South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 16 Leaving South America

       We arrived back in Toronto about 24 hours after leaving the ship. Our departure from the ship

Valpariso At 5 Am

was at 9 in the morning and that went well until we got on the bus to take us into Santiago. That is when the fun began. The arrangements were to take us to a hotel in Santiago as a holding area as our flight was not until the evening. One man said I can't go to a hotel, I want to go home. I guess he did not understand that it was a holding area until they would take us to catch our flight. He caused quite a ruckus about it. Nobody could seem to read his flight information. He finally settled down. Then another couple, in a much calmer voice indicated that they had an afternoon flight and apparently had not read their transfer info. They need to get to the airport fast. After another delay, the person in charge said we would stop at the airport and drop them off. It was on the way to the city. All resolved.

         However, the bus driver was new and missed the turn to the airport. This was off a main highway. We finally arrived and both the couple and the man got off. We still think he did not understand what the arrangements were. Good, now the 25 minute ride to the hotel. Again the new driver had no clue where we were to go. The 25 minute ride turned into a 75 minute ride through bumper to bumper traffic. We finally arrived. Through all of this our on board guide was wonderfully calm. We booked our transfer time to the airport and then went for a walk.

          We ended up in a 6 story Uptown mall that was absolutely jammed with people. It was a nice

Blue Santa

experience to see some really upscale stores. Of course the Gap, Hard Rock Cafe, etc. were all represented. The most interesting thing was the blue Santa in the mall and the artificial snow making machines. The temperature was around 29C outside. Pizza at the Pasta Basta restaurant was fun.

We arrived at the airport where our luggage was waiting for us. Then the lines began. Between the Air Canada check in, the declaration of leaving line, the passport control area and finally security were were about 2  hours and 15 minutes. It meant that we did not wait to board our 10 hour direct flight to Toronto where we arrived at 6am this morning.

    This will be the final post for this cruise. It was number 18 on Princess and we now have 267 sailing days. Way more than when I trained in the Navy!

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 16 Ashore in La Serena

    We are on our last sea day before our port tomorrow. We arrive in Santiago tomorrow. We were in the port city of Coquimbo for the quaint city of La Serena Chile. We were ashore for the 10:30 city on your own tour. A 45 minute bus ride took us to a city centre that wa very neat and full of friendly people. It is obvious that there are not a lot of cruise ships that stop in this port.

The city centre itself was full of people. There we bands playing on 3 or 4 corners but we also saw about 1-200 army and police all gathered in one spot. We learned later that there was going to be a university demonstration. We heard the noise but did not see the the march or whatever was planned.

We wandered about the town for about 2 hours going into the market as well as the number of churches that dotted the city centre.

    Back on the ship, we spent the afternoon packing our bags. We will be going into Santiago tomorrow to stay at a central location until our flight at 9:15. We met our friends in Skywalkers and the went to dinner. One couple did not come down as Kelly was in bed with the chills. Judy is better but I can feel a cold coming on. With our flight home the blog for this trip. We do have some time in Santiago for sightseeing tomorrow.

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 15 Last Sea Day

         We are on our last sea day before our port tomorrow. We arrive in Santiago the next day. We had another time change last night and so we got up at the same time but the clock reads an hour later. We had a call from the tour desk again today. They had wait listed us on the original tour that we wanted. As a result we finally got the Coquimbo on your own tour. We had just finished paying most of our ship account a few minutes before. I like to pay it off before they put it on our credit card. Then we get the tour we wanted so now we will have a big credit because of the price difference. We also noted that Princess did not charge us the daily automatic tip rate for the days that we were off the ship. I don't think that was a mistake. It must be their policy and probably based on many complaints from past cruises. It was a pleasant surprise. Now we need to get a cash refund because we overpaid.            We also took in a line dance class for a chance to move around a bit. It is still windy and a bit cooler and we have not felt much like walking the last few days. After the late breakfast neither of us felt much like lunch. We wandered to the buffet for some “light” eats!

