more strict than here at home.  We checked our luggage with no problem and made it through passport control and the carry-on and body scanners and proceeded to the gate area.  Once there, our carry-on luggage was opened and visually scanned by airline employees.  If we left the gate area, to use a restroom or get a bottle of water, we had to be rescanned to get back in the gate area, and the water was confiscated.  HUH?  At 10:30 PM we took off for Houston, arriving at about 6:30 AM.  We had to pass through Immigration, retrieve our luggage, pass through customs, recheck our luggage and make our way to the departure gate for SFO.  We only had an hour and 20 minutes for all that; even with a golf cart ride to our gate, we were among the last passengers to board the plane.  We took off on time and touched down shortly after 9:30 AM.  Including time zone changes, our total time from departure in BA to arrival in San Francisco was about 16 hours.   We caught the Airport Express bus about 30 minutes later and got back to Santa Rosa about 12:15 PM, where we were met by our wonderful neighbor, Patty, who took us home.  Although tired, we made it through the rest of the day and stayed up until 9 PM when we fell into our own bed for the night.

It was a wonderful trip in every way.  For us, the highlight was our trip to Iguazu, followed closely by Carnaval in Rio.  We have no definite travel plans for the future yet, but I’m sure that we’ll find some more travel to share with you.

Iguazu Falls

After a two-hour flight, we landed in Puerto Iguazu, on the Argentine side of the falls.  The falls are located in both Brazil and Argentina and to get the best experience, the falls must be viewed from both countries.  Since we had already stopped in several Brazilian ports on the cruise, we had our visas for Brazil so we could visit both sides.  We were met at the airport by our guide, Giovanni, a Brazilian with an Italian heritage, who took us to the Iguazu Grand Hotel & Spa, a fabulous resort hotel on the edge of town.   Our room was a “Junior Suite”, a very large room that overlooked the hotel gardens. We had a king size bed and a spacious bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub and an immense shower with a rainfall shower head.  After getting settled, we met at the lobby bar for refreshments, and then retired to the hotel’s high-end restaurant for a wonderful, if fairly expensive dinner.

The next morning Giovanni met us in the lobby for the short trip to Iguazu National Park.  Once there, we walked about ½ mile to a station where we boarded a small tram which took us to a spot near the falls.  From there we walked on an elevated metal trail over the top of the falls until we reached “Devil’s Throat”, a thundering cataract that filled the air with mist that soon had everyone soaked to the skin.  Since February is mid-summer in South America the weather was quite warm and the spray felt good.  While Devil’s Throat is the main cataract, sending about half of the total river flow over a 270 foot cliff, the complete falls system stretches over 1.7 miles and 275 separate waterfalls.  Argentina has about 80% of the falls, while Brazil has the other 20%.  Comparing Iguazu to other famous falls shows that Iguazu has the second highest fall at 270 feet while Victoria Falls in Africa falls over 320 feet, and Niagara is a third shorter at 165 feet.  Niagara has the highest average water flow at 85,000 cu.ft/s, Iguazu averages 61,000 cu.ft/s and Victoria averages about 38,000 cu.ft/s.  So, any way you look at it, Iguazu is an impressive sight.  After about 5 hours of sightseeing on the Argentine side of the falls, we returned to our hotel for an afternoon at leisure. 

Devil's Throat

Giovanni met us again the next morning for a journey to the Brazilian side of the falls.  Surprisingly, the Brazilian border was only about a quarter mile from our hotel.  Once at the border, Giovanni took our passports and got us processed out of Argentina and into Brazil, a fairly time-consuming process.  From there we stopped at a helipad for a sightseeing flight over the falls.  John joined us for the flight, but Judy, Nancy and Chris stayed behind.  The flight was short, only about 15 minutes, but the views were spectacular, particularly over Devil’s Throat.  Once safely back on the ground, we rejoined the others and entered Iguaçu National Park (notice the spelling difference between Argentina and Brazil).  Our van was able to park very close to the top of the falls, and we took a trail that ended at the base of the falls.  Since 80% of the falls are in Argentina, we had great views from across the canyon on our walk to the bottom.  After viewing the falls from the base and getting wet from the spray again, we took an elevator ride back to the top of the cliff and our van.

