Day 18 - 12/07 - Belem

There are a number of directions today's post could take. But my chosen path is to set the stage with a familiar expression which is repeating itself on this cruise. It's simply, when life gives you lemons, it's time to make lemonade. And today's post will be longer than most.

Our day started with a leisurely breakfast as we weren't meeting with our Cruise Critic group until 8:45am near the Main Stage where Dan V had prearranged tender tickets for our group of 27. Just after nine we were ushered down to the tender deck where we boarded a local large tender, Jubilee which was later pulled from service. It was about a 15 minute ride to the dock and just as we arrived, a local boat cut us off from our docking position. So we bobbed in the water until an official waved off the offending captain, a HAL tender departed, and we tied up and disembarked our passengers. Later we learned that local traffic has priority over cruise ship tenders regardless of whether it's a hired local vessel or one of the ship's tenders. This would dramatically come into play later in the day.

We quickly found our tour guide, Victor, who directed us to our mini-bus and headed for Belem which is roughly 45 minutes away. The route passed by lots of evidence of poverty along with the airport, army, navy and air force bases. We weren't able to visit the local market because of 'security' for our group. 

Our first stop was at an area which had the oldest church in the city: a Franciscan church; a Jesuit church across the street; and the remains of the fort built to control the river port. There were couple dozen police there and they inquired of our guide our itinerary so they could be deployed. Throughout the day, there was a strong police presence. After leaving the area, we were served our first lemon when the driver pulled over, and he and our guide hopped out. Shortly our guide reboarded the coach and reported that 1. We had a flat tire, 2. We weren't going any farther on this bus so as to not damage the tire, 3. A replacement bus was 20 minutes away.  

There was no panic on the bus, and fortunately the air conditioning was working well so we just relaxed and enjoyed this latest new adventure. It took about 45 minutes for the replacement bus to arrive and we made a quick transfer to the new coach which whisked to our next stop at the cultural center. The plan was that our bus would get fixed while we were in the cultural center, but would that plan work out?

The cultural center is housed in a former prison and has a terrific gem collection including many large crystals and petrified wood. No photos were permitted. In several of the former cells there are small jewelry shops, and in an adjoining newer building was a large room with more handcrafts and a cafe. Our cold Coke Zeroes were refreshing!

For our next stop, we went to the Mangrove of Herons Garden with lots of flora and fauna including iguanas, herons, pink ibis'. There were also butterfly and bird cages along with a tower that had commanding views of the city.

Our last stop was at Emil Goeldi Museum, an Amazonian Flora and Fauna zoological park which had monkeys, a jaguar, huge rodents that the locals call 'rats' but they are about the size of a terrier or a very large cat. While seeing animals in cages is not my preferred view, we fortunately were able to see them. The 'rats' were amazing to watch scurry around through the vegetation and the lighting and camouflage and their speed made my picture taking of them pretty lame.

After we boarded the bus, Victor, advised us that we would be unable to visit the opera house and a few other scenic spots. I think he was (and rightfully so) concerned about getting us back to the port on time. So off we went retracing our route back to the port of Icoaraci. I should note that much of the route showed signs of poverty and there was lots of litter. What further struck me about the day was Belem is a town that's got bases for three branches of the military; and yet crime and security seems to be a pressing issue. But I digress but will return to the topic.

We passed by the International Airport and its nice display of a PBY Catalina and a C-97 or DC-3 and reached the port at 4:15pm. As soon as I got off the bus I could see the lemon tree and it was raining lemons. The tender line stretched the length of the dock and I could see no tender activity, the Volendam was now facing 180º from where we left it in the morning, and there was a stiff breeze blowing from the sea to shore. Something was clearly wrong, I turned to Dan and Angela and said, "We will not be back on the ship before dark." Mind you that dark is about 6:15-6:30pm and that's two hours from now. There's no way we were going to wait in a line for over 2 hours in the sun on a smelly dock. So part of the making lemonade experience is that we took a 'little' walk down the Main Street that was teeming with little shops and stands and locals. At the end of the street was a beautiful metal cross with an image of Jesus cut into it. We then turned the corner and continued our walk another quarter to half mile to just before a local beach before turning back and strolling our way back to the pier area where we could see the line still stretched to the street. From time to time we could see an occasional local tender ply the windy waters out to the ship, but it was taking a long period of time. And I could see the ship's tenders on the starboard side were all stowed and the tender platforms on that side were all put away. This was not looking good.

