Taste of Two Continents

 
         

After having taken quite a few short cruises, we decided we were ready for the big time and booked a 46-day marathon which would take us from Lisbon, Portugal to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with numerous stops in West Africa and South America.  The trip on Holland America’s MS Prinsendam was certainly different and interesting, although we did find that we were definitely ready to go home by the end.

We boarded the ship on October 17th, 2006 and left the same night.  We made one stop in Cadiz, Spain before heading for Africa and our first stop in Casablanca.  After Casablanca, we headed down Africa’s west coast and stopped in the following ports:

Each city was interesting in its own way, although most were quite poor and squalid.  Some highlights were an old slave market in Banjul and a “stilt village” built out in a lake in Benin.  There were also many craft markets where Mrs. Brown thoroughly enjoyed herself dickering for the best deal on locally made items.  The dollar goes a very long way in West Africa.  We skipped the ship’s planned excursions and just took a taxi into the town market in several cities.

The main thing we hadn’t planned on was the very oppressive heat and humidity.  Although it wasn’t terribly hot (around 90 degrees or so most days), the humidity and blazing sun made it feel much worse.  Our Pacific Northwest-conditioned bodies couldn’t take too much of it.

We had been advised that our itinerary was new and that we should not expect the amenities we are used to in more touristy places.  That was really an understatement!  In all ports after Agadir, we simply tied up at a cargo dock in the industrial area on the outskirts.  I believe we were the only cruise ship to land at any of them this year.  Although the Holland-America staff worked very hard to smooth things out, some strange things happened.  For example, since there are only a few tourist busses, the same busses we had in Ghana showed up in Togo and Benin.  In Benin, the ship ran aground in the harbor, because the local pilot apparently was not aware of a sandbar in his home port.  In Libreville, all the air-conditioned busses had been hired by the United Nations to haul troops to the Congo, so we had to make do with open-window vans.  We tried to approach the whole thing with good spirits, though, and did just fine.  Fortunately, some of the local tradesmen drove out to the dock to peddle their wares, so in two cases, we didn’t even go into town.  It was probably just as well, since the towns were somewhat depressing with the poverty and filth we have seen.

Just about the time we were more than tired of dreary stops in West Africa, things turned around quite abruptly.  Namibia was really nice.  It was very prosperous and had beautiful scenery.  We went to the town of Swakopmund, which is the luxury resort where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had their baby.  It was a very nice place with wonderfully restored old buildings and many new and fancy condos.

Capetown was superb.  We were docked right in town and walked around freely and did lots of shopping.  However, the city was so modern and clean that it was almost like being in a city in the USA, so some of the effect was lost on us.  We didn’t get up to the famous Table Mountain, though.  The infamous “Tablecloth” blanket of fog interfered with our plans.  We had to spend an extra two days in Capetown due to high winds which prevented us from first refueling and later from maneuvering out of the harbor.

After we finally got under way, our first stop was Luderitz – a very Germanic little town in Namibia.  The sight to see there was a ghost town (Kolskop) which had been abandoned when the diamonds ran out about 85 years ago.  The houses were perfectly preserved.  They were relatively modern two story cinder block structures filled with sand about halfway up the first floor – very creepy.

We then headed eastward into the Atlantic to St. Helena, famous as the place of Napoleon’s demise.  We didn’t see much there, but it was actually a quaint English village transplanted to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  Kind of neat and I got lots of pictures.

The next stop was scheduled to be Ascension Island.  However the landing area for the ship’s boats was quite rough and the Captain decided against stopping.  However, he circled the island so we could have a look.  The whole place is covered with communications antennas.  Apparently, the only thing this barren island has going for it is the fact that it is barren, in the middle of the Atlantic, and just a bit south of the equator.  Many transatlantic cables surface there and there is a NASA tracking station and shuttle emergency landing strip there.  It also houses one of the three worldwide GPS control facilities.  I would not want to spend a month there for anything!

We next headed for the Amazon River and Brazil.  I could not believe how huge the Amazon River is.  Our beloved Columbia River wouldn’t even be considered a respectable tributary.  We went 911 miles inland (to Parintins) and we were still far less then halfway up the navigable portion of the river.  Most of the 911 miles of shoreline were totally uninhabited jungle.  Here and there we could spot a cluster of houses or a fisherman – that was all.  With all that, though the towns where we stopped had an oddly familiar feel to them.  Finally I realized that they “felt” like Venice!  There were boats chugging around everywhere, hauling freight and passengers to and fro up and down the river with the same bustling energy we saw in Italy.  The Brazilians are somewhat poor, but cheerful and were always ready to wave to us as we passed.  The towns where we stopped ranged in size from Fortaleza (10 million people or so), to Parintins, which was really just a large village.

Although the weather was very muggy and hot, Mrs. Brown was pleased to find lots of shopping at good prices – which were even better after she finished negotiating.  Fortaleza had a five-story crafts and clothing market.  I suspect we could have dropped Adele there for a week and she would have been happy.  I think our favorite town was Parintins, though.  We could walk from the ship to anywhere in town and there were many interesting stores selling everything from machetes to fishing nets.

Parintins was our last stop in South America and we headed west out of the Amazon and north to Barbados.  Adele and I had stopped in Barbados on our honeymoon 25 years ago, so we were curious to see how it had changed.  It was much more built up and we couldn’t recognize anything.  However, it showed signs of prosperity and the people seemed optimistic and cheerful.

Our last stop was in the Bahamas, at a place called Half-Moon Cay.  Holland America owns the place and it offered a nice beach and some activities.  We didn’t enjoy it too much, since another, much larger, HAL ship was there at the same time and pretty much overwhelmed the facilities.

In Fort Lauderdale, we got off, took a quick tour of some Everglades sites, and then headed for the airport and an easy flight home.

One of the advantages of such a long trip is that we were able to get well acquainted with some of our fellow travelers.  We met some very nice people and enjoyed shipboard activities (i.e., eating and trivia) with them.  We also met a few curious sub-species of traveler on this trip.  Apparently, some folks are interested in going to as many countries as they can.  It doesn’t even matter if they go ashore as long as they can place a check mark on their list.  Some have gone to well over 200.  The “official” list of countries they use has about 320 on it, although some are divided a little strangely.  For example, the good old US of A is six “countries.”  This includes the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska as well as the “lower 48.”  We also met a number of “full-time” cruisers.  One couple had logged over 300 days on cruise ships in the past 12 months and was planning the same for the next 12.