13Jan Belem, Brazil

Belem is located in north of Brazil at the mouth of Amazon River where the Atlantic Ocean meets the river.
It is not far from the equator.
The ship arrived in the morning at this city of 2 million after 2 days at sea.
We have decided to take ship’s tour for all three ports in Brazil we visit.
Belem is the first port and 5 hour tour of Amazon River is the one we have chosen here.
It actually turned out to be the most popular tour in this port with more than 400 people signed up.
It is tender port but we were transferred to pier by colorful local boats Belem port authority provided.
They are much bigger than the ship’s tender boat and it takes as many as 200.
We went to shore to walk around Icorraci, suburb of Belem before our tour began at noon.
There were many tropical fruits, fresh fish and butchers in local market on a busy street.
Soon, we boarded our luxury tour coach and headed to town of Belem.
Belem is pronounced as Belain in Portuguese and is surprisingly bigger city than we initially thought.
The biggest outdoor market in Brazil is in this town.
Ver-o-peso market.
We will have to check it out next time if we have another opportunity to visit this part of the country.
Temperature around the equator is getting higher with extreme humidity when we arrived at the terminal for the river cruise.
Tour guide said that there are more than hundreds of rivers are in this region and more than 3,000 fish species are found in the water.
About half an hour boat ride later, we were exploring narrower creeks and channels with thick mangroves and palm trees.
Local homes built in stilts can be seen along the water way with their canoes.
We docked at a local village and took a jungle tour for an hour.
In thick rainforest, tour guide spotted cacao trees, Brazilian nut trees, star fruit trees, Banana trees and many other exotic tropical fruit trees I have never seen nor heard of.
I have must disturbed ant colony while I was taking photos of exotic bird paradise flowers.
My shoes and foot are covered with red ants and they were aggressively biting my ankles.
It was strong sting feeling and I was running like crazy with pain.
Few minutes of frantically effort of getting rid of them out of my foot and shoes, I was finally free of ants.
Hallelujah!
It was an excellent tour with taste of Amazon jungle.
The Amsterdam cast presented production show again.
Fantastic!

Icorraci pier where our tender boat docked

Local market at Icorraci

Local fruit


Tour coach we boarded for Amazon River cruise tour

Old part of town Belem

A view of city of Belem - above and below

Typical local home in between creeks and canals

Local kids showing off their diving and swimming skills to us

Our tour group in jungle

Brazilian nuts.

One of big trees we encountered

A local village man climbing the thin palm tree

A 70 year old local man with his pet (?), tarantula was the man on the tree top

Star fruit tree

A local boy with a parrot

Local butcher in a market

Market foods

Tender boat to pier

Local art and craft

A friendly local man cut each nut and handed out to people want to try

Having a great time on Amazon jungle river boat

10Jan Bridgetown, Barbados

We met Diane and John at the front office in the morning.
Bridgetown is the island’s capital located in south east of island and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site on 2011.
Island itself is quite flat compare to Dominica but it looks much more civilized and cleaner with bigger population of 250,000.
Number one export is sugar.
As we walked out of the cruise terminal, there were lots of local taxis lined up for us.
After short negotiation with one of them, we hired a van taxi for just four of us.
The driver’s name is Arthur and he is happy to show us around the island as requested.
He spotted where Tiger Woods got married in beautiful suburb ‘Sandy Lane’ before stopping at the historic oldest church in Barbados ‘St James’ built in 1626.
We have driven around few uptowns, luxurious resorts, golf clubs and apartment complexes surrounded by beautiful palm trees and coastal view.
View of whole island, coast and Atlantic Ocean from the island’s highest point was impressive after driven around lots of sugar cane field.
Arthur suggested that we should try their national dish and rum punch in town.
We agreed on and came back to Bridgetown and went to small local restaurant.
Their national dish is Flying fish and Cou Cou.
Cou cou looks like mashed potato and made out of flour and okra.
Flying fish was most delicious.
Friendly waitress got us tried few local soft drinks.
All of them have quite unique flavor that I am not familiar with.
So I settled with local beer the ‘Banks’ which was nice.
We all sat and enjoyed our exotic lunch with Arthur.
He later dropped off at local beach called Carlisle bay.
The beach was beautiful and long with sugary white sand.
There are no pebbles and rocks around and backed by lots of pubs and restaurants.
It was sunny afternoon and the turquoise color water was pleasantly warm enough.
We all swam for half an hour and enjoyed sandy beach for few minutes before we slowly walked back to the cruise terminal.
Tonight’s entertainer was British comedian Paul Adams.
He was very fast talker but funny enough.

Grand entrance of a resort in Sandy Lane

John, Greg, Diane and Heo in front of a church St. John’s Parish


The Atlantic Ocean view from St Johns church

The view from the Highland Adventure center at the highest point of whole island below

Friendly waitress from casual restaurant called Mustor’s we had lunch at.

Beer was gooood!

National dish ‘Flying fish and Cou Cou’

Carlisle Bay beach

Water temperature was beautiful, too!

Paradise!

Colorful shop fronts on a street

Party time with rum!!!

The Bridge made this town’s name comes from

Mariner in city center

Town center

On our back to the cruise terminal in Bridgetown

9Jan Roseau, Dominica

We arrived at Roseau, Dominica at noon as our first port.
The youngest island in Caribbean Sea.
So it is very rugged.
Dominica means Sunday in Spanish, although English is their first language.
We have booked a half day ship’s tour ‘Dominica’s favorite’
Total population of the country is about 70,000.
We enjoyed bird’s-eye view of Roseau port from the side of Morne Bruce viewpoint.
Then, we were driven to Botanic garden and saw Cashew nut tree, African tulip tree, Sausage tree, Cannon ball fruit tree, and colorful green Jaco bird in a large cage found only in Dominica.
Trafalgar twin waterfalls after 20 minutes’ walk through thick rainforest
We walked down to valley look like Jurassic Park for about 30 minutes to reach Emerald Pool in Trois Pitons National Park before return to the ship.
Tonight, we were entertained by Amsterdam cast in a production show ‘Back to Broadway’

Ms Amsterdam docked at Roseau, Dominica
Local souvenir shops on top of the mountain


A lonely shop surround by beautiful poinsettia and bougainvillea

Sausage tree but not edible - Photos above and below

Cannon ball fruit tree

Same size of honeydew but not edible and it has stinky smell

Trafalgar twin falls
This is our tour guide Amanda

Beautiful rainforest

A stop for a local drink – bottles of banana juice, grape juice and pineapple juice along with their folk dance performance and music

Last stop – Emerald Pool
Weather changes as we drove up to high mountain valley.

Eerie feeling like we are in Jurassic park
Emerald pool and fall after 30 minutes’ walk into rainforest and valley

Gorgeous red, pink and yellow ginger flowers are everywhere

Local art and craft