Why Do I Blog? (2025 )

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

I have several reasons for blogging. Here they are, in no particular order:

My blog is a diary

I blog for the same reasons people keep diaries. Keeping a blog helps me make a record of our travels. Writing about a trip helps me remember much more about the trip. It forces me to think about what I liked and what I didn’t like, and why. A diary is a place to process emotions and reflect on the day’s experiences and observations.

It is a finite project! Hurray for that!

My blog is a way to keep in touch with friends and family

I want friends to know about our travels (if they are interested).  I especially want our kids to know where we have been and what it was like. Some friends would like to plan trips to the places we visit and ma find our experiences informative. Some friends are unable to travel, but they enjoy reading about exotic cultures and distant lands.

To practice/improve my writing

Blogging is very good practice. It makes me think about how to be more descriptive, how to make it more interesting, how to weave the day into a story. 

I can try out different writing styles to see what works. 

I have to think about what should be fact-checked, which words should be spell-checked, what supplemental information is needed to provide context or background. 

Sometimes I come up with a word I want to use and realize I don’t actually know what the word means, so I look it up. That can be enlightening.

I think a lot about precision and accuracy. I try to keep bias and privilege from creeping in. I get practice being objective. I try to remember what I learned in anthropology classes in college. I found a good explanation of how an anthropologist approaches the observation of another culture at a website for the University of Arkansas Little Rock:

An anthropologist is a trained observer who knows the importance of collecting data, in listening and watching what  others are doing, in reflecting on what has actually as well as apparently occurred, in researching the context, in applying various explanatory models, and in adopting a broad perspective for framing an understanding. Whatever the topic of research, anthropologists share a particular holistic vision that requires using a repertoire of methods in order to forge a deeper understanding of situations. This holism characterizes the best anthropology and imparts the perspective for which the profession is valued.

I try to practice ethical writing by obtaining consent from people in photos (not always feasible) and giving credit to others when using their words or photos.

All of the above features of writing are skills that are continuously being honed. I am learning by doing and by thinking more deeply about some of the issues while doing.

I think reviews are important

I write blogs to review ships, restaurants, hotels, tours, etc. Many of our friends like to travel and it might be helpful for them to know about specific experiences and about what we liked and didn’t like. Sometimes it might sound like I am complaining or being nit-picky, but this is when I have my reviewer hat on. 

I find reviews very helpful. Often it is a little thing that helps me decide which hotel to stay at (or not stay at) because the big things are all the same. To me the little things are very important. It is probably no surprise to many of you that I am very detail-oriented.

Blogging changes the way you see the world.

This is why I keep blogging. It makes me really think about what I saw, what happened, what I felt, what I learned, and what was interesting. I have to think about my experiences in real time. I ask myself, “Is this something I could write about? Should I pay more attention to it?”

I look at things a little differently because I know I will be blogging later. It’s hard to describe, but it is real and it is worthwhile. 

Today’s fabric is Pen Pals on Purple - Large, by carabaradesigns for Spoonflower.

Farms, Ferries, Forests

Monday, February 17, 2025

Our day will be spent cruising the Amazon. Zaandam will not call in any ports.

We left Macapá last night and sailed overnight - slowly, due to the lack of lights and the potential for obstacles in the river. We continue sailing upriver today. The width of the river is amazing. At first all you can see is a forest on the distant shore. After a while, you start to understand better what you are seeing. You notice the many tributaries adding so much water to the Amazon, and you notice the ubiquitous wetlands. Occasionally, there are birds. You notice the frequent boat traffic. You don’t notice the absence of air traffic and motor vehicle traffic until it is pointed out to you. You notice the odd color of the water, and its opacity. You notice grassy wetlands and dense forest. The horizon sometimes reveals low, rolling hills, but there are no visible mountains.

There have been no bridges. Occasionally there is a fazenda - a farm. You might see a dock or two, suggesting a settlement of some sort nearby. The river is the life of this region.

Morning prospect

Amazon sunset, taken through a window

What else did we do today? It was hard to tear ourselves away from the fascinating Amazon scenery. Richard Watson spoke about The Indigenous History of the Amazon.

Richard said that at the time of the arrival of Europeans, there were an estimated 5 million people living in the Amazon Basin. These inhabitants comprised 100 different tribal groups, and spoke 300 languages. The original indigenous peoples were decimated by disease once the Europeans arrived. There are presently 1 million residents of the Amazon who identify as indigenous.

The first humans arrived in the Amazon 11,000-12,000 years ago. Despite the warm, humid climate, they left cave paintings and other artifacts, that can be seen today in Monte Alegre, in the state of Pará. The rock paintings in Serranía de la Lindosa, in Colombia, is considered “The Sistine Chapel of the Amazon.”

