Happy Christmas Eve Day to all our friends and family,
We are cruising slowly down the mighty Amazon with densely foliated jungle on both sides. Occasionally, a cluster of huts or just a single wooden structure covered with palm leaves appears on shore. The seemingly mandatory carved log canoe is tied there, bobbing with the current or waves created as we pass. It is a scene out of National Geographic Magazine.
The water continues to be murky and muddy. I’d compare it to a coffee latte at Starbucks, heavy on the cream; but wouldn’t recommend drinking any of this!
The sun is high in the sky already and a few puffy white clouds are drifting by above as we sit on the fantail and enjoy our coffee and sweet roll. It’s difficult to equate this with any other Christmas Eves we’ve spent ashore or on other ships. The Amazon has been quite an experience; not exactly what we pictured, but, then, nothing is every exactly the way you might think.
It was sort of amazing to watch the ship make its way up and down the river, as there are very few buoys or channel markers beyond the first few miles – it is sort of a hit or miss situation, no pun intended. I suppose the Captain depends on the ship’s sonar to tell how deep the river is at any point, but we did sort of zig and zag here and there along the way of the murky stream.
There were a few surprises and disappointments, but overall the trip was well worth the price of the cruise. Think of it; traveling to four continents in such a short time!
We stopped at a place, (name slips my mind), where we put our pilot off and cleared customs. We are okay with Carol’s visa and passport, as I told you yesterday. I think it was more an effort on the part of the lady in charge to put me in my place for “damaging an official document”, as she put it. I kept apologizing and think that helped defuse the situation.
We were worried at first, but since we received no further info until yesterday, we figured “no news was good news”, and in reality, that’s how it turned out – but, if you did say a prayer for us – Thank You!
We’re back in the cabin to pick up two of our large bottles of Coke to give to Jade, one of the dancers, to share with some of her friends. We had to get Carol’s eyebrow pencil sharpened again in the boutique as I forgot to pack a sharpener. The little things you forget sometimes come back to bite you – LOL.
Instead of watching the nonsense connected with crossing the equator again, we worked on another puzzle in the library, as it is too hot to go out around the pool and it is packed there on a sea day and with people watching the ceremony of people being coated with all kinds of goop. These is also too much blubber on display for us - LOL
We received our invitations to a “wine tasting” this afternoon at 3:00 as another “perk” from being “elite” passengers. We’ll go to see what it’s all about. More later.
Wine tasting was fun, shared a table with another very nice couple from Florida. We received souvenir wine glasses with the emblem of the original “Royal” Princess on the side – very nice. The wines left a little to be desired, but I never did care for red wine. The two whites were a little dry, but the last was pretty good, except too sweet. But, I am no wine expert. Give me “Two Buck Chuck” or the Oak Leaf Brand from Wal Mart for $2.59 a bottle and we are in good shape.
We attended the art auction mainly to get free Champagne and won two more prints of famous paintings – one of sun flowers which we’ll send to our friends in Germany as Gerda loves sunflowers. The other is a beach scene of children playing in the sand – available to anyone who wants it and is willing to pay the postage. We have NO wall space left and have won more than 20 paintings on the many ships we’ve traveled on. (The old trick of bending the entry cards works every time – I only had three entries and two of them were drawn).
Off to trivia in a few minutes, then dinner and the Christmas show by the entire cast – hope the crewmembers sing carols like they’ve done in the past. So far Christmas songs have been few and far between except for the past two evenings in the main show lounge.
I’ve been wearing my Santa hat and a red shirt with all the friends of Charley Brown and Snoopy and snowmen, plus Carol has her fancy Christmas vest over a nice jean shirt with snowmen and Santa on the front. A lot of people brought decorations for the door to their cabin and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas on the Amazon, if you can believe it! Happy Holidays!
Karl & Carol