Since it was only mid-day, Giovanni took us into the Brazilian city of Foz du Iguaçu for lunch.  The restaurant served a buffet, but unlike a typical buffet, the price was based on the weight of the food on each plate.  It was very good, however, and we ate all we’d paid for.  After lunch, Giovanni suggested a tour of Itaipu Dam on the Paraná River which forms the border between Brazil and Paraguay.  We took that opportunity and, along with Chris and John, traveled to the dam.  Nancy and Judy were more interested in shopping, so Giovanni dropped them off at a large shopping mall in town.  Once at the dam, we hopped aboard a bus with a bilingual guide for the tour.  Itaipu dam is almost 4.5 miles long and over 700 feet high.  The power plant has the second largest installed capacity of hydroelectric power in the world, behind the Three Gorges Dam in China.  Construction began in 1970 and the dam was completed in 1982.  To build the dam, the Paraná River was diverted to allow the riverbed to dry and the dam constructed.  That diversion was closed in 1982 to allow the reservoir to fill.  Engineers estimated that it would take 90 days to fill, but due to heavy rainfall and flooding, the reservoir filled to the spillway gates in only 15 days!!  The reservoir capacity is 24 million acre feet, the surface area is 520 square miles and the reservoir length is 110 miles.  Half of the work force that built the dam was from Paraguay and half from Brazil.  Today the workforce is still evenly divided between citizens of the two countries and the power generation is likewise shared equally.  The power plant provides 90% of the energy needs of Paraguay and almost 20% of that of Brazil.  Once the tour was finished we traveled back to Foz du Iguaçu to rejoin the shoppers.  On the way back to our hotel, we encountered one of the heaviest rainstorms we’ve ever seen, but, safely inside our van, we stayed dry.

The next morning Giovanni escorted us to the airport for our flight back to Buenos Aires. 

Buenos Aires

After two more days at sea, we docked in Buenos Aires, Argentina, our port of departure from the ship.  In contrast to the hectic embarkation in Fort Lauderdale, getting off the ship was a breeze.  In the first place, only 500 of the 2,600 passengers left the ship in BA; the rest were staying on while the ship went around Cape Horn and up the pacific side of South and Central America.  The final stop for this trip is in San Francisco.  We booked the first leg only; we had previously sailed to Cape Horn on our voyage to Antarctica three years ago, and before that, we had sailed from Valparaiso, Chile to San Francisco.

The "White House" of Argentina

Buenos Aires is located on the Rio de la Plata, or Silver River.  It is actually a huge estuary, part of South America’s third largest river system.  The capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, was founded in 1536 in a malarial, swampy area alongside the river.  The present city of eleven million people was not developed until the 19^th century; much of the construction was based on French models and the city is reminiscent of Paris.

We caught a taxi to our hotel, the Claridge, where we stayed on our previous visit to BA.  It’s not new but it’s very comfortable and the staff is great.  It’s only a half block from Calle Florida, a major pedestrian shopping street with many fine shops.  After getting settled in the hotel, we set off to explore the area.  Work crews are installing a new storm drain system in the center of Calle Florida, so it’s much noisier and more congested than three years ago.  Goods and services are more expensive, also.  Inflation is high; the government says that the Argentine peso is worth about 20¢ US, but exchanging dollars for pesos at one of the many street cambios or money changers results in 7 pesos to the dollar instead of 5.

