Bec goes wandering

Road Town (Tortola) Virgin Is.

boatybex — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:41:00 GMT

Terre-de-Haut, Guadeloupe

boatybex — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 01:45:00 GMT

Bridgetown, Barbados

boatybex — Sat, 9 Mar 2013 01:48:00 GMT

Devils Island French Guiana

boatybex — Thu, 7 Mar 2013 00:45:00 GMT

Devils Island French Guiana

Devil’s Island (French: Île du Diable) is the smallest and northernmost island of the three rocky islands that make up Devil’s Island (nowadays known by their original name, the Iles du Salut), located about 6.9 miles off the coast of French Guiana (South America) near the capital city of Cayenne.
It has an area of 34.6 acres. It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952.

We went ashore by tender to Ile Royale, the island where all the prisoners and administration were.

You stand on the wooden jetty that once echoed to the shuffle of shackled feet, it’s not difficult to imagine the men in shapeless uniforms who died here. Their ghosts are everywhere in the crumbling ruins. On Royale the air of colonial France still lingers in the governor’s house, the church, the hospital and admin blocks. Although time and foliage have softened their imposing features, the main prison blocks where 2,000 convicts were once imprisoned remain

Some of the buildings have been partially restored and others are ghostly reminders of the suffering and horrors which took place on these beautiful islands.

The setting is as beautiful as any tropical island paradise. But, walking through the buildings and ruins, you can’t help but feel the ghosts of the prisoners who suffered and died here. Over 80,000 prisoners were sent to the islands but only 30,000 survived.

I was particularly moved by the building for the “condemned and solitary confinement”. I truly can’t imagine what it must have been like to spend months and even years in the cells which I measured as about 5 feet wide and 10 feet long.

The French government relied upon malaria and severe climate to finish off “undesirable” citizens. To make matters worse, those who were “awarded” command of such camps were not exactly “cream of the crop” officers. Without supervision, some of them were sadistic. It was tantamount to murder, but the state could claim ignorance. Ile du Diable, considered escape-proof because of strong currents and sharks, was akin to a death sentence – 70% of the inmates died.

Despite the virtual impossibility of escape, some did achieve it. One man who made it back to civilisation, was safe cracker Henri “Papillon” Charriere, so called for the butterfly tattoo on his chest. Framed for murder, he was transported there in 1930 from I’lle de Re, off La Rochelle in France, and spent 13 years on Royale. His best seller Papillon, published in 1970, was eventually made into a harrowing film starring Steve McQueen as Charriere, and Dustin Hoffman as fellow convict Louis Dega who allegedly kept a fortune in francs stuffed up his rectum. It was all in vain.

Viewing the sea from the rocky point where the dead were thrown to the sharks, one wonders how Papillon figured every seventh wave was so powerful that he could be swept out to sea on a sack of coconut shells. But that is how he eventually escaped. Today, there are few, if any sharks around; only turtles. But when there was a plentiful supply of bodies, their fins were a familiar sight when the bell rang from the prison church. This was their cue for feeding time as more bodies would be tossed into the water.

Though the island is steep in this grim history it is facinating to explore.

Wandering around inside the aforementioned governor’s house, the church, the hospital and admin blocks is facintating. The small and sad Childrens Cemetary,
The fresh water dam that now house a few caimans. Trees full of free roaming monkeys
Macaw parrots. and of course the agoutis (huge long leg guineau pig- like creatures)

Some of the stairways carved into hillsides were a bit tricky but we still chose to preserve on that path !! (another one of mums famous shortcuts)
The giftshop/restaurant/restrooms/bar was a welcome stop for many fellow travellers but we wanted to explore more

It was a very interesting day and in a strange way a most beautiful place.
I am very glad I made the effort to get here.

Parintins, Brazil

boatybex — Mon, 4 Mar 2013 01:50:00 GMT

Parintins, Brazil

Parintins is a town in the far east of the Amazonas state, Brazil. It is located in the municipality of the same name, which is part of a microregion also named Parintins. The city is located on Tupinambarana island in the Amazon River.

Parintins is a small town of about 80,000 people on the Amazon River in Brazil, about 350 miles from Manaus. The village is 200 years old and has a rich Indian heritage.

Parintins is another tender port

It was a wet morning as we took the ship’s tender to town. There is a giant log jam at the peir with flooded debris from wet season Amazon

Local riverboats stop at Partintins, which has shopping opportunities for locals (hardware, agricultural and veterinary supplies, meat and fish, clothing, hammocks, and pharmacy). There are also a couple of souvenir type stores and at the pier there are kiosks with local handicrafts.