Ironically, deforestation has enabled the discovery of pre—historic earthworks through aerial photography and LIDAR. They are similar to Nazca Lines. There were large settlements that subsisted through agriculture. Over centuries, the indigenous farmers created Terra Preta, a dark, fertile soil, by mixing, charcoal, bones, compost, manure, and broken pottery into the Amazonian soil, which was not very suitable for agriculture. These darks layers can be seen today, as well as Terra Mulata, a brown layer. The depth of the Terra Preta layer can reach 6 feet. These  soils would have been created between 450 BCE and 950 CE.

In the period between 1540 and 1570 CE, missionaries arrived. The first fort was established at Belem. Enslavement of local peoples began, and enslaved people were brought over from Africa. In modern times, the indigenous people of the Amazon have faced threats related to naturalists seeking medicinal plants, the rubber boom, and the gold rush of the 1980’s.

There are believed to be about 100 uncontacted tribes in the Amazon at the present time. In this context, “uncontacted” means these tribes choose to continue their traditional lifestyle and choose to avoid contact with outsiders. The Brazilian government now officially respects this choice and has created a large protected zone that is off-limits to outsiders where the uncontacted tribes can maintain their traditional culture.

In the evening we went to a concert by a vocalist named Maria Campos. She was okay, but I didn’t really like her playlist.

Our towel animal tonight is this cute pup.

Today’s fabric is Amazon Green and Black, by Ray Troll for Spoonflower. Ray Troll is one of my favorite Alaskan artists, so I was delighted to find this fabric. Take a close look.

Not the One with the Trucks

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Finally! Today we will enter the Amazon! The one with the boats. The legendary Amazon River!!

And we are finally out of the rough seas that have been with us ever since we left St. Lucia. We didn’t get seasick, but it was difficult to walk around at times.

(We will also begin operating under water restrictions today. The Amazon River is too silty for our ship’s water desalinization and purification system to function. Zaandam will not be able to obtain more fresh water until we reach Manaus in five days. All passengers have been asked to be mindful of water usage during this period. Ken and I plan to do our part by taking fewer and shorter showers, limiting laundry, and reducing the frequency of flushing. TMI, perhaps?)

The Amazon River Bar is the estuary where the Amazon empties into the Atlantic Ocean. 

We will sail through Barra Norte, or North Bar. It’s the initial stretch of the great Amazon after leaving the Atlantic Ocean and entering the Amazon estuary. This northern route passes the north side of Ilha de Marajó, an island the size of Switzerland. 

When we reach the city of Macapá, we will anchor out in the bay for about three hours so that Brazilian officials can board the Zaandam and inspect the documents (passports, visas, etc.) of all passengers and crew. The documents have already been collected by the customer service staff, so we won’t have to do anything during this “service call.” No one gets on or off the Zaandam, other than the Brazilian authorities.

Macapá is a city of about 500,000. We can see an industrial-looking port in the foreground and high-rise apartments in the background. There are several ocean-going cargo ships anchored here. The river is so wide it’s hard to realize that we are in a river now.

Macapá is located extremely close to the equator. (Fun fact: the word “equator” does not need to be capitalized.) If you go to Macapá, you might be able to see the “Marco Zero” monument. The sun aligns with the monument twice a year and creates a line of light on the equator.

We will cross the equator somewhere near here as we continue south and west along the North Bar.

Meanwhile, aboard the Zaandam, Ken and I are learning about three upcoming ports and we are attending a PowerPoint style presentation by Richard Watson, “The Amazon River and Forest - a geographical exploration of the enormous Amazon biome.”

In the evening, Oi Brasil organized a Pool Party for us. It was so much FUN. The turnout was large because many  of our fellow passengers are quite eager to learn more about Brazilian culture - and music and dancing are a  huge part of Brazilian culture. The singer for Oi Brasil emceed the party. I never did get her name, so I am going to call her Cantora from now on (the Portuguese word for a female singer). 

The party started with music and some of the men from Oi Brasil doing backflips over their flag.

Cantora really knows how to get a party going with her energetic Latin singing. Fernanda and the other female dancer came out in their Carnaval feather costumes, and then the Samba drummers and the “drumming students” joined the party. Cantora turned many in the audience into participants. The women wanted to dance; the men wanted to get closer to the stage to make videos of Cantora, Fernanda, and the dancer in yellow.

26 second video:

Cantora and the guys acted out a scenario about a woman who was not interested in the fellows panting for her. 

43 second video:

More of Cantora and the guys in this 34 second video:

Our friends from Oi Brasil clearly were a team and they took so much joy in what they were doing. I think there were 12 of them in all. It was hard to count them because they were always moving around.

