Tag Archives: Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

In the early morning, Silver Shadow entered into the outer reaches of the largest bay in the United States.

Chesapeake Bay is an estuary surrounded by Maryland to the North and Virginia to the South. To the east, the long finger of the Delmarva Peninsula serves as a protective barrier from the Atlantic Ocean.

The protective barrier forms a “roadstead” or “roads”, a body of water sheltered from rip currents, spring tides or ocean swell outside a harbor. The barrier acts like a natural breakwater, allowing ships to lie reasonably safely at anchor.

One of the gems of the region is Colonial Williamsburg, a 300-acre town brought back to life in the 1930s. In peak season about 15,000 interpreters work in the former capitol, governor’s palace, and other structures.

I’ve been there many times, and never lack for new experiences and insights. I went with a group of guests for the day.

Here’s an album of photos from Williamsburg.

A COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG ALBUM

WIthin the capitol:

At the Governor’s Palace

Around Colonial Williamsburg

All photos by Corey Sandler

THE CITY OF NORFOLK

The city of Norfolk is in the outermost harbor of Chesapeake Bay.

Navigable for nearly its entire length, oceangoing ships can reach as far as Baltimore. Its widest point is just south of the mouth of the Potomac River, about 30 miles or 50 kilometers away.

More than 150 rivers and streams flow into the bay’s 64,299 square mile (166,534 square kilometer) drainage basin.

The headwaters of Chesapeake Bay are about 200 miles or 300 kilometers away, in the Susquehanna River which transects the state of Pennsylvania from its source in Central New York State.

The word Hampton honors one of the founders of the Virginia Company of London, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton.

The first colonists arrived in 1607 when English Captain Christopher Newport landed at Cape Henry along the Atlantic Coast in today’s Virginia Beach with three vessels: flagship Susan Constant, the smaller Godspeed, and even smaller Discovery. They moved on, seeking a more sheltered area.

The Virginia Colony, which took hold at Jamestown on the banks of the James River in 1607, was the first permanent English colony in the New World, basically the first English colony anywhere.

To some historians, this was where the British Empire began.

The second English colony was at Bermuda, where we are headed next. One of the relief fleets for Jamestown, including the ship Sea Venture, was forced to seek shelter there in June of 1609 after running into a strong storm offshore.

The bones of that story lie within William Shakespeare’s play, “The Tempest.”

Jamestown was rescued when a new group of settlers and supplies, some from the relief fleet in Bermuda, arrived in 1610. Jamestown Settlement is about an hour north of Norfolk by car, not far from Colonial Williamsburg.

The Virginia Colony began to sustain itself and grow. In 1640, the English had begun the import of slaves to the colony; by 1660 it was at the heart of the plantation system there and elsewhere.

By 1775, Norfolk was perhaps the most prosperous city in Virginia, an important port for exporting goods to the British Isles and beyond.

When the American Revolution was fully underway the next year, Norfolk was a strong base of Loyalist support.

Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, fled from the colonial capitol of Williamsburg and attempted to reestablish control of the colony from Norfolk.

On New Year’s Day, 1776, Lord Dunmore’s fleet of three ships shelled Norfolk for more than eight hours. The damage from the shells, and fires started by the British and by the rebels destroyed more than 800 buildings, almost two-thirds of the city.

Dunmore was eventually driven out, ending more than 168 years of British colonial rule in Virginia.

The American Revolutionary War essentially came to an end in 1781 at the Battle of Yorktown, less than an hour north of Norfolk, short of Williamsburg.

A combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington, marching together with French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau defeated a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis.

This was the last major land battle in North America.

I am in NO way making an excuse for slavery. But the end of the import of Africans combined with crop failures from overworked lands brought about the collapse of the economy.

In early 1861, Virginia voted to secede from the Union.

In the spring of 1862, offshore of Sewell’s Point Peninsula, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia engaged in perhaps the most important naval battle of the Civil War, the first conflict between ironclad vessels.

