Tag Archives: Silversea

21 APRIL 2015
Our Passage Between the Seas: The Panama Canal

April 22, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Early this morning, about 6:30 a.m., we arrived in Limon Bay in the Atlantic Ocean.

At 4 p.m., we sailed out of Miraflores into the Pacific Ocean.

Silver Shadow in the Miraflores Locks, 21 April 2015. (From Panama Canal Webcam)

I have made the transit of the Panama Canal more times than I can remember; it never ceases to impress and excite me. Sign me up for a return trip.

The desire for a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was a driving force for four hundred years: from the time the Spanish first arrived in the dead end of the Gulf of Mexico in what today in Panama.

The alternatives were not good: a months-long sail down and around the bottom of South America at Cape Horn, or an overland passage up and over the cordillera mountains and through torrential rain, raging rivers, and deadly threats from disease and killer creatures of just about any description.

Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps was a national hero, “Le Grand Français,” the Great Frenchman.

He had successfully led the project to build the Suez Canal in Egypt, in the process enriching thousands of French investors.

De Lesseps was a promoter, an entrepreneur, but not an engineer. He was very good at building companies.

But he declared: “The canal will be built.”

And notwithstanding the rain, the rivers, the mountains, and disease, de Lesseps said his project would be en niveau, sans ecluses. On the level, without locks.

APRIL 21, 2015: FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC

The French project began January 1, 1880. It was immediately obvious they were not in the dry sands of Egypt.

By 1885, extravagance, graft, and the unrealistic design for the canal had emptied the company’s treasury. After eight years, the canal was only about 40 percent complete, and work on dams and locks barely begun.

And now the United States, led by the charismatic president Theodore Roosevelt was ready to reassert itself. The Americans bought the assets of the bankrupt French effort.

The first challenge for the Americans was not one of engineering but instead conquering disease. Clearing Cuba and then Panama of malaria and yellow fever was one of the great accomplishments of medicine and made it possible for massive effort by the United States to build the canal.

A PANAMA CANAL ALBUM

Today, the canal is nearing completion of a major expansion.

At each end, the final touches are being put on new sets of locks that will allow much larger ships to take the watery elevator up and over the Continental Divide.

On board ship, I give three lectures about the canal and the politics of Central America.

You’re welcome to join me next time.

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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19-20 APRIL 2015
Cartagena, Colombia: La Heroica

April 20, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We arrived in steamy Cartagena in the afternoon and overnighted, catching our breath in one of the most handsome old Spanish colonial cities of the New World.

Cartagena was the Fort Knox, the Las Vegas, the Tower of London: one of the principal offshore gold repositories and warehouses for the Spanish.

And for that reason it came under attack many times.

Colombians call Cartagena “La Heroica.” The Heroic City.

Here are some photos I took on this visit to Cartagena:

CARTAGENA, APRIL 2015. All photos by Corey Sandler

La Popa Monastery

FUERTE SAN FELIPPE

Within the Walls of the Old City of Cartagena

In 1533—35 years after Columbus sailed nearby and almost a century before Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620—Spanish explorer Don Pedro de Heredia founded a settlement he called Cartagena de Indias.

Cartegena of the Indies, to distinguish it from Cartagena on the Mediterranean in southeastern Spain.

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa and his men walked across the Isthmus of Panama and became the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean from its Eastern shore.

The Spanish soon got into the business of conducting trade with Asia from what is now Mexico and California as well as pillaging Central and South America.

Traders brought back spices, silks, porcelain, ivory, and lacquerware. And there was gold.

Much of the Asian treasure was carried up and over the Cordillera to Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, then reloaded onto galleons through the Gulf of Mexico…the home of the real Pirates of the Caribbean.

Cartagena became the central warehouse for the treasures that came from Asia and much of the gold and silver taken from the Americas.

And it also became one of the principal targets of the real pirates of the Caribbean.

Spanish King Philip II, known as “the Prudent,” did not like losing his stuff to pirates and privateers. And so he hired Europe’s foremost military engineers to design and build Fuerte San Felipe.

The massive network of seven forts and defensive walls average 40 feet high and 56 feet thick. It became Spain’s largest fort in the Americas.

Today the heart of old Cartagena is a labyrinth of narrow cobblestone streets that open onto broad formal plazas. Street names change from block to block.