The town is renowned for its annual Boi Bumba Festival, which is held in June and draws about 200,000 visitors (most sleeping on the boats that they arrived on). The Boi Bumba Festival is drawn from local folklore and reenacts the kidnapping, death, and resurrection of an ox (a metaphor for their agricultural cycles). It has turned into a competition between two Boi (bull) teams, the red one with a white bull and the blue one with a black bull. The bulls are seen all over town – even phone booths depict the bulls.

The Boi Bumba is really a friendly competition that started between two Parintins' families prior to 1920. The legend involves a young woman, her husband, a bull, and a happy ending. The Boi Bumba Festival involves a lot of music, dancing, costumes, and huge animal floats.

The festival is said to be second only to Carnival in Rio and is heavily attended by locals and visitors alike.

A 35,000 stadium was built for the Boi Bumba parades; the teams are judged on their music, dancing, performances, and costumes. The ship offered a shore excursion at a Boi Bumba Show, which is performed in the convention center near the pier. I did not attend this show, but was told that it had elaborate staging and costumes and the dancing was more tribal than Samba.

Instead I decided to explore the town on my own

An interesting fact : Parintins has Coca-Cola signs in blue as well as tradional red, to mark the colour and teams of Boi Bumba

There were kiosks selling handicrafts both in town where we disembarked the river boat and at the tender pier. There were a lot of wood carvings, blow pipes, and preserved piranha fish for sale.

A few days ago the ship held a Silent Auction to benefit a local school in Parintins. Throughout the cruise various groups have been making items that were donated to the auction, notably the Sit, Knit & Needlework group and the watercolor class. Also for auction were a sweat shirt and ball caps from the personnel at Palmer Station, the display and navigation charts used during the Antarctic portion of our cruise, a bridge tour for two, a cocktail with your two favorite members of the exploration staff, "A Little Something" with the captain ("A Little Something" is held every day at 5:00 p.m. and features a glass of wine and an appetizer), a cooking lesson with Hotel Manager Firmin, and a private dance lesson, Wedding Vow renewals. Photographs and DVDs of the trip.

During our call to Parintins under the direction of the Grand Voyage Hostess Annette Gonzalez had Father Benito, teachers and the children from Casa de Acholhida on-board.

Annette had arranged fund-raising activities during the Grand South America Voyage with guests and crew. We were successful in raising $6,500, which was then donated to the school for supplies and scholarships for students.

The teachers and children were treated to a specialty lunch hosted by the Culinary, Beverage and Dining Room teams. The children left with full bellies, great memories and lots of gifts from guests and crew. Father Benito presented Captain Tim Roberts with two paintings.

Manaus, Brazil

boatybex — Sun, 3 Mar 2013 01:51:00 GMT

Boca da Valeria, Brazil

boatybex — Fri, 1 Mar 2013 01:52:00 GMT

Santarem, Brazil

boatybex — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 01:55:00 GMT

Belem, Brazil

boatybex — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 01:57:00 GMT

Fortaleza, Brazil

boatybex — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 01:58:00 GMT

Maceio, Brazil

boatybex — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 01:59:00 GMT

Salvador da Bahia. Brazil

boatybex — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:21:00 GMT

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

The first colonial capital of Brazil, the city is one of the oldest in the country and in the New World. For a long time, it was simply known as Bahia, and appears under that name (or as Salvador da Bahia, Salvador of Bahia so as to differentiate it from other Brazilian cities of the same name) on many maps and books from before the mid-20th century. Salvador is the third most populous Brazilian city, after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and it is the ninth most populous city in Latin America.Over 80% of the population of metropolitan region of Salvador has Black African ancestry, the African influence in many cultural aspects of the city makes it the center of Afro-Brazilian culture and this reflects in turn a curious situation in which African-associated cultural practices are celebrated

A particularly notable feature is the escarpment that divides Salvador into the Cidade Alta (“Upper Town” – rest of the city) and the Cidade Baixa (“Lower Town” – northwest region of the city), the former some 85 m (279 ft) above the latter,[1] with the city’s cathedral and most administrative buildings standing on the higher ground. An elevator (the first installed in Brazil), known as Elevador Lacerda, has connected the two sections since 1873, having since undergone several upgrades.

It cost $0.15 Reals (about 0.09 cents) to ride the elevator and lifts you over 200 feet in a little over 20 seconds. This is much quicker and safer than walking the narrow, winding streets to reach the upper level.

