San Blas Islands, Panama (2019)
We arrived at our anchorage in the San Blas archipelago around noon on January 8. There are some 375 islands, give or take a few depending on your source, fewer than 50 of which are inhabited by the Kuna people. They are an indigenous tribe who apparently originated in the mountains near Santa Marta, fled from there when the Spanish arrived and settled on these islands in the mid 19th century. Today rising seas are threatening to submerge these very low islands and some of the Kuna have already begun preparing to escape to the nearby mainland. The large mountains you can see in some of these pictures are on the coast of Panama.
The night before we arrived here was Tropical Night in the dining room. The large stuffed penguins who had been lined up to greet us as we boarded the ship were stylishly outfitted for the occasion. These pictures were taken in the morning; by the end of dinner one penguin was missing from each tableaux, presumably kidnapped to someone’s stateroom. We hope they will be recovered soon.
There are something over 60,000 Kuna, about half of whom live on the islands or the nearby coast. They have been recognized as an autonomous region within Panama since 1938, after an attempt by Panama to subdue the Kuna was fought off in 1925. The Kuna celebrate this defeat of the Panamanians every year, although we have read that the Americans helped end the conflict because of their concern for stability in the area of the Panama Canal. The Kuna are traditionally a matriarchal society, with inheritance passing through mothers and men moving to their brides’ houses when they marry, but this is apparently fading in recent years.
Early in the afternoon we tendered to one of the larger inhabited islands in the Carti group in the western part of the archipelago. The Kuna were unreceptive to visitors until 10 or 15 years ago, but now permit them, including many from cruise ships. We disembarked onto a small wooden pier and walked into the small town. The island appears to be very crowded with small wooden houses & we saw no expansive open places. The narrow pedestrian streets end at the water & you can see other islands the appear very close, but these few open spaces are very trashy if you step back a few paces. One tree we walked under was hosting a green parrot & another very noisy bird.
The main street was completely lined with women selling molas. If you don’t know what that is, a mola is a picture made of a stack of different colored cloth, which are cut down to different levels to form pictures or designs. The edges are sown down & there is often applique and/or embroidery added to complete the picture. They often depict birds, animals, fish or insects worked into extremely colorful designs. Sometimes more modern items find their way into a mola; we have one at home depicting teeth being extracted with pliers that was given to Rick’s father, a dentist. While the buildings were small and basic, with metal or palm leaf roofs, the island has electricity and solar panels and satellite dishes were plentiful.
The traditional dress of the Kuna women involves a lot of molas, with head scarves & arm and leg covers usually made of molas or beads.
We tendered back to the ship, where we had lunch and took a last look at the islands, much brighter in the afternoon sun. We aren’t sure which of these pictures are of the island we visited, as there were several that could be seen fairly close together. This was an interesting place to visit, but it looks like a challenging place to live.
Santa Marta, Colombia (2019)
On January 7, after two sea days, we reached our first port on this voyage, Santa Marta, Colombia. This is the oldest city in Colombia, founded in 1525, and is most famous as the place where Simon Bolivar died. It is a busy container and coal port & something of a seaside resort for Colombians.
Under our veranda this morning some crew were working on top of one of the tenders, a job I don’t think I would want.
After breakfast in the dining room (they make particularly good french toast) we left the ship. As we have often seen, there was a group of Colombian dancers to greet us on the pier.
Walking through industrial ports is often forbidden, so we boarded a shuttle to take us through the maze of stacked containers to the port gate. A madonna statue (the original, not the singer) watches over the port.
Leaving the port, we walked a little way up the Malecon, a road that follows the shore. We came upon a notable 1928 sculpture of the Spanish Conquistador Rodrigo de Bastidas, who discovered the Bay of Santa Marta in 1501 & founded the city in 1524. He stands atop a tall pedestal with a small plaza below surrounded by stone balustrades.
Across the street we found the Biblioteca Gabriel Garcia Marquez (sponsored by Colombia’s Central Bank). Nobel laureate Garcia Marquez was a local boy, having been born about 50 miles away in a small town called Aracataca that was the inspiration for Macondo in his masterpiece, “One Hundred Years Of Solitude.” A timeline of his life is painted on the wall under the name of the building.
In front of the library is the Plaza de Bolivar. It is lush with trees, with an equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar in the center. Unfortunately he is looking away from the sun (what poor planning), so it is tough to get a decent picture of him. At the end of the plaza is a white fountain with heads whose mouths would spout water if it were working, which it wasn’t.