Provoleta on right side of grill

Argentina is known for its large quantities and high quality beef, so we decided to have dinner at a ‘Parilla’ or grill.  A ship’s passenger had recommended ‘La Estancia’ as the best parilla close to our hotel, so off we went with John.  Judy wasn’t feeling well, so she decided to stay in her hotel. La Estancia is a large restaurant with wood-fired grills in the front window.   On one side was a flat grill for cooking steak; on the other was a circular ring around a central fire.  A number of spits were mounted on the ring; each spit held beef ribs, whole baby goats, whole suckling pigs or other large cuts of meat.  When we arrived at about 8 PM, the restaurant was mostly empty; just three or four tables were occupied.  By the time we were finished eating at about 10:30, there wasn’t an empty table to be seen; they eat late in BA.  Debbie ordered a filet, Tom had a t-bone, which actually was a porterhouse, about 1 ½ inches thick and as large as the dinner plate.  We also each ordered a salad, which was a mistake; one salad would have been more than enough for both of us.  We tried an appetizer that we enjoyed on our previous stay in BA; ‘provoleta’ or grilled provolone cheese.  They cut a 1” slice of provolone and put it over a cool part of the grill.  They flip it over and baste it with olive oil and oregano until the outside has a firm skin and the inside is almost liquid.  Yum!  After completing this sumptuous meal, we waddled back to our hotel for the night.

The next day we accompanied John, Judy was still not feeling well, to the Palermo district of BA, in search of a restaurant they discovered on the last trip.  It was about a 20 minute taxi ride to the district where we began walking and found the restaurant.  It was not yet open for the day, so we walked a couple more blocks and stopped at a coffee house for lattes and medialunas, a small, sweet croissant.  After that break, we continued walking through the neighborhood of small shops and residences.  Eventually it was time to head back to the hotel, so we caught another taxi that dropped us off at John & Judy’s hotel, which was about 5 blocks from ours.  Later that afternoon, Chris and Nancy, longtime friends of John & Judy, joined us for the rest of the stay in South America.  We walked a short distance to an excellent pizzeria for dinner before retiring for the night.  ‘Pizzeria’ you say?  BA has a large settlement from Italy left from after WWII.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and went to the airport to catch an early afternoon flight to Iguazu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil.  We were able to store the majority of our luggage at our hotel since we were coming back for another night before flying home.

Rio de Janeiro

Sunday morning at about 10 AM, our ship docked in Rio; one of eight ships tied to the dock.  Carnaval (yes, that’s the correct spelling), the pre-Lenten celebration, draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to the city, including the probably twenty-five thousand cruise ship passengers.  Carnaval is celebrated in many countries; in the US it’s called Mardi Gras, but nowhere is the celebration more colorful than in Rio.

Rio de Janeiro, or River of January, refers to time of year that the area was first explored by a Portuguese expedition around 1502.  In 1555 the French occupied some of the area around Rio, until expelled by the Portuguese ten years later.  The local economy grew slowly until the end of the 17^th century when cane sugar became the most important export of Rio.  The production of sugar is still today an important economic activity.  In 1808, fleeing from the Napoleonic Wars, the King of Portugal moved the entire government to Rio where it remained until 1822 when Brazil became independent of Portugal and Rio became the capital of the Empire, later the Republic.  In 1960 a new capital city, Brasilia, was carved out of the jungle and Rio was no longer designated as the capital.  It is currently the second largest city in Brazil, serving as an industrial and financial center and a producer of many goods.

We departed on a city tour which included a visit to Sugarloaf, the conical-shaped rock which is one of the city’s internationally recognized symbols.  Unfortunately due to Carnaval, the city tour consisted of a bus ride through crowded streets and traffic directly to the base of Sugarloaf where we were to take two cable cars from street level to the top of the rock, some 900 meters high.  There we encountered a serpentine waiting line, or queue as the British say, with an hour and half wait before finally reaching the cable car for the first stage of the trip.  The wait at the mid-point wasn’t bad, so we got to the top with its spectacular views of the city in short order.  The magnificent beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema stretched on either side of Sugarloaf.  There was another wait of almost an hour to get from the top back to the midpoint; from there it was a quick ride to the bottom and our waiting bus.  We headed straight back to the ship, seeing nothing else of the city, because we were already two hours late getting back.

