EXPLORING THE AMAZIN' AMAZON LUXURY LINER TRIP UNVEILS THE MYSTERIES OF BRAZIL'S JUNGLE REGION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000600420038-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 27, 2005
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: February 26, 1984
• Content Type: NSPR

AitTICLFAAPP&ANMor Release 200 I1f01Yt K C1AMDREW80901 RO
ON PAGE Travel-1 26 February 1981+
EXPLORING
TH EAMAZ 1,N)
Luxury liner trip unveils
the, myster ies of Brazil's
jungle region
Harry Ryan is assistant travel editor of The News-.-J
CITY IN the middle of
the - Amazon ' jungle
seemed an odd place to
begin ; a ? . luxury liner
cruise. But there we
were on a.bus at 5 .a.m.
headed from the airport in Manaus,
Brazil, to the downtown pier where
the 18,000-ton Stella Solaris awaited;
We had flown in from Miami_ to.
board the freshly-painted pride of
the Creek-flag Sun Line fleet for the
return leg. of her inaugural cruise
on the Amazon River, one of the
world's longest waterways and one
that few pleasure travelers ever get
to see.
Approximately 485 'passengers
had signed on for the 14-day voyage
that would take the Solaris 1,200
fniles down the Amazon-.to the
'Atlantic Ocean and then through the
Caribbean to Curacao, calling at
,.eight ports en route. The group of
travel writers I was. with would be
aboard for nine nights, until the
ship reached Barbados, 'the first
Caribbean port of call. We all had
seen islands before; the lure of this
trip was the mighty Amazon.
Morethan a desire to escape tho`tropical sun,
what seemed to. draw the bulk of the passengers
inside most often was the excellent lecture pro-
gram that came as part of the cruise package.
Loren McIntyre, a former U.S. Navy' captain and. adventurer who first sailed the Amazon In 1935 at
age 18 and has spent at least part of: every year
since 1947 in South America, was aboard to show
and tell us how in 1971 he had journeyed high into
the Peruvian Andes to discover the most distant
source of the 4,000-mile-long Amazon:
An expert photographer whose work has
appeared many times in National Geographic,
McIntyre used his-own slides to illustrate lectures
on life In remote Indian villages, the ecology of
the Amazon basin, Its history and prospects for
future 'development. Not heavy stuff at all, simply
fascinating.
Adm. Stansfield Turner- head of the CIA during
the Carter administratiop also lectured_ several
times in the course of the cruise, giving u thlowdown- on the spying business (at least the
unclassified part);, as well as his insights on
current affairs.
We even had a resident stargazer, college
professor Ted Pedas, who gave early-morning and
late-evening deck talks on the stars that shone so
brightly -above (now I. know that the. Big Dipper
appears -upside -down In the Southern Hemispere
sky, but don't ask me why).
lit xtxK*
E iCERPTED
Approved For Release 2006/01/17 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000600420038-8