DROPPING LIKE FLIES, by Angie

New Years Eve and we just lost another passenger. Our day in Santerem, Brazil was extended because a lady fell on the gangway and broke her hip. We were late getting out of port because of this. We understand that as of this morning she is still in a hospital in Santerem because the insurance company cannot get their act together.

Later that afternoon, someone had a stroke on the ship. No other information there.

Then we heard two ladies were removed from the ship after the first week because they had been seasick 24 hours a day for the entire trip.

This morning all outside decks were closed because we had a medical evacuation via helicopter and some patient was removed to French West Guinea. Don't know what happened there either.

A good portion of the ship is sick with Noroviras.

Now Mark is walking the hallways and the stairs with his hands in his pockets to avoid disease. The next evacuation will be him with a broken leg from falling down the stairs.

Yikes......

And on a lighter note, here is a picture of the pizza Mark and I ordered in Santarem in a nice little restaurant where we could not read anything on the menu but "pizza" and "burger". We pointed at a pizza and this is the one we got. Notice the nice green peas all over it. On the top of Mark's list of foods that he doesn't like is "peas". I got quite a laugh out of that.

AND THE WINNER IS!!!!!! by Mark

First the good news.... I won two games of SORRY in a row this evening. There was no opportunity for a speech but I do owe my experience and ability to years of playing with my kids.. Thanks Lindsey and Kyle. (Or maybe it was the Tequila).

Speaking of which I am in quite a quandary concerning Tequila. I have finished off the fifth I brought. So now I must decide whether to (1) not drink the remainder of the trip (2) Buy a fifth at the next stop and probably not drink the entire thing leaving the remainder on the ship or (3) buy a fifth at the next stop and drink all of it in the remaining 9 days thereby not wasting any. Keeping in mind that it took me 12 days to finish off what I brought. What do you think?

And now the bad news.... The cola market in the southern Caribbean and Brazil is entirely wrapped up by Coca Cola. There has not been a Pepsi to be had in Brazil. Luckily I have found Pepsi at a couple of the bars on the ship. The other day we were at the forward bar and I ordered a Pepsi. The waiter came back with Angie's drink and a Coca Cola. I informed him that I did not want a Coke and that there was Pepsi on board. Several minutes later he returned saying that there was no Pepsi and wanted to know if I desired another soft drink. I told him that I did not want something else and to void the charge on the little white card with my picture. While he was doing this I went aft to another bar and bought a Pepsi. Upon returning to the forward bar I had barely sat down and the waiter set a can of Pepsi on the table. Evidently in their training they do not learn how to void a charge so he must have raided the Captain's stash in my absence. The other bad news is that the regions Hershey bars are not quite up to the quality of the stateside version. The texture is sorta chalky instead of milky. Maybe they use milk from the local fresh water Dolphins!!!!

The trip up the Amazon has been very interesting and educational. Some of the shipboard enrichment sessions were just fantastic. More than I can say for the food. I now understand why Kyle was so glad to get out of the dorms and away from cafeteria food. We have recently switched from the buffet to the main dinner lounge with waiters. Although it is the same food it's presentation is better and having it served to you somehow makes it taste better too. Chris has nicknamed me "Snackman" because I hardly ever pass up the dessert or the afternoon and late evening snack time normally consisting of cookies and cake. The coffee on board is not the best and recently I found out that it is made from some kind of coffee gel (sorta premade coffee with most of the water removed) that you put in a machine and mixes with hot water.


It seems that George Burns is alive, well, and on this ship. There is a guy who frequents the forward dance bar late in the evening who looks like George Burns when he was in the movie "God", he even has the round glasses. "God" sits at the bar drinking Budweiser and normally some of the young gals get him on the dance floor. Since the ship is moving and he is a bit unstable he usually does a pole dance around one of the columns with several hotties grinding against him. So far he has outlasted the four of us and he is still at the bar when we call it a night. The most amazing part of this story is that "God" happens to be a young 94.


Since this is an educational voyage I have learned one thing.... when you have people in their seventies that are wealthy and have a Masters or Doctorate you end up with some very self centered and rude people. It seems that they cannot grasp the concept that in a narrow hallway and you should apply the same rules of the road that are used on a highway. One can be walking down the hall of the right hand side and two of them will come at you walking abreast discusssing some issue and walk right at you expecting you to move and let them pass. They also seem to gather in the middle of a walkway in groups while talking and block the entire pathway rather than step five feet into a foyer or sitting area. I may not be the brightest bulb onboard but I do have more manners than many of them.

I Feel Like a Contestant on "Survivor"

(Chris writes) Greetings everyone...it has been awhile since I shared some thoughts with you on our journey thus far, and what this grasshopper has learned. I will try to keep the list succinct and it goes like this:

1. Always expect the worse and be thankful for what turns out to be "not half bad."


2. Anytime you gather a very large (i.e., 722) group of people together and most of them are above the age of 60(sorry Dad); there are bound to be a few (e.g., 50%) very rude, obnoxious, and impatient folks.