It might remind you of Istanbul, or Mdina on Malta. But instead of Muslim calls to prayer, it’s salsa and vallenato music all the time.

Cartagena’s history includes the sad story of slavery, the cruelty of some of the Spanish including a branch of the Inquisition, and more recent devolution into narcoterrorist chaos.

A CARTAGENA ALBUM

After many years of neglect, Cartagena—the jewel of the nation—has been reborn.

For those who have a bit of money, the city is a Caribbean playground: A wild party in a place of great culture. They call it rumbeando.

“Partying, dancing all night, getting drunk, waking up early to go to the beach, then doing it again.”

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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16 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: California Bound

April 16, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

California, here we come.

We begin a new cruise today, headed toward the north coast of South America at Cartagena, Colombia and then through the passage between the seas to the Pacific Ocean.

I’ve been through the Panama Canal more times than I can remember, and I look forward to the trip again and again. Especially coming from the Atlantic side, the sight of a large cargo or cruise ship sitting 80 feet above you on the top step of a watery ladder is something you do not forget.

After we reach the Pacific, we will turn north and make calls in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and then arrive in California: San Diego and finally the spectacular city of San Francisco.

Welcome aboard.

Here’s our plan:

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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14-15 APRIL 2015
Nassau, The Bahamas: A Bit of Everything

April 14, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The Bahamas is an independent nation whose name may have come from a Spanish phrase.

The name of its capital, Nassau, derives from a German city.

They drive on the left side of the road, and speak the Queen’s English—more or less—because it was an English colony for 255 years.

Their closest major neighbor is the United States, as near as 55 miles away from the westernmost of the Bahamas islands, and their currency—the Bahamian Dollar—is directly tied to the value of the American buck.

Oh, and it is also the site of the lost city of Atlantis—at least that is what the owners of the large hotel, water park, and casino on Paradise Island across the harbor from where we will dock—want you to believe.

We arrived in early evening on 14 April and will overnight here, departing on Wednesday evening.

To our guests who are leaving us tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale, I wish you safe travels and look forward to sailing with you again somewhere in this wonderful world.

A NASSAU ALBUM

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL

THE QUEEN’S STAIRCASE

For more about Nassau, see my blog entry from earlier this year when we visited aboard Silver Cloud. http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2779

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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10-12 April 2015
Hamilton, Bermuda: Bermy in Shorts

April 12, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We have successfully completed the eastbound leg of our Bermuda Triangle, arriving in Hamilton in the Islands of Bermuda for a three-day stay. Friday and Saturday were nonpareil days, a rich blue sky and near-summer temperatures; Sunday was merely beautiful with a few showers–enough to remind us that Bermuda is real and not a dream.

Bermuda consists of about 181 islands and islets, some not much more than sand dunes. In total, about 53 square kilometers or 21 square miles of land. All of the major islands are aligned on a hook- or claw-shaped axis, connected by road bridges.

But e pluribus unum: out of many, one.

The archipelago of Bermuda consists of the high points of the rim of the caldera of an underwater volcano, part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

HAMILTON

Photos by Corey Sandler

THE DOCKYARDS

Photos by Corey Sandler

The top of the seamount has gone through periods of complete submergence, during which its limestone cap was formed by marine organisms, and during the Ice Ages the entire caldera was above sea level, forming an island of approximately two-hundred square miles.

Bermuda is on the western edge of the Sargasso Sea, an area of that collects surface-floating sargassum seaweed in a gyre or circular current bounded by the Gulf Stream on the west, the North Atlantic Current on the north, the Canary Current on the east, and the North Equatorial Current on the south.

GIBBS HILL LIGHTHOUSE

Photos by Corey Sandler

Without any significant manufacturing and not much in the way of agriculture, Bermuda nevertheless has one of the world’s highest GDP per capita: Number 6 or 7 on the World Bank and United Nations lists.

That’s not to say that everyone you meet on the street or the beach is fabulously wealthy.

Bermuda’s economy is based on offshore insurance and reinsurance, and on tourism.

We eat so well aboard ship, but somehow we all become peckish when ashore.

Among Bermudian favorites: The traditional Sunday breakfast of salted codfish, boiled with potatoes.

Or, Hoppin’ John, a simple dish of boiled rice and black-eyed peas.

