Category: Amazon, Caribbean and Azores

Today, having sailed out of the mouth of the Amazon, headed South a little way, and then back West, into Brazil along the River Para, we dropped anchor by our final Brazilian destination, Icoaraci, a stone’s throw away from the city of Belem (which is a shortened version of ‘Bethlehem’). We were given escorting duties on the ‘Belem Transfer’, which...

Today has been a long, relaxing day on the river. Because the Brazilian authorities still occupy the Craft Room, I haven’t had any classes to do, so I’ve spent most of the day in the cabin, painting scenes from where we’ve been, emerging for only for lunch and for some fresh air in the late afternoon.

Today, we arrived in Santarem, on the Tapajos River. With no tour escorting duties assigned to us, we had all morning to take a leisurely walk into town (all-aboard time was 2:30pm). It’s only about one and a half miles from the quayside, where the Marco Polo was berthed, to the centre of town. It’s a hot walk, though, and...

Today, we dropped anchor near Parintins and prepared to launch a tender operation to get everyone to shore. Parintins is quite a small town notable for one particular event; the annual Boi Bumba Festival, where teams from towns and villages from all around the area (roughly split into two categories; The Reds and The Blues) compete against one another to...

This morning, Tracey and I were breakfasted and on the quayside by 8am, ready and raring to escort a tour grandly titled ‘The Amazonian Experience’. Because each river boat (of which there were three) had 60 passengers on it, two escorts per boat were assigned, which meant we got to enjoy the tour togevva… Our all-day tour began with a...