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www.maxpages.com/marcopolo2 The voyage of the Marco Polo from Buenos Aires to Manaus (see article) was very pleasant and the exit from Brazil down the Amazon and into the Caribbean promised to be equally enjoyable. March 8, 1700 departed Manaus for Boca da Valeria. Manaus was originally known as the fortress on the sandbar and the city has come a long ways since then. Having reached its peak in the rubber boom days, the city declined but now is in good health and apparently prospering as a regional trade center and free port for Amazonia (Manaus Photos). Inasmuch as we departed an hour before sunset at 1800 (sunrise was at 0555 so you can see how close we were to the equator), we were able to witness the merging of the waters of the Amazon (Solimoes) and the Rio Negro which is the second largest river in Amazonia. This particular sailaway was one of the better ones. March 9, 1100/1800. Boca da Valeria, accessed by tenders, is a very small village with most of the homes scattered up river. I organized a small party of seven and we rented one of the relatively larger power boats for a ride up the lazy river and had a very nice outing once we were out of sight of the village and its crowd of visitors. We waved to the few people in their homes, built of wood and mostly on stilts, but for the most part there was no sign of human habitation and it was like cruising upriver one hundred years ago or, for that matter, one hundred years from now. March 10, Santarem is a good sized city that appears to be alive with trade and river boats. I did another tour by taxi and felt that I had covered the area pretty well. I also did quite a bit of walking which not only helps to see the sidestreets but also helps the appetite when I face the next big dinner again. March 11. Cruising the Amazon. It was restful making our way downstream and always in sight of land - sometimes extremely close to the river banks. Little river traffic was encountered and one has to wonder about that. Not much in the way of wildlife except for some few birds but that was not particularly a shortcoming. I have found that cruising and seeing wildlife is almost incompatible with a few outstanding exceptions. We crossed the equator a third time this trip when we exited the Amazon. There was no crossing celebration as there was on the way into the river; however, the token ceremony was little missed. Activities, of course, continued nonstop aboard ship and the hours just melted away. March 12. Cruising the Atlantic was just what the doctor ordered. Quiet with enough lectures, activities and entertainment to fill the day. Of special note, the professional South African dance team of Thabo and Sophia were outstanding not only in their short dance presentations but in their very effective method of instruction in both ballroom and line dancing. There was a marvelous magician onboard named Vladimir from Russia who had no end of mystifying tricks. I had been selected to help him in one of them and although I have learned never to volunteer in these situations, I acquiesced and he proceeded to wrap me in a big bag with his feminine assistant with only my head protruding from the bag. Within a moment or two he managed to have me transer my suit coat to his wife who had been all tied up with rope earlier and was still tied up afterwards but with my oversized coat draped over her but under the ropes. It was good fun and I was asked so many times how it was done but, true to the wizard's code of conduct, I had to decline to explain the trick but in truth, like all of his tricks, I still don't know how it all happened. March 13, 0700/1800. Devil's Island, situated twelve miles off the Southamerican mainland, is located in French Guiana which is still a dependency of France. There are three islands in the Iles du Salut (Salvation Islands) and the one that the ship tenders visit is Isle Royale where the administrative headquarters and some of the prisoner cells are located. It is a very pretty group of islands which has been reforested since prison days. Devil's Island and St. Joseph's Island are smaller and both seem within a half mile of the main island. The Salvation Islands were named when mainlanders fled to these islands to escape malaria and sickness which was then rampant on the forested coast. Of course, the penal colony lent a different meaning to the name. Incidentally, the island museum makes it clear that the author of Papillon never escaped from the islands but from a location on the mainland and used accounts of other inmates and attributed them to himself. Ah, you just can't trust those convicts. There are now only a handful of people living on the island - two policemen, a woman who runs a small hotel and three or four hotel helpers. Others, such as the young museum director, live on the mainland and ride the hour-long catamaran ferry to the island. Incidentally, a French patrol boat was visiting the islands when we were there and they invited me into the former administrator's home to see the huge hollowed out stone that was used for a bathtub. It will be there long after the building falls down, I'm sure. There were quite a few small monkeys on the island and a number of free macaws and parrots not to mention a few peacocks strutting around. Incidentally, tenders are used to transfer passengers to and from the island. Our ship was anchored rather far from the islands and the sea was rough enough to cause my tender