Category: Amazon, Caribbean and Azores

Today, at around lunchtime, we arrived at the capital city of Amazonas, Manaus. It’s a two-day, overnight stopover; Tracey and I are escorting a tour tomorrow, so we had all afternoon to wander into the city and explore. Marco Polo is berthed alongside the cargo quay, which has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is that we are some way...

Today, we arrived in Boca Do Valeria. Billed as an opportunity to experience life in a genuine Amazonian indian village, Boca Do Valeria never fails to divide passengers. Throughout the year, there are about half a dozen or so cruise ships that stop by and visit the village, bringing gifts and 21st Century values and prejudices to an existence that,...

This morning, we sailed past Santarem, a place we’ll be returning to in a few days time, and dropped anchor about 20 miles further on, off the small village of Alter De Chao. Alter Do Chao is known locally as the Caribbean of the Amazon because, with its great bathing waters in what is basically a large lagoon, this is...

This morning we awoke to find ourselves in the mouth of the great River Amazon. Tracey was up at the crack of dawn, heading upstairs, loaded down with cameras hoping to see lots of moths and bugs on deck, while I grabbed a few extra minutes before joining her (don’t get me wrong, I like bugs too, but I can’t...

Today’s watercolour lesson was on painting simple, but effective, figures. As it turns out, though not entirely unexpectedly, it was also my final lesson for the next ten days, because the craft room is going to be taken over by Immigration officials for the whole time we are in Brazilian waters. At the end of the class, we packed up...