 

Once on the ship we took a quick shower to cool down, and then rested for about an hour before departing on another bus to the Sambódromo, the center of Carnaval, to our reserved seating area.  Sambódromo consists of about a mile of brightly lit street, flanked on both sides by immense grandstands holding at least 150,000 people.  The Carnaval celebration begins at 9 PM on Friday night with huge parades of floats (which are pushed manually), dancers and percussionists from various Samba Schools, competing for prize money.  Each parade consists of up to 5,000 participants that pass down the mile-long corridor.  It is loud and colorful, and the spectators enthusiastically encourage their favorites.  Each parade must finish in 1 hour and 20 minutes or less, or the school has points deducted from their score as a penalty.  Six Samba Schools are scheduled to perform on each of the five nights of Carnaval, with the final winners announced on Tuesday night.  With an hour and twenty minutes of competition for each school, plus a little “clean-up” time between parades, you can see that even if everything is on schedule, the celebration continues until at least 4 AM the next day.   Our favorite parade was that of the third Samba School, Unidos da Tijuca, which was elaborate and very beautiful.  This Samba School won the championship in 2010 and 2012.  We were fortunate to sit directly across from one of the judging stands; we saw the performers at their best!

Samba started in the poor sections of Rio as a way of celebrating before Lent.  The Sambódromo is located in the area where Samba began, the neighborhood of Estacio.  Some of the Samba Schools are over 60 years old.  Children begin attending these schools at an early age and practice every Friday and Saturday leading up to Carnaval.  A recent phenomenon is the rebirth of the street carnival.  The city dwellers and tourists don their costumes and off they go into the streets, reveling until the wee hours.

We tried hard, but we could only hold out for 3+ parades before catching a shuttle bus back to the ship.  We arrived at around 3:30 AM and fell into bed.  With the help of our good friend, Ambien, we were able to sleep until 2:30 PM.  It made for a much shorter day on Monday.  John & Judy were up at 6:30 AM to catch a tour to see the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain overlooking the city.  Their tour was very much like our tour to Sugarloaf, crowds and long lines.  It also took six hours instead of the scheduled four hours.

Sail-Away was at 5 PM, on our way to our final port of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Salvador, Brazil

We traveled Wednesday night, and all day Thursday before arriving in Salvador, Brazil at about 9 AM on Friday.  For some reason, we backed up for over a mile before arriving at our berth; seemed to us that it would have been quicker to sail in and turn around, but this wasn’t our day to run the ship.  As we were nearly at our berth, we saw the reflection of the ship in a large, glass-faced building near the pier.  It was an interesting sight.

Salvador is the fourth largest city in Brazil; it was founded in 1549, and was Brazil’s capital in 1763.  The early colonists established sugar and tobacco plantations that brought great wealth to the area.  The city, with its white sand beaches and tropical vegetation also is known for its numerous churches – over 165 at last count.

We were docked close to downtown, the central market and an elevator that took passengers up to the historic upper city.  We decided with John & Judy to take the elevator to the upper city and see the market on the way back to the ship.  The upper city was a bustle of activity, as they were setting up barricades and sound stages around a number of venues which were part of the Carnival celebration in Salvador, which was to begin on Friday night.  Most of the buildings, and even statues were covered by large sheets of plywood; apparently the authorities wanted to take no chances with the large crowds expected for Carnival.  The streets of the upper city are narrow and cobblestoned, and today are home to many shops and restaurants.  We saw many women in colorful costumes; we’re not sure if that was for Carnival, or if they dress that way to depict colonial days in Salvador when a cruise ship is in town.

It was very hot and steamingly humid, even though it was not yet noon, so we found a sidewalk restaurant with umbrellas for shade and stopped for a beer.   After shopping our way back to the elevator to take us to the lower level of the city, we re-boarded the elevator and made our way back to the Mercado Modelo, or central market.  This was a large, multi-story building, just crammed with stalls selling various goods to tourists and locals alike.  We were hot and tired, so we walked through the central aisle of the market to a covered, outdoor area where we had another beer.  John and Judy stayed in the market to shop, so we found a shady street to travel the several blocks back to the ship.  We both changed into our swim suits and jumped into one of the ship’s pools to cool down.  Sufficiently cooled, we sat on the deck (in the shade) until time to clean up for cocktails and dinner. 

