What a Year!

2016 will soon become a memory and I want to thank a lot of folks who made the year a good one.  Thanks to my wonderful husband of forty five years who is my partner in love, life, travel and the pursuit of happiness. We are a great team. We circumnavigated the planet this year or close to it with travels from Papette to Manaus all the time content to be with each other and wondering where the next adventure in life will take us.

Thanks go to my family and friends who show unconditional love!

Thanks go to Project Linus for hours of enjoyment. Project Linus gives homemade blankets to kids in need and I am honored to make a few dozen blankets for them. Our group of PL blanketeers made over 10,000 blankets this past year. 

  Thanks go to OLLI (Osher Livelong Learning Institute) for allowing me to teach a couple of classes for them. OLLI is a volunteer organization designed for seniors to teach and learn from each other. There are over 100 OLLI centers in the US, mostly based at colleges and universities, where seniors can take classes on just about anything. What a great way to learn something, meet friends old and new and have a good time.  This is not an ordered list as all of these thank yous are NUMBER ONE.   2016 has been a good year and I'm hopeful that 2017 will be too. Happy New Year Everyone!

 

Christmas

Many years ago a little girl sat on Santa Claus' lap. She still believes in Santa Claus but she's a bit too big for his lap!

May you and yours have a Merry Christmas!

Blanket 35

I gave blanket 4 of the cruise to Nikka

'

And I gave the 5th blanket to Bob and Doreen

It was a productive cruise ... and I met some really neat people! 

 

On The Verandah

Life is good! I'm sitting on our verandah overlooking the inner harbor in Oranjestad, Aruba. 

 

It's a nice day...a storm is looming, as you can see from the dark clouds, but there's a nice tame whisper of a breeze; the humidity is low and ... well... it's just pretty good. As someone said, "somebody has to do it" so I'm doing "it." We have 2 sea days to Ft. Lauderdale then reality will set in. No more room service. No more warm weather. No more fancy dinners. No more afternoon tea and ice cream. I will miss the folks who have been so kind and helpful too. This cruise has definitely been a huge success!

 

 

Aruba

Yesterday we were in Curaçao -- a very pretty place. 

It's Dutch and therefore far more orderly than many of the other islands out here. That Dutch heritage implies that things will be "squared away." However, I was talking to a local, a recent immigrant from Holland, who said the clocks were not always on time. If you have an apppointment for 9 AM, you might be seen at 10 or maybe the next day. He was a plumber and used to turning up on time and he said he's been surprised that his clients are not ready for him when he shows up. Given that, we landed on time, stayed our required limit, and the pilot was ready to show us out of the harbor on time. And, we were on time for the 11:30 PM fireworks.

The port area looks exactly like the picture on the bottom of the license place. 

Today we are in Aruba. I'm not sure if I'm going ashore or not...been here many times, and there is "stuff" to be done before we land in Ft. Lauderdale in 2 more days. To that end, I'm doing laundry while most everyone is ashore and therefore the machines are available. The Prinsendam is one of the few ships that has FREE laundry facilities...but there's a catch. The directions are written in Swedish, and difficult to understand.

After 25 days we are finally getting used to the quirky machines, but most of us will be happy to get back to our own laundry facilities at home. Travel is always interesting!

 

James McLean

 

Meet James McLean (pronounced Mac-LANE)--a proud Scot who has lived in Grenada for 52 years! I met him as I was having a cup of coffee at a bagel shop in St. George. I had just completed a walk of the downtown area and I saw a wifi sign...so for 2 bucks Grenadian I bought some internet time and talked to this chap. He has a thick brogue, but I still managed to understand most of what he said. At 86, he had a lot of wisdom to relate. I asked him why he still had his Scottish brogue and he said he was "never going to lose it...I'm a Scot and proud of it!" Then I asked him why Scots are so stubborn and he told me "that's jus' the way Gad made us." I spent a delightful hour with this man listening to his stories. He is definitely a highlight of the cruise.

 

In case you are wondering...here's some money from Grenada. This is equivalent to US$3.00. One of the "fun" parts of travel is looking at money designs. This design is pretty straight forward except for the curvy edges on the coins.

The Grenadines

This post is for folks who thought that grenadine was something to add to a drink...when it's actually an island group somewhere between the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Yesterday we landed at Kingstown, St. Vincent in The Grenadines It's a tiny island with a huge breeze...the leeward side is calm while the windward side is windy...the prevailing winds keep the island cool and not as steamy as the other islands we have been visiting. 

