Where are we today? Nashville!

We leave in three weeks and three days!

We are getting our first taste of adventure in that we are hanging loose with our itinerary.  As it stands now, we are scheduled to cruise all the way down the Amazon to Manaus and back again.  Of course, there is a massive drought going on there, and the river is at its lowest point in over 100 years.  A ship our cruise vessel's size and make had to turn back from its leg in the Amazon in December. The rainy season is coming soon, but likely won't raise the water level much before we get there.  If we can't do the Amazon, we will go somewhere else, but I feel for the people who make their livelihoods from the river and the rain forests.

Also due to low water levels, the Panama Canal authorities are limiting the number of ships that can be on the canal at one time.  So, the line to enter and pass through the locks is longer than normal.

The other sketchy stretch includes ports in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, around Yemen, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Suez Canal.  We are now bypassing Israel, but are still scheduled to stop in many surrounding countries.  

Cruise ships may not be able to do much about drones, but they are not easy prey for pirates and others who might attempt to capture the ship.  They use water cannons, barbed wire fencing that can be raised and lowered, loud blasts, and other measures to keep pirates from boarding.

For now, except for losing two stops in Israel and gaining an extra port each in Greece and Turkey, everything seems to be a go.  

Lots of folks who cruise through the Panama Canal read The Path Between the Seas by David McCollugh, which I may get around to.  I already read Boldly I Obey about a farm couple from the Midwest who decided to live in the boonies in Brazil.  They wanted to farm alongside the local people and share their lives, as well as strengthen the church there  They ended up raising their children in a remote region of the country.

I'm also reading the first of the Seven Sisters books.  I didn't know the first one takes place largely in Rio during the building of the Jesus statue; that was just a happy bit of Brazilian serendipity.

I started, but set aside A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson.  The novel is about a British ballerina who defies her family to join a Brazillian company.  Along with undergoing much romantic drama, she dances in the great opera house in Manaus.  The writing is beautiful, but the something about the story hasn't grabbed me yet. I may get back to it. 

Another one on my list is Travel in Tandem with the Heart of God by Peter Grier.