  

We sailed about 5 PM, and will have one more day at sea before arriving in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.   The ship will stay in Rio for two days, and we are booked on a city tour on Sunday morning, and also for the Carnaval celebration in the Sambodromo on Sunday night.  The festivities are supposed to begin around 9 PM and not conclude until about 7 AM on Monday morning.  Don’t know how long we’ll last, but we will do our very best.  At least we can sleep most or all of the second day in Rio.  We’d like to see either of the world-famous beaches in Rio, Ipanema or Copacabana, but with the crowds in the city for Carnaval, the streets are supposed to be almost impassable.  We’ll let you know how successful we are.

Fortaleza, Brazil

We docked in Fortaleza on Wednesday morning at about 6 AM (not that it made a difference to us who sleep in).  Fortaleza is the capital of the state of Cerará and with a population of over two million, is the fifth largest city in Brazil.  It is located above the hump of Brazil that is the easternmost point of the country. 

It was founded by the Dutch in 1654 who built a fortress called Shoonenbroch at the present location of the city.  The city that surrounded the fort became Fortaleza.  Ultimately the fortress was seized by the Portuguese at the beginning of their colonization of the area now known as Brazil.

Brazil is the largest country in South America, and is actually larger than the 48 contiguous United States.  The country has population of almost 200 million and has a rapidly growing economy, probably the strongest in South America.  That growth is very evident in Fortaleza with lots of high-rise buildings and new construction.  There is also evidence that poverty abounds, with areas of ramshackle buildings and what appear to be homeless people sleeping in the parks and on the streets, although we were told that the unemployment rate is around 3%.

The dock where we berthed was a busy commercial port with lots of containers being loaded and unloaded.  Stacked on the dock were dozens of large wind turbine blades and hubs; they either manufacture and ship from Fortaleza, or somewhere in the area is a large wind farm being established.  Anyway, the large blades and hubs were impressive to us.

It was necessary to take shuttle buses from the ship into town, since it was a 3-4 mile hike in hot, humid weather. Of course when we got off the ship there was a long line of passengers waiting for the shuttles.  We saw many beautiful beaches on the way to the city; they were practically deserted at 10 in the morning.  We were told that the beaches come alive at about 4 PM, after the worst heat of the day is over.  Amazingly, the shuttle bus ride terminated at a five-story central market.  The market, all indoors, was filled with small shops selling all kinds of clothing, leather goods, lace, liquor, souvenirs and other stuff.  It was obviously not focused on tourists, because at least three quarters of the shoppers were local.  There were also numerous cafes and snack shops serving cold drinks and food.

Across from the market is the Fortaleza Cathedral, a fairly new, large cathedral in a neo-Gothic style with superb stained glass windows.  We took time to visit the cathedral before returning to the market.  After exploring two floors of the market and finding an ATM to get local money (Reals – worth about $.50 each), we settled into a café and shared a couple of beers with John and Judy.  After finishing the beer and doing a little more shopping, we got back on a shuttle bus to return to the ship.  As most of you know, we drive a 36-foot motorhome around the U.S. very comfortably.  The bus drivers in Fortaleza maneuver much larger 45-foot buses through heavy traffic, narrow lanes and tight turns with seemingly no effort at all.  We truly admire their skill.

 

Back at the ship we found the same lines waiting to re-board .  The lines moved quickly though, and soon we were back in the air-conditioned comfort of our floating hotel.  We had a bite to eat, and then retreated to the shade of our stateroom balcony.  There was a breeze blowing so it was a very comfortable place to sit and read until leaving Fortaleza mid-afternoon.

We have another day at sea before docking in Salvador, Brazil on Friday.

At Sea

Here we are midway through our four days at sea.  We’ve settled into a routine; Tom gets up and goes to the café for coffee while Debbie catches some extra sleep time.  Some days we go to a dining room for breakfast, some days we wait for lunch.  No one needs three meals per day on a cruise ship!  We find a place, either outside or inside, and read for a while. There’s usually at least one lecture that looks interesting to us.  Port information, life at sea, astronomy and digital photography are just some of the topics.   Sometimes there’s sun tanning time, sometimes a cool spot in the shade is appreciated.  Temperatures are in the low 80s, and we’ve had a mixture of sun and clouds with an occasional sprinkle or two;  all in all, pleasant and mellow.  We get together with our onboard friends, John & Judy and Lu & Joe, for cocktails in the evening before dinner.  We eat at 8 PM and sometimes attend a show or a movie before wandering off to bed.

