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| Welcome |
Today was a half and half one. One part sea day, and the other part, port day. Both parts were primarily hampered with gray, overcast skies, threatening rain. In fact, Captain Jonathon had predicted some rain on our way here, but it seems to have fallen heavily all night in the Seychelles instead.
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| Coral atoll near the town |
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| Good place to snorkel |
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| Looks like rain |
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| Small fishing boats |
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| School of tiny fish |
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| Small boat |
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| Arriving to the port of Victoria, Seychelles |
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| The town of Victoria |
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| One of several wind generators |
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| Large fishing vessel |
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| Tuna boats |
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| A new home community in progress |
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| Watching from the bow |
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| Small boat inlet |
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| Yacht harbor |
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| Local cemetery |
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| Colorful harbor |
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| Pilot boat |
The sea day portion gave us our two speakers with continuing talks about the rise of India's international business, and ocean immigrants, liners, and cruise ships. As long as the game of Trivia happens, then all is not lost. We have heard that the competition is fierce during that 11:45am game time. Not all participants are enamored with the new cruise director's handling of the questions and answers. Of course, our former CD was put on the chopping block at times too. This is a tough crowd for sure. And they call that fun??
We took advantage of the overcast, but warm weather to spend a little time at the aft pool. Captain Jonathon announced that we would be arriving to the port of Victoria an hour or so earlier than planned. The aft deck was as good a place as any to watch most of the sail into the harbor. The final docking procedure was watched on the bow of the ship, as the Amsterdam turned her port side to the dock. This is the first time in a long while that we have been dockside. Now maybe, they will hose our windows tomorrow, since they are so salt-crusted, we can barely see out of them.
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| The port of Victoria |
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| Welcome committee |
The ship was cleared by 3pm, although there were no shore excursions sold for the late afternoon or evening. Most people wanted to stroll around the downtown area of Victoria. That is, until they realized how terribly warm and humid it was. We continued on, walking towards town, even though we could not get a map of the area at the front desk.
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| Tree-lined park |
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| Fire station symbol |
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| Local bird |
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| Which way? |
The map in our room booklet was not very helpful, since we have no idea where we were docked on that map. Every time we have been here, we took tours, and really did not pay attention to the distance from town to the ship. We do know that there will be a shuttle running tomorrow, but we felt we could walk it tonight.
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| Community center |
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| Much prettier local bird, probably male |
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| Yep, that's our boat |
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| Walking to and from the harbor |
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| Mangrove trees |
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| Tidal fish |
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| Small dove |
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| Park fountain |
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| Pigeon |
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| Nice wall painting |
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| Hillside apartments |
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| One with a great view |
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| A sea bird |
Once we saw the roundabouts, we knew we were close, but continued walking on the main road until we came upon a table of fresh fish being sold on a roadside table. Judging from the smell, they may not have been that fresh.
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| Roadside stand of smelly fish |
When the sidewalk ran out, then we knew we had gone too far. Back-tracking, we soon found our way to the heart of town.
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| Traffic of downtown Victoria |
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| It must be commute time |
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| Statue of Queen Victoria |
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| Plantation workers going home |
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| More workers |
It was a beehive of activity and traffic, since by now it was well after 5pm, and the locals were heading home. We were in serious need of finding something cold to drink, so we went in search of a restaurant.
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| Restaurant upstairs |
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| Little Ben Clocktower |
We found the perfect one with an upstairs balcony facing the famous silver clocktower in town. The name was Rendezvous.
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| The Le Rendez Vous Menu |
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| The Jungle Cafe upstairs |
The local beers were about 65 rupee, or $5.25 US each (approx. 12 rupee to the $1.). Since we were so thirsty, we had to have two each, like for medicinal purposes.
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The local brew
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This looked like a good place to have pizza perhaps tomorrow. We are not really into trying the Creole cuisine, but certainly are game for Seychelle's pizza.
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Company for lunch
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All too soon, the sun went down, and it was time to find our way back to the ship. We were much closer than we realized, when we recognized the walking path we had taken while on a tour here last year.
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| City street |
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| One mosque in town |
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| Neat flowers |
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| Tin-roofed wooden building |
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| Granite peaks |
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| Round-about with fish fountain |
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| City fountain |
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| Hidden houses |
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| Hillside homes |
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| Slum dogs |
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| Local fruit bat |
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| More modern buildings |
Passing the National Museum of History, we came across one of our nicest security guards, who asked us to take his photo by the museum.
It was nice to see that he had been to the Hindu Temple, as he is from India. Like Shiv, most all the Indian crew make it a point to visit a temple every chance they get while in foreign ports.
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| Debby Bacon's piano on the aft deck |
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| Old anchor |
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| Pilot boat |
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| Ship docked |
It was so nice to get back to the air-conditioning of the ship. During dinner tonight, all of us commented on the oppressive humid conditions this afternoon. Very little breeze also. Even the folks that live in the sticky states like Florida agreed that this heat could be a killer. It is a reminder that we need to take water with us. Although no one at our table, including Maureen, went to the Creole BBQ held in the Lido pool area from 5:30 to 8pm.
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| Another BBQ on the deck |
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| Roasting piglet |
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| Food and drinks |
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| Cooking the steaks |
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| Looking good |
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| Popular event |
Many guests did attend, so there were few diners in the dining room. We ordered fish and chips, and were happy to see they were served in the metal tower with food service newspaper. The dessert of upside down pineapple cake with vanilla ice cream just made our day. Perhaps this treat has been served for lunch, but it is the first we have seen it on the dnner menu. Funny how you can sail for 74 days, and not had this delicious dessert yet. Sweet.
The entertainment this evening was a recent movie in the Queens Lounge by the name of "12 Years a Slave". We chose to watch a Bond movie in our room, which we do not remember seeing before. And it is a good thing that the ship is so insulated, because the noise of the surrounding fishing vessels was extremely loud as their many huge generators run round the clock. We suspect they are tuna ships, with a processing plant very close by. The oily smell of the cooked fish hovered very near our ship all afternoon.
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| Sun was going down |
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| Wind generators |
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| A boat going out at night |
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| Fishing boats |
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| Work all night |
Tomorrow we are in port until 5pm or so, and plan to explore on our own for a change. No tour.