Shark hash is a delicacy; better to eat the shark than the other way around.

You’ll also find traditional British Pub fare.

Bermuda Bananas are small and sweet, often eaten on Sunday mornings with codfish and potatoes.

Bay grapes were introduced as a wind break, and now bay grape jelly is a delicacy.

Local fish include tuna, wahoo, and rockfish.

Fish Chowder seasoned with sherry pepper sauce and dark rum is a real treat.

And Bermudians are rather fond of mayonnaise: on their hot dogs, their beef pies, their peas and rice. They put mayonnaise on their mayonnaise.

It’s almost impossible to avoid, so I’d suggest you just go with the flow.

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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8 APRIL 2015
Norfolk, Virginia: Sailing Into the Story of the United States

April 9, 2015 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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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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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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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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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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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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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

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1 February 2015
Santarém, Brazil

February 2, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

A Santarém and Maica Lake Gallery.

Sunset on the Amazon River between Macapa and Santarém

The Meeting of the Waters: the Amazon and the Tapajos

Santarém and Maica Lake

Fishing for Piranha: We caught several, which is better than the other way around

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31 January-8 February 2015
Exploring the Amazon River

February 1, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

First of all, before Amazon was a globe-gobbling online colossus selling billions of products you never knew you needed, it was a river.

Way back, there were the Amazons, who according to Greek and classical mythology were a nation of fierce warriors who might have lived in Sarmatia (now part of Ukraine) or Anatolia (now Turkey) or elsewhere in the Black Sea or the Aegean.

And yes, in ancient and mythology and modern fantasy, they were alluring women.

But that has only passing connection to where Silver Cloud is spending the next ten days: in the Amazon River.

In 1541, Spanish soldier Francisco de Orellana, the first European to explore the river, named the river the Amazon pitched battles with what he described as tribes of female warriors. That was his story, and he stuck to it.

THE GREATEST

The Amazon is the greatest river in the world.

Okay, okay: I am well aware of the Nile, the Yangtze, and the Mississippi.

They are each great rivers, but the Amazon holds the record for superlatives.

It is—by far—the river with the greatest flow of water to the sea: about 20 percent of all of the freshwater discharged into the oceans, roughly the sum total of the next seven large rivers.

That’s great.

It has the largest drainage area in the world: 6,915,000 square kilometers or 2.7 million square miles. That’s 75 percent more than the Congo River, and more than double that of the Nile.

That’s great, too.

And depending upon how you classify its many tributaries—and who is doing the measuring—the Amazon may be 6,992 kilometers or 4,345 miles long.

That’s about 87 miles longer than the Nile. Isn’t that great?

OUR VOYAGE

After leaving Devil’s Island, off the coast of French Guiana, we sailed south down along the coast of South America to enter the huge mouth of the Amazon River

Huge? The mouth is more than 325 kilometers or 202 miles wide.

It takes us four days to sail from the mouth to the navigable end of the river—for ships of our size—at Manaus, about 1,500 kilometers or 930 miles into the interior of Brazil.

Smaller riverboats can go 1,000 miles further to the base of the Andes, and also serve the hundreds of significant tributaries of the Amazon.

Silver Cloud is stopping at some of the isolated towns along the river: Santarém and Boca Valeria going in, and Parintins and Alter do Chao coming out.

Along the way, we will reach O Encontro das Águas, the Meeting of Waters, where the Rio Negro’s dark (almost black) water comes together with the sandy-colored Rio Solimões near Manaus.

For about 6 kilometers or 4 miles, the waters run side by side without mixing.

This also happens near Santarém with the Amazon and Tapajós rivers.

On board ship, I’m telling guests the stories of some of the towns and the tributaries and the explorers. Wish you were here.

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29 January 2015
Devil’s Island, French Guiana: The Getaway

January 30, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Devil’s Island, L’île du Diable, is one of the most evocative, terrifying, inspiring, and memorable places I know of.

To be precise, Devil’s Island is one of three islands that make up Les Isles du Salut, the Salvation Islands. And those three were in turn part of the vast prison complex established by the French in their colony of Guiana off the southeastern coast odds of South America. As a whole, the complex was known by its most evocative island name, Devil’s Island.

You do not visit Devil’s Island without some of it staying with you the rest of your life.

