Good Day readers. I am combining these 2 seadays in 1 post. Generally these days are filled with on the ship activities, from movies, presentations about future ports, music, dance lessons, card games, pickleball, basketball and dutch shuffle board (sjoel bakken). The ship has been kind of rolling from side to side due to the sea swells the last couple of days. Luckely we don’t have isues with sea sickness. It’s kind of funny, as most people are walking around the ship looking like they had a few drinks. (maybe they did?) Every day at noon we do get an update from the captain telling us what is ahead regarding weather and what to expect regarding sea swells for the next 24hr. Also every day he adds a new topic about marine engineering and instruments used on the boat. For example its amazing how deep the ocean is here, over 4 kilometers deep. That’s from our house to downtown Nanaimo. I was thinking today, that this ocean is still looking the same as the time Columbus was sailing it in the late 1400’s. Water as far as the eye can see. If we compare this to what is going on on land, where it is changing continously with new buildings being added. Quite the contrast! Tomorrow morning we are landing in our first port in Chile. (Coquimbo, La Serena). Oh, I got to go, Happy Hour is about to start what is the time to buy your drink for the day. We have 2 happy hours a day 4:00PM and 6:30 PM for 1hr each time. 1th drink reg price second for $2.00. This is very important for all the pensioners on board.

Cheers

“South America” “Cruising” “Seaday” “Happy Hour”

GENERAL SAN MARTIN (PISCO) PERU

This morning around 6:30am we arived at Pisco. The docking site was 20min by bus outside the town in no mans land. It looks like a large comercial port is being developed here, which also serves as the cruise ship terminal. Shuttle buses were lined up and available to take us to town every 20min. After breakfast we took the bus into town. The town was called Paracas. It was quite a nice town. It made me think of lots of Mexican towns I have seen. A malecon along the beach lined with little restaurants and venders selling Peruvian wear and hand made merchandise. In the water a large selection of fishing boats anchored in a variety of different colours. The people seemed all very friendly. After strolling the waterfront and having coffee at a little cafe we headed back in the bus to the ship. The surounding landscape is made up of sand dunes as far as the eye can see. when we got back at the ship, a couple of frigates from peruvian Navy had tied up beside the cruise ship. We lifted anchor around 5:00 PM. About 30 min in our cruise we witnessed the world famous and utterly mysterious Nazca lines drawn on the hill side on land. These are an amazing series of drawings of animals and geometric figures on the desert floor and on hillsides, ranging up to 1,000 feet in size. While watching this from the upper deck area we were served Pisco Sour’s the national coctail from Peru. That’s it pretty well for today. Sea day tomorrow.

Cheers

“south america” “cruise” “Pisco Sour”

LIMA PERU (DAY 2)

Today we did an excursion to Pachacamac. These are the ruins of a City dating back to the Inca era. First we took the shuttle bus from the ship into town what took 11/2hr, were we met up with our tour guide for the day. From here we went in a smaller bus (van) on our way to the ruins what took us another 11/2hr to get there through a selection of different neighbourhoods. On every traffic light stop you run into venders who walk between the cars to sell you a variety of goods. The venders are migrants who came over from Venezuela. There are over 1 million migrants who came to Peru due to the economic conditions in their home country of Venezuela. After we arrived at the ruin site, we were taken through a small museum first and then taken onto the site. The whole site covers approximate 600 hectares. we drove around the site stopping at several ruins of walls and old buildings. A lot of the ruins are currently being restored. After the tour we took on the traffic for another 2 hours and returned back to the ship. The area were the ship docks is in an active container terminal, There is a lot of activity of ships being loaded and unloaded with a veriety of goods from containers to cars to grain. Not quite the same as we are used to in Vancouver or Victoria where the terminal is downtown. Our ship departed at 6PM this evening.

Cheers

“South America” “Cruise” “Lima”

Lima Peru (Day 1)

This morning we landed in Lima. Lima, the third largest city in the americas with a population of 10 million. This morning we did a city tour through Lima. These tours gives a person a very good idea what the city looks like, by traveling through different neighbourhoods. We made stops at the famous Plaza de Armas the large square in the center of the city surounded by historical government buildings and the church. we continued our drive through the neighbourhoods. a lot of homes dating back to the 40’s. There is a very nice area along the beach lined with venues they were build for the 2019 Pan Am games. It always looks like is going to rain in Lima, but it never does. Total Rainfall for the year is 17mm (less then 1″) Because the ocean water is very cool, there is most of the time a light fog in the air. Did I talk about that the traffic was bad in Trujillo, it was in Lima probably 3 times worse. It take at least 11/2 hr every time you want to go some where. There are definitely very poor areas in the City. Our guide told us the income for the poor is +/- $300/mnd. middle class $1500/mnd. the rich $5000-7000/mnd. and up. We were told to be very carefull in the City at night due to high crime in some neighbourhoods. We chose to stay on the ship this night.