The battle was part of the Confederate effort to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia’s largest cities, Norfolk and Richmond.

The Virginia had been built on the reclaimed hull of a former Union ship, the Merrimack.

And so the Battle of Hampton Roads is often also referred to as the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack, using the original names of the two vessels.

A NORFOLK ALBUM

The Chrysler Museum of Art, and the battleship Wisconsin in the harbor

In 1907, the tercentenary of the Virginia Colony was celebrated in Norfolk with the Jamestown Exposition. By 1917, as the U.S. built up to enter World War I, the Naval Air Station Hampton Roads was constructed on the former exposition grounds.

The largest Navy base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk, is also one of NATO’s two Strategic Command headquarters.

A SHOUT-OUT TO MOREHEAD CITY

Our original itinerary had Silver Shadow making a call at Morehead City, a not-often-visited port on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast The tourism and business people there, and in neighboring Beaufort, were excited at the prospect of our arrival. It might have been the most significant event since the killing of Blackbeard the pirate just outside of the port at Topsail Inlet.

Alas, the night before we had a minor technical problem before departing Charleston and the wait for repair and certification forced a cancelation to the Morehead City call. We hope for a second chance some day.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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6 April 2015
Charleston, South Carolina: War and Remembrance

April 6, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

After years of arguments, threats, and political maneuvering the American Civil War started here.

On this visit to Charleston, I went with a group of guests to visit the fort in the harbor. The import of the fort is huge, but its size is surprisingly small, one of a number of installations on islands and sandbars in the Cooper River.

Scenes of Fort Sumter. Photos by Corey Sandler

On December 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. On January 9, 1861, cadets from The Military College of South Carolina, also known as The Citadel, opened fire on the Union steamship Star of the West entering Charleston’s harbor.

The Chapel at The Citadel

The ship was carrying relief supplies for the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter. The captain got the message and left in a hurry: the first organized shots of the U.S. Civil War.

South Carolina, like most of the Southern States, had an economy that was fully dependent upon slave labor.

The first settlers were mostly from England, and England’s colonies of Barbados in the Caribbean and Bermuda in the Atlantic.

A CHARLESTON ALBUM, Part 2

By the mid-18th century Charles Towne had become the hub of the Atlantic trade for the southern colonies.

Mostly because of the lucrative slave trade, it became the wealthiest and largest city south of Philadelphia, the fourth-largest port in the colonies, after Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

Colonial landowners had experimented with cash crops ranging from tea to silkworms.

Once British colonial planters in the American South discovered rice would grow in that region, they sought enslaved Africans from rice-growing regions of West Africa because of their skills in irrigation, dams, and earthworks.

About 40 percent of the 400,000 Africans transported and sold as slaves in North America landed at Sullivan’s Island in the harbor.

The Gullah are descendants of African slaves who live in the Lowcountry and islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah people and their language are also called Geechee, which may be related to the Ogeechee River near Savannah.

The Gullah influenced local music and eventually the rest of the country, especially in the early development of jazz.

The geechee dances that accompanied the music of dock workers in Charleston followed a rhythm that inspired Eubie Blake’s “Charleston Rag” and later James P. Johnson’s “The Charleston,” which launched the dance craze of that name in the 1920s.

In 1925, DuBose Heyward, a white Charlestonian, wrote a novel called “Porgy”, based on African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row based on Charleston’s Cabbage Row on Church Street.

Dubose and his wife Dorothy made the novel into a Broadway show of the same name in 1927.

And then DuBose Heyward collaborated with George Gershwin and his brother Ira Gershwin to turn his novel into the opera, “Porgy and Bess.”

George Gershwin spent the summer of 1934 at Folly Beach outside of Charleston learning about Gullah and Geechee.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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5 April 2015
Savannah, Georgia: Sherman’s March to Forrest Gump

April 5, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Photos by Corey Sandler, 5 April 2015

Silversea Silver Shadow at the dock on the Savannah River today

The Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Savannah

The Waving Girl, memorializing Florence Martus (1869-1943), who greeted arriving and departing ships from the shoreline here.