The good news, of course, is that we are sailed in on one of the most luxurious cruise ships in the world. And the even better news is that we sailed away in the early evening, just in time for drinks at the Bar and a five-star dinner.

It was not at all like that for the 70,000 or so guests who checked in to Devil’s Island between 1852 and 1953. Devil’s Island and the two nearby islands as well as the mainland of French Guiana was used by the French as a penal colony for 101 years.

It was a hot, humid, disease-ridden, outpost of hell.

The vast majority of the prisoners sent to the Devil’s Island prison system never made it back to France. Many died due of disease and harsh conditions. Sanitary systems were limited, and the region was mosquito-infested, with endemic tropical diseases. Only a few convicts ever successfully escaped, and most of them were captured on the mainland.

Devil’s Island is the third-largest of the ironically named Îles du Salut (Islands of Salvation). To be precise, we came ashore at the Ile Royale, which was part of the prison complex. On the far side of Royale is a view across a narrow strait to Devil’s Island.

It is not considered wise to swim in the rough currents between Royale and Devil’s Island. Not so much the currents; the sharks.

It’s a rather foreboding place, with not much to recommend it unless you like to see marauding bands of super-sized rodents, large monkeys, and killer sharks patrolling close to shore.

The reason we visit is to immerse ourselves in the history of the place.

The penal colony was not a secret. In 1895, French army captain Alfred Dreyfus was unjustly convicted of treason and sent to Devil’s Island in 1895. The French author Emile Zola helped bring about a retrial of Dreyfus, and eventually he was exonerated.

In 1938 the penal system was strongly criticized in Rene Belbenoit’s book Dry Guillotine. Shortly after the release of Belbenoit’s book, the French government announced plans to close the bagne de Cayennes. The prisons were kept open during World War II, but from 1946 until 1953, one by one the prisons were closed. The Devil’s Island facility was the last to be closed.

And then in 1970 came the book Papillon, published as a memoir by a former prisoner, Henri Charrière who had a tattoo of a butterfly, a papillon, on his chest. Charriere’s book was an international bestseller, and in 1973 the film Papillon, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman made the story part of the global cultural DNA. Charrière said that all events in the book were truthful and accurate, allowing for minor lapses in memory.

A few hours walk around the island leads to this conclusion: close enough, and let’s be on our way.

Monkeys on high, cat-sized agouti down low. Neither were much bothered by our presence.

The church, one of the few places of relative “liberty” for the prisoners. And a section of the housing for the guards, very different from the cells for the inmates.

We are headed now for the Amazon River. My next blog post will come on Sunday, 1 February from Santarem.

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27 January 2015
St. George’s, Grenada: The Isle of Spice

January 27, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

First of all, the island we visited is pronounced GREN-ayda.

GRAN-ahda is the city in Spain.

But according to some, both city names have as their root the Spanish word for Pomegranate, which in turn may have come from the Arabic.

The island was sighted by Christopher Columbus on Aug, 15, 1498, and he called it something else: Concepción. At some point after Columbus, Spanish explorers in the Caribbean renamed the island in honor of the great Spanish city of Granada.

And then over time, the pronunciation changed.

And just to make complete the circle of confusion here, although the Spanish did introduce pomegranates in the new world, that happened in the mid-18^th century…and not on the island of Grenada.

The British, another great colonial power in the region, introduced a different plant: stealthily imported nutmeg trees from the Banda Islands of Indonesia.

So, no pomegranates in Grenada. But lots and lots of nutmeg.

Grenada is an independent nation consisting of the main island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea.

The island is just 133 square miles or 344 square kilometres, and the estimated population is about 110,000.

Grenada is very lush and green, in a semitropical climate with rich volcanic soil; many types of fruits, vegetables, and spices grow on the island: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice among them.

But the singular spice that is one of Grenada’s signature products is Nutmeg.

Did I say, “singular?” Once again, things are a little unusual here.

Nutmeg is one of two spices derived from the Myristica genus of evergreen trees. The same tree, actually the same fruit, also yields another spice, called mace.

The nutmeg is the egg-shaped seed of the tree, about an inch long and half an inch wide. Mace is the lacy reddish covering or aril of the seed.

All this talk about nutmeg is for good reason: at one point, nutmeg was an especially valuable spice, the source of great conflict between Arab traders who knew the secret source in Indonesia and western buyers who craved it very much.

