We planned this trip 2 years ago, but COVID got in the way. We flew to Ft Lauderdale a day early, as we always do for cruises. Never want to have flight problems and miss the ship.
We did go for a walk at a nearby park in the afternoon.
Day 1 - Depart Port Everglades
We departed Port Everglades or Saturday. We took an Uber to Terminal 4 where our ship the Holland America Line, Volendam was to depart. Except it wasn’t. A freight ship was in that berth. Hmmm... Eventually, we discovered that a last minute change moved the ship to Terminal 19. Passengers were never notified.
We departed Port Everglades or Saturday. We took an Uber to Terminal 4 where our ship the Holland America Line, Volendam was to depart. Except it wasn’t. A freight ship was in that berth. Hmmm... Eventually, we discovered that a last minute change moved the ship to Terminal 19. Passengers were never notified.
The Volendam was scheduled to sail away at 430pm, but the Captain delayed it till 7pm, because they couldn't get all the supplies loaded in time. We hoped there was nothing ominous in the delay.
Day 2 - Sea Day
1st sea day. Walked the decks. Got some sun. Played Trivia and won our 1st game that evening! The category was history.
We were going to go on deck for sunset. It came so fast at 525pm we only had time to take a picture from inside the ship.
We were surprised that this was the 1st "Dressy Night" so soon after departure. Used to call them Formal Nights, but people, mostly, don't want to do those anymore. Kind of sad actually that cruise dress is a lot more casual. It wasn't that long ago that they wouldn't let me go in the dining room for lunch because I was wearing shorts instead of long pants.
Day 3 - Sea Day
It takes a long time to get to the Amazon, especially when island hopping along the way.
It was a windy day on the ship, so the lounge chairs on the sun deck were put away. We still managed to find a place in the sun on the Promenade Deck.
It takes a long time to get to the Amazon, especially when island hopping along the way.
It was a windy day on the ship, so the lounge chairs on the sun deck were put away. We still managed to find a place in the sun on the Promenade Deck.
Because of our direction of travel sunset was later than the night before.
Day 4 - Philipsburg, St Maarten
We chose to go on an excursion today. It was called Rockland Estate and Sky Explorer. It took us on a 30-minute chairlift ride to the top of Sentry Hill. At 1125 ft, it is the highest point in St Maarten and provides a spectacular view of the island plus surrounding islands like Aguilla and St Barths.
We chose to go on an excursion today. It was called Rockland Estate and Sky Explorer. It took us on a 30-minute chairlift ride to the top of Sentry Hill. At 1125 ft, it is the highest point in St Maarten and provides a spectacular view of the island plus surrounding islands like Aguilla and St Barths.
After that we walked through the downtown and back to the ship. We were on the sun deck for a short while before being chased away by a storm.
In the late afternoon, all the 1200 passengers had to be tested for COVID. The process went pretty fast. We were only in line for 15 minutes!
Day 5 - Castries, St Lucia
Since we had been to Castries before, we decided to do another excursion, this time we did the UNESCO World Heritage Site Route. As we left Castries, we stopped at Morne Fortune for a picture of the Castries Bay and our ship.
We passed through the Cul de Sac Valley to our viewpoint of Marigot Bay, one of the most scenic bays in the Carribean. The movie Dr Dolittle was filmed there.
Going up the next mountain, a small landslide occurred right in front of the car in front of us. Fortunately, our driver, David was excellent on these potholed, narrow roads where they drive backwards, like in England. After some of the rocks were cleared, we were able to move on.
Along the way we had good views of the Piton Mountains.
From there we went to Morne Coubsaril Estate and saw demonstrations of the manual ways to harvest and prepare coconuts and cocoa beans.
Our last stop of the day was Sulphur Springs, the world's only drive-in volcano. The town of Soufriere is inside the Soufriere Caldera. The Sulphur Springs are the only active part of the volcano. Very strong smell of sulfur in the area. Waterfall, steam vents and boiling pools very similar to Yellowstone.
Day 6 - Sea Day
Overnight we had our 2nd spring forward on the clocks. The day started out windy, cloudy and rainy and stayed that way. There was plenty to do to stay busy though.
This is one place Zach really wanted to visit since seeing Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen in the movie Papillon. We had to take the tenders to the island. The only problem was we had to pick-up a tender number and waited too long to get a number. Our tender ended up # 23 and we had to wait 2.5 hours for our turn to board the tender and get to the island. Tendering did not work well for the ship that day.
Devil's Island is actually 3 islands: Devil's, Royale and St Joseph islands. The main prison complex was on Royale Island. Political prisoners were sent to Devil's. Once a sentence was complete, prisoners were sent to St Joseph. The coast of Gayane is easily visible from the islands.
The architecture on the island is not particularly stunning and mostly similar. What do you want for a prison.
