Portuguese Immersion School

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Buenos Dias! We have arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. We plan to see the aviary at the port. It’s full of colorful exotic birds, with some monkeys and sloths for good meas. . . . . . . .

Zhzhzhzhzhzzzzuoooooop!

Thwock!! 

Pooof! 

-

 -

  - 

   -

    -

     -

      -

Sunday, February 9, 2025

OMG! We found the Colombian Worm Hole and we were able to instantly jump forward one week and move from Colombia to somewhere in the Caribbean, about a day south of Miami - just like that! Wow! And “Bom Dia!”

(Really, I simply fell too far behind on my blog, so I thought it would be best if I skipped the end of our Panama Canal cruise, because there is a NEW adventure, and it starts NOW. Sort of. It really started a week ago, but I am pretending it is now a week ago, for artistic purposes. Let’s get started.)

We boarded the darling Zaandam yesterday in Miami. Boarding was delayed for about 3 hours, but we finally boarded, dropped our carry-ons in our cabin, and headed to the Lido Deck for some food. I was so hungry I immediately went off my healthy diet and ate the first thing I saw, which was a cheeseburger.

Home, sweet home

Our sitting room

The Zaandam was built in 2000, and thus it is two years older than the Coral Princess. It has a very retro vibe, but it’s very classy and elegant, but with lots of comfortable nooks, but not any crannies to speak of. All of the cabin doors have a beautiful wood veneer. (I don’t know, maybe it’s Formica.)

It’s got the lo-oo-ong straight passageways that characterize many older ships, and the classic black and white Holland America livery. 

Here are some of the interesting things we encountered as we wandered around.

In the center of the ship is a 3-story atrium. There is a bizarre objet d’art in the center, occupying all three stories. I believe it is an organ. I have no idea whether it is functional. There are numerous figures on it - some of them in modern dress, some of them in more classical robes or tunics. It’s surprising to see such a ginormous piece in such a confined space. You can’t really get a good look at the whole thing.

Looking up from the lowest level

The mid-level

The upper level

On the lowest level of the atrium, in out-of-the-way display case, we found treasure. This is a Meissen Schneeballen vase, from the second half of the 19th century. I would like to know how they stabilized it for life on a ship. It is about four feet tall - and certainly heavy. I don’t think museum putty would be strong enough.

Look at these desks and chairs (it’s hard to see the second desk). They are incredibly beautiful. The dark inlaid wood makes them so interesting.

There are a few tableaux, straight out of a museum. One of the plaques reads (sic):

   ‘A gentleman’s full dress suit’

velvet with silk embroidered, satin

style: Empire

Great Britain, circa 1780/1790

These suits appear to be in “like new” condition. They show no evidence of age or wear. I don’t know if they are real or reproductions. I’m going with reproductions.

Zaandam is small, carrying only 1360 guests on this adventure. This number includes our friends, Janice and Brock, and their friends (who we hope will become our friends, too), Linda and Patrick.

I have to say, I think there might have been some mistake in the worm hole. I thought this would be a cruise, but it is more like a Portuguese immersion school. 

There is a fantastic group of Cultural Ambassadors on board. They are experts on all things Brazil and they are full of pep and fun. They led classes today in things like Learn to Speak Portuguese, Carnaval Mask Making, Samba, Gafieira (a type of Samba for partners), and lectures about Brazil.

While I went to learn how to say “hello” and where is the bathroom?,” Ken went to a lecture on “The Discovery of Brazil”. (This included the earliest migrations across the land bridge and down through Central America, as well as the later arrivals of Europeans.)

I wanted to go to the mask-making class but both sessions filled up impossibly fast. It was challenging to find the brand new Art Studio because it did not appear on all maps of the ship yet. It was added during the dry dock that preceded this floating Portuguese Academy.

Ken and I went to the Samba class out doors by the pool. It was loud and easy and great fun. We had some very skilled teachers who knew how to encourage all of us to just get up and move. Gustavo only knows a few words of English. Most of the time he was able to use those few words to manage the class. Occasionally he would stop and say “Yes or no?” Of course everyone said “yes”, with excitement! He often spoke in Portuguese to us. (Immersion!) When necessary, an interpreter provided clarification. This was my favorite event of the day.

The bread plates are charming, and not all of them are the same. You definitely know you are on a Dutch ship, even when there is Portuguese immersion.

Today’s fabric is Brazil by Lunarable, a waterproof 100% polyester tightly woven Turkish dock fabric, available on Amazon. I don’t know why this type of fabric is called “Turkish” or “dock”. My hunch is that it is very similar to “Panama duck,” and “duck” and “dock” mean the same thing: waterproof. For some reason, you can’t buy this fabric made up into a dog crate cover. Really. Here is the link in case the photo doesn't show up when I publish today’s post.