Life at sea after Lima

Thanks for all the comments, it’s good to know others are enjoying following along.

First day at sea after Callao (Lima) and it’s 24 degrees and sunny with a 10mph wind from the South. We had a special lunch prepared for us by Master Chef Commendatore Alfredo Marzi in Sabatini’s restaurant. Pasta Florentini and wild mushrooms in a mouth watering wine sauce, followed by the fish Orange Roughy, baby potato spearlets and sautéed vegetables all done in a delicious sauce of unknown origin, followed by an outstanding cream cake with strawberry sauce, icecream and white chocolate dipped strawberries rounded out with a selection of petit fours and coffee (got to watch I don‘t drool on the laptop). The lunch was arranged superbly by two of our ‘cruise critic’ friends, Judy and Sue, for about 30 of us in the cruise critic group and it was undoubtedly the tastiest meal I’ve had since coming on board. I was completely surprised by the level of service provided by Princess, they went all out and gave us a lunch to remember, all complimentary including wine. If our lunch was typical of Sabatini’s standards, it may well be worth the normal premium charged. In the afternoon I listened to part 3 of John Maxtone-Graham’s lecture on North Atlantic Liners, dozing off occasionally as I digested his words and my lunch.



Second day out from Callao and it’s 24 degrees again, overcast and the sea is angry today my friends, like an old man….… well never mind …. we’re about half way to Easter Island. Didn’t do much of anything today, finished reading my book, went to an informative lecture on astronomy, laid in the sun watching the world go by, it’s tiring doing nothing. We’ve met so many nice people and everyone is generally good natured and tolerant except the anti-smoking nazis who are occasionally heard telling a poor innocent smoker that they should not be smoking in a smoking area.

Our room steward, Chonpat (shown left), from Thailand has been teaching me some Thai phrases. He has 2 children, 8 and 11, he came on board the same day as us in Fort Lauderdale and will see his family briefly when we dock in Bangkok, March 27th, then not for about another 6 months when his contract ends. Must be hard for him when I think how much I miss my little Spammy, hope he’s eating well (Spammy not the room steward). Tonight is Superbowl and it’s on in the main lounge, they’ve got it all decorated in team colors and it looks like it will be well attended as long as the satellite connection holds out. We had a late night tonight after losing everything in the casino we took in a late night trivia quiz, placing second equal of a total of three teams, but we laughed from start to finish, who knew that Edith Piaffs nickname was Little Sparrow.

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Two days in Callao (Lima) Peru

Thursday January 29th, we were already docked in Callao when we awoke. Callao is the port city for Lima, Peru’s capital, the two cities have all but merged into one metropolis of 8 million inhabitants. The port provides a free shuttle from the quayside to the port gates and a private company runs a $5 each way shuttle from quayside to the Marriot Hotel in Miraflores. We had booked a morning tour of Lima’s highlights and after meeting in the Cabaret lounge onboard, we boarded our bus quayside. A long drive through a somewhat run-down area brought us to our first stop,Plaza Mayor, the city’s main square and home of the Cathedral (shown below), Presidential palace and City Hall.

Next stop Miraflores Park high above the Pacific Ocean with sweeping vistas along the coast. Then it was on to the Indian market and while Izzy explored the market, I took a harrowing 5 minute taxi trip to a nearby grocery store to buy some wine. With 4 bottles in hand I took the reverse trip and was soon back at Indian market. The 4 bottles cost about $30 plus about $4 taxi fares, compared to the average price of a bottle on board ship at about $30, the effort was well worthwhile. The traffic was incessant and drivers seemed to follow few rules, constantly on the horn, moving into any space available. Back at the ship, we had lunch then vegetated the rest of the day watching the events dockside. One of the ‘events’ we did not witness but saw the results of, was a failure in the pipe joint pumping fuel oil onto the ship from a tanker trailer on dock. The joint failed under pressure and sprayed oil over a large area of dock, the side of the ship and part of the gangway, fortunately it did not affect any passengers and when we saw it they were washing down the side of the ship and sweeping up oil soaked sand from the dock. I’ve never seen so many seagulls in one place there are thousands of them around and there effects can be seen all over the dock, like a Jackson Pollock painting, every square meter is dappled white with little of the underlying surface visible, it’s quite a nice effect. Two medical emergencies yesterday, an old guy passed out in the restaurant right behind our table and an older woman broke/injured her ankle and was stretchered off, presumably for treatment at a local hospital. Considering the age of the average passenger, I expect they won’t be the last medevacs we see. After dinner we watched a movie, had a couple of drinks and then went to a folkloric show in the main lounge.
Friday January 30th, slept late as we didn’t have any plans for the day, even though we were still docked in Callao until 01.00pm. The small local market set up dockside yesterday, was still there today so we took a walk ashore and bought a couple of teeshirts before having lunch then watching the sail away from the promenade deck. I was surprised at Lima, it was different than I had imagined and I could probably live here, except for the fact that they have constantly humid conditions that might get a bit wearing after a while. I’ll may not post again for 3 or 4 days as it’s 2032 miles of ocean to Easter Island, so the next 4 days are sea days and unless something unusual happens I‘ll vegetate and enjoy the warm weather.

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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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