The Old Savannah Cotton Exchange, from 1887.

The former home of the Savannah Morning News, where Joel Chandler Harris, the paper’s associate editor began writing the Uncle Remus tales.

Along the river

Spanish Moss in the morning light

General William Tecumseh Sherman concluded his infamous March in Savannah.

Sherman’s troops arrive in Savannah

Johnny Mercer picked up some of the rhythms of the descendants of West African slaves who began their work as slaves when they landed here; on some isolated islands and backwaters the Geechee dialect survives.

The founder of the Girl Scout movement came from here.

Paula Deen began her culinary cuisine with a home business called “The Bag Lady” and progressed from there to fame and a bit of disrepute.

And Forrest Gump (or Tom Hanks, to be more precise) sat on a park bench in downtown to recount his memorable but decidedly fictional story for a cinema classic.

Also happening here, and memorialized in a bestselling book and a strange, mostly true film was a notorious murder that involved a cast of characters stranger than anything Hollywood could concoct. The book and movie were “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

A SAVANNAH ALBUM, Part 2

Photos by Corey Sandler

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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3 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Heading for a Bermuda Triangle

April 3, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard once again.

Silver Shadow is on her way to an unusual itinerary heading up the southeast coast of the United States to Savannah in Georgia, Charleston in South Carolina, Morehead City in North Carolina, and Norfolk in Virginia.

And then we will make a right turn, heading east for a three-day visit to Bermuda. We’ll complete the third leg of our Bermuda Triangle with a stop at Nassau before returning to Fort Lauderdale in two weeks.

I have it on good authority that the Bermuda Triangle actually used to be a Rectangle…before one side mysteriously disappeared.

Here’s our itinerary, which I fully expect we will complete:

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27 February 2015
San Juan, Puerto Rico: Heading Home

February 27, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

As our guests’ vacations comes to an end, mine begins. We head home from steamy San Juan to frosty New England, carrying warm memories of the Caribbean and an extended tour up and back on the amazing Amazon River.

Silver Cloud peeks around the corner from her dock at the base of the old city of San Juan

We bid adieu to new friends and old, and look forward to seeing them again somewhere else in this wondrous world.

Next time around: Silver Shadow in April from Fort Lauderdale to Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, Bermuda, and then through the Panama Canal to San Francisco. See you then.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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25 February 2015
St. John’s, Antigua: Blowing in the Wind

February 26, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Antigua is a place of great beauty and a bit of history, including the one-time presence of a young and mostly intact Horatio Nelson as commander of the Dockyards in what is now English Harbour.

Nelson did not much like Antigua, and spent most of his time here on board his own ship. But today English Harbour and the Nelson Dockyard are filled with spectacular yachts and handsome sailing vessels.

Silver Cloud at the dock in St. John’s.

There’s a lot to see on this island, and we have been all around it by land many times. On this visit, though, we took to the sea.

We went out for the day with four other passengers on Cat Tales II, a handsome 40-foot catamaran. The wind was blowing pretty steadily at about 20 miles per hour, and soon after we left the port of Road Town we were flying along at 8 or 9 knots.

Cat Tales II is the pride and joy of James and Sherrill, who moved to Antigua from the south of England, which seems like a fine decision.

Cat Tales II arrives to pick us up.

We headed out into the Atlantic into the wind; the handsome catamaran skims across the waves. Its two hulls descend only three feet into the water, and balance each other out so that the sailboat does not “heel” or lean during maneuvers. Not a drop of champagne was spilled.

Dog Head Rock, outside the harbor of St. John’s. The head is at the left side of the photo.

We set anchor in Deep Bay, a secluded beach. While some of us swam laps around the boat, James and Sherrill put half a dozen local spiny lobsters on the barbecue for their guests.

On the way back, we made a visit to the wreck of the Andes.

