Cruise through the Caribbean – the biggest trip so far!

For a whole 28 days, from 16 March to 11 April, Weltreisebär travelled with Klaus and Beate from Lostau and got thoroughly spoiled. A whopping 5 new countries came out of it – that had never happened before! You can read all about what he got up to right here.

Backstory:

I met Klaus in early August on a train journey from Munich to Kufstein. I only ended up on that regional train because I'd missed my actual connection in Munich. So really, I should give a belated thank-you to ALEX, the train operator whose regional service pulled into Munich Central Station that summer day at +18 minutes.

Klaus has experienced a great deal already, and his travel stories from Mongolia, Antarctica and many other countries fascinated me right from the start. Also interesting: he's from Lostau near Magdeburg – exactly the small town my flatmate Phillip from my university days in Leipzig comes from too.

Klaus told me on the train back then that he'd be heading to South America two months later. So in October 2022, I have him to thank for Chile, Bolivia and Brazil (countries 74–76). Today it's five more! Huge thanks to both of you – you're currently the most successful fellow travellers by far! 😊

The Caribbean trip

The journey began with a train ride to Frankfurt. From there it was a flight to Manaus, right in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. The city has 2 million residents and even hosted matches during the 2014 Football World Cup (though no German games). Right there, it was straight onto the cruise ship on the Amazon. A cruise ship on a river? I could barely picture it. But if you're wondering the same as I was: the Amazon is already 65km (!) wide at Manaus! Still, navigating a large ship on a river takes plenty of skill, since various sandbanks along the Amazon can pose a real danger. By the way, it really is the longest river in the world, since a new (more distant) source was discovered a few years ago:

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/erde-klima/laengster-fluss-der-welt-der-amazonas-ist-laenger-als-der-nil-1457718.html

In the rainforest, Weltreisebär stopped off at villages of indigenous peoples, who performed traditional dances especially for the travellers. Plenty of exotic animals were spotted, and on board there were lectures by biologists about poison dart frogs. The ship also sailed into tributaries of the Amazon – it sails under the Bahamian flag, by the way, and carried 280 tourists on this trip, though it's actually built for around 400. So it's not small, but not huge either. Some of the Amazon's tributaries have a different water temperature, colour (due to the sediments they carry) and flow speed. As a result, it can take several kilometres after a confluence before the two bodies of water fully mix. It makes for some curious sights. Interestingly, I learned exactly that in my Geography course last winter semester. And that wasn't the only university lesson Weltreisebär got to experience firsthand – just the first one.

After a few days in the rainforest, the cruise ship headed out onto the Atlantic and on towards the Caribbean islands. The first stop after Brazil was French Guiana on 23 March. This territory doesn't count as a country though, since it belongs to France – though I wouldn't rule out it becoming independent one day. After all, it's the largest overseas territory of any country in the world, roughly the size of Portugal. Here the ship anchored at Île du Salut, once home to a penal colony. You can see what's left of it in the film "Papillon" – still real and tangible there today.

The journey continues. On 25 March, Trinidad and Tobago is on the agenda – an island off the north coast of South America, and one whose capital I actually memorised back in year 3, with no idea what was actually there. It's the first new country on this trip: country no. 87. From here on, it's one after another in quick succession. The very next day, Grenada – which you absolutely must pronounce "Greh-NAY-da"! Then St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Barbados.

Here are a few more photos from the small island nations:

First up, St Vincent and the Grenadines:

Then St Lucia, the country with the odd-looking mountain:

And Barbados, the last stop in the Caribbean:

A historic day:

It's 29 March, and the cruise ship anchors off the island of Barbados. That wasn't a given, since going ashore at some ports depended on the weather. Weltreisebär is exactly 93 months old on this day (7 years and 9 months) and is currently visiting his 91st country. Counting the trips to Greenland and Antarctica too, that makes 91+2, so 93 countries. A new country every month – an average we hadn't hit in a year. I never thought we'd manage that again. It's probably the last time, that much is certain. But it's brilliant! In the Caribbean, you could go on snorkelling tours with turtles – huge ones, over a metre across. They grow that big mainly on islands, where they have no natural predators, and they can survive drifting thousands of kilometres across the ocean. Wow! That was another lesson from "Regional Geography" last winter semester – the second one the bear has already experienced firsthand. Some species even return specifically to their birthplace to lay eggs there again. Klaus has already seen that live on São Tomé and Príncipe (an island off West-Central Africa).

The tour cost $150 for just 15 minutes of snorkelling though, which was a bit steep. In general, nearly all the shore excursions had to be booked separately – a bit of a shame. At least with booked tours, they made sure everyone got back on board in the evening. Going ashore alone was at your own risk. On the plus side, there was good news: the coral reefs in the southern Caribbean are apparently all in fairly good shape. That's not a given, since when water temperatures rise, the polyps on the coral secrete a substance that the coral itself then treats as harmful. The coral then expels the polyp – essentially a kind of autoimmune reaction. But since the two can only survive together in symbiosis, the coral eventually dies, which becomes visible as "coral bleaching". That's another thing I learned at university – Weltreisebär gets to learn it on location. Interestingly, some regions worldwide are actually seeing coral growth. Others, like the Great Barrier Reef, are unfortunately declining. Overall, the balance is sadly slightly negative.

The ship departs the Caribbean for the last time on 29 March. Seven days at sea follow, as the ship crosses the entire ocean back to Europe. But it's far from boring: even before French Guiana there was an "Equator hop" ceremony, and throughout the trip new episodes of "Das Traumschiff" were being filmed. Florian Silbereisen and a film crew were on board too. You could even sign up as an extra – some people took the trip just for that. Not really the bear's thing, though. After all, sometimes several hours are spent filming a single scene lasting mere seconds – say, if a shoe glints annoyingly in the sun somewhere. Not exactly Weltreisebär's area of interest 😉

Rather more exciting was a ukulele course you could attend several times, culminating in an actual concert on your newly learned instrument. There were some stormy days at sea too – waves up to 10m high on the Atlantic, and again in the Bay of Biscay. Shortly before the Azores, there was an emergency: the ship had to sail to within 500km of the Azores, from where a military helicopter flew out to collect the affected person. Not entirely without risk, since 500km out at sea isn't exactly safe for helicopters – so it was accompanied by a second aircraft. Let's hope they're doing better now! Despite the change of route, the ship still arrived in Lisbon on time, though it only stayed for a single afternoon.

That afternoon, Klaus, Beate and the bear headed to Portugal's westernmost cape – the westernmost point on mainland Europe. There was even a certificate to prove it. This excursion wasn't exactly cheap either, at €79. In the evening, the ship sailed under the great bridge over the Tagus – a bit like San Francisco with Ellen (in the USA, 2022, the 2010 remake) or with Tobi himself in Lisbon (2018, country #31) 😉

On 11 April '24, the ship pulled into Bremerhaven. That was a mid-trip change of plan, since Nice or Genoa had originally been the intended destination port in Europe. During disembarkation, a deceased passenger first had to be taken off the ship. Klaus told me, though, that the average age on board was over 70, so there's simply a certain likelihood of something like that happening. Everyone else, however, arrived back in Germany safe and sound.

Weltreisebär's biggest trip so far comes to an end. Sadly, I currently lack the time, the money, and honestly the energy for something like this myself. All the more reason to be thrilled about the new countries, the many photos, and not least this wonderful, detailed account of the journey! Thank you so much!

Now there are just 7 countries left until we reach 100 territories together. By the way, Weltreisebär has almost nothing planned for summer yet – maybe he could travel with you?