Sunday night around 7:30 PM, somewhere off the coast of Suriname, we gathered together to partake in an annual ritual; watching the Super Bowl.  It was broadcast live via satellite, and was shown on the big outdoor screen and in a large show lounge.  It was not the commercial broadcast that you all watched; we had an ESPN international feed, so we missed all of the special commercials.  Instead, we saw commercials for ESPN’s upcoming coverage of events like the Masters Golf Tournament, an International Cricket competition, rugby and soccer tournaments, and the like.  We did see the pregame singing and the half-time show.  If the 49ers had played for the whole game instead of just the second half, we believe that the outcome would have been different, but congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens.

Monday was a formal night, so we got dressed up.  We don’t bring formal clothes, just a suit for Tom and a dressy-dress for Debbie.  There are three formal nights on this cruise out of nineteen total nights, so that’s really not a burden.

We crossed the equator early this morning before we stop at three Brazilian ports; Fortaleza, Salvador and Rio de Janiero.  We’ll be in Rio overnight next Sunday so that we can participate in Carnival.  We’re really looking forward to our time there.

Barbados & Trinidad

Mid-morning on Thursday we docked in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados.  Settled by the British in 1627, Barbados finally achieved independence in 1966.  The island is the easternmost in the Caribbean, straddling the line between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  It has a population of about 285,000.  Because of its British control for over three centuries, it is said to be “more English than England sheself”.  While tea is enjoyed every afternoon and cricket is played as the national sport, African heritage brought by sugar plantation slaves creates a unique culture.  Roadside fruit stands and fried fish stalls can be found all over the island.  They have a strange law that prohibits the wearing of camouflage clothing by civilians, as it is reserved for military personnel.  We were told that we would be returned to the ship if caught wearing camouflage.

We chose to join a shore excursion to sail on a catamaran and snorkel with sea turtles.  We visited an area near a beautiful beach where we put on our snorkel gear and swam with four large turtles.  As with the sting rays of the previous day, the turtles were calm and gentle, but perhaps a bit more wary of human touch.  They were of medium size, around two to three feet across, and according to our boat crew, probably 30 to 40 years old.  After the snorkel experience, we moored next to the beach for about an hour and many passengers swam to shore.  From there, we raised the sails and spent the next hour or so sailing with a brisk breeze before returning to shore and our ship and a 6 PM departure. 

We woke up on Friday morning in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the larger of the two island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.  The islands were discovered by Columbus on his third voyage in 1498. They remained Spanish until 1797 when they were taken under British rule.  The islands became an independent nation in the 1960s.  Trinidad and Tobago are the southern-most islands in the Caribbean, located only 7 miles from Venezuela.  The islands have a population of 1.3 million people, and the country is among the wealthiest of the Caribbean nations because of a large oil and gas industry.  Port of Spain is the country’s capital and as such has a large commercial and governmental community.  Trinidad was supposedly the birthplace of steel drums and calypso.

Instead of booking a shore excursion, we walked a short distance into the heart of the city.  On every corner stood a visitor guide, dressed in a bright red shirt, to assist us tourists find our way around the city.  After walking a few blocks, we entered a large park where a temporary stage had been set up.  The signs advertised a concert at noon every day of this week.  Since it was after 11 AM, we found a table and benches to make ourselves comfortable and ‘people watched’ until the concert began.  Very few ship visitors were in the park; it was a local event, for sure.  Once the concert began, we figured out that the music was some sort of highly amplified “Caribbean rap”.  A few minutes of that and we made tracks out of the park and down the street.  We were going to stop at a local restaurant that had been pointed out by a visitor guide, but somehow missed it.  Since we found ourselves in the vicinity of the dock, we returned to the ship for lunch and a beer.

 

 The traffic in this capital city was horrendous!  Long lines of cars and trucks were waiting at traffic signals, but when the signal changed, there was nowhere to go; gridlock!  We were supposed to leave Trinidad at 5 PM, but the ship had to have some sort of port clearance document that was sent from the government building to the port.  The courier got caught in traffic and couldn’t get to the ship on time so we were unable to get away for another hour.

