South America - Passports Overloaded

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.

Santarem (Amazon River), Brazil

November 15, 2018

Today we got picked up by a boat while we were anchored and we sailed up the Tapajos River to see the meeting of the waters. We then sailed up the Maica River to go piranha fishing which was fun. Our boat caught two catfish and two piranhas and a weird looking fish

This is a root that they grate and bake in the oven because if not it’s poisonous.

Amazon River & Crossing the Equator

To see what we did in the Amazon River ports please click on the following links.

Santarem (Amazon River)

Boca De Valeria (Amazon River)

Manaus, Parintins (Amazon River)

Alter Do Chao (Amazon River)

Quito, Ecuador

January 12, 2017

Today we woke up at 4 am to have a quick bite to eat for breakfast and then headed to the Cuzco airport to catch our flight to Quito, Ecuador. When we arrived in Quito, we had a chance to take a quick tour of the city. What fascinated me was finding out that Quito is Rose Heaven they export about 750 million blooms per year. We stayed at the JW Marriott hotel, and it was full of roses.

That evening we went to dinner with our friends David and Trudy in the hotel it was a called La Hacienda Steakhouse. When we left the hotel, they handed Trudy and I a pretty rose. I ended up taking the rose with me onto the ship since we were still going to be on it for two more weeks. The day we disembarked the ship I ended up giving the rose to our room attendant because the rose still looked amazing and I didn’t even use flower food. I was shocked because at home in Florida when I buy a dozen roses after two weeks with flower food they don’t look that great.

Flowers for the ladies dining at La Hacienda Steakhouse in Quito

Same Rose from Quito two weeks later. Pretty amazing!

Cusco, Peru

January 10, 2017

As you can imagine today was a tiring and exciting day at the same time. This is the absolute highlight of our trip. We disembarked from the ship at 7:30 am and got to the airport with some time to spare until our flight which worked out well because we met this fantastic couple David and Trudy. After a short hour-long flight we arrived and immediately got to touring the city we didn’t have that much time, and there was a lot to see. After a very long day, we finally checked into the JW Marriott Hotel and had a chance to relax and head downstairs for dinner. It was a great day we saw a lot, and we were looking forward to what we were going to see tomorrow.

Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

January 17, 2016

We drove from the pier to a private dock and boarded a pontoon boat which is designed to navigate the coastal river system. We cruised through the Tortuguero canals.

This ride into the jungle habitat serves as an excellent prelude to your next stop in the pristine Veragua Rainforest. The rainforest adventure begins with a guided tour through several exhibits housing indigenous animals such as snakes, frogs, and butterflies. Next, we rode an open-air aerial tram that will carry you into the rainforest canopy. It’s a window into a world that we couldn’t have experienced otherwise. At the halfway point, we got off the tram, and we walked the Trail of the Giants, which is a jungle path that winds past towering 300-year-old trees to a 65-foot waterfall. Then, after riding the tram back into the canopy, we had a nice lunch before returning to the pier.

Alphabetic Links of Where We’ve Been