Two glorious days of doing nothing

Two days at sea as we head South about 60 miles off the coast of Peru on our way to Callao (Lima). We’re 10 degrees South of the equator, the temperature is 25 degrees, the sea state is small waves with whitecaps and the sun is shining. Yesterday I was at the peak of my head cold and slept most of the morning before having lunch then spending enough time laying in the sun to get sunburned. Fortunately I wasn’t sufficiently incapacitated to prevent me from my afternoon visit to the casino. We consider we’re doing well as we’re both ahead of the game, yesterday we both played blackjack and had good wins, how long will it last?. We’ve been shadowed by the Saga Rose since we passed through canal and I can see her now off the port side, I guess she’s heading to Callao too. Still in the same time zone as home, we aren’t scheduled to change the clocks ‘til February 4th at Easter Island.
This morning my cold was quite a bit better and I read my book while lazing in the sun while Izzy did her mile walk around the upper deck, maybe tomorrow I’ll join her. Later we took part in the trivia competition at 11.30am, missed the big prize (a luggage tag) by one point. After lunch I went to a very interesting lecture by John Maxtone-Graham on the history of the big Atlantic liners, then entered the blackjack tournament but didn’t qualify for the final.
We’re in cabin 4008, which is on deck 4 toward the front of the ship. We were pleasantly surprised that the cabin was fairly spacious though it lacks drawer and closet space for a 3½ month trip though as time progresses it’s working out quite well as we learn to put things back in their place. We have a nice big window, a kingsize bed, 2 side tables, an easy chair and coffee table, desk and stool, fridge, tv, closets and bathroom (no bath, just a shower). Under the bed is packed with all our empty cases and the window well doubles as a storage shelf, but there’s plenty of free space for moving around.
Tomorrow we have a morning tour in Lima.

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Manta (Ecuador) and the day before

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY
Another sea day, yesterday, after a brief but heavy rainfall in the early morning, the skies cleared and we had hot sunny weather most of the day. In the afternoon we crossed the equator and there was a traditional ceremony on board to mark the occasion, it was very entertaining as ‘volunteer’ passengers, first time crossers (known as pollywogs) were initiated into the select group of previous crossers (known as shellbacks). The ceremony was in the form of a messy ritual to placate King Neptune and his servants, all played by crew members and basically finished up with everyone covered in icecream, chocolate sauce, ketchup and various other food items… good fun. Wonder of wonders, I doubled my money playing blackjack last night, that puts me definitely on the plus side, but there’s still 101 days to go.
This morning we arrived in Manta, Ecuador, I pre-booked a Princess organized tour, ‘Ivory Nut Factory and Montecristi’. The distance from the pier to town is about 10 to 15 minutes by taxi, walking is not recommended due to security reasons and taxis are available pierside. If I’d known that the local authorities provided a free shuttle service from the ship to town, with several stops along the way, I might not have booked a tour, but as it worked out, we did enjoy the day. The town is typical third world, derelict lots, half finished buildings and garbage in abundance, but we found the people to be friendly and helpful. At our first stop, Montecristi, true home of the Panama hat, we each supported the local economy with the purchased of a fine hat, before settling on a seat in the main square talking to about 10 or 15 kids and adults, some trying to sell something, others just happy to sit and talk. Leaving Montecristi, we stopped at an ivory nut factory, a cactus fiber weaving outfit and a shipbuilding site along the shoreline. We enjoyed the trip, mostly because of the people and the shipbuilding was very interesting. I’ve got a head cold developing so once back on board we had a late lunch then a snooze ‘til just before dinner. It amazes me at how quiet the ship is, this morning, I took some pictures on board, walking around the main decks, I hardly saw another person. There’s never any problem getting loungers around the pool and any evening after about 08.00pm there’s hardly more than a few people on deck. It’s quiet, just as I like it.

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Two Days for the Price of One

The internet has been very slow and last night I was unable to upload some photos, so hopefully it will improve as I’d like to include as many pictures as possible.
Yesterday, after breakfast, we went to an interesting lecture by Apollo 9 astronaut, Russel Schweickart. It was quite moving at parts and after the Q&A we spoke to his wife for a short time. It was a beautiful day and we had lunch on deck by the pool, listening to a calypso duo, who were very good. The walking track on the upper deck was full of people doing their morning exercise routine and Izzy was inspired to join them (I think I’ll do some exercise one day), she must have been feeling good as she danced by, swinging her arms almost in time to the music. I felt happy for her, or maybe it was just the effects of my lunchtime cocktail. Last night was Captains Welcome reception, where we all lined up to shake hands with Captain Vincenzo Lubrano and drink as many free cocktails as possible, before rolling along the deck for dinner. We did try to make it to the cabaret last night, the headline star was the world renowned singing sensation, Tony Cherry, (what!… you haven‘t heard of him?), unfortunately when we got there, no acceptable seats were available so we spent some time in the casino, then had an early night since we wanted to get up early in the morning for our transit through the Panama Canal and a special Champagne breakfast offered for the occasion.