We now have four days at sea before reaching our first port in Brazil.  Hooray!

St. Thomas & Antigua

After two restful sea days, we arrived in the port of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Tuesday morning.  The ship has a “shopping host” aboard whose job is to suggest places to shop on shore, and where to get the best bargains.  Since the Caribbean islands are all duty free and tax free, it is possible to get some worthwhile bargains ashore, but we suspect that the shopping host’s job is to get us to stores “recommended” by the cruise line.  The deals are good, but it seems like almost the same deal can be reached in any store in town.  In other words, the “shopping host” doesn't add much value to the experience.

We were on St. Thomas thirty years ago, on our honeymoon.  We stayed in a hotel in Charlotte Amalie for a week, and then took a week’s cruise on a 50 foot sailboat that we had chartered with good friends.  It was a great experience; one we’ll always remember.  The town has changed, though, in the years since we were last here; instead of a cruise ship or two, there are now four to six ships on any given day during the winter season.  Consequently, the shops have multiplied similarly.  There are hundreds of opportunities to buy jewelry, watches, liquor, etc. in town.

St. Thomas, along with three other islands, makes up the U.S. Virgin Islands, purchased from Denmark in 1917.  Several smaller islands make up the British Virgin Islands, which, we’re told, have a much more laid-back feel.  Before tourism took hold in the 1970’s, sugar and, to a lesser extent, coffee were the primary economic engines of the islands.  As with most Caribbean islands, pirates used the shores as their own and sailed out to plunder other vessels.  Blackbeard is said to have built a castle on a mountain top, and Sir Francis Drake utilized Megen’s Bay on the north side of St. Thomas to launch attacks on passing ships.

What does one do in a major shopping port like St. Thomas?  They shop, of course, and that’s just what we did.  With our friends, John & Judy Poremba from Santa Rosa, we went from shop to shop, looking for that special deal.  We did make some purchases, including watches for both of us.  Debbie has wanted a Movado watch for years, and we found a good deal here; almost two for one.  We made other purchases as well, but nothing significant.  We did find a local restaurant a couple of blocks off of the main street that served excellent Caribbean food.  We had conch in a lemon butter sauce that was very good.  Conch, like abalone, can be tough and chewy, but this was very tender and flavorful.  It was served with several side dishes, including fried plantains, Yum!  We wandered back to the ship in mid-afternoon since the Grand Princess was set to sail at 5 PM.

By the time we awoke the next morning we were in the port of St. Johns on the island of Antigua.  Antigua’s claim to fame is its 365 beaches, one for each day of the year.  Christopher Columbus landed in Antigua in 1493 and named the island in honor of the Church of Santa Maria de la Antigua in Seville, Spain.  The British colonized it in 1632 and established large-scale sugar cultivation.  In the 18^th Century, Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed into Antigua in 1784, and a few years later, the British established one of the most important military bases in the Caribbean at English Harbor.  The dockyard once served as the Headquarters of the British fleet in the Leeward Islands.  That headquarters has now been turned into a museum and National Park.

We decided to visit a small bay on the eastern side of the island and swim with the sting rays.  Sting Ray City can be found several places in the Caribbean; we have been to one previously in the Cayman Islands.   Once at the bay, we boarded a boat for a five minute ride to a coral reef and shallow sand bar where we got off into waist-deep water.  Moments later, here came the sting rays, drawn by the boatmen who had buckets of squid.  There were twenty-five or more sting rays, most of them about three feet across.  They were swimming slowly among the tourists, looking for a squid breakfast no doubt.  The only trick to feeding them was to hold a squid in your fist, with fingers and thumbs tucked in.  They swam over your fist and kind of sucked the squid from your hand.  Their skin surface was silky smooth and soft to the touch.  A few tourists squealed at the touch of a sting ray, but most enjoyed the encounter.  There was also a coral reef in the area and some visitors snorkeled over the reef.