The Elevator to the top

At Upper town, it is a very pleasant area to walk along the old cobblestone streets and sidewalks. There are many beautiful buildings which exhibit 17th and 18th century architecture. Below are a number of examples.

We wanted to reach the 16th century Igreja de Sao Francisco, one of the oldest and most ornate Cathedrals in Salvador. Salvador has almost 400 churches and Cathedrals
Convent and Church of São Francisco (Igreja de São Francisco) At a time when Salvador was the biggest port in South America and Portugal still vied with Spain and Holland for the title of world’s richest empire, the sugar barons of Salvador decided to splurge a little and let folks know that their colony had arrived. Beginning in 1708 and continuing until 1723, they took more than 100 kilograms of gold and slathered it over every available knob and curlicue in the richly carved interior of this high-baroque church. The result could hardly be called beautiful, but by God, it’s impressive. The inside fairly gleams; on nights when the doors are open it casts a yellow sheen all the way up to Terreiro de Jesus.

But when we got there we were told during festival times all the churches are closed and locked up, because of so much theft of the gold.

After having read The River of Doubt , watching the movie The Mission and then traveling the Amazon and finally seeing Salvador, I have a real feeling for what it must have been like in this area from the colonial period through the early 20th century. This is a stop I am glad I did not miss.

Salvador da Bahia has a predominantly Black African population which is evident everywhere in the Music and art. Pelourinho is the historical centre and a UNESCO world heritage Site. There are many colorful buildings and narrow streets that date from the 17th though 19th century.

Although the Carnival a few days away there is a very festive air about the upper town and we enjoyed a very pleasant day wandering.Women dressed in beauiful dresses. We did some great shopping at markets by the elevator.

Armacao dos Buzios, Brazil

boatybex — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:01:00 GMT

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

boatybex — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 02:02:00 GMT

Ilhabela , Brazil

boatybex — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 02:04:00 GMT

Montevideo, Uruguay

boatybex — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:06:00 GMT

Punta del Este, Uruguay

boatybex — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:07:00 GMT

Buenos Aires, Argentina

boatybex — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 02:08:00 GMT

Stanley, Falkland Islands

boatybex — Thu, 7 Feb 2013 20:46:00 GMT

Falkland Islands

I am very much looking forward to going to Falkland Islands, but on a ship even if it is scheduled you still spend the days before wondering whether or not the ship can make it into the Falklands. The Falklands is a tender port with notoriously bad weather. It is not usual for the weather to stop all tender operations, people have been known to go in by tender then find the tender processes has been stopped and they have to spend a day or two on the the Falklands before the tenderrs can pick them up.

Then of course there is tension between Britain and Argentina, it seems everytime there is political trouble in Argentina (or a politician in
trouble) they try to deflect the trouble by stirring up nationalism on the issue of the Falklands.

A few days after we were there there was an official national referendum of Falklanders asking what they wanted. 98% wanted to be or remain British, 1% didnt care, 1% was split between Self Governing (so no allegance to either place) and being Argentinian.. But Argentina doesnt
accept the poll as valid of course.

Stanley was used as a port of call by sealers and whalers until the late 19th century.
Fishing has always been the major industry of the Falkland Islands but in recent years there has been oil exploration in its waters, this coincidentally started just before the Argentina reclaiming started again.

In the weeks before our visit cruise ships had been turned away by the Argentina Navy and this is always a possibilty.

Stanley was occupied by Argentine troops for about ten weeks during the Falklands War in 1982.
Stanley suffered considerable damage during the war, from both the Argentine occupation and the British naval shelling of the town, which
killed three civilians. After the British secured the high ground around the town the Argentines surrendered with no fighting in the town itself.

As we started the day ,the wind was there but medium to low, the sun was out and the sky was blue.
We were on a tender to Port Stanley. After being in Antarctica is beginning to warm up a little It was a beautiful day,

Stanley (population approximately 2000) is the main town on the islands and the hub of East Falkland’s road network. Attractions include the Falkland Islands Museum, Government House, built in 1845 and home to the Governor of the Falkland Islands
There are three churches including the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral the southernmost cathedral in the world. The cathedral makes tiny Stanley a city. The whalebone arch outside the church was constructed in 1933 to commemorate a century of British rule - the arch consists of massive jawbones from two blue whales.

The police station also contains the islands’ only prison, with a capacity of thirteen in the cells. In a glass vestibule there is a great collection
of police memomabelia, including Brith police "bobbies" helmets.