Today, about 20 percent of the world’s nutmeg comes from Grenada, and 75 percent from Indonesia.

The food and the culture and the way of life in Grenada is appropriately spicy, with more than a bit of Jab Jab, a local version of voodoo centered around a menacing she-devil. I shall end my blog without further comment; don’t want to get on the wrong side of La Diablesse.

Our guide, Dean, with one of the amazing flowers of the rainforest of Grenada.

The Seven Sisters Waterfalls, the end of a muddy, difficult hike. It was very much worth the effort, although my knees will ache tonight.

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26 January 2015
Port Elizabeth, Bequia: The Island of the Clouds

January 26, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Our first port on this cruise is the “island of the clouds”. That’s the meaning of Bequia in the language of the pre-European settlers, the Arawaks.

Bequia is part of the independent nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, about 9 miles or 15 kilometers south of the nation’s capital, Kingstown, on the main island, Saint Vincent.

And then below Saint Vincent is a chain of small islands called the Grenadines, a chain of more than 600 specks of sand and rock in the Windward Islands. The Windward Islands are the southern, generally larger islands of the Lesser Antilles. As a group they start from Dominica and reach southward to the North of Trinidad & Tobago.

Bequia is the second largest island in the Grenadines, second only to Carrioucou, which might make you think it is big, but it is only 7 square miles or 18 square kilometers.

The population of Bequia is about 5,000 people, which is less than the capacity of some of the monster cruise ships that sail nearby.

The good news, though, is that the huge ships pass it by. We are the only cruise ship at the island. I’ll drink to that.

Modes of transit in Port Elizabeth

The path from Port Elizabeth to Princess Margaret Beach, around the corner.

A hot dog in Bequia

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24 January 2015
Castries, Saint Lucia: Helen of the West Indies

January 24, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Like so much of the Caribbean, it is easy to look at Saint Lucia and see only a pretty, green island fringed by sandy beaches and lorded over by some unusual geological formations.

It is all of that. But it is also a place with a bit of history, an independent nation now part of the British Commonwealth that in its first 150 years of recorded history ping-ponged back and forth between England and France 14 times.

The island bears the name of a Sicilian saint. It has an English heritage now, but holds on to French influence.

It has gone back and forth between admirers so many times that some early historians puckishly called it the “Helen of the West Indies.”

There are only two Pitons on Saint Lucia, but they are almost impossible to miss. They can be seen from almost everywhere on the island. They’re on the flag, one of the more handsome standards I’ve seen.

And they’re on the local beer, which naturally moves the Pitons onto billboards and t-shirts, and carnival floats.

The Pitons are volcanic plugs, part of the Soufriere volcanic complex, remnants of huge collapsed stratovolcanoes. A plug is created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano.

This particular vent is believed to be dormant and over time the surrounding hill has been eroded away, leaving only the plug.

And luring the tourists.

Some with beer.

Today, I went with a group of guests to the rainforest.

There we rode up the mountain on an aerial tram and then–wearing a triple-secure harness–we flew from one platform to another, 90 feet above the ground on a zip line.

It was a peak of a different kind.

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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:

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

Around the World with Corey Sandler

Tag Archives: Silversea

21 APRIL 2015
Our Passage Between the Seas: The Panama Canal

19-20 APRIL 2015
Cartagena, Colombia: La Heroica

16 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: California Bound

14-15 APRIL 2015
Nassau, The Bahamas: A Bit of Everything

10-12 April 2015
Hamilton, Bermuda: Bermy in Shorts

8 APRIL 2015
Norfolk, Virginia: Sailing Into the Story of the United States

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

27 February 2015
San Juan, Puerto Rico: Heading Home

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22 February 2015
Roseau, Dominica: Undominated

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

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

17 February 2015
Roseau, Dominica

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

2 February 2015
Boca da Valeria, Brazil

1 February 2015
Santarém, Brazil

31 January-8 February 2015
Exploring the Amazon River

29 January 2015
Devil’s Island, French Guiana: The Getaway

27 January 2015
St. George’s, Grenada: The Isle of Spice

26 January 2015
Port Elizabeth, Bequia: The Island of the Clouds

24 January 2015
Castries, Saint Lucia: Helen of the West Indies

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler