Catching up again

Well, after two days of staying in the cabin so I wouldn’t spread my cold I’m feeling much better and not going through tissues every minute or two.

Yesterday the port was for Pisco, Peru and I’m sorry I wasn’t feeling good enough to do anything. The port was really in the desert; not a tree to be seen. It was about 30 miles to Pisco and they ran a ship shuttle to Paracas which was about 12 miles away. Wildlife was the main focus of this port, there were flamingos, many types of seals, other birds and Penguins. I can’t believe I missed penguins. Jim was able to get some shots using the long lens as we left port.

Just before we sailed from the port the Captain came over the speakers and announced that we would be making a scenic departure that would allow us to see the Candelabra on the side of the mountain. We cruised very slowly as our tour guide, Frank, narrated over the speakers. This strange creation is many hundreds of years old and believed to be related to the Nazca lines [did I spell that right?] which are only about 100 miles from here. Unlike those lines which are only visible from the air, since this is on the side of a hill and the sun was perfect for some shadowing it was perfect.

This morning I made it to the book club at 9:00 - we are reading Like Water for Chocolate. Carolyn, the librarian is a retired school teacher and does an excellent job leading the discussion. At 11:30 we played trivia and then at 12:15 we had a CruiseCritic lunch. After that I decided it was time to read for a while and now I’m sitting in the Ocean bar ‘working’ and listing to pre-dinner music.  It's a tough life, but someone has to do it!

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.

at sea

These two sea days are wonderful… very relaxing - but with much to do. If that doesn’t make sense, you probably have never been on a cruise. Sometimes I’m too busy reading and relaxing and I loose track of time and end up missing a lecture I had planned to attend. The great thing… the ship (most ships) tape the main lectures and play them back on the TV so you can see them later.

Yesterday evening was our first Ensemble cocktail party and everyone attended except one person. The Captain, Hotel Manager, cruise director and several other officers and staff attended. There were excellent hot appetizers - probably more than was needed; certainly no one left hungry!

Today, I’ll probably attend a couple lectures but other than that I have no plans.

At Sea - crossing the equator

It seems like we have been very busy. Saturday we crossed the equator. At 2:00 we had a visit from King Neptune and his court. They did an excellent production of this - starting with the Captain sounding a long blow on the ship’s whistle and making the announcement. King and Queen Neptune judged 6 passengers and 40 crewmembers that were pollywogs; all failed and were sentenced to “the doctors” who covered them with whipped cream and spaghetti noodles. All good fun, they then jumped in the pool to get the worst of it off. I’m sure the crew hates to clean up that mess and the pool sure needed a good cleaning; they had emptied it down to about half so there wasn’t too much water in it.

On Saturday evening we were invited to a Cocktail party with the Officers and a number of other guests. I was surprised since we aren’t in a suite for this cruise. It was very enjoyable and we enjoyed visiting with Roger, the bar manager, and Kevin the assistant cruise director. Earlier we met with Roger to finalize the details for the Ensemble cocktail party on Monday.

Sunday we were in Manta, Ecuador. We took the shuttle into town and wandered through the market and purchased a couple things. Jim got a t-shirt and I bought a lovely embroidered shoulder bag. It has a nice wide padded strap so I can carry stuff more comfortably than using my little tote bag. After several trips, my tote bag is starting to look pretty grungy… I guess I’ll have to treat myself to a new one when we get home. After the market we walked about a block and were in a great park with huge shade trees… we sat there for a while just catching a few photos of local people. Then we headed for the pharmacy to get a couple things… a gel pack to keep in the little cabin fridge so I can use it on my back. It won’t be frozen, but has to be better than putting ice cubes in a ziplock baggie which always seem to leak.

Random thoughts:

• The food has been excellent - I love the variety but often get the beef. Last night I had pheasant and it was perfect.
• I really miss having a balcony; not just for the use of the balcony itself, but being able to see out through the full size of the sliding door. Our window is quite big, but you can’t see anything except sky unless you are standing. Well, as long as I’m being honest… I really miss being in an D suite. I like having the cabin space, the special amenities and most of all the Neptune!
• Our cabin would be perfect for someone that suffers from seasickness. We are on the lowest passenger deck and almost mid-ship. We feel almost no movement… I miss rocking and rolling! There is a huge difference in what we feel in our cabin /vs. what we feel in the public areas or the lido when the seas are a bit rough - we are surprised that the ship is moving as much as we are.
• All of the staff and crew are wonderful - I haven’t found one grumpy person. It still amazes me how they learn everyone’s names so quickly. Our steward was worried that something was wrong because we put our ‘do not disturb’ sign out in the evening… sometimes before he has turned down the cabin. We have assured him that it’s ok, we really don’t need anything if the sign is out.

Well, I guess that’s it for now… I’ll add pictures later.

Fuerte Amador, Panama

I’m a bit behind so I’ll try to catch up. The Panama Canal is always fascinating - no matter how many times you pass through it. We spent time sitting on the shady side of the ship and then coming inside for a while. After leaving the Canal we anchored off Fuerte Amador which is the main port for Panama City. They ran tenders all night so those that wanted to go ashore could do so and return at their leisure. Seabourn Legend is anchored near us; she is a ‘yacht’ class luxury ship holding only about 200 passengers… very nice!

This morning we had to have the alarm clock at 6:00 since we needed to be ready for our shore excursion to the Embera Indian Village by 7:30. We rode on a bus for a little over an hour and then on long dugout canoes for about 20 minutes to reach the village. There was a rather nice presentation done by the ‘Governor’ of the village that explained about their culture and clothing. Then he answer many questions. I particularly liked the one about what types of food they eat and where it comes from… “there is a supermarket in a village about 5 minutes away by boat”. So much for a really traditional lifestyle. Their costumes were very colorful and I took many pictures. We also had a ‘traditional’ snack of fried fish and fried plantains along with some cold soda. Although it was hot, the weather fairies were good to us and it was cooler than I had expected.

Tired, hot and somewhat hungry we did make it to Trivia… we won so now we are the proud owners of Dam mugs.

I haven’t had time to get the photos off my camera yet so I’ll come back and add them tomorrow.

Panama Canal

We have just entered the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. We approached them about 5:30 this morning while it was still quite dark. Jim and I went forward on deck 7 and I tried to get some pictures as we approached the first lock, but I probably just got ‘art’ as they are liable to be blurry when I see them on a bigger computer.


We have been through the canal several times so I will go in and out all day, but probably not stay outside… it’s going to be really hot.

Yesterday we spent a couple hours wandering around in Puerto Limon but didn’t find anything very interesting except in the park we watched a sloth in the trees for about a half hour. He was awake and moving through the branches which was fairly unusual. They move their limbs so very slowly they almost make a koala seem speedy! I’m going to make this quick post as we are going in and out of internet range as we move through the locks.

Isla Providencia, Colombia

Isla Providencia is exactly what a Caribbean Island should be - unspoiled by tourist stuff! There are 5000 inhabitants and they get about 15,000 visitors a year. You can tell that they are working hard to increase tourism as they have built a beautiful walkway with many sitting areas all along the coast and then up and over a hill and down to a small beach area. The Captain said that we are the largest ship to have ever visited this island. The tender ride was about 2 miles as there is a large reef that the ships cannot cross. Although we didn’t plan for any beach or snorkeling days on this trip… this would have been a perfect stop. I was sorry I hadn’t worn my swimsuit under my clothes. I did take off my shoes and roll up my pant legs and wade a bit - it felt so wonderful I had serious thoughts of just dunking and swimming in my clothes, but I did resist as I didn’t want to be wet the rest of the day.


Today (Wednesday) we will be in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.