There are also some animals on the island including monkeys and rats.
Day 8 - Crossing Barra Notre Sea and Amazon River Bar
Just another day at sea. Speed was slow, 8 knots. Only 10 feet between bottom of ship and river bar.
That night the Knights sang on the World Stage. Really great, dynamic show.
Stopped in Macapa for clearance to proceed down the Amazon.
It's a really big river, over 30 miles wide here, with tributaries converging from everywhere it seems.
Meeting of the Waters of Amazon and Atlantic.
Lots of little villages and boats along the river. Jungle constant. Osional fires from deforestation burning.
A nice sunset.
Day 10 - Santarem
The water on the Amazon is low this year, so we will have to tender into all 7 ports of call. We got in the tender ticket line early to get an early tender out to avoid the heat. It didn't matter. It was really, really hot and humid.
The water on the Amazon is low this year, so we will have to tender into all 7 ports of call. We got in the tender ticket line early to get an early tender out to avoid the heat. It didn't matter. It was really, really hot and humid.
Some really long barges on Amazon.
Santarem has a very vibrant community and did we mention it is very hot and humid. The locals seem to be unfazed by the heat and humidity. Fortunately, the Volendam provided buses for the 2-mile trip from the port to city center. Few passengers wouldave n able to make that walk.
started our city walk at Fisherman's Park. Went across the street to take some pictures of the River and the Santarem sign. We saw a statue of a parrot that turned out to be a phone.
We walked through the shopping district
to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Conceicao.
From there we went to the boardwalk. Cathy' catch of the day.
Our 1st pink dolphin.
Politicians making noise.
Too hot to leave motorcycle seats uncovered
When we returned to the ship, we took pictures of the Meeting of the Waters, where the Amazon and Rio Tapajos Rivers flow side-by-side for many miles before the colors eventually combine.
Day -11 Alter Do Chao
Alter Do Chao is a small, very litter free town that happens to have the best river beaches in the world.
We took tenders right to the beach and walked up the beach to walk the city streets for a while. Some of the sights we saw were an artistically painted boat, the local Catholic church and the city welcome sign.
The branches on the Travelers tree only grow east to west.
The beaches are nice white sand. The locals drive their boats right onto the beach.
We had another nice sunset that evening.
Day 12 Parintins
Today we were supposed to dock. The dock fell into the river; really it did, so, we had to tender in from the Volendam.
Three of the main attractions, the Cathedral, the Bumbodromo (a stadium) and Liberty Square could all be seen from the ship.
We did a walk around town going to the Cathedral and cemetery, Liberty Square and the markets. Parintins is a dirty, trashy town where scooters and Tricyclons dominate the streets.
After lunch, then went back out to watch the Boi Bumble Festival Show. Wow! So much energy and amazing costumes from the performers. It was great!!! After this no need to go to Rio for Carnival.
Day 13 - Manaus
Due to low water on the Amazon, the ship couldn't pass through the shoals at night, so our arrival was delayed until noon. Before arriving at Manaus, we went through another Meeting of the Waters, where the Rio Negro runs into the Amazon for many miles before the waters are the same color.
Due to low water on the Amazon, the ship couldn't pass through the shoals at night, so our arrival was delayed until noon. Before arriving at Manaus, we went through another Meeting of the Waters, where the Rio Negro runs into the Amazon for many miles before the waters are the same color.
This facility is huge!
A few miles away is the 1st bridge we've seen but it crosses over the Rio Negro not the Amazon. In fact, there is not one bridge that crosses over the Amazon.
Manaus is the largest city on the Amazon. Streets are always full of people. It's very dynamic but a lot of it needs a new coat of paint and they need to cover the holes in the sidewalks. It's pretty trashy too.
It took 50 minutes for our tender to dock because of back-up at the dock; not to mention the 2 hours we had to wait for our tender before departing. Then we had to ride a bus to the port terminal.
After that it was easy. A ten-minute walk to the Metropolitan Cathedral. We stopped by a fountain and a clock before that. We were going to go down a market street before deciding...no, too crowded.
From there it was a short walk to the Amazonas Opera House. Amazing place, even more so that it was build 127 years ago in the middle of nowhere and had electricity, chandeliers from Murano, Italy and much more. Wood floors are still original. It was our 1st time in a real opera house.
We went to the church next door. Then it was back to the ship. A little bit of sunset and a picture of the bridge at night and our day was over.
Back to Manaus this morning. We walked through the Municipal Market area, by Tupe Beach, and to the Rio Negro Palace. While there, we found out that everyone was closing early to watch Brazil play against Cameroon in the World Cup.
The market smelled terrible!
On that news we headed back to the Volendam knowing the other buildings we wanted to see would be closed. We took a short cut down a market street, and it went from this
We took some pictures of some historical buildings from the deck of the Volendam.
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