travelswithalice

December 23, 2019

What to wear in the jungle & some cruise notes

What to wear?

In the jungle, it’s bug-repellent treated fabrics, long pants, long sleeves, hat, and comfortable closed-toe shoes. Recommended accessories are bug-repellent wristbands and stick-ons complemented by lashings of bug-repellent creams and sprays.

It’s good to keep in mind that black attracts flies and navy blue attracts mosquitoes. I learned about this belatedly, on our fifth safari.

I noticed strips of cloth set up like banners at more or less regular intervals on the roadside. 

“They’re traps,” our driver informed us. “Blue cloth for mosquitoes, black for flies.”

Nice to know in places where blood-sucking tsetse flies or parasite-and-virus-carrying mosquitoes scare me more than lions or any one of Africa’s Big Five.

It may be a good idea to take your cue from the locals. 😊

On cruise ships, wardrobe guidelines are simpler and less frightening: from Relaxed Casual in the morning  to Elegant Casual or Black Tie Optional in the evening.

We always stay below the radar whatever the dress code.

* * * 

My sentiments about cruising change from day to day. Today has not been great. Neither has yesterday, come to think of it. I’ve just sent this message to some friends:

The ship has hired lots of unskilled, inexperienced Filipino workers- they probably won’t get jobs in Manila! And have not trained them well. I feel sorry for them. It’s not fair because they’ll get blamed for not doing their jobs well and it’s not their fault! 😡

* * *

I’ve never been one for cruising. Even now as I write this while literally crisscrossing the equator, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. 

But if meditation or mindfulness are such wonderful things, then this must be just the thing.

* * *

Some highlights todate:

In Rio de Janeiro, there are three obligatory stops:

1) Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado.

Yes, we’re here at 710 meters!

2) Ipanema.

3) Copacabana. 

In the São Paolo coastal town of Santos is the “Palace of the Official Coffee Stock Exchange”. It’s an imposing, opulently appointed building reflective of the enormous wealth generated by the coffee trade during the early part of the 20th century. Inaugurated in 1914, this was where the price of coffee beans was determined by brokers on the trading floor until 1950.

Paraty is quite unique and very pretty, my favourite so far. I love the look of the houses with their doors painted in colours of the Brazilian flag and the curved cobblestone streets that are designed to be washed clean when the tide comes in.

Olinda in Recife is an art-filled place. With brightly painted houses, music and dancing everywhere, it seems to be always on carnival mode.

* * *

Having left Recife on December 20, we’re at sea for three days, just off the coastline of Brazil.

We’re en route to the Amazon, for me the very object of this trip.

The adventure begins.

* * *

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones  # December 23, 2019

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