 

After about an hour, we reboarded the boat and returned to the bay shore where there were fresh water showers available to rinse off the salty sea water.  They also served a rum punch that was mostly rum; they say it’s cheaper than the fruit juice they mix it with. Then we traveled back through the countryside to St. John.  We got back on the ship, changed clothes and had lunch.  We got off the ship again to explore the town.  Antigua is a beautiful island and St. John is a charming little city.  We decided we’d like to come back here.

We returned to the ship for a 5 PM sail-away.  Tomorrow we’ll be in Barbados.

Sail Away - January 26, 2013

We’re traveling again!  This time it’s a cruise aboard the Grand Princess from Fort Lauderdale to Buenos Aires; 19 days.  The highlight of the trip for us is a two day stay in Rio de Janiero during their world-famous Carnival celebration.  We will also stop at a couple of other Brazilian port cities, and four islands in the Caribbean.

We caught the Santa Rosa Airport Express on Thursday evening for the ride to SFO.  Once there, we transferred to a hotel shuttle to a hotel near the airport.  Pretty ingenious, huh?  The next morning we caught the hotel shuttle back to the airport and our Virgin America flight to Fort Lauderdale.  It was a spectacularly uneventful flight.  Once on the ground again, we took a shuttle bus through Fort Lauderdale’s evening traffic rush to our hotel for the night.  After checking in and grabbing a beer at the hotel bar, we got a dinner recommendation from the bartender for a nearby Cuban restaurant.  We last enjoyed Cuban food a number of years ago in Key West, and still remember how good it was, so we were quickly on our way.

It was a short walk, even though we got a little lost.  Once there, we sat back to enjoy a couple of what the menu called a “Giant Mojito”.  The server seemed a little surprised that we ordered one each, but whatever.  When we saw her carrying one mojito, and another server carrying the other, we figured we were in trouble!   We told her we were walking, not driving, and she seemed OK with that.  The drink was delicious, as was the food that followed.  We made it safely back to our hotel where Tom almost immediately fell asleep (or passed out?).  However we slept well and both of us were fine the next morning.

We were scheduled for a shuttle bus to the cruise terminal at 11 AM, and one showed up right on schedule, but through some sort of mix-up, there were more passengers waiting than could be accommodated in the medium size bus.  So the driver told us that they were sending a larger bus, and he left, without taking anyone!  A 30-minute wait brought another bus, and upon boarding, we figured out that this was a PARTY BUS!!  Flashing lights, thumping music, and video screens front and back gave us the first clue; the next clue was the presence of a chrome pole in the center of the bus.  If you have cruised before, you can probably figure out that this was not normal transportation for cruise passengers.  Once we were all loaded, we took off to the cruise terminal, Boom-bada-boom-bada-boom.

Ears ringing, we got off the bus to see a line of several hundred people, all waiting to board our ship.  Bummer!!  Since cruise lines board thousands of people every week, you’d think they could do it with efficiency, but no, they haven’t figured it out, yet.  About two hours later, we finally got on the ship and made it to our room.  The next step was, of course, to find a beer and some lunch.  Princess ships have a hamburger/hot dog stand on the pool deck next to a cocktail bar, so it was pretty much one-stop shopping.

We were set to sail at 4 pm, but at that time there was still a line of passengers waiting to board.  Besides that, we understand that a plane-load of passengers had yet to arrive.  We finally got underway around 6 pm after a beautiful sunset with all souls on board. 

A highlight so far is a lecturer, John Maxtone-Graham, an octogenarian who is an author and ship historian whose specialty is Atlantic Ocean Liners.  On Sunday he spoke about the early days of steamships in the Atlantic, from the 1830’s to the Titanic tragedy of 1912.  Today he told stories told to him by survivors of the Titanic sinking.  As I said, he’s an octogenarian, so he was able to interview at least three of them before they died.  He tells fascinating stories and we look forward to hearing more from him as the cruise progresses.

We have two days at sea before arriving in St. Thomas on Tuesday.  We spent our honeymoon there almost thirty years ago, so we know that the primary activity on the island is shopping.  I expect that we’ll do just that, at least for a while.  We’re on St. Thomas for the day, and then head off to Antigua on Wednesday.

We’ll have more to tell you in a day or so.