Steve and Cathy's Blog

Apparently, those taking the bus into Fortaleza were of two minds.  Some got to whatever market place was the destination, saw the condition of the place and stayed on the bus.  Others did indeed venture off the bus and had a fine time.  I think all the warnings we have gotten about pickpockets and purse/camera/shoulder bag snatchers has had an impact.  We are also told that there was an issue about the gangway being unstable when

Well, the title of this post is pretty misleading, because today is really going to turn out be a Sea Day.  An unintentional one, of course, made necessary because of our late start from Belem.  We arise at our customary 5:30am, and Steve gets thrashed by personal trailer Sho at 6:30.  He staggers back to the room to pick up Cathy, and both head for Waves. Speaking of Waves Grill (which is our picture introducing this

Well, another Sea Day, and Steve and Cathy are awake at 5:00am.  Probably because we sacked out the night before around 8:00 after returning from our river trip.  We order cappuccino from Room Service and it arrives in no time, with the steward apologizing because the foam went down enroute from the kitchen to our stateroom.  Cathy and Steve raise hell because of this and demand more foam!  No, seriously, we could care less.  Just glad

During the night, we crossed the equator!  Today we are arriving in Belem, Brazil (there should be an accent mark over the second ‘e’ but I can’t figure out how to do that), which is 60 miles up the Amazon River from the Atlantic (it’s actually on a huge tributary called the Para River that empties into the Amazon).  Steve has another fitness session with Sho.  Cathy waits in the room patiently, her tummy growling in

We are cruising the Atlantic about seventeen miles off the coast of Brazil, heading for Belem, Brazil, which is located at the mouth of the Amazon.  A good day to catch up on this blog and learn more about Brazil. Cathy attends an Angela Scheider Enrichment Lecture on the cuisine of Brazil at 9:00am, checked in with her needlepoint buddies and got another project to do, and then we met at 11:00 to hear an Enrichment

To start this post, Steve needs to spell out a new editorial procedure concerning these posts.  In the past, Steve has contributed most of the writing, always promising that Cathy will soon be writing posts about the food we encounter, both aboard ship and on our excursions.  Well, as you can see because Cathy has yet to write her long-awaited reviews on the food, that program isn’t working.  So, in the future – starting with this

After five days on five different islands, we honestly look forward to a day at sea.  During the night, we set the clocks ahead another hour, so now we are two hours earlier than at home.  We have set our clocks ahead as we have been advised to do, but not everyone has done that.  Steve gets up at 5:30 to attend a class with Sho the personal trainer, but he is a no-show.  Cathy suspects

There was a romantic comedy movie that came out in 1969 named “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” which is centered around an 18-day, 9-country bus tour.  For us, it’s beginning to feel a little like that, as we are now on our 5th island in 5 days.  I find myself having to look up the date in our excursion guide, and I already entitled the post about St.Lucia with the wrong date, since corrected.

Insignia has already docked in Bridgetown by the time Cathy and I wake up at 5:30am.  For the third time this week, the P & O Line’s Azura is in port with us.  We watch as the beautiful clipper ship Royal Clipper slowly and ultra-carefully slides into a berth between us and the Azura.   The Norwegian Breakaway and another familiar sight, the Celebrity Eclipse, next enter the now-crowded harbor.  It’s going to be a busy high-season

The next morning around 8:00am, we dock in Castries, St. Lucia. Random Fact #1 of many in this post: this is the only country in the world named after a woman, according to our guide.  I am trying to organize my writing in categories, but it seems to end up in the order in which the guide on our excursion gives out information.  Let’s start with the ships in the harbor.  The Norwegian Dawn is already