The three-masted steel sailing barque was built in England in 1874. In June 1905, she departed Trinidad with a cargo of pitch (tar) headed for Chile. They sailed northeast toward Antigua to catch the tradewinds that would have carried them down to Cape Horn at the bottom of South America.

But near Antigua, smoke began to rise from the barrels of tar. The captain turned toward shore, but did not make it to St. John’s. Her captain the ship at Deep Bay.

We sailed overhead the wreck, a ghostly shadow on the sea bottom, 30 feet below the surface but visible in the beautifully clear Caribbean waters.

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24 February 2015
Castries, St. Lucia: The Helen of the West Indies

February 24, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant SIlversea Cruises

St. Lucia ping-ponged back and forth 14 times between English and French possession, so much so that some historians called it the Helen of the West Indies.

Helen, as in Helen of Troy, who had so much trouble making up her mind between Menelaus and Paris and Brad Pitt and many others.

In my lecture to guests about St. Lucia, I said that this is one of the best places in the Caribbean to see a rainbow; I was happy to deliver on my promise as we arrived in Castries harbor.

Preparation of casava bread in the hills of St. Lucia

A chocolate bar in the making; Cacao pods waiting ripening. St. Lucia also is a source of vanilla orchids which yield pods for that other essential flavoring of life.

Today. St. Lucia is independent, and set on a path of ecotourism.

We were last here exactly a month ago, and I went on a rainforest tram ride up the mountain and then descended nine zip lines. It’s sorta kinda like flying like a bird; I went back and did it again today.

You can read more about St. Lucia in my blog posting from January here: http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2728

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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23 February 2015
Bridgetown, Barbados: Under the Sea

February 23, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We are back in Barbados, in a relative cool spell: only about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which by this point in our travels feels positively wintry.

(Back home on the island in the North Atlantic where we live, our saltwater harbor has frozen and ferry boats are being canceled because of the ice. So, everything is relative.)

Today I went with a group of guests on an underwater tour of a reef just outside the harbor at Bridgetown. Our vessel was the Atlantis submarine, a true submersible.

We descended to 142 feet below the surface, about 40 meters, and toured around in the presence of wrass, lionfish, neon fish, at a fringing reef. The entire island of Barbados was once a reef, now lifted out of the water by the upward pressure of two volcanic plates below the surface.

For more details about Barbados, see my previous blog postings, at: http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2758 and http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2731

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

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22 February 2015
Roseau, Dominica: Undominated

February 22, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

First about the name: Dominica is often confused with the much larger country of the Dominican Republic which occupies about half of the island of Hispaniola near Jamaica and Cuba.

Silver Cloud at the dock in Roseau, Dominica

While the Dominican Republic was named (by Columbus) after Saint Dominic, as in the Dominican Order, by the time Chris got to this smaller island he was apparently running out of saints. Dominica got its name from the Latin word for Sunday (Dominica) or the Italian equivalent (Domenica). Columbus spotted the island on November 3, 1493, a Sunday.

Here in the Caribbean, it is pronounced DOH-men-EEKA in a sometimes successful attempt to distinguish little Dominica from the huge Dominican Republic.

Dominica sits midway along the Eastern Caribbean archipelago, just a few miles from the French islands of Martinique to the south and Guadeloupe to the north.

The island was not considered a high priority for the Europeans and they mostly left it alone in the first century of colonization.

The Arawaks and the Kalinago/Carib tribes were already hiding when European settlers got around to paying attention to Dominica. They did not fully escape; there is a waterway on Dominica called the Massacre River. It is said the river ran red with blood for days after incursions by French and British settlers.

Nevertheless, Dominica has one of the few remaining groups of Carib or Kalinago people. About three thousand self-identified Caribs live on Dominica; some have intermarried with other races or cultural groups.

Today the descendants of the Caribs have a six-square mile (15-square-kilometer) territory on the east coast of the island.