Nearby is the Antiguo Palacio Consistorial, originally built in the 17th century but restored and updated several times since. Apparently most of the old buildings along the west coast of South America have been rebuilt several times over the years because of earthquake damage. The western edge of the volcanic Ring of Fire follows the coast of South America, leading to relatively frequent earthquakes. Anyway, today this impressive building serves as the city hall of Santa Marta.
We walked on to the Cathedral, a rather plain whitewashed building, small for a cathedral. Originally built in the second half of the 18th century, it is the oldest cathedral in South America. The Christmas display was still there, complete with a lamp post carrying a sign “Let it snow.” Since it is January and it was 88 degrees out, it seems doubtful that snow has ever been part of the Christmas celebration here.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s parents were married in this church. When Simon Bolivar died in Santa Marta in 1830 he was interred here until 1842, when his remains were moved to his home town of Caracas, Venezuela. Legend has it that his heart was left somewhere in the walls here. We saw three plaques dedicated to Bolivar in the cathedral, but they were in Spanish so we aren’t sure which one marks the spot where he was interred. Also here is the tomb of Rodrigo de Bastidas, who died in Cuba in 1827, just two years after founding Santa Marta. His remains were brought here in the 1950’s and placed in an elaborate tomb.
Across the plaza is the 18th century building that was originally the Episcopal Palace, and is now back in the hands of the church after serving in several different secular roles.
We walked on to the Parque de los Novios (Park of the Newlyweds) whose official name is Parque Santander. Francisco Paulo de Santander, whose statue graces the park, was an important associate (and sometimes antagonist) of Simon Bolivar. The area around the park must be jumping after dark as it is full of clubs and restaurants with outdoor seating among the flowers. A town festival had just ended and we saw colorful signs for it in this park and elsewhere.
We walked over to visit one more church, the Iglesias de San Francisco de Asis, passing a very impressive piece of wall art. Originally completed at the end of the 16th century, it was used in the mid 17th century as a jail by pirates (apparently Santa Marta was subject to a number of pirate attacks in that period). It has been rebuilt several times after disasters, most recently in the 1960’s. Only the façade remains of the colonial structure. A mass was in progress when we visited, accompanied by a singer playing a guitar, although since we could not see him it might have been a recording.
We saved for last the Casa de la Aduana, which is also the Museo del Oro (gold museum). The oldest building in town, this is where Simon Bolivar lay in state after he died in Santa Marta in 1830. It also houses a very fine collection of pre-Columbian art and artifacts from the Tairona and other indigenous tribes that lived in the area. Unfortunately, visiting this last proved a poor strategy, because we had barely looked at the first two rooms of artifacts before they began to close the museum. The museum is normally closed on Mondays but they had opened it just for the morning presumably because of the presence of a cruise ship. So we would have been better off visiting here first. Live and learn.
It was mid day so we walked all the way up the Malecon looking for a likely place to eat, but we didn’t find anything enticing. So we crossed the street and walked back toward the port on the bay side. There were a number of public statues of Indians, interesting if not great art. There was a row of cabanas and a lot of people swimming by the beach. We probably wouldn’t want to swim there since it is part of a commercial port, so how clean can the water be? Then there was a long row of vendors’ tents, mostly selling souvenir knick knacks.
Back on the ship as we waited to sail away there was much to see. The nearby hills were covered with cactus as big as the trees.
A lot of pelicans were flying and floating in the area. A large flock of them was perched in some trees on a hillside.
Meanwhile, up by the Lido pool there was a Colombian dancing performance. A group of Colombian “ambassadors” had been on board since we left, giving cultural classes and demonstrations. Mary came down to tell Rick about it, but he only made it up for the tail end of their dance. More about them in a future episode.
So as the sun set we sailed away from Santa Marta, our first port in South America.
Once More Around The Horn: South America & Antarctica 2019
We left home early on New Year’s Day to drive to Ft Lauderdale, to set sail on January 4 on the MS Prinsendam. As in 2012, we are circumventing South America, with several days in Antarctica & a trip up the Amazon River as far as Manaus. Prinsendam is the first Holland America ship we sailed on and is our favorite, mostly because of its small size (about 850 passenger capacity) & particularly attentive crew.
Sadly, this will be Prinsendam’s last Grand Voyage for Holland America since it has been sold and will leave the fleet this summer. We had been thinking about traveling this itinerary again sometime, since it was our first long voyage in 2012 and we really weren’t properly prepared to take full advantage of it. But when we heard that Prinsendam had been sold we signed up immediately for this cruise because doing it on another ship wouldn’t have been the same. This time around we will have a balcony room (we got a bargain offer on an upsell offer from our original oceanview cabin). In the picture above, our cabin is near the center of the ship just above the orange tops of the tenders/lifeboats. Here is our planned itinerary, in both graphic and written form. [As many of you know, planned ports are sometimes changed or missed because of local conditions; we have already lost a planned stop on Margerita Island in Venezuela, presumably because of political instability.]
