Btimmer

The internet was rock solid virtually everywhere. On board the ship, the WiFi quality can vary. Our WiFi in cabin 1818 was quite good. Mosquitoes were a non issue. I did have bug spray and used it a few times. Also we weee never asked for yellow fever vaccination information at any time.

Last year on our Boston RT Iceland voyage, HAL destroyed a wheel on Angela's luggage on the return leg. it's a whirlwind of activity to depart in two weeks. Have a Merry Christmas.

I'm guessing a forklift gouged it. Thanks for following along. We're headed back in a couple of weeks to repeat the Antarctica portion. I'll do another blog and Almost Live thread.

we've arrived in Fort Lauderdale along with the Celebrity Equinox. Angela's brand new commemorative duffel was totally destroyed between the ship and our pick up point. Totally destroyed! We're off on a land sea tour before flying home this evening.

A happy crew ready to serve cheese at the sailaway party from San Juan, Puerto Rico which is our last port before FLL.

It's been a busy few days with 3 ports in a row and two more to go. All is found I. My blog at https://timmer2023gsa.blogspot.com. Below are a few pictures from today. We took the shuttle to town and walked to the botanical garden and then hiked up the mountain to the two viewpoints. Unfortunately our onboard time was 1:30pm.

Today we visited Devil's Island (think Pappion) which is a former French Penal Colony. Today, however, we focussed on flora and fauna sightings. Here are a few pictures including some non flora and fauna. Agouti (large rodent)

Look up my blog post for Castro. We did the Coastal Towns tour and it was wonderful! Terrific bird watching. https://timmer2023gsa.blogspot.com

Tonight was the Orange Party. Lots of Orange was on display. The bridge over the Rio Negros was brilliantly on display.

Today in Manaus we did a terrific Swim with the Dolphins, Indigenous Village visit, Lunch on a floating Restaurant, fishing for pirarucu, and visiting the meeting of the brown Amazon and the black Rio Negro. And I'm batting two for two in the boat problem department. Our Zaandam #1 boat' propellor struck some rocks and we lost driving power. It took a bit for the captain and his first mate to get it fixed. On our last Amazon River excursion 4 years ago, we ran out of gas in the dark. I wonder why nobody wants to do excursions with me? The salad part of the lunch buffet It's not a good sign when the tools are spread on the deck.

Yes, ships get stuck on sandbars in the Amazon. We just passed by this empty cargo ship.

We did the regular Antarctica voyage 7 years ago and this Grand is many notches above it with a few different ports, upgraded menus, special events, speakers, and entertainment. I'll let you know about the current "regular" Antarctica voyage in a month when we board the Oosterdam in Chile and repeat the voyage to Buenos Aires.

Today in our short stop at Parintins, Angela and I walked out to the Boi Bumba Drome and viewed the old floats stored nearby and then made it back in time to see the Festival show which was quite good once again. Rain was in the forecast, and a monsoon hit as the shoreside tender was unloading at the ship. Below are some pictures from today.

I don't know as we generally don't eat in the MDR. I'll ask around.

Here's some pictures from our Boat excursion to Maica Lake. Cuteness personified!

Here's the first of what will be many large insects which will be attracted to the ship at night.

We're sailing up the Amazon and should reach Santarem by 10am local time (5am PST). At times there's less than 3 feet of clearance from the keel and ground. We're about 100 miles from where we went aground for 7 hours on the Volendam in 2019. Here's a few pictures from tonight. Duo Rio

Here's the official announcement about our Amazon River changes. What isn't said here is that we likely will have all tender ports (even Manaus). The adventure continues.

We received this note this morning about water conservation measures in the Amazon.

GREAT NEWS The Captain just announced we are going to Manaus and will stay two nights in order to do daytime transits over shallow portions of the river. He thanked everyone for doing a rain dance! Currently we're loading produce in Fortaleza which is delaying our departure. The ship is moving in the swells at the dock.

Tonight Diego Flgueiredo performed an absolutely brilliant guitar concert. We went to both the 7:30 and 9pm shows. He's a Brazilian artist now residing in the US in Florida. If he comes to your area, he's a must see artist.

Thanks for the update. It's all part of the adventure.

Today in his noon message, Captain Smit said there was not enough water to make Manaus, but he has not made a decision to cancel the port. It's also a water load and provisioning port so it's an important port. I saw on Vessel Finder that the Azamara Quest made it there a couple days ago, but that ship has 2 meters more clearance than the Zaandam.

Today in Salvador, Brazil we did an excellent excursion with DoBrazilRight which took us out to the lighthouse, through the old city, to Monserrat for scenic views, and to the Mercado for craft shopping. Unfortunately one of our group had his phone stolen and there were several other reports of thefts and assaults. Salvador is the city with the most African descendants of slaves brought over by the Portuguese. Today they celebrated their black heritage with a large parade that we saw the formation of. Part of parade preparations Michael Jackson filmed here and is honored African gods Police motorcycles Church of Nosso Sehor do Bonfim Our berth Farol da Barra Barra Lighthouse Angela drumming it up

We did it in Feb, 2016 on the Zaandam and the weather was excellent. We're doing it again Jan, 2024 on the Oosterdam.