The island is perhaps the youngest of the Lesser Antilles; it is still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity. If you’re truly interested in things like that, on Dominica you can visit the world’s second-largest boiling lake, about 7 miles or 11 kilometers east of Roseau.

What we have is a flooded fumarole, an opening in a planet’s crust usually found near volcanoes, which emits steam and carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen sulfide and other gases. Superheated water turns to steam as it emerges from the ground and its pressure suddenly drops.

On Domenica, Boiling Lake is about 200 feet or 60 meters across; it is filled with bubbling greyish-blue water that is usually enveloped in a cloud of vapor.

You can read more detail about Dominica in my posts from previous visits this season: http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2725 and http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2922

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or by downloading the Kindle App to your WIndows or Mac computer or laptop, or to most tablets and smartphones.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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21 February 2015
Gustavia, St. Barts: Once More Into the Beach

February 21, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We are once again returned to Gustavia, the lovely capital of the tres chic island of St. Barts.

This is probably the most sophisticated and attractive small island of the Caribbean. We have been here twice already this season; sometime has to do it.

Today we went for a leisurely stroll in the morning light.

A bit of old Gustavia, hidden in plain sight just part the Cartier, Hermes, and Versace shops

Some high-end shops, not at all hidden

An airplane descends for a landing at the infamous airport of St. Barts: usually carrying 19 frightened passengers and one terrified pilot.

The previous two times this season we were here for the beach, and then for the strange post-Carnival ceremonial immolation of Vaval.

You can read about those visits in previous posts: http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2926 and http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2718

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20 February 2015
San Juan, Puerto Rico: Away We Go

February 20, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Our journey from Barbados to the A-B-C islands above Venezuela and then on to Dominica, St. Maarten, and St. Barts has come to an end.

I wish safe travels to friends who have sailed with us to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Ashore in beautiful San Juan on a near-perfect day

And welcome aboard to new friends joining us here.

Here’s our plan:

I’ll be publishing stories and photos from each of our ports of call. Hope you’ll see me here.

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18-19 February 2015
Gustavia, St. Barts: Vaval’s Last Night

February 19, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Saint Barts lies immediately southeast of Saint Martin and Anguilla, northeast of Saba and St Eustatius, and north of St. Kitts.

It is quite small, only 8 square miles or 21 square kilometers, with 8,500 inhabitants.

In 2007, St. Barts broke their ties with Guadeloupe and formed a separate overseas collectivity of France.

Now, they do not need much excuse for a party on Saint Barts.

Carnaval begins on Sunday, February 15 and ends on Ash Wednesday, February 18.

Silver Cloud came over from St. Maarten in late afternoon, just in time for the very end of the Carnival in St. Barts.

A small but very loud and boisterous parade winds through the streets to Shell Beach, culminating with the ceremonial burning of a straw statue of Vaval, the King of Carnaval.

Téwé Vaval, held on Ash Wednesday, is meant to symbolically bury or burn the spirit of Carnival. The burning of Vaval dates from early Christian Europe.

Vaval is made ready for his big (and last) moment in town.

With the end of Carnival come the start of Lent, which does not seem much observed in St. Barts.

And then there is drinking and eating and drinking and more drinking, with live music.

I wrote more about the history of St. Barts when we visited a few weeks ago. You can read that at: http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2718

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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18 February 2015
Philipsburg, St Maarten: On the Beach, French Style

February 19, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

One relatively small island, about 34 square miles or 87 square kilometers that holds two countries: the constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on the southern side, and the French overseas collectivity on the north.

We came into the dock in Philipsburg on the Dutch side, one of the largest cruise ship ports in the world.

P-burg, as locals call it, has been so successful in luring cruise ships to its still-expanding port complex that at times it is overwhelmed by tens of thousands of tourists wandering its narrow alleys and streets.

In fact, we made a change to our scheduled itinerary for this cruise moving our visit forward by one day so that we could find a parking space on a slightly less busy day.

The other side of the island, the French side, is somewhat less busy and possessed of the nicer beaches. It’s also a great place to get a fresh baguette.