to smash repeatedly into the ship's landing and I could clearly see a crack develop in the hull near the middle of the boat. Some fun. March 14. Enroute to Tobago. This was one of the more curious portions of the voyage. We apparently were way ahead of schedule for unstated reasons and we were informed that due to the possibility of a storm that we would proceed directly to Tobago and arrive the next day instead of the day after. As most people know, there are no large tropical storms at this latitude and, in fact, the seas were quite calm and sailing could not be better. The TV daily navigation reports showed no particular increase in speed and one can only speculate that perhaps the navigator expected less helping current coming down the river. Who knows? Another reason bandied about was that the ship needed to replenish its water supply since we were so profligate in its use. In any event, we were to have an unusual extra day in Tobago and that was a plus for most of the passengers. March 15, 1100 arrival in Scarborough which is the principal port in Tobago. The island is part of the independent country of Trinidad and Tobago and is considered more of a tourist destination than its larger neighbor to the south. I took a taxi to the far eastern end of the island to Man-of-War Bay, Charlotteville and Speyside along the southern coastal road. It was pretty to be along the water, then over ridges inland only to come down to the water again and again. I had to try the swimming and found it both readily accessible and pleasurable. Tobago is considered to thave some of the best beaches in the Caribbean (Frommer's). In Trinidad, one has to go quite a ways from the main city to find similar suitable beaches. In the evening, the ship invited a local twelve-piece steel drum band to play during an al fresco barbecue. Of course, the aft deck is rather small and open to the weather so the band played two decks above in a tight but a rather protected area from an unexpected rain. One could hear the great music from the group but one could not appreciate their energy and fast play until getting closer and that was difficult enough but worth the effort. I have come to the conclusion that although the open decks at the stern of the ship are very pleasant indeed, they are just not big enough for all the uses they need to be employed. March 16 in Tobago and this day was spent by taking a taxi to the western end of the island at Crown Point where a number of us boarded a glass-bottom boat for a four hour ride past Pigeons Point out to the Buccoo Reef. The display of fish and reef life was moderately interesting but the sunny day and the opportunity to swim and snorkel off the ship made it an outstanding success as far as I was concerned. Pigeons Point and Crown Point beaches are excellent and Buccoo Reef is considered one of the better snorkeling areas in the Caribbean (Frommer's). Departure from Scarborough was at midnight so everyone had a full day on the island. Most seemed to take it easy in town with a little shopping and sightseeing. And there was another late-evening Caribbean deck party with a lot of music and some amusing entertainment before the eventual sailaway. March 17, 0800/1900 St. George's in Grenada. on St. Patrick's Day. The ship's daily program was printed in green to honor the day. And the independent country of Grenada is green enough with its rainforests and spices. St. George's is interesting and very hilly which affords some good views particularly from the hilltop Fort George. The picturesque Carenage is a horseshoe-shaped harbor that has shops and waterside stands that are close to the ship's alongside mooring. I motored down towards the southern end of the island and stopped at Grand Anse, considered one of the Caribbean's best beaches (Frommer's) for a little swim which made my day. March 18, 0800/1800 Castries is the principal port of the independent country of St. Lucia. Castries is also the capital of the island country. The signature of the island is the unmistakable twin Pitons (peaks rising to 2,600') which are in the southwest of the island and, happily in our case, were visible very early in the morning as the ship sailed north. A number of passengers took a rather long bus ride to Soufriere to see the fumeroles and the peaks up closer. I had been there before so I headed the other way and took a taxi up to Pigeon Island National Park near the northern end of the island. I also had the taximan drive up to the lighthouse near the airport to get a nifty view of the city and surrounding coastline. Incidentally, the Vigie Airport runs right through a housing district and then along the coast and from the ship it appears the planes were landing on a street rather than a strip. Interesting. March 19, arrival in Bridgetown the capital of the independent country of Barbados was early and it was possible to depart probably from 0600 onwards. I did not have an early flight so a casual breakfast and a few goodbyes to fellow passengers was followed by a taxi ride out to the main airport east of the city. It is surprising at how much the city has grown recently. It looks fairly prosperous at least in comparison to some of the other Caribbean urban areas. The flight out permitted a bit of aerial photography and the American Airlines departure was quick and on time. Overall, both voyages aboard the Marco Polo were most pleasant and undoubtedly will remain memorable. |
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