Saguenay August 11, 2023

After leaving Quebec, we travel all night to Saguenay, Canada. It is still in the province of Quebec and about 120 land miles from Quebec. English and French speaking. Saguenay is actually 7 small towns that combined to make the municipality of Saguenay in 2002.

I think the population is a little less than 150,000 people. According to Iroquois legend,the modern city of Saguenay, lay south of the kingdom of Saguenay, a land where blond men possessed jewels, gold, and furs. Jacques Cartier arrived in 1536 and searched for this heavenly land but never found it. Cartier is believed to be the first explorer to understand the value of fur trading and of Canada.

We sailed through the Saguenay fjord. It is the most southernly fjord in the northern hemisphere. It’s 65 miles long and 2 miles wide. Carved by glaciers, the fjord reaches depths of 880 feet. It’s the only fjord in north America, navigable by cruise ships. Four species of whales and 54 types of fish live in these waters. This is our third stop in Canada and all of the places have a pulp/ paper mill. The mill here is huge.

We walked around Saguenay. Roscoe got a haircut and I found items I needed at the drug/ convenient store. I do have to tell you about our greeters. Over 100 volunteers welcome each cruise ship with a kind of circus act. It just made us smile when we got off the boat. They had citizens welcoming us and were just the most pleasant people.

We were so lucky, it wasn’t too cold and it had stopped raining.

Greeters on the pier.

Great costumes

Really tall dude!

Not as cheap as Barcelona. But Sonia was a very nice lady who trimmed his eyebrows too!

Sonia, advertises she cuts only men’s hair!

Lovely architecture. Everything was clean and well maintained.

The paper/pulp mill

We walked back to the ship via the shoreline path. Rain was in the way and 30 minutes later it was pouring.

So that was our little visit to Saguenay. We bought some blueberries covered in dark chocolate. That’s another of their local delicacies. I got a maple leaf magnet for all of the remaining stops in Canada. I’m up to 22 magnets and not sure where I’m going to put them all. It stopped raining and the sun is out. We leave at 4. Tomorrow is a sea day. I’ve told you how much I love ❤️ those. It will be our second to last Progressive Trivia for this leg. We get to NYC on Wednesday and start the 4th leg Thursday. Kayla, what play should we see Wednesday? We plan to go see the 911 Memorial and maybe the Guggenheim. But first we have Sydney, and Halifax Canada. ARRIBA ARRIBA ANDALE!