3. It is easier to just learn to ignore the 50% very rude, obnoxious, and impatient folks and focus on getting to know the remaining 50% that are wonderful people with lots of great stories , wisdom, and kindness to share with you.


4. Food is really an important part of our life and tastes especially good when you have spent 8 days eating some really crappy stuff!


5. It must be really hard for those people on "Survivor" to put up with each other for a chance to win a measly million bucks; and I personally would give them a raise in a heartbeat.


6. Angie is just possibly one of the funniest and funnest people that I have ever had the privilege to call "my friend!"

We have spent the last two days in Manaus, Brazil which is a city of 2 million people. Manaus used to be the No. 1 rubber producer in the world until somebody swiped a bunch of plants, and smuggled them to Indonesia. This pretty much knocked Brazil off the "Rubber King" throne, and they are now in the process of becoming a huge free trade manufacturing zone for every major player in the motorcyle, cell phone, computer chip, etc. in the world.

The highlight of our first full day on the Amazon in Manaus was we got to go to a really neat restaurant that serves all types of barbecued meats, and they just bring in to your table on skewers. They slice you off as much of whatever it is such as filet mignon, venison (I think that is what is was), chicken hearts, lamb, pork, etc., and you pickup your slice with a nifty pair of tongs. Then....they just keep bringing you meat until you flip up this stop sign on your table which can mean a) you are done, or b) you are just taking a little rest to unfasten the first button on your pants! The food was wonderful and we really, really, really appreciated the fantastic food, and service. The food on the ship as the "lady snake kisser" (more about snake kissing below) so aptly stated today "SUCKS!" Enough said....

Today we took a very long and slow boat upstream on the Rio Negro which is a black freshwater river that eventually meets up with, but does not mix with the Amazon.

The photo posted here is one we took while on today's excursion, and as you can see we finally got our Ms. Rosie a sister. Blaine is holding the newest addition to our family and we decided to name her Ms. Slowsie as she is a baby girl!

There were also a few anacondas, spider monkeys, and not one but two different types of Camins which the native children just pulled up with their "pets" in boats beside us, and handed over to anyone that wanted to kiss an anaconda. Hey....no kidding one lady who it turns out runs a snake rescue service actually gave the guy a big ole smacker. I would have jumped overboard except the river just happens to be infested with piranha!

We leave at 10 PM tonight to begin our exit from the Amazon and will spend the day tomorrow sailing or whatever you call being on the ship all day while it is moving. Next stop is Santiem, Brazil, which is on the Amazon, then it takes two full days to exit the river, and then another full sea day to reach Trinidad. Hope all of you had a very happy holiday and are managing to maintain your sense of humor and sanity during the "Great Blizzard of 008!"

Merry Christmas from the Amazon!

Yes, Virginia, Santa Claus travels up the Amazon. Santa arrived this morning on the top of the boat. We have been good little girls so we had a visit from the old man.....no, not THOSE old men, the one in the red suit!!

Yesterday was spent traveling up the mouth of the Amazon, which is 200 miles wide. We got our first glimpse of the shoreline at breakfast this morning, along with a visit from a Giant Waterbug, which was approx. 4 inches long and very scary looking. We saw blue butterflies on the back deck while having late evening cocktails last night (Christmas Eve) and no, that is not the same as pink elephants.

Mark and I have started our malaria medicine and the vivid dreams have commenced. Nothing scary yet, but very weird. Jamaica Man visited me last night in my dreams......

Chris and I wore our "Santa's Elves" hats last night and brought Christmas Cheer to all we met. Chris got a little carried away, though and I think she was mad when I started calling her the Christmas "Floozie"!

Gotta go, Blaine just informed me that is Beer Thirty or something like that, so it's off to the back deck I go, Ho-Ho-Ho.....

Merry Christmas to all

Angie

The Water Rationing Begins

Angie writes: Christmas Eve day and we have entered the mouth of the Amazon. The ship cannot produce any new water so cruisers are instructed to conserve water for the next 7 days. If we don't do a good job, water rationing will be instituted. Up late this morning after an exciting night of Texas Holdem and Kareoke. Blaine won the poker game but he paid the price by having to sit next to "Stinky Stan", an ancient shipmate that cannot count, pick up chips, figure out where we are in the game or (apparently) take regular showers. We then went to the Aquamarine Lounge for Kareoke. The best entertainment up there consisted of an ancient skinny old man dirty dancing around the floor with a bunch of young girls dancing around him, making sure he doesn't fall down and break a hip.
We have listened to several interesting lectures and are getting used to the intellectual flavor of this cruise. And incidentally, most of our flavor is coming from the lectures because the food on this tub is consistent with a college cafeteria. One menu a night and you can get it served to you in the dining room or serve yourself in the buffet. Dessert is a dish of ice-cream with some kind of sponge cake or white cake. Had cookies once and there was a feeding frenzy of old people so that was the end of the cookies. We saw people stuffing their pockets with pieces of fruit last night on the "fruit fountain". No room service on this tub. It's every man for themselves.

