AdventureSmith Explorations is offering off-ship visits to remote villages from Alaska to New Guinea.
A voyage to Papua, New Guinea opens with a welcome ceremony that greets travelers landing in the Tami Islands with traditional Trobriand dances and drumming. Guests can explore the village looking for intricate carvings and craftwork including carved walking sticks, small stools and crafted bowls. The village features no roads, phones, electricity or luxuries, and a dragon dance welcomes guests at Watam Village along the Sepik River where woven baskets and exceptional Sepik artifacts and unique carvings are among the take-home treasures. A 12-day cruise on the 100-passenger Orion is from $8,095 per person, double.
Cruising Alaska’s Inside Passage, guests visit Glacier Bay National Park and the village of Kasaan with a population of just 65, a historical community of the Kaigani Haida and home to the only remaining Haida clan house in Alaska. If this journey on the 42-passenger Alaska Dream is booked for a 2013 sailing by Oct. 31, 2012, clients will save 20 percent per person. A nine-day journey starts at $3,749 per person, double.
Panama’s Embera Indians are a proud people who have maintained both lifestyle and traditions as they were before the Spaniards colonized the region 600 years ago. Guests can witness how sugar cane is squeezed and grains are milled by hand, perhaps purchasing weavings and baskets. A seven-day catamaran cruise on the 24-person Discovery is from $3,450 per person, double. Guests who pay in full 180 days before sailing receive an early booking discount of $250 per person.
The people of Peru’s Amazon rainforest depend on an intimate relationship with the natural environment for survival. Guests can interact with villagers who live within the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve and see how they balance between their needs and those of the wildlife with which they share habitat and ecosystems. In Puerto Miguel villagers bring their handicrafts aboard the ship for sale and barter. Cruises of four or five days are from $3,200 per person double aboard the four-suite Delfin I.
For more information, visit www.adventuresmithexplorations.com.