Tonight we had a new towel creature - clearly a snail.

Today’s fabric is the sparkly, stretchy fabric that Cantora wore tonight. Ironically, she ordered the outfit from Amazon - the one with the trucks. I got that information second-hand. I was hoping I would have an opportunity to ask her about her fabric, but I never did run into her. Anyway, the most important thing you should know is that this fabric attracts men. I actually saw how it works during the pool party. Amazing.

Video, 8 seconds:

Dutch Hutch?

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Today is another relaxing day at sea. The main dining room had a “Caribbean Brunch,” so we had a chance to sleep in. But, we didn’t sleep in - we always wake up, even when we don’t want to. Even when they don’t have a brunch, you could sleep in if you wanted to, and either skip breakfast or go to the buffet. I think there is something about the  idea of “brunch” that makes it seem like a special treat.

I don’t have a standard dish that I always order. I like to try different things. On a cruise it’s a risk-free environment for trying something new. You don’t have to pay for it, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it - you can just order something else.

This is HAL’s version of corned beef hash, with a Caribbean twist. I would not get it again. The corned beef was awful.

Port Profiles was the first offering we attended. It covered the next few ports - Macapá, Santarem, and Boca Da Valeria. It was well done (without any discussion of where to go shopping - yay!). This cruise is more or less a one-off, so the presentation was not a regurgitation of the same presentation that is given every week for the entire season. In other words, it requires some tweaking, or perhaps more work.

We had been wondering about Macapá and Boca da Valeria because there were no excursions offered for either place. It turns out that Macapá will be a “service call” only. In other words, no one gets off the ship. We anchor in the harbor and Brazilian officials come aboard to inspect everyone’s passports. (Our passports were collected after Scarborough to expedite this process.)

I will talk about Boca da Valeria in a future post.

Lerio presented The Greatest Show on Earth (The Cultural Significance of Brazilian Carnaval). According to AI:

Carnival is the English spelling of the word, while "carnaval" is the spelling used in areas where Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are spoken. 

Since we forgot to pictures pretty much all day, I am adding some photos we took later on. The first one is an installation by the aft pool. I did not see a plaque identifying it.

In the aft elevator lobby we admired this beautiful antique (?) piece of unknown purpose or origin. Is it a hutch? No plaque. Gorgeous.

M. C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist. Several of the aft stairwell landings displayed “phototypes” of Escher woodcuts. I had to look the term up to learn that “phototype” refers to a printing process. I think the Escher images were quite disappointing. They looked slightly blurry and appeared to be covered in a rough, clear coating which made them look like cheap copies. I am not going to include all of the Escher prints because you have probably seen them. This one is called “Fishes” and is dated 1941. The method of mounting and displaying these large phototypes has not protected them from damage, and they all have obvious nicks and/or damage around the edges. There is perhaps some discoloration also.

On our floor, the aft elevator lobby reflects the Dutch origins of Holland America Lines, with four antique Delft plates. Two of them are shown here:

Here is an objet d’art in one of the large public spaces near the coffee shop (and exact copy of the text on the plaque, which was very difficult to read/photograph):

‘Fragment of a head of a Queen, probably Tiye’
after an original in yellow jasper,
original dating before years 8-12 A.D.
replica in eco-deco
by: Lebigre & Roger
Italy, 1998

The painting below is part of a set of three called “Gipsy Musicians.” They are spread out over three landings in the aft stairwell. They are oil pantings on canvas by Igor Fomin (b. 1963) and painted in Russia in 1998. I am not in love with these paintings, but they fit the carnival theme of this cruise, so here is one of them:

It is customary for a ship to be given a commemorative plaque the first time it calls in a port. The lowest level of the stairwell contains a number of these plaques. They are fun to read.

We had dinner at Canaletto, the Italian specialty restaurant on Holland America. I think Sabatini’s on Princess is better - food and service.

Tonight’s towel looks like . . . a lobster tail? I think the animal should have its head and limbs to count as a proper towel animal.

Today’s fabric is All Things Dutch, by dczdezigns for Spoonflower.

Mask Parade

Friday, February 14, 2025

The water last evening was VERY ROUGH. We are at sea again today. The water continued to be rough overnight. Today it is slightly better, but still rough. Maybe we are getting used to it.

But there were so many activities I wanted to do today, I will have to go to them, in spite of the rough water.  It’s been a long time since I have been on a cruise that had SO MANY activities that appealed to me.

Today’s craft was mask-making, again. Additional sessions were added due to the high demand coupled with max seating of 25 in the Art Studio. I decided to skip trying to get a place in the class, because I now have the mask I purchased in Tobago. Nonetheless, I am very pleased that the ship has been responding to passenger demand by repeating several activities.

