Issue 21 2012.pdf - New Zealand Corporate Traveller Magazine

luxury escapes
84 nzcorporatetraveller ISSUE 21
Port of Spain in Trinidad, capital of Trinidad and Tobago, has been the centre of much
history. It’s hard, today, to equate this charming town of 50,000, with the deeds – both
dark and heroic – which helped shape so much of the history of both the Americas
and Europe.
Thus we came to the river port of Santarem in Brazil – the meeting of the waters – where
the blue waters of the Rio Tapajos fl ow side by side with the muddy brown Amazon.
First established as a Jesuit mission in 1661, Santarem today has a population of about
a quarter of a million inhabitants.
It is here our odyssey to Manaus, 900 miles inland on the bank of the Rio Negro,
begins. Manaus became extravagantly wealthy during the rubber boom from 1890–
1920. The inhabitants celebrated by building the lavish Teatro Amazonas opera house.
Fifteen years in the building and opened in 1897, this astonishingly beautiful theatre
was created from only the best of European materials, from Italian marble to Scottish
cast iron. The theatre was restored to its former glory in 1990.
After four unforgettable days in the Amazon we made our way to the infamous
former French prison, Devil’s Island, in French Guiana. Rocky and palm-covered and
for a century from 1852, hell on earth for many prisoners, Devil’s Island achieved
infamy in 1895 with the publicity surrounding French army captain Alfred Dreyfus,
wrongly convicted of treason. Its notoriety was revived in 1969 through Papillon, the
autobiographical story of the prisoner Henri Charrière.
Now with historical buildings restored, the island welcomes more than 50,000 tourists
each year.
Finally we made a leisurely return to Miami via Bridgetown Barbados, Fort de France
in Martinique, Spanish Town, British Virgin Islands and La Romana, Dominican
Republic. It was, quite simply, a magnifi cent cruise aboard Regatta and we’re doing
what you should do, checking our travel agents for Oceania Cruises’ latest specials.
Visit OceaniaCruises.co.nz