Tobago (FEB 10)

Scarborough was experiencing occasional light showers when VEENDAM entered Rockly Bay.  The ship backing into the pier gave us both a good and dry view of our arrival from our stern-facing veranda.

a bit down the list from the most impressive pilot boat we've ever seen

Leaving the ship, our bus climbed up to Fort King George which overlooks Scarborough harbor. The view was hazy, so we could not see Trinidad.  The small museum was of passing interest (with no photography allowed).

Our next stop was Richmond Great House.  Getting there required winding our way along the coast, periodically climbing over ridge lines that took us over 100’ above sea level between bays.

Upon arriving, we were given a tour of the inside of the house; the last original ‘great house’ on the island.  It was now an intimate hotel with only nine rooms.  After the tour, we walked the ground admiring the house and grounds, then back on the bus.

We stopped at Speyside Lookout before descending to Speyside in Tyrrel's Bay, then the bus climbed up and over to come down on the other side of the island at Charlotteville.

After a walkabout there, we backtracked, this time climbing higher to Flagstaff Hill from which we had a hazy view of the Caribbean side and a clear view of the Atlantic side.

We returned to Speyside where we had lunch at Jemma's Treehouse. The 'tree house' actually did have a tree passing through its second story dining area.

The meal was served family style. The food was generally good. The ladies serving us were pleasant.

There was a brief stop at Hillsborough Bay (aka Hope Bay) on our return to Scarborough and VEENDAM.

Back aboard, with VEENDAM stern in at the pier, our stateroom overlooked the main street in Scarborough.  Coming from there was music so loud at first I thought the door to the veranda had been left open.  We were experiencing a very impressive sound system mounted on a truck; a system so big it needed a large generator to run it.  The truck was leading a group of cars festooned with balloons.  In each car was a young lady waving at people.  We speculated the procession had something to do with the beginning of Carnaval. 

Red squares in upper picture are audio speakers;
blue square is generator needed to power them

On the right-hand side of picture above, note the KFC. No big deal by itself as KFC is a global franchise.  What is notable is that the people of Trinidad and Tobago love chicken so much that a store in Port of Spain holds the KFC record for the most fried chicken sold in a single day. Now that some finger licking.

Since arriving, across the pier from VEENDAM was LOGOS HOPE. Owned by a Germany Christian charity, it appeared to have a young, international manifest of crew and passengers.

We departed on schedule. We are scheduled to arrive at our next port of call - Barbados - about 8:00 AM tomorrow. 

Barbados (FEB 11)

We arrived in Barbados on schedule about 7:30 AM, but were nevertheless last into port behind two Windstar ships (once of which appeared to be the former Seaborne LEGEND), a five-mast Wind Clippers ship (shown in a later picture) and the massive P&O liner BRITTANIA.

Although we had arrived in Barbados by ship before, I could not recall the port until I saw these distinctive silos. Seeing them not only reminded me of the port, but the long, long walk we took last time we visited it that began and ended by passing underneath them.  (Click here to read post on 2014 visit.)

Today we headed to the beach, catching a shuttle to a complex called The Boatyard that included a beach, restaurant and naturally, a huge bar.  The entrance fee ($20pp) included beach access with beach chairs and umbrellas, welcome drink, rest rooms, sea turtle trip and shuttle back to the cruise ship terminal.  Importantly, there was security that kept away beach peddlers and reduced the risk of leaving things unattended while swimming. 

We had a good time.  Other that in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, this was the first chance I had to use a waterproof Nikon W135 that I purchased last fall.  (Yes, this Canon man bought a Nikon.  I could find nothing comparable in the Canon line.)  We did not go on the sea turtle watch.  Pam talked to several people who did it. They were less that impressed by the experience; few turtles and not much other marine life. 

As advertised, when we were ready to leave there was a van to take us back to the cruise terminal. 

Now that's a travel-lift!

As we left the harbor we got a view of the 5-mast ship.  Such ships might have been huge in their day, but that designation has been redefined by ships such as BRITTANIA.

Our next port of call is Devil’s Island with a sea day first.

Devil's Island (FEB 13)

We could see the mainland of French Guiana at a distance of about seven nautical miles as we approached “Devil’s Island.”

The quotations marks denote the common misconception that it is a solitary island.  There are actually three islands – Ile Saint Joseph, Ile Royale and Ile du Diable - that collectively constitute Iles du Salut.  All three at various times have been, but no longer are, part of the penal colony known as Devil’s Island. 

The islands being part of French Guiana and French Guiana in turn being an autonomous region of France, we were in French territorial waters. 

After anchoring in shallow enough water to raise clouds of mud...

…the ship had to clear French immigration and customs quarantine before anyone could go ashore. 

We landed on Ile Royale, the island that was the hub of the penal colony and where the majority of the prisoners were kept.