We spent our day at Orient Beach, a lovely strand on the French side of the island. When my wife and I first came to the island almost 40 years ago, there was just a beach. Today there is a condo development and restaurants and bars. Still a fine beach, though.

Orient Beach on a rare day without sunbathers, some of whom seem to have underdressed for the occasion.

As you arrive the beach is for families of all sorts and shapes. If you wander to the right, you enter a zone where most of the visitors seemed to have forgotten their bathing suits. Some of them should rethink their packing skills.

You can read more about the history of this two-nation island in my post from a few weeks ago, at http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2721

At the end of the day we set sail for the island of St. Barts, putting down the anchor their just in time for the final event of Vaval, their carnival.

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17 February 2015
Roseau, Dominica

February 17, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We arrived in Dominica on a Tuesday, which is two days and 522 or so years after Christopher Columbus sailed by.

The island got is name from the Latin word for Sunday (Dominica). By this time, it seems, Columbus was running out of saints for the many islands of the Caribbean.

Dominica sits midway along the Eastern Caribbean archipelago, just a few miles from the French islands of Martinique to the south and Guadeloupe to the north.

Dominica is a fairly large island with a small population: 72,000 people spread over about 290 square miles or 750 square kilometers.

Most of the population is in and around the capital city of Roseau with the remainder in tiny settlements.

It’s a volcanic island, very green, with tropical forest covering two-thirds of the land.

There are relatively few beaches, and they are not blessed with acres of pillowy white sand. There’s a lot of rain, which means many waterfalls, rivers, and lakes.

And to their credit, Dominicans have decided that much of their future lies in eco-tourism.

There are a lot of parallels to Costa Rica, and that is a meritorious comparison.

We were last here on January 23, and you can see my blog post for that date for additional information.

Dominica has still not fully recovered from the devastation wrought by Hurricane David in 1979. At the botanical garden in Roseau, a school bus lies below a fallen tree; it was empty during the storm.

Today, though, I went with a group of guests on an expedition to an unusual place on this extraordinary island: the Bois Cotlette plantation at the south end of the island. This is the oldest remaining plantation on Dominica, dating from the 1720s.

Dominica was never a success as a colonial plantation island and it appears that Bois Cotlette was, in the end, an unsuccessful real estate and agricultural project. It offers, though, a fascinating glimpse of the real Caribbean.

Bois Cotlette sits at the end of a long pathway…it’s not reasonable to call it a road…at the southern end of the island. The remains of the processing plant is framed by a huge poinsettia tree. A large stone windmill might have been used to crush cane, although archaeologists question whether it ever was out to use.

Bois Cotlette (named after a species of tree, the Cotlette, that grows there) was purchased several years ago by an American couple who now live there with their for Cookeville and hope to restore it to a working plantation and a demonstration of old times. The future may lie in cacao: gourmet chocolate from local trees.

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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13-15 February 2015
The Dutch Caribbean: Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire

February 13, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Con ta bai! Hello.

Bon Bini! Welcome.

We begin our cruise with three days in the Dutch Caribbean, just above the top of South America. Things used to be a bit simpler in this part of the world, as simple as A-B-C, as in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Until 2010, the three islands were together an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Now, Aruba and Curacao have gone one small step toward independence: each is a constituent country of the Netherlands. They remain neighbors, but are autonomous of each other. And the smaller island of Bonaire has taken on a position as a “special municipality” of the mother country, tied in with Sint Eustasius and Saba.

And then next week, we will call at Phillipsburg on the Dutch side of the two-island nation of SInt Maarten.

To visitors, the political adjustments don’t matter all that much. The islands are still Dutch, in a Caribbean and African kind of way.

All three of the islands lie on the continental shelf of South America and are considered part of that continent. To their north, the sea floor drops away steeply. They call it the “blue edge” and it greatly prized by divers and snorklers.

The Dutch held Curaçao (settled in 1634), Aruba (1636), and Bonaire (1636).

