Callao, Peru (Lima)

We are in Callao, Peru; an overnight port and the end of the cruise for 74 people. 90 people are boarding as the new aft balcony cabins on deck 8 have opened. Apparently it is a full ship all the way.

Yesterday we took the shuttle into Miraflores and walked along the Malecon looking in the shop windows and looking for somewhere to have lunch. After passing by KFC, Burger King, Chili’s, Tony Roma and several more American chains we decided we might as well go back to the ship. It wasn’t terribly hot, but it was so humid you had to drink the air. We had done a city tour of Lima on our World Cruise last year so we decided not to do it again this year. We were planning on an excursion to a wildlife preserve, but it was cancelled due to weather and tides.

There was a nice deck BBQ yesterday evening for supper. Good food and some music from local musicians. Later I planned to go to the folkloric show, but I fell asleep and then decided to skip it. I usually love the shows and do some great photography at them. The name of this dance group was the same as the one on the World Cruise, so maybe I didn’t miss too much.

So far our weather has been pretty good, but we are missing some really bad stuff. The Cusco / Machu Picchu areas have just had disastrous flooding which washed out the roads and railway. There was a big overland excursion planned from the ship which has been canceled - I’m sure those people are hugely disappointed as it was one of the major sites for this voyage.

The Captain said that Veendam which is now in the Antarctic has 4 inches of snow on her decks on her first day following the Drake Passage. He has posted some pictures from Veendam on his blog. I can’t remember the URL for his blog, but you can get to it by going to the Holland America website and then ‘ships’ then Prinsendam. I really like Captain Shooenderbeek; he is very funny and personable and he ‘tells it like it is’. We knew we recognized him, but it took a while to figure which ship we had sailed with him before. It was the Veendam out of Tampa about 4 years ago. David, Ted & Becky, Barb & Bill -- you were all onboard with us for that cruise.

Now the not so good news… I seem to have caught a nasty head-cold. So I’m grumpy (and snotty!). But.. I guess it’s at an ok time as we have nothing special planned for a few days. More later.