We walked a trail that was a slow ascent toward the top of the island.  Along the way we came across monkeys, a few buildings and a graveyard.  The graveyard was not for prisoners who were unceremoniously thrown into the sea.  And it was a lot of prisoners.  Of the approximately 80,000 men sent there, few departed the penal colony vertically.

Although not a strenuous climb, the temperature and humidity made it a challenging one, especially since we were ‘over-dressed’, so we were glad to reach the top. 

Due to concerns about Zika, we were admonished to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts as well as lather ourselves in bug repellant.  It quickly became apparent that this was unnecessary as we saw and heard no bugs. 

We got a closer look at the lighthouse we had seen as the ship approached the island.  There was also some sort of signal equipment on the island and a small garrison of French soldiers to attend to it. 

The prison itself was in considerable disrepair, having been shut down in 1952, but there was still plenty of evidence of what a hell-hole it must have been. 

We continued to wander the grounds, seeing where the community that guarded and administered the prison lived. 

There was a small hotel on the island.  While not exactly a happening place to go for a vacation, I suppose there was a certain novelty factor…

…presuming one of these guys did not crawl into your room.  (Note the length of the tail.)

On the way back down to the pier, we came across a capybara.

Standing out the pier, we could see several sea turtles nibbling things off the underwater stones of the pier.

One of the ship’s tenders had a mechanical problem that necessitated a small delay in our departure. 

Once that anchor was up, the ship retraced its arrival approach until we were back in deep water.  VEENDAM then shaped up on a course for Belem. 

We will be at sea tomorrow, crossing the equator some time in the afternoon or evening. 

For more information about Devil’s Island, click here.

Crossing the Equator (FEB 14)

Today the ship will cross the equator.

At noon today, those who wished could “swim” across the equator.  This activity replaced the more traditional Neptune and his court harassing crew and (participating) passengers who had not crossed it before.  From our perspective, at one level, it was too bad to see the traditional ceremony gone.  On the other hand, it was a nice change of program.

For those of you who were paying attention, the first paragraph was in the future tense and the second in the past tense.  The event took place at a convenient time – just before lunch.  The actually crossing will occur at an inconvenient time – somewhere near midnight.

As of 1800 (-3 UTC), we were at 1^o17’21” north of the equator about 90 NM northeast of the closest point of land in South America.

The waiters in the dining room sang me an Indonesian version of happy birthday.

Belem (FEB 15)

VEENDAM anchored off Icoaraci in the Baia do Guajara on the Guama River, about 50 miles upriver from the ocean.  It was necessary to anchor here as the water shoaled closer to Belem, about 12 miles further into the bay.  We tendered ashore.  We thought that we would be doing this in local craft, but it was in the ship’s boats.

We boarded our tour bus for the drive to Belem where our first stop would be one of Brazil’s biggest open-air markets with over 2,000 stands.

The black specks in the upper left corner are not a dirty camera lens,
but rather buzzards circling the fish market.

From the market, we walked to a nearby fort that at one time protected Belem.  Along the way we passed a truck full of loudspeakers blaring out something about pay.  Based on the number of police and soldiers stationed around it, as we approached we thought it might be the beginnings of the extension of a police strike in Vitoria.  Teasing out snippets of what was being said at some outrageously loud decibel level and as we got closer seeing the sign on the side of the truck, it became clear this political rally was about pay for teachers.  (Brazil has lots of serious financial problems as it goes through its worst economic depression in decades.)

Great mural!

As forts go, it was quite uninteresting.  There were a few fun photo ops.

Make love, not war!

Make love, not war!

Make selfie, not war?

The church outside the fort was not the one we were scheduled to visit, so it was back onto the bus to get to Basilica de Nossa Senhora de Nazare.  I could not get back far enough to get a good picture of the outside of it, but it was deceiving unimpressive for what was housed within it.

ribbons attached to the fence as prayers and remembrances

Doors into the basilica

A quick ride in our bus, which incidentally was named…

…(and I am going to guess without Marvel Comics’ permission), we arrived at Bosque Rodrigues Alves BotanicalGardens which had a combination of plant and animal life.

Our bus then returned us to Icoaraci, where we boarded a tender back to the ship where so entertainment was taking place by the pool.

I will leave it to you to write your own caption

When hauled, the anchor did not stow properly, a fact that was not immediately apparent to the crew.  After proceeding a few miles downriver, it was necessary to heave-to (i.e. stop) so that a series of options could be tried to resolve the problem.  One approach involved the pilot boat trying to get the kink out of the chain.  Hummm – small pilot boat working underneath a 20-ton anchor.  Volunteers? 

Ultimately the ship had to re-anchor and put a strain on the chain.  This solved the problem.  VEENDAM proceeded to sea through a series of tropical rain showers – each short but intense.