Got up this morning around 8.30am and went out on the balcony for a quick look. The weather was mild and dry. The Queen Victoria was slowly manoevring up the River Tagus en route to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, or as the Portuguese call it, Lisboa (say Leezh-boa). We had last visited here in 2010…
It was with excitement that we heard the Captain’s voice coming over the tannoy at 8.30 this morning to say that we should be arriving in Ponta Delgada, Azores, between 9.30 – 10.00. By this time I think all the passengers were looking forward to being able to get off the ship and walk around…
When we woke up this morning the Arcadia was just about to dock in the port of Rio de Janeiro, bustling vibrant city and former capital of Brazil. We had stayed here once before, for three days, in 2001 so we were excited to be back. With anticipation we went out onto the balcony to see…
This morning we watched from our balcony as the Arcadia slowly pulled into her berth in the port of Salvador da Bahia, ancient former capital of Brazil. We had had a fantastic holiday here in 2001, when we stayed at the beach resort of Costa do Sauípe, so we were looking forward to exploring the old…
We woke up very early this morning; around 5.00am in fact. We had already noticed that the sun rose much earlier south of the Equator than it does in the North (even in the tropics) at this time of year. Of course, the reverse would be true if this were July instead of January. From…
This morning, the Braemar was due to drop anchor at another tiny village, this time Alter do Chão. Having looked at some photos of this place, it seemed as though there was a lovely sandy beach, so it had one redeeming feature at least. 🙂 We were due to set sail early afternoon, so we decided…
We woke up in our jungle hut early this morning; in fact, we didn’t really sleep all that well. Although the room was kept at a lovely cool temperature with the air-conditioning, the downside was that it was very noisy. At some point during the night Trevor turned it off, and the silence was golden. …
At 3.00pm we all gathered in reception, where Prakash, our guide, was waiting to take us to the boat. We walked along the dirt track, the duckboards and the planks of wood until we were once more at the landing dock. This time it was a much bigger boat, with a lower and upper deck. …
It was with anticipation and excitement that we woke up this morning, knowing that we were going to disembark the Braemar and foray into the Amazon jungle, where we would be staying overnight in the Amazon Ecopark Lodge. The ship had already docked in Manaus, the capital of Amazonia, and she was not due to…
This morning we woke up at anchor in the town of Parintins, where once again the day was grey and raining. Not to worry though; this morning we were going to visit the Convention Centre to see a scaled-down version of the Parintins Folk Festival, otherwise known as the Festival do Boi-Bumbá. Usually this takes…