CURACAO

Sunrise at Willemsted, and then the Silver Cloud came to the dock

Curacao, in the middle, sits about 40 miles north of Venezuela. Curaçao had been ignored by Spanish colonists because they found no gold.

But its natural harbor was ideal for trade.

Commerce— and piracy—became Curaçao’s most important economic activities.

In 1634, after the Netherlands achieved independence from Spain, Dutch colonists arrived.

In the 17^th century, the Dutch West India Company used the islands as military and trade bases.

The famous Queen Emma floating bridge crosses the outer harbor

The Mikve Israel Synagogue from the 1750s, and a modern street scene in Willemsted

Although a few plantations were established in Curaçao, the first profitable industry established by the Dutch was salt mining.

Then in 1662 the Dutch West India Company made Curaçao a center for the Atlantic slave trade, often bringing slaves for sale elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Many Dutch colonists grew affluent from the slave trade, and the city built impressive colonial buildings.

The architecture in Willemstad blends Dutch and Spanish colonial styles.

At the Curaçao Museum, an old 47-bell carillon and the cockpit of a 1930s KLM tri-engine plane that served the island from Amsterdam

Out in the country are landhouses or plantation estates as well as former slave dwellings of West African style.

In 1795, a major slave revolt took place on the island, with as many as four thousand slaves fighting for about a month before being suppressed.

Slavery was abolished in 1863, which everyone would agree was a good thing.

But the economies of Curacao and neighboring Aruba were all but destroyed with the end of slavery.

Some of the slaves stayed on as tenant farmers, trading most of their crop for the right to farm.

Flamingos on a salt pan, and inside the Hato Cave

The islands only began to recover in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to service newly discovered oil fields of nearby Venezuela.

Tourism plays a major role in Curaçao’s economy, although to a slightly lesser extent than other Caribbean countries because of oil refineries and other industries.

The Queen Emma pontoon pedestrian bridge crosses the harbor between the Punda and Otrobanda districts.

The 67 meter or 220 foot-long bridge swings open to allow ships to pass.

The Senior Curaçao liqueur factory

ARUBA

Aruba, the westernmost island, is just 15 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

Aruba is about 20 miles or 32 kilometers long, and at its widest point 6 miles or 10 kilometers.

Unlike much of the Caribbean, Aruba has a dry climate; sections are desert-like landscapes with cactus and there are no rivers.

It has white sandy beaches on the western and southern coasts of the island, relatively sheltered from fierce ocean currents. This is where most tourist development has occurred.

The northern and eastern coasts, lacking this protection, are considerably more battered by the sea and are mostly untouched.

One of its natural wonders was the Natural Bridge, a large naturally formed limestone bridge on the north shore.

It wasn’t that large, actually. Or all that wondrous. But every tour of the island went there.

Not so much anymore. The Natural Bridge collapsed in 2005.

THE COAST OF ARUBA

The capital and port is Oranjestad.

The Arawak heritage is stronger on Aruba than on most Caribbean islands. Although no full-blooded aboriginals remain, the features of many islanders clearly indicate their genetic heritage.

Most of the population is descended from Caquetio Indians, Africans, and Dutch, and to a lesser extent Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and Sephardic Jewish ancestors.

THE WRECK OF THE ANTILLA

Just offshore of the island lies the wreck of the German merchant vessel Antilla,which was intentionally scuttled by her captain and crew in April of 1940 to avoid being seized by what remained of the Dutch government at Aruba and by American and British forces in the Caribbean. The 400-foot-long freighter lies about 50 feet down, patrolled now by fish, scuba divers, and visitors in a semi-submersible vessel like the one I used.

BONAIRE

The easternmost of what once were the ABCs, Bonaire is 50 miles above Venezuela.

Bonaire is the smallest of the A-B-Cs, with a population about 18,000.

The Spanish thought Bonaire could be used as a cattle plantation, and so they also imported domesticated animals from Spain, including cows, donkeys, goats, horses, pigs, and sheep.