We started off walking around the town,the whale bone park, the war memorials including the WW1 (against Germany) and 1982 (against Argentina) Falklands War Memorials and Government House. The churches and Cathederal.
We stopped at the offices of the Penguin News and at the Visitors’ Center.And of course we visited some souvenir shops.

The traditional colourful buildings are constructed from wood with corrugated iron roofs, the light weight of which makes them the most practical to import - almost everything is imported into the Falkland Islands.

The ship wrecks around town were very photogenic

Then we took a taxi out to Gypsy Cove to view all the penguins.

The beaches and land around Falkland Islands were heavily mined during the British conflict with Argentina in 1982 and some areas remain
marked minefields. There are large areas of surrounding beach land which are fenced off with warning signs about mine fields.The upside of this is the penguin colonies are rarely disturbed because they are surrounded by minefeilds so the pengiun numbers have thrived.

I took hundreds of penguin photos, they are natural models. Their curiosity and lack of fear of man makes them easy subjects to photograph.

There are 850,000 breeding pairs of the little 15 inch high crested Rockhopper, scattered between the islands of the Southern Ocean - please don't ask me how they get those numbers, just trust the researchers!

This is the Skua, a conspicuous bird in sub-Antarctic penguin colonies actively seeking eggs and chicks for a meal. Adult penguins have nothing to fear but chicks, once no longer needing to be guarded by an adult, are often attacked and taken.

Pearlwort is the only flowering plant (other than hair grass) that occurs in Antarctica and is found mainly around penguin colonies.......more than 260 species of brilliantly colored lichens adorn rocky outcrops.

By the end of the day the wind had picked up it had become very, very windy.
We were a bit concerned over the tenders but they were still opperating We had a rough ride in the tender and it took
longer than it normally would have because we were bouncing around so much.

It may sound odd but I rated the Falklands as one of the nicest places on this trip, I could live there very easily. I am not just saying this because it was nice to find somewhere that spoke English after a month of Spanish, or the houses and gardens that looked so British, or the shops that sold weetbix and other English/Australian food staples.

It was genuinly a nice place with very nice people.

Antarctica

boatybex — Wed, 6 Feb 2013 15:55:00 GMT

Feb 2013 Antarctic Peninsular

Number one on my bucket list

In Febuary I became a member of an exclusive club, an elite group of explorers and adventurers that have travelled to Antarctica.

Antarctica epitomises the remote, untouched, exotic and romantic, it is the stuff of dreams and documentaries.To have the honour to travel here is an amazing expeience.

You have a vision in your mind of what you are going to see on the voyage through Antarctica but nothing can prepare you for witnessesing beauty first hand.

As you get closer to the Antarctic the air gets colder, the sun dips below the horizon for only a brief time and its never completely dark, so when you wake the first morning to see an iceberg the size of a small car drifting past, you cant help but be excited.
Everyone is out on deck or snuggled up to windows madly taking photos, you look up there another iceberg, the size of a bus, another the size of a house, and towering is a iceberg the size of an apartment block.
It takes your breath away. The size, the colours,the majesty.You begin to run out of superlatives for Antarctica pretty quickly.
For the next few days we were surrounded by a breathtaking scene. Pure white snow and brilliant blue-green ice spread out in all directions beneath an ever changing sky.

A slow and silent cruise around Antarctic Peninsula through Gerlache Strait, Lemaire Channel, Danco Coast,Paradise Bay, Neumeyer Channel, Petermann Island, Anvers Island, Esperanza, Hope Bay and Weddell Sea. The names might not anything to the most of us who havent been there but each and every name means a different experience. Anvers Island to pick up researchers from Palmer Research station to accompany and inform us, giving talks and guided commentary all aspects of Antarctic exploration; wildlife, geology, history and climate science. one of the most spectacular locations of a stunningly beautiful part of the world, the Lemaire Channel full of icebergs of every shape and size.
Hope Bay known as “Iceberg Alley” because of its gigantic tabular icebergs some the size of Skilled Stadium.
Esperanza with its colony of over half a million Adélie penguins.

Every direction you looked, every scene you took in was so unique. Most passengers were so quiet, respecting the invorment with awe and reverence. You could hear the sound of the many Humpback and Minke whales breathing,tails slapping the water. Seals barking on splashing into the water. Hundreds of penguins porposing along side the ship..

You learn a whole new vocabulary brash ice,tabular icebergs,bergy bits and growlers while trying not to fill up another memory card with the next Amazing photograph.

Antarctica remoteness means it is hard to get to and expensive to get to but that also means that you can say you are one of the few that have been to the white continent.