Most of you have seen this island as it was the setting for "Pirates of the Caribbean." It's a volcanic island with a lush rain forest. The streets are REALLY steep and windy and did I mention narrow! We had a taxi tour of the island and experienced those one lane roads with 2 lanes of traffic on them up close and personal.

 

This is the view from our ship to the port of Kingstown.

As with most of these islands, the houses are painted in bright colors that celebrate LIFE to its fullest. There are many huge mansions on the island as it is a tax retreat...so folks build a big house, staff it with locals and come visit every once in a while. The main industry is tourism, needless to say.

The people are a mixture of African, Indian, and AmerIndian. There's even an Arawak village on the island.

This picture kind of shows the width of a typical street. i don't believe there are any flat spots on this island...you are going uphill or downhill all the time...and the locals walk everywhere. 

If my count is right, we have added 5 "new to us" countries to our list of places visited. (St.Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, The Grenadines, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.) 

 

Tobago

Today we docked in Scarborough, Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago became independent from Great Britain in 1962. Tobago is a "little" island in comparison but most of the islands around here are little. 

We took a tour to the old fort built by the English way back when 

We drove thru some neighborhoods which are dotted with vibrantly colored homes. I asked what a 2 bedroom home would cost and our guide said about US$70,000. 

We also went to a folkloric show with dancers and 

Musicians playing steel and conga drums.

Tobago is a pretty place with friendly folks

And a few pelicans too.

 

Next Blanket

People

 

A boatman who was our guide.

A little girl and her dad

Lonely Bull (notice how low the grass is? It's been grazed off by the cattle)

Traffic Jam

This is the outskirts of Manaus!

 

Cruisin' Down the River

This is our second trip on the Amazon. The first was on a small 20 pax boat on the Upper Amazon out of Iquitos, Peru. There we saw a primitive Amazon with people who were living in the back of beyond. It was more pristine and more primitive than where we are now. The Lower Amazon in Brazil is not a backwater. It is still remote. It takes days to sail to Manaus, but once you get there, you are in a city of 2.1 million souls. There are other large cities here too such as Santarem, Boca de Valeria, Pintarins, Macapa...to name a few. Then there are small villages that dot the smaller rivers that feed into the Amazon. 

These communities work like communities everywhere.  People are trying to earn a living, rear their families, and have "the good life." We float by in our lux ship and wonder about how they do it...while they wonder the same about us.

In this part of the Amazon, there are fires burning all the time. The air smells of smoke. It's the result of slash and burn agriculture that is used by the folks along the River. 

The Market at Manaus along the waterfront. This Market was built at the turn of the last century. Manaus is an "old" city.

A floating "gas station" outside of Manaus...but we saw them in the other larger towns too. Just drive your boat up to the dock and get filled up.

A boat ramp. The water is low now but during the rainy season, the ramp will be underwater up to the narrows. You can see 2 intermediary ramps too.

You will see these big lily pads in the tributaries but not the main river. We found out yesterday they are pollinated by the scarab beetle.

One of the larger towns on the River with skyscrapers, cell towers and beach front property.

And day after day we sail by the rainforest that hides so much. The forest is dense and lush--the lungs of the planet. 

Lonely huts dot the River.

One of hundreds of tiny streams flowing into the Amazon.

Life on the River

Blanket #31

The cruise diretor gave the aqua blanket to this girl in Boca de Valerio. She was so happy to receive it. You might think that blankets are not needed in this climate, but it does get cooler at night and a little coverup is needed.

In the meantime, I made another one...lavender this time, that Silky has decided to keep for himself (at least for now). 

Manaus. Etc.

Today we took a shore excursion to a village named "January Lake" (in Portuguese). We took a double decked boat to a meeting place

 

And transferred to these tiny covered skiffs. They are motorized with a 2 stroke Yamaha engine causing lots of choking smoke and smell. Nevertheless, we plied thru the River looking for birds and stuff. We had success.

My best egret picture

I have no idea what this bird is, but he was wading along the shore. We also saw black vultures which are spooking looking.

After awhile we saw some villages. The first one even had a satellite dish propped on top of a hut. We might be in the middle of nowhere, but there is satellite TV!

Another hut had a window air conditioning unit. In this heat, that makes a lot of sense, but none of us expected to see it!

We saw a few people in the village, including the following

Bath time for baby

Mother and Child

Sisters

Don't Fall!

Laundry Day

Life on the River is not easy. It's hot and humid; lacking in most mod-cons; the water is ever present; yet 

Folks work together and make it work.