Fighting A Cold

Today was the last of the enrichment lectures. This one was on Identifying the Famous and the Infamous. It included Jesse James and Copernicus. As always it was very entertaining. That was followed by my love to hate guy doing a Santiago Chile port lecture. Good info bad presentation skills. Judy went for a nap as she is still fighting the cold. While she rested, I went to view the video that the photo department shot while on our Machu Piccho trip. It was good but did not include anything about the people that went. The were asking about $50 for the 20 minute production. As someone said, if I want to pay that much I will buy the National Geographic video.

       Tango dancers, dinner including the baked Alaska parade and the crew show finished the evening.

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 14 Recovering At Sea

        We are on our post trip day trying to get back to normal after the long days and hours of travel. Judy started with a cold yesterday and now it is fully blown! As a result we did not do much. A light breakfast – I think that we have hit the food wall- after which we went to the port lecture for our next stop tomorrow which is the last day before we get to Santiago and the end of this cruise. It seems that there is enough to do in this location. It is in Chile so that will give us a new set of custom forms. After the lecture we tried to book an “on your own” type of tour but found out the one we wanted was fully booked. Tried for a different time slot and found it was booked as well. We finally opted for what was left which will be good (museum visit and city drive) but not generally our cup of tea! 

The Inca Eggers

          The big event of the day was the egg drop contest. You need to drop a raw egg from deck 7 to deck 5. The object is to drop an egg from deck 7 to the floor of deck 5. The galleries judged the best and since we had 6 on our team, we could make enough noise. Next time we need lobby the crowd beforehand. We made a lot of noise. Lil one of the members bought us hats and you can see that in the photo. The winning entry was quite superior. There were 3 stuffed animals that came down one at a time. The last one was a monkey with a parachute with the egg stuffed up – you get the idea! Later we found out that the person has been on 31 cruises. He was very prepared to this. We used a rain poncho stuffed with balloons. A cute idea was an umbrella which came in second. It was a lot of fun but we did miss one of the DNA lectures because of it.

After The Drops

There were 13 entries and only the last one broke. It was basically a zip bag tossed over the edge. We placed 3rd because we could yell loud enough.

           The afternoon was spent in our cabin as I caught up on our post. Judy stayed in bed and watched 2 movies. It was also formal night which meant getting dressed up for the farewell Atrium event although neither of us felt up to it. We have not been to Skywalkers in 2 days and need to go see our friends there! 

        We had our drinks, and have a nice dinner. We chatted about our drop adventure. Neither of the other 2 couples st our table which made up our team had even seen it before.

Formal Night Dress

        Because it was formal night lobster and giant prawns were on the menu. I went to the show and Judy went to bed. A few minutes later she was back. She has a habit of putting her cruise card in her purse that has a magnetic clasp. Needless to say the magnet does a job on the card. She is on her 3^rd card. We watched the show which we quickly realize we had seen before. We were glad to carry on after that!

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 13 Sacred Valley To Pisco

         We are on our last day of our Machu Picchu adventure. Up at 5:15am for the long day ahead. Our luggage needed to be out by 5:30. The porters were collecting it as we went to breakfast. By 6:30

Leaving Aranwa

we were on the bus. The luggage was still being loaded on a truck to be taken to the airport in Cuzco. We had a 9:40 flight. While we were away, the ship had left Lima and had moved down the coast to a town called Pisco. We took a shorter route back to the city. The area on the return trip passed through some different areas. The upper part of the mountains is quite flat (plateau like) and was quite fertile.           The fields were very lush and the entire area looked very prosperous.

As we came down from the upper area we passed through the outskirts of Cusco. It was quite depressing. We have seen poor areas before but this was continuous. We seemed to go through this area until we were in the flat part of the city. One of the things that was unsightly was the piles of garbage everywhere. Later we saw the garbage disposal system. The people pile the garbage in a particular spot. Then the truck comes by and shovels the piles into it. At least it was being picked up.

Along The Pan Am

By the time we arrived at the airport, our luggage was all lined up. How they beat us there is unknown. We never saw them pass us. In addition, if we wanted to check it through to Lima, the guide said just leave it. The tour company did the rest. Plane ride back was on time and we arrived back in Lima in an hour. By the time we got off the plane, the luggage was lined up again! It was really amazing to see go from our door to final destination without touching it. We did have to carry it to the bus!

