Maria - Passports Overloaded

New Years Eve at Times Square – NYC 2018

December 31, 2018 – January 2, 2019

John and I both grew up in New York and we have never seen the ball drop in person so this was a HUGE thing for us to do! It should be on everyone’s bucket list. You hear all the stories and you see it on TV how the pens are filled up and how you can’t get out of the pen once you are in it so to see it in person was something else.

We had the best time and met some really great people. We will do this again one day!

If you would like to see what and where we ate while in NYC.

New Kids On The Block Performance

Christina Aguilera Performance

Miami, Florida

San Juan, Puerto Rico

November 27, 2018

Today John and I took a taxi into Old San Juan, and we walked around a bit. We decided to grab a drink at this place called El Asador Restaurant. While we were there, the bartender gave us a taste of the mushroom risotto, and we were blown away by it, so we decided to have lunch there. We ordered the shrimp risotto and Puerto Rican style pork chops with rice and beans. The entire experience was great. I highly recommend going there.

The weird Chucky doll was on someone’s luggage cart so I took a picture of it.

If you would like to see what and where we ate while in San Juan.

St. John’s, Antigua

November 26, 2018

Today John and I rented a car and drove around St. John’s. We saw this pretty church called St. George and then we drove to the Devil’s Bridge. We then drove to Our Lady of Perpetual Help on the way to the rainforest. After driving through the rainforest, we drove back to St. John’s Harbor.

Bridgetown, Barbados

November 25, 2018

Today we grabbed a cab, and he drove us to Harrison’s Caves. The tour through the caves was different we were on a tram, and it was about an hour long.

The taxi then picked us up and took us around Barbados he showed us the expensive homes on Sandy Lane where supposedly Rihanna purchased a villa for $22 Million. Afterward, we went back to the ship.

Devil’s Island, French Guiana (Guyana)

November 23, 2018

Today we took the tender onto the island with a friend of ours named Jan and we walked around the island. While on the island we saw the prison, solitary confinement, the chapel, and other highlights. It was hot so we decided to stop at the hotel restaurant and we had a cold beer which was very refreshing. On our way back to the port we saw a whole bunch of little monkey’s and goodie’s which are Big Rodents they look like little dogs.

Chase giving a Monkey a Mango. Photo Credit: Samantha Iveyy

Sailing to Barbados – Oceania Cruises decided to have some fun on the deck.

Alter Do Chao (Amazon River), Brazil

November 20, 2018

Today we took the tender to the port and just walked around the town a bit there isn’t much to see or do and it was really hot so we just went back on the ship.

Parintins (Amazon River), Brazil

November 19, 2018

Today we anchored in Parintins and we took a tender into town. When we got to the port we hitched a ride with a pedicab and he took us around for an hour. We saw this church in town and then he took us to see some artwork that’s a wall which was pretty cool.

The last stop on the tour was this warehouse that has huge parade floats that were tremendous and very colorful. This is an annual Parintins Folklore Festival.

Manaus (Amazon River), Brazil

November 17, 2018

Today we got off the ship and took a boat ride up the Rio Negro River about an hour and then we got to this cool place that has unique pink dolphins. The guy at the dock feeds the dolphins fish. The dolphins look very different than bottlenose dolphins. At the same place they had this other fish, I never heard of Arapaima. They put a fish on a long string and the fish eats off the stick. It’s a strong fish and if you watch the video below you will hear a sucking sound that’s how the Arapaima fish eats the bait on the stick. John fed this fish, and he said that it was powerful!

The first evening our friend Carol & John purchased tickets to the Opera House. While there we saw Bassanova which is Portuguese music.

November 18, 2018

Today we took a boat up the Rio Negro River to the floating market, and we walked through the Amazon forest to see the water Lillies.

We then walked back to the boat a went to see the meeting of the waters. It’s pretty amazing to see the muddy Amazon River water and the dark Rio Negro River form a straight line of difference. We had really cool tour guides on the trip one of them has YouTube videos of him teaching Portuguese. The Tutor’s name is Jeferson Dionisio Alves.

Boca Da Valeria (Amazon River), Brazil

November 16, 2018

Today we took the tender into this village Boca Da Valeria which was unique and very poor. The kids meet you at the pier, and they have all these exotic animals, and you take pictures with them and give them a $1. They had crocodiles, sloths, toucans, parakeets, macaws.

We already love Oceania Cruises, and I never thought I could love this company any more than I do but this blew me away. We saw them take a whole bunch of candy, toys, school supplies, clothes, flip-flops, soccer balls and gave them to the locals in the village. As far as I know, they are the only cruise line that does this.

Alphabetic Links of Where We’ve Been