Cheers

“south america” “Lima” “Cruise”

SALAVERRY (TRUJILLO) PERU

When we woke up this morning we were docked in Salaverry Peru. Salaverry is the harbour area approximate 1/2hr outside Trujillo. Salaverry looked much like a lower income neigbourhood. After breakfast we took a shuttle into Trujillo a city of approximate 3 million. We were dropped of near city center. Soon as we departed the bus we were bombarded by local vendors and taxi cab drivers. After we escaped all these venders we walked towards downtown. There was a very beautifull plaza downtown lined with historic buildings. We visited an old Church from the 16th century. After we done a whole bunch more walking we headed back to the bus pickup spot. One interesting thing I noticed that they have scotia banks in Peru. We went in one to exchange some money. By walking around you definitely notice that you are in a different part of the world. The traffic is just insane. I don’t think I would want to drive here. Another interesting fact is that it almost never rains in Trujillo .2 Inch for the whole year.

Cheers

“South America” “cruise”

Not an very exiting day, catching up on the blog from previous days, go to the gym, watched a few movies and drink dutch cofee’s downstairs. At night listened to the duelling piano’s for a couple hours. In order for us to not forget what day we are living, they change the rugs in the elevator every day. It shows the day of the week.

Cheers

“south america” “cruise” “hal”

MANTA ECUADOR

This morning we woke up and overnight we had arrived in Manta Ecuador. Today we had signed up for an excursion. First we went on to visit a place where they are making the famous Panama Hats. Yes, the Panama hats are made in Ecuador. It was President  Rooseveld who gave the hat that name when the Panama Canal was being built. Our next stop was at a button factory. The buttons are made from a type of coconut seed what looks like small stones. When you cut the seeds, the inside looks a lot like ivory. Jewelery is also being made of these seeds. Our 3th stop was at an eco lodge in the rain forest where we were shown how to make a dish from something what looked like a big green plantain.. On our way back to Manta we stopped at an wonderfull beach called San Lorenzo beach. We spend an hour here that gave us time to get our feet wet in the 75 deg F ocean water and have a cold beer at an local beach restaurant. We continued our trip back through one of the more wealthier neighbourhoods of Manta. Manta has a large fishing industry. There are multiple fish processing plants in Manta and large quantities of tuna is exported. The harbour in Manta is crowded with fishing vessels of various sizes.

Last night we had dinner outside on the back deck of the ship.

Cheers

“travel,”south america”,”cruise”

We left Panama City last night and are on our way to our next stop Manta Ecuador. Overnight we crossed the Ecuator.

Today we stayed busy with on ship activities like drinking cofee, walking the ship going to the gym and listening to music at night. The 3 man band from the UK did their last show tonight, (very good). My football team (Packers) moved on in their quest for the superbowl. That was pretty well it for Seaday exitement.

Cheers

“travel,”south america”,”cruise”

Panama Canal

Today we are going through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific ocean. It takes roughly 8 hrs to navigate through the canal. The Canal was opened in 1914 and expanded in 2016. The original Canal could handle containerships carrying +/- 4500 containers, the expanded canal can handle ships up to 15,000 containers. The cost for our cruise ship to cross the canal was approximate $250,000. The ships crossing the canal have to to take a pilot on board to steer the ship through. There are 3 sets of locks on the pacific side to raise the ship approximate 25meter into gaton lake. There are 3 locks on the pacific side to lower the ship down into the Pacific ocean. The ship is pulled into the locks by 2 trains (mules) on each side of the boat to keep it straight and away from the lock walls. There is only 30omm-500mm space between the ship and the walls. The locks are approximate 300meter long and 33 meter wide.

It was a very hot day today crossing the canal 33 deg C and very humid. At the end of the day we moored at the pacific side of the canal. On Saturday we took a shuttle into town and wandered the town a bit. This time we didn’t do any excursions here, as we were here about a year ago on a previous cruise. We did stop at one of the largest shopping malls in the world for a coffee. (yes a coffee, didn’t buy anything else). Around 4.00 PM we returned back to the ship. Shortly after we set sail and continued our journey. Tomorrow will be a sea day.

Cheers

Today another day at sea. Carol start to feel better, thats’n relief. Spend good part of the day in the library and games room, catching up on some reading. Managed to get a workout in also. Sea days are good for going to the gym if u’r into that kind of thing. Through out the day the sea is getting rougher, not many people out and about. We went to listen to some music in the evening very small crowd attending. Most must be in their rooms seasick. We managed to make it to happy hour, first drink reg price, second drink $2.00. That’s it pretty well for today.

Cheers