        The final leg of the trip was a 5 hour non stop bus ride back to the ship. All aboard was 4:30. We started at noon. No way to to make it. Besides we were leaving Peru and needed immigration to stamp our passports on exit. They gave us a box lunch as we headed out to the Pan Am highway. It

Irrigated Fields

seemed to take over an hour to get out of the city. It was stop and go for what seemed like hours. Rush hour traffic in the middle of the day. Because of the traffic, we did not have a stop along the way.

       Once out of the city, the landscape turn drier and eventually the desert took over the landscape. Although we could see the ocean it was one large sea of sand! Mile after mile! People were living in 1 room shacks. They were in the middle of nowhere. It was hard to imagine how these people made a living. We did see the occasional chicken farms but except for a few irrigated areas there was nothing.

Miles and Miles of Desert

    We finally arrived at Pisco. There was nothing in Pisco to
warrant stopping there. The ship only offered 2 tours. I had suspected that Princess had stopped there so that they could offer the Machu Picchu trip. The entire bus was convinced that the 2500? people left on the ship went there to accommodate us! About an hour after arriving we finally sailed (an hour late). Immigration had finished their job. Dinner and bed ended the evening quickly. Sea day tomorrow! That is good because Judy is coming down with a cold. Maybe the Christmas cold came early this year!

Ship's Dock

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 12 Inca Ruin and Machu Picchu

          Our wake up call this morning was 4:30am for a 6 am departure. The entire day was tied to the train that we had to catch to get to Machu Picchu. The buffet breakfast in the hotel excellent. I should mention that we were all on the bus at the appointed time Of the 15 on the bus, there were 2 that had canes; 1 who had to go to the toilet all the time and the other with a wife who made us wait for her to go. More on her later. It was clear to us that you needed to be fit to do the walking that was expected

        We were on the bus for 45 minutes before our first stop. It was in the town where the

Old Wall New Wall

Ollantaytambo ruins are located. It was also a town in Incan times.

At Ollantaytambo

Carlos walked us through the town where you can see the modern structures built on the Incan foundations. On top of that were adobe structures and then some white wash on top of that. It reminded us very much of walking through Pompey. It had the same feel except that this town was still occupied. It was Sunday and many of the people were dressed in their finest. We did see roasting guinea pigs which are consumed on special occasions. However everything seems to e a special occasion!

        We then went out to the Incan ruins. It was a place of terraced steps, graineries, etc. It was also the same place where the Incas defeated the Spanish for the first time.

Ollantaytambo

The Incas used sling shots. Our guide who was excellent on the Incan culture showed us how the sling shot worked. It was not like the ones we made as a kid. He also demonstrated how to made rope out of reeds. When we tried to pull it apart, it held steady. Quite remarkable really. Then we were off to the train station in town for the trip to Machu Picchu.

   

Classic Machu Picchu

  The trip takes about 90 minutes. The narrow gauge railroad had very modern scenic (glass top) cars. It was quite a pleasant trip through the Sacred Valley. I always thought that the train ride went up to the ruins. However, we actually went down to the base of where Machu Picchu is located. We did see hikers doing the 3 night 4 day trek. As we went “down” the vegetation changes to more forested areas. They even served us a light meal with silverware and woven place mats! It was quite well received by all the cruisers. It was another example of the first class treatment that we received throughout the trip. After the meal they had souvenirs for purchase. I bought a very nice Perurail ball cap to replace the one that did not seem to make it out of the security check in Lima!

      We arrived in the town and needed to catch a bus to the site. One lady (remember her!) said she^rd meal in about 5 hours!). The buffet was packed but very nice.

was going to the facilities. When told her we only had a 30 minute ride to the restaurant (and there were facilities on the train) she said she did not care! We waited 20 minutes for her and eventually this was part of our time at the site. The bus ride was “interesting” as we wound our way up 1200 feet on switchback roads to the actual site of the Incan village of Macho Picchu. However before heading up the short path, we had to have lunch (3

   