This morning we awoke early and after breakfast we found a good viewpoint on the upper deck enjoying a coffee and watching the ships slip through the Atlantic side locks into Gatun lake. We had done this part before, two years ago on Celebrity Galaxy when we had turned around in the lake and went back through the same locks, today we would see the complete passage. Once we were in the lake, the ship anchored in place for about two hours, there were about eight ships making the same trip and we all waited for the ships coming the other way to clear the narrow sections of the canal and the Pacific side locks. After lunch, we moved down to the Promenade deck which was quiet and shaded where we settled into a couple of comfortable loungers. The lake water was quite muddy, nothing like the beautiful blue we’d seen at Cayman Islands, we passed amazingly close to small islands, I wondered how much longer they’d be there as the erosion around their perimeter was quite evident. The sail through Gatun Lake was spectacular, the jungle vegetation was only broken occasionally by small clearings created by the dredger work crews. When we got close to the pacific locks, the decks became busier with the ’sign people’. Princess had arranged for a couple of their photographers to be on shore taking pictures and had offered supplies to anyone interested in making a sign to hang over the edge of the ship to be photographed, most of the signs were messages to family, presumably back home. When we reached the locks, the observation building was absolutely jam packed with people and as we passed through with another ship, the Saga Rose, they all cheered and shouted, don’t know who they were or if this was a normal occurrence, but it was fun. We cleared the canal system about 4.30pm and headed South. After dinner, we finally made it to an evening show, starring Patrick and Matilda, a ventriliquist act, they weren’t bad.

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A Day in the Life

This morning, we awoke early at 8.30am, just in time for breakfast to be delivered to our cabin. I was hungry so my fruit bowl, scrambled eggs, toast, 3 danishes, coffee and orange juice went down quite well . By 10.30am we were boarding the tender across to Georgetown, Cayman Islands, it was 25 degrees, slightly overcast with the sun breaking through and the water was the most beautiful azure blue. I was looking for a jewellery shop ashore, but couldn’t find any, so we strolled around for a while the settled into Jimmy Buffet’s for a cool beer. By 12.30pm we were skipping back toward the ship and after dumping some junk in the cabin, we headed up to the buffet for lunch and an hour relaxing in the sun before catching a movie, Kite Runner, it was quite good. There was barely time for a nap before getting ready for our dinner reservation at 6.00pm. Dinner was excellent, I had a smoked chicken and asparagus terrine, followed by a Caesar salad, followed by some nice fettucine, then an excellent Salmon steak and chocolate cake with icecream, which I couldn’t quite finish. The chocolate cake was a surprise to celebrate my retirement which along with some additional surprises back at the cabin, made it all a really nice day.
We didn’t do anything special on Grand Cayman as we’ve been to Cayman Islands two or three times before. Where we are tendered in is right downtown Georgetown, shop after shop and not much else. What I hadn’t expected was the cross section of people on board, few walkers or wheelchairs, I’d guess the majority are in their sixties with a good number of youngsters (in their fifties). We’ve met so many nice people, from all walks of life, quite a few Canadians but mostly Americans and a few miscellaneous others. Right now we.re having an early night, it’s about 10.30pm and we’re in the cabin watching ‘7lbs’ on the dvd player we brought with us, I’m glad we brought it, it works great. Tomorrow another sea day as we head South to the Panama Canal.

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First Day at Sea

Busy day today, slept in ‘til 8.30am. Seas were rough and I didn’t feel to good in the morning, so we spent the morning unpacking cases and finding places to put things. The cases didn’t arrive at the cabin ‘til about 10.00pm last night, long time considering we were onboard before noon. Went to our Cruise Critic ‘meet and greet’ this afternoon and met most of the folks we’ve been communicating with, an eclectic group, it was nice to put faces to all the names. Right now we’re passing Cuba, heading South East toward Cayman Islands where we’re scheduled to drop anchor at 07.00am Air temp is currently 23 degrees, 20mph fom the North with medium seas. Our seventh dinner guest, Martha, arrived tonight, so the table was full and conversation was a bit more relaxed as we got to know each other. It should be a good table and it looks like we should all get along, apart from Martha there’s Mary and Andy from Austin, Texas in their 60’s and June and Jim from Utah 50ish . Not sure where Martha is from but I think she said she grows grapes. Managed to double my money in the casino (started with $10 and quit with $20) well at least it’s not a loss.

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