20260122 Thursday Belem, Brazil 0800 - 1700
Belém, capital of the state of Pará, is a port city and gateway to Brazil’s lower Amazon region. By Guajará Bay, the riverfront district Cidade Velha (old town) preserves Portuguese-colonial architecture, including churches, colorful azulejo-tile houses and a 17th-century fortification known as Forte do Presépio. Ver-o-Peso is a vast, open-air market on the water selling Amazonian fish, fruit and handicrafts.
Wiki for Belem
Belem is Portuguese for Bethlehem. It's several hours upstream the river that is anther mouth of the Amazon, not the main one.
No other ships are visiting today. Not many do. We're the only ship visiting this week. We'll take the ship's tour, a cruise on a tributary of the Amazon River, including a hike in the jungle.
As noted yesterday, we canceled out of today's cruise/hike.
In cruising one must remain flexible. For instance, we were supposed to have docked at Tobago. Due to weather, we anchored offshore and tendered people ashore.
The cruise itinerary says we'll dock here. The cruise ship dock is close to the old scenic part of the city. But for reasons unknown to us, we are anchored in mid-stream tendering people ashore to a point about 10km downstream from the cruise dock.
So our idea of walking ashore at the cruise port and taking a taxi about a mile to the Cathedral and Ver-o-Peso is not to be. Humph. Time to get out the books. O has another John Sandford mystery going.
The local boats doing tendering are using the starboard side (R). There is a fueling barge alongside to port from which we're taking fuel. The ship swings around as the tide dictates.
NB: The lettering on the tender at right translates to "In God We Trust".
About 1000 a wild shower came through; like most it started and stopped as though someone flipped a switch.
We read until noon, then lunch in the Patio. Very small crowd since most went ashore. More reading and walking about taking pictures until Trivia time. We did 12 against 17 in General, and Laura carried the ball for 11 against 19 in 1970´s music.
We watched the ship turn about and head for the ocean. And watched the jungle as we passed by it.
Photo Link (not many)
We attended by invitation the Captain's Breakfast in the MDR for advanced level repeat-guests. Very nice. Captain is a huge Croatian. D's all pleased that she can go to splurge-type functions and restrain herself. O's finding NA drinks that taste right; today was a non-vodka Bloody Mary.
Then the lecture on up-coming cruises and incentives to take them. Good information, perhaps too much. We have the appointment to see her to price a future cruise later today..
Finally got yesterday's pictures posted - not many, since we didn't go all the way to the city.
So we read our books and discussed future cruises until 1500. Then the crossing-the-line ceremony took place. King Neptune and his queen reigned, accepted the shellbacks and pronounced judgement on the pollywogs. It drew a big crowd; the walking deck level was full looking down. The pollywogs were forced to kiss the fish (cold, dead, fish on ice) and anointed with all sorts of vile ointments and thrown into the pool. Then they were accepted by King Neptune as shellbacks and the court adjourned.
The Photo Link contains many pictures.
We went to our appointment with the Future Cruise sales representative, Sarah Way. On-board flash sale, our promotion to the next level with six "free" nights and another discount set the price for the cruise down to $6,500 total. The cruise is 18 nights, starting 30 April 2027, Tokyo to Vancouver with intermediate stops in Japan and Alaska. Super price.
Since that's 15 months away, we'll consider a short(er) cruise later in this year. The ship we like (Azamara Quest, the one we're on currently) will be totally refurbished in October 2026, so maybe after that.
Nice dinner with Igor serving and Jacky assisting. Decided not to do the British Rock show.
20260124 Saturday At Sea
Loafing in the morning with coffee and continental in the cabin. Watching TV grind on about the major winter storm through mid-america. O doubts it will be as bad as forecast, but it is cold up north; -16f in Grand Raods.
We have things to do, but they can be done this afternoon. Nice weather, ship rolling gently.
O was looking in the shops and bought an Azamara Quest ball cap using On-Board Credit. Tag said $30 but it cost $39 due to the 30% sales tax Brazil has placed on tourists. We have to pay because the ship is visiting Brazil. Humph.
O went to Excursions to see what the ship offers for transit to the airport 1/31. Turns out they offered an excursion touring Rio with drop-off at the airport in late afternoon. But they removed the offer due to little participation.
That sort of excursion is what we have scheduled with TripAdvisor, but we are loosing confidence in them - they don't communicate. So we're looking around again.
The Captain's Cocktail Party for Loyal Guests started at 1730. Wine, nibbles, etc. The Captain thanked everyone for their loyalty and said they'd keep doing good things. Martin Lawson, the Cruise Director did the same, then sang a great sea ballad. Others performed also, including Monaldo doing Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City from Oklahoma!!.
Dinner in Igor's area of the MDR, good service, great prime rib. Tonight's entertainer is a cast member doing John Denver; we hesitated but finally said we'd heard him enough in the 70's, fifty years ago.
So back to the books and computers.