I went to another session of Learn Portuguese, and then went with Ken to hear Richard Watson’s presentation: Into the Amazon. Richard is a British man who fell in love with Brazil and has lived there for many years. He is an excellent speaker with a nice British accent that is easy to understand. He brings a lot of energy to the stage, and he is very good-looking.

White chocolate coins embellished the desserts at lunch today

Later, I went to Latin Aerobics, with Charles. It was too hard for me. It was very fast and my Brooks sneakers did not slide along the wooden floor very well. I think “Latin Aerobics” is a way of saying “Zumba” when you don’t have a licensed Zumba instructor. 

I wanted to go to the Capoeira class to at least watch it, but I couldn’t fit it in. I did (barely) fit in a class in Samba Drumming. The instructor, named Franklee, had set out several drums so I sat by one. It was like a small snare drum. The people who came later were given several kinds of percussion. There were tambourines, maracas, and rain sticks, plus some others which I could not identify. This class was held by the pool and the music playing from the ship’s sound system competed with the class. We started by doing some simple rhythms together. Then we were given a complicated rhythm with about 7 beats. Then other instruments started playing different rhythms. It wasn’t long before I lost the beat. Even something as simple as shaking a rain stick can be much harder than it looks when there are other instruments playing, and I realized I needed to drop out of this band in the future and leave to people who have prior experience playing an instrument. But I am so glad I had a chance to try drumming. I have never done it before. The effect of all the instruments playing together was very cool.

After all this I rushed back to our room to get ready for dinner, followed by Shabbat services. We found out that there is a rabbi aboard because this is a Legendary Voyage, i.e. 25-59 days.

Our final event of this busy day was the “Masquerade and Parade.” I have never been to a real masquerade party where most of the people wore masks. It was fun to see all the dressy outfits, costumes, and get-ups for Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras.

Janice looks so glamorous tonight

The Masquerade Parade

Linda and Patrick won a prize for the masks they made. Here is a 5-second video of the presentation of the prize.

Tonight’s towels are Valentine’s Day lovebirds.

Today’s fabric is Small Mardi Gras Masquerade by draftsndoodles for Spoonflower.

Shabbat Shalom

Tobago Sauce

Thursday, February 13, 2025

For breakfast I tried the Dutch breakfast plate. I liked the herring, but didn’t know what to do with the rest of it. Was I supposed to make a sandwich, a salad, or just eat it like I would eat a cheese plate?

Trinidad and Tobago is a country consisting of two main islands, namely: Trinidad and Tobago. The primary industry in this country is not tourism, but petroleum. 

The capital, located on the island of Trinidad, is Port-of-Spain, a reminder that these islands were once controlled by Spain. In fact, Christopher Columbus was the one to claim Trinidad for Spain, in 1498, and he gave it the name Trinidad. The name of Tobago comes from the shape of the island. It resembles a cigar, hence it was called “tobaco”and that drifted to “Tobago.” Before Spain colonized these islands, of course, they were occupied by indigenous peoples, and they had other names.

Today we are visiting the city of Scarborough, on the island of Tobago, a reminder that the British controlled these islands from about 1802 until the country gained independence in 1962. Scarborough is the capital of Tobago, and has a population of 17,500.

We did not find any of the tours offered for Tobago to be of interest. (We try to avoid bus tours.) Our plan was to just walk around Scarborough.

And we did. It was very hot. The walking was difficult due to lack of sidewalks in some place, crumbling sidewalks in other places, lots of traffic, complete absence of way-finding, and not much to see. We walked parallel to the shore until we came to the “end” of the area where we felt comfortable.

When you stand behind the G, the cannon points straight at you. 

I am not sure why people are wearing costumes. I think it has something to do with Carnaval.

The heart looks like the flag of Trinidad and Tobago

Elongated pineapples for sale

Interesting fruits and vegetables for sale

We had a mission to purchase three items: a souvenir magnet, body powder, and some Carnaval masks. 

I couldn’t find the magnet I bought, but here are the other items acquired in Scarborough. 
Mission accomplished!

In the evening we went to a show by vocalist Maria Campos. She sang Broadway songs that became Hollywood classics. She was a good singer, but I didn’t love the playlist she used for her show.

Finally, tonight’s towel art: I am not sure what it is. It might be perceived as something X-rated. I am CERTAIN that this was not the intent of the Housekeeping Department. If you have an G-rated idea of what this is, please put it in the Comments. If your idea is X-rated, you don’t need to comment. I think we all know what you have in mind.

Today’s fabric is Hummingbirds of Trinidad and Tobago, by Rachel Lee Young, at landofthehummingbirds, for Spoonflower