On Our Way to the Amazon River

Happy holidays to all of you! We are at sea today and making good progress towards entry to the Amazon River. We had a short visit to the French island of St. Barths, and it smells alot like money! The harbor was packed with very large yachts and beautiful people. Chris found a wine shop that was open as most shops were closed as it was Sunday. Does anyone remember when businesses actually stopped the process of making money for one day each week?

Anyway....scored what we hope is a great bottle of Antonori and two decent bottles of Bordeaux. Angie and I also did a quick trip through Tiffany's but could not decide for sure if we would actually wear a tennis bracelet since we are both golfers! P.S. Tiffany's is really behind times as they have not created a unique bobble for us golfers!



Our next stop was much more interesting and the island of Barbados is still not totally overcome by tourist. Although, we did learn from our taxi driver that Queen Oprah has arrived and established a small kingdom...so who knows how much longer it will be until it resembles Cancun! We hired a taxi and managed to see most of the island and learn a bit about their history and how their way of government is tied closely to ours. George Washington spent 6 weeks in Barbados prior to doing some major brainstorming with Thomas Jefferson in writing some of the island's guiding principals into our Constitution. Pretty cool.....

We are having another rough day and we also all began taking our malaria meds this morning. So far, nobody has gone crazy which is one of the side effects of the meds. The big question is "How will anyone know if Chris has gone over the deep end since she pretty much teeters there daily!"

Sorry about not including any of the nine zillion photos we have taken but Ms. Smarty Big Pants (new name that Blaine made up for his wifey) can't seem to figure out how to do this on the ship computers. So will have to get Mark to help us with this task sometime soon.

Blaine's luggage was finally located at the airport in Nassau and so it is supposed to be waiting for him in Trinidad. Meanwhile, we bought him an awesome tropical shirt with Santa's on it for his Christmas Day outfit! Hope all of you are doing great and ready to have a joyful holiday with your loved ones. Ciao......Chris and Angie

Oooohhh, I Don't Feel So Good

(Angie says:) First night at sea, we pulled away from the Dock at 5pm. I lost $5. to Blaine because he called, correctly, the direction we would be pulling out through the bay. I didn't get to the Atlantis Casino bescause we all slept in too long so I had to get my gambling in somehow!!!

Our first duty at sea was to report promptly for the muster drill. Most of us passed with flying colors but one couple was missing and heldup the entire community for way too long. We think their luggage arrived but they didn't!!!

Our dinner was quite nice, however we figured out that there is one menu a night and you can either get it brought to you in the main dining room or go through a buffet line and dish up yourself. I don't think Mark will sit still too many nights and have the meal brought, he will be in the buffet line. Things were going well until......(to the music of Gilligans Island)......
The Weather started getting rough,
The Tiny Ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The MV Explorer would be lost,
The Explorer would be lost,
We staggered from the dining table and proceeded to the main lounge for the screening of Mama Mia. I didn't last long. To the purser's deck for seasick meds, I put on my wristbands with the pressure points and to bed, (where I was able to watch Mama Mia from the comport of a prone position.
Stats: The MV Explorer is 590 feet long, travels at up to 28 knots, which makes it the fastest cruise ship on the seas, which is the reason we are able to travel all the way to Brazil.
I am rocking as a type this but seem to be alright today without meds. I hope I have my sea legs now.

Are We Every Going to Get There?

Posted by Angie: Well, I'm writing from the ship....finally. It was an ice storm in Chicago that started the chain reaction that made our plane two hours late leaving Seattle, which made us miss our connecstion in Dallas, which made us divert to Orlando instead of Miami, which made us late getting into Nassau, where Blaine lost his suitcase. He is now living his first few days at sea, wearing the clothes he dressed in Tuesday morning in the Tri-Cities. He did manage to get into town to buy an extra t-shirt, shorts, bathing suit and shorts, which he will be wearing at our first formal dinner Friday night.
Our shopping trip was uneventful until the shopkeeper accused Blaine of getting the shorts dirty bescause Blaine failed to remove his sandals while trying on potential new shorts. Mark and I exited really quick befoe the fur started flying. Whew! that was a close one.
I am starting this trip with the really bad habit of sleeping in. We were up at 11:30 the first morning and today it was 10:30. Missed breakfast again.

Ms. Rosie Trying to Postpone Our Trip

This photo demonstrates the tremendous amount of effort it takes for the Hopkins to pack their suitcases for a trip. Rosie has decided that maybe if she sits on top of the suitcase we will: a) take her with us, or b) unpack all of our junk and stay home! P.S. This tactic is not going to work!