So we found a spot in a street side cafe and joined some other guests who had been sitting there the whole time we had been walking. And it was time for large bottle of the local beer which I enjoyed while watching the tender activity. Dan went on ahead and joined the tender line which shortened a bit. Finally about 5:30pm, Angela and I headed down to the pier and became the end of the line for a short time as other passengers straggled in behind us.

Peter, Executive Housekeeper, came along and gave us our first pieces of information about the reason for the line that resulted due to the wind and currents severely curtailing the tender activity. Later we would learn the bigger picture from the Captain's announcement after we were on board, and I'll recount that in a bit.

Finally at 5:56, we were boarded on a bobbing local tender that was sandwiched in at the end of the pier. I remember seeing a woman passenger on the tender platform waving goodbye to us. She appeared to be among the last of the passengers left on shore. We slowly bobbed our way out towards the ship and no tenders passed us coming back. As we turned around the aft end of the Volendam we could see the tender that left an hour before us at the tender platform for a bit and then it left. Good, it's now our turn. But that was not to be. Darkness' curtain fell on us like on a New York Theatre stage. And the Volendam glistened with all of its lights and we could see passengers on Deck 8 and balcony cabins watching the proceedings. And all of the exterior flood lighting illuminated the tender area.  

We continued to bob around and no tender action was taking place. And we could see that the other tender that had arrived before us, still had about 1/3 to 1/2 of their passengers still on board and most of them were still on the top deck. That tender would finally make attempts to connect with the tender platform, but for some reason couldn't. Finally they pulled away and our tender, which was smaller and only one deck, approached the tender platform, got secured and passengers began to disembark. It was now 6:45pm when I as the last person off the tender came on board the Volendam. I tried to thank as many of the crew as I could while being processed through the tender operation. My main expression was that I had an awesome time, and it was said with a big smile. The tender operations staff worked very hard to have a safe tender operation and I fully appreciate that.

Back on board, my wife was waiting with another lady. It turned our her husband was still on the tender which had the issues with tendering. I was able to share some comforting information with her and she seemed relieved at bit. Angela and I headed up to the railing on deck 3 above the tender platform and watched the other tender finally make a good mooring connection with the Volendam and the remaining passengers on that tender made their way off the tender on to the Volendam.

We couldn't see any other tenders making their way to ship in the darkness so we returned to our cabin to drop off our backpacks and then go find some dinner. We were told on shore that dinner hours had been extended so we weren't concerned about a meal. While we were in our room, the Captain came on the PA system and gave more details about what had happened during the day and it's effects on the tendering operations. 

Here's my summary of the Captain's announcement along with my commentary. In the morning 3 shoreside tenders had been pre-ordered, but the largest of those didn't show up. So he put into service two of the ship's tenders to supplement the shoreside tenders. He then learned that local traffic at the pier took priority which really messed up whole tendering process. Throughout the day the wind picked up and the tidal action changed. A larger tender was being used and it got lodged under a tender platform, so after it was dislodged, that platform had to be taken out of service and fully inspected for damage. And that tender was no longer used, and tender operations ceased for a period while tendering operations were reassessed. The ship's tenders were pulled from service and put away (I suspect due to their tendency to bob pretty significantly). Tender operations continued to be challenging throughout day. In the late afternoon the ship actually drug its anchor due to the wind and currents and the anchor had to be retrieved and the ship repositioned with propeller and thruster action used to provide a lee for the tender operations to continue. (This happened when we were trying to tender). We also received a transcript of the Captain's announcement which I appreciate.

A lot of "perfect storm' events were thrown at the Captain and his crew today. The bottom line is, all the passengers were kept safe, and we had a great day.

We enjoyed dinner with George & Sandy, the ship's minister and his wife before watching a long movie about missionary activity in the Amazon called At Play in the Fields of the Lord. It was pretty brutal.  

It was a good day for us despite the lemons thrown at us. And so ended our time in Brazil. It's a sea day tomorrow and then a stop at Devil's Island. Stay tuned.

A Cautionary Note

I reluctantly need to include this as a part of my blog as I don't want to sensationalize crime, but I want future travelers to be aware of dangers here. I personally spoke with a passenger who had a gold chain cut off his neck in Manaus, and then heard of another passenger who was cut in Belem when her necklace was forcibly removed. Personally I was warned twice in Manaus by locals to put away my camera and my cellphone. And in Belem, our guide would not take us through the market because of security issues. Coming to Brazil, please make personal security a high priority and practice. Mosquitoes aren't the issue in these ports.