Daily Itinerary
|
Date |
Port |
Arrival Time |
Departure Time |
|
Jan 4, 2019 |
— |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 5, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 6, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 7, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 8, 2019 |
12:00 pm |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 9, 2019 |
5:00 am |
5:00 am |
|
|
Jan 9, 2019 |
8:00 pm |
— |
|
|
Jan 10, 2019 |
— |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 11, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 12, 2019 |
5:00 am |
8:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 13, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 14, 2019 |
6:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 15, 2019 |
11:00 am |
— |
|
|
Jan 16, 2019 |
— |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 17, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 18, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 19, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 20, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 21, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 22, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 23, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 24, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 25, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 26, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 27, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 28, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Jan 29, 2019 |
Cruising to Amalia (Skua) Glacier, Chile |
— |
— |
|
Jan 30, 2019 |
7:00 am |
8:00 pm |
|
|
Jan 31, 2019 |
Cruising Glacier Alley & Cape Horn |
— |
— |
|
Feb 1, 2019 |
6:00 am |
8:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 2, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 3, 2019 |
Cruising Antarctica |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
Feb 4, 2019 |
Cruising Antarctica |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
Feb 5, 2019 |
Cruising Antarctica |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
Feb 6, 2019 |
Cruising Antarctica |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
Feb 7, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 8, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 9, 2019 |
Grytviken, South Georgia Island |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
Feb 10, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 11, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 12, 2019 |
7:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 13, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 14, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 15, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 16, 2019 |
8:00 am |
3:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 17, 2019 |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 18, 2019 |
8:00 am |
— |
|
|
Feb 19, 2019 |
— |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 20, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 21, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 22, 2019 |
8:00 am |
11:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 23, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 24, 2019 |
8:00 am |
— |
|
|
Feb 25, 2019 |
— |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 26, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Feb 27, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Feb 28, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 1, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 2, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 3, 2019 |
8:00 am |
2:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 4, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 5, 2019 |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 6, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 7, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 8, 2019 |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 9, 2019 |
8:00 am |
2:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 10, 2019 |
10:00 am |
— |
|
|
Mar 11, 2019 |
— |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 12, 2019 |
8:00 am |
2:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 13, 2019 |
8:00 am |
2:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 14, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 15, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 16, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 17, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 18, 2019 |
8:00 am |
6:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 19, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 20, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 21, 2019 |
8:00 am |
11:59 pm |
|
|
Mar 22, 2019 |
8:00 am |
5:00 pm |
|
|
Mar 23, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 24, 2019 |
Cruising |
— |
— |
|
Mar 25, 2019 |
7:00 am |
— |
The internet is set up differently this year. Minute by minute charges are gone, and internet access is purchased once for 24 hours a day for the whole trip. Expensive still, but at least you don’t sit there watching the minutes & $ rolling away as you wait for something to upload or download. So we are going to try to post the blog as we go along and see how it goes, because we still don’t know how slow it will be this time and uploading lots of pictures takes a lot of bandwidth. If you see this page it means we were successful in uploading the first time, and will probably try to continue doing it during the trip, although the other episodes will have a lot more pictures & thus may not upload as well.
Even so, we will inevitably get further and further behind because episodes can only be written on sea days and they take a while to complete. If you want to know where we are in real time there is a button at the top called “M/S Prinsendam’s Current Position” that will tell you where we are & what the weather is like there. Next to it is a button titled “About This Blog” that will call up a page that will tell you more than you want to know about this blog & how to use it. And one final tip: the pictures have captions but they are not visible unless you hover your mouse over the picture. That probably won’t work on a phone or tablet or any other device that doesn’t have a mouse, so if you care about that look at the blog on a computer if you can.
Those of you who are familiar with our blog may notice a few differences. The picture above the title will rotate randomly among pictures of the authors in various travel locations; be aware that those pictures have nothing to do with the content of the episode that will appear below them. The background has been upgraded slightly to a more colorful and dynamic view of the ocean. And we have a new, simpler web address – www.baderjournal.com – although anyone using the old address will automatically be redirected to the new one.
So this promises to be a varied, enlightening and fun voyage: Penguins, Llamas, Whales & Dolphins. Samba, Calypso & Tango. Glaciers, Desert, Mountains, Rainforest, Icebergs. From freezing in the Antarctic to baking in the Amazon just two weeks later. While you never know what will happen over the course of almost three months travelling in foreign parts, we anticipate enjoying every minute of it. See you South of the Border.