Beginning in 1623, ships of the Dutch West India Company called at Bonaire to obtain meat, water, and wood.

In 1633, the Dutch, having temporarily lost Sint Maarten to the Spanish, retaliated by attacking Curaçao, Bonaire, and Aruba.

Curaçao emerged as a center of the slave trade, while Bonaire became a plantation island. A small number of African slaves were put to work alongside Indians and convicts, cultivating dyewood and maize and harvesting salt.

We arrived in Bonaire on the last day of their Carnival. This is a small island, but this is the big day and the sense of anticipation grew from morning until afternoon and the scheduled start of the parade. This being the Caribbean, the official starting time was “maybe 2:30 but probably 3pm”, which meant it kicked off in a remarkably timely fashion at 3:42.

Here are some photos I took:

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11 February 2015
Bridgetown, Barbados: We Resume Island-Hopping

February 11, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We’re out of the Amazon, back to Bridgetown, Barbados where the previous cruise began 18 days ago.

To guests leaving us here, we wish you safe travels and look forward to seeing you again. And to those joining us here, welcome aboard.

This cruise begins with the ABCs, actually in our case we’re hailing a CAB: Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire. The three islands–each with its own form of semi-independent government–are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They stand just off the coast of Venezuela.

Then we head northerly to Dominica, Sint Maarten, St. Barts, and Puerto Rico.

Here’s our plan:

I hope you’ll join me here as I post photos and stories. For more about Barbados, see my earlier post of 25 January.

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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6-7 February 2015
Parintins and Alter do Chão, Brazil

February 6, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We’re headed back down the river from Manaus, a 930-mile trip to the Atlantic.

Silver Cloud stopped this afternoon in Parintins, a hot spot in a hot place. This town is probably best known for its summertime party, the Boi-Bumba, which is held over a four-night period in June at a large stadium in town.

I don’t want to even think about June in Parintins; today, in February, the thermometer passed 91 degrees on its way to who-knows-where, and it somehow seemed as if the humidity was beyond 100 percent.

About half of the ship’s guests went ashore to see a scaled-down version of Boi-Bumba, presented in a slightly cooler than outside temperature theater.

A PARINTINS ALBUM. Photos by Corey Sandler

ALTER DO CHAO

Our last port of call in the Amazon River was the town of Alter do Chao, a bit off the visited path for tourists but quite popular as a beach resort for locals. From here, we have another full day on the river until we reach the outlet of the Amazon at Macapa, and then we turn north toward Bridgetown, Barbados and the end of this amazing cruise.

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3-5 February 2015
Manaus, Brazil: The City of the Forest

February 3, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

A MANAUS ALBUM. PHOTOS BY COREY SANDLER

The meeting of the waters at Manaus. The dark, clear waters of the Rio Negro meets the muddy main stream of the Amazon

SUNSET ON THE RIO NEGRO AT MANAUS

THE OPERA HOUSE AT MANAUS

TWO SIDES OF MANAUS: A GRAND MANSION OF THE RUBBER BOOM, AND A DIRT POOR SLUM

THE MERCADO OF MANAUS

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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2 February 2015
Boca da Valeria, Brazil

February 3, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Silver Cloud put down her anchor in a tributary of the Amazon River for a relatively rare glimpse of life in an isolated village of Brazil, Boca da Valeria.

The village of less than 100 people is at the mouth (boca) of the Valeria River about 250 miles from Manaus

Ships do not call here all that often. Our crew brought boxes of clothing, food, and school supplies.

I am often asked by guests about the quality of life in remote places like this. My answer: we may find it difficult if not impossible to consider doing without all of the modern conveniences of our life, and we also do not have the right to decide for someone else whether or not they should remain in their ancient ways or join the modern world.

But this much I do know. People who do not know what they are missing are often quite happy. People who do know what they are missing can spend miserable lives in search of things they cannot get.

A BOCA DA VALERIA ALBUM. PHOTOS BY COREY SANDLER