The Amazon aboard the Viking Sea (March 2025)

Viking Cruises operates several types of cruises. First came the river cruises, such as the ones I did on the Rhine and the Danube, then the ocean cruises, for example the tour of Iceland or the North Pole, among others. And more recently, expedition cruises, which I haven’t tried yet, at least not with Viking. I did get a taste of them with Ponant.

This particular cruise caught my attention because it combined both a river section and an ocean section. Departure on the Amazon, arrival ocean-style in Puerto Rico. This is possible thanks to the sheer size of the Amazon River, which ocean-going cruise ships can navigate.

And it was my first time in Brazil… because the previous time, at the end of a transatlantic crossing from Barcelona aboard the Viking Jupiter, in 2021, during the pandemic, the planned port calls in this country were… cancelled.

Flight from Paris on Air France, nonstop to Rio de Janeiro.

Before boarding the Viking Sea, one day in Rio and one day in Brasília… an express visit… and an intense one! Arrival in Rio at the end of the day, straight to the hotel. View over Copacabana beach.

Thanks to a guided tour, I was able to cover the huge city of Rio and see its essential sights, in crushing heat and at a fast pace. The Selarón Steps, Tiradentes Square, the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, the Cathedral of Saint Sebastian…

… the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain (with those movie scenes still in mind: James Bond, Moonraker, Hugo Drax and Jaws). All of that in a single day!

Another express visit: Brasília. An astonishing city, which may remind you of Brazil, the film, once again. An administrative city if ever there was one, with surprising architecture, admirable or detestable depending on your taste.

The visit ended at the National Congress of Brazil, where the details of Mercosur were being discussed, a hot topic in the news in France at the time.

Then on to Manaus, where the Viking Sea is moored for now, far inland on that immense river, the Amazon. A very unusual departure for an ocean cruise.