Sailing Through the Lesser Antilles & Beyond - Caribbean Cruise

Fly by scheduled flight. Arrive and transfer to the MS Hebridean Sky. Enjoy welcome drinks and dinner as we sail this evening.

After a relaxing morning at sea we arrive in Scarborough, the capital of Tobago and home to about one third of its population. A bustling town, the friendly atmosphere that greets us hides the tumultuous past of a town that has changed hands over 30 times in the past 150 years. We will visit Fort King George, built in 1779 during the many struggles between the French and the English over ownership of the island, before continuing to Plymouth and an eco-tourism estate in Arnos Vale, where we hope to spot some of the local hummingbirds.

Due to its location close to the South American mainland, Trinidad has a unique diversity of plant and animal species which we will discover today. From our berth at Port of Spain we will drive inland to the Maracas Valley and Yerette, home of the hummingbird. After an introductory talk we will explore the gardens where we can often find fourteen of the island’s eighteen species of hummingbird. Return to the ship for lunch and later this afternoon we head to the Caroni Nature Sanctuary, a mangrove swamp covering an area of 40 square miles. On arrival at the sanctuary, we will board a flat-bottomed boat and slowly travel along the peaceful waterways and lagoons admiring the beauty of the landscape and the variety of birds including the scarlet ibis, a large bright red bird which feeds and nests here and we hope to catch them as they return to their nests at sunset.

Spend a day at sea as we cruise towards the South American coast.

We will spend two and a half days in Guyana, South America’s only English speaking country. Georgetown was called Longchamps under the French and Stabroek under the Dutch, so it comes as no surprise that the tree-lined streets are a wonderful mix of colonial styles. During our time here we will enjoy a half day city tour which will include St Georges Cathedral, St Andrew’s Kirk and the Stabroek Market. Once described as a ‘bizarre bazaar’, the market offers every conceivable item from household goods and gold jewellery to fresh meat and vegetables brought to town on the river daily. We will also fly to the Kaieteur National Park where the mighty Kaieteur Falls plunge 822 feet to the bottom of a rocky gorge. Five times the height of Niagara Falls, an amazing 30,000 gallons of water per second crashes to the depths below and witnessing this spectacle is an amazing experience. There will also be the opportunity to tour the extensive botanical gardens where we may see many of the resident birds including the blood-coloured woodpecker, pearl kite and red-bellied macaws.

Spend a day and a half in the capital of Suriname, Paramaribo, located on the banks of the Suriname River. The city has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and during our guided tour we will see the many historic colonial buildings and tree-lined avenues. This is a city of many colours and cultures and one of the few places in the world where mosques, Hindu temples, synagogues and Christian churches coexist peacefully side by side. Visit the city’s leafy park, Palm Garden which was created in 1682 and is home to more than 1000 palms, the waterfront and Fort Zeelandia, originally named Fort Willoughby by the British in 1651. We will also drive to the Commewijne District just outside of Paramaribo, a beautiful agricultural area of creeks, rivers and former plantations. Here we will take nature walks on the lookout for birds, monkeys and lizards before visiting the museum at Nieuw Amsterdam, an 18th century fort built to protect the city where we can also see the resident giant lilies.

Today we anchor off the Iles de Salut, an archipelago of three small islands and the site of the infamous French penal colonies. One prisoner, Henri Charrière, described the inhumane treatment and his escape in his autobiography “Papillion”. The most notorious of all the islands was the Ile du Diable, or “Devil’s Island”, where political prisoners including Alfred Dreyfus were held captive. Its rocky boundary and rough waters made it so naturally impregnable that even now it is completely inaccessible to visitors. We will spend the afternoon here and use our Zodiacs to visit Isle St Joseph or Ile Royale where many of the old prison buildings are still standing such as the guard’s quarters, prisoner’s cells and hospital.

Sail this morning into the capital of French Guiana, Cayenne, a melting pot of French, Asian, African and Brazilian cultures. From our berth we will drive to the Guiana Space Centre, also known as “Europe’s Spaceport”, which occupies a site of 75,000 hectares and employs more than 1,500 people. The location was chosen by the French Government in 1964, due to its proximity to the equator, and the site is still used for launching satellites and rockets for the European Space Agency. A tour of the site will include the control centre and the nearby space museum.

Disembark this morning and drive to Cayenne where we will explore the historic city and the botanical gardens. After lunch we will transfer to the airport for our scheduled indirect flight.

Arrive this morning.