  We finally headed up a bit more. They check your ticket and passport in

order to get in. It is hard todescribe the site itself. The common photo of the place always shows a peak in the back. This is only a portion of the village. It only held about 6-700 people at the time of occupancy and there are indications that it was never finished. It is not some holy spot for the Inca. The word “Inca” refers to the “king” of the people but has come to represent the entire race. The finest building in terms of construction is in the centre. It has 2 windows that are aligned with markers on a different mountain the signify the start of the seasons. The workmanship in the area is utilitarian. The rocks are not polished as we saw at some of the other sites. We wandered and had full explanations for about 2 hours but were slowed by the canes. As a result we did not have

any free time. Although the entire adventure was about this place and we spent 3 days of travel, we were disappointed only in not having more time. It was an experience that we enjoyed as much as we had anticipated it! As a postscript to this visit, Carlos said they are now excavating another site “close by” that is 5 times the size of Machu Picchu! Something for the future? We headed back down the hill, having been among the 2 million people that visit the site every year!

        Back on the bus for the ride down to the train station. As we walked backed to the train station we had some free time to explore the stalls full of goods. However, we needed to stop and wait because if remember “our lady” the one that said she did not care if we had to wait, had stopped in town to shop. Our guide had to go get them because he had the train tickets and needed to show us where we needed to find the right train. There are a number of them that stop at different places. By then the group was “upset”. Ornery is the best way to describe Judy! She bought a nice white El Paca shawl but was still ornery.

Back Along The Rail Line

     Back on the train for another 90 minute ride. Another light meal, then a fashion show. The things they were selling were top quality not the type of things you find at the station stalls! The train ride was very relaxing although the day was quite long. Back on our mini bus and back to our hotel.

We decided to rest a bit before dinner as we had been eating all day! In the restaurant we saw the head guide. Now remember the lady incident. Judy was really not so happy especially when we heard we were suppose to have had a glass of wine with dinner. I stood back and watched her “asked” about it. He said of course we were entitled and made sure we got 2 glasses that night. I am sure she did not want to deal with her! Dinner was el paca (llama). Tasted a bit like beef. When we heard that we had a later wake up call tomorrow 5:15, we decided go to bed early again. Besides we we very tired from the long day. Back to the ship tomorrow!

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 11 A Trip to Cusco

     We have been back on the ship since last night but were just to tired to get anything done. The short of it is that the trip was a great experience and one more thing off the list of places we wanted to visit.

    The tour started at 6 am to be in the Princess theatre for the 7am departure. There were at least 150 people on the tour (there may have been more in another hotel) but we all needed our passports. The tour department had 1 person giving them out. Needless to say it was poorly organized. In fact it seems that they have trouble doing these “simple” things, not only today but on other port days. We have heard other cruisers having similar lines and inefficiencies. This is the first time that we have seen this type of thing.

Monerstary

The port of Callio is congested and we did not tie up at 7 as expected. We were on a tight schedule with a plane to catch . The tour country was very well organized and during the entire trip and everything they had control over went smoothly. There were many components to this trip, many tickets needed for the various venues, etc. All were completed without any problem. At the airport, the boarding passes were printed and ready. Princess filled the entire plane (a separate charter?) and so the fact that we were late did not seems to bother the airline. However we were bussed to the plane and had to take all our luggage with us on the plane. People sat anywhere they wanted! Mass confusion on that part but that was an airline problem.

55 minutes after leaving the Lima airport we arrived in Cuzco. They served a drink and a snack. I took a picture and want to send it to Air Canada who did not bother to give us a bag of pretzels on the 5 hour trip out of Toronto! We were immediately met at the Cuzco airport by the tour company. They took our luggage and transported it to our hotel where it was in our room when we arrived that night. They had 10 vans waiting for us. We simply chose a van (15 people) and that is how we traveled for the next 2 days. We went directly to a monastery that was taken over from the Inca's by the Spanish. The monks used the foundations to build their structure on the base. It is called Qorikancha and was used by the Dominican monks. It was our first taste of what the Incas were able to accomplish without tools and what the Spanish did when they arrived.

     Lunch at a nice restaurant included a pumpkin (squash) soup followed by a nice piece of trout and

Basilica

lemonade. We also had our first taste of cocoa tea. The tea helps with the altitude and is suppose to help you adjust to the changes. Cuzco is at 11000 feet. We had taken our altitude medication so we were ready for the changes. Throughout the trip, some people felt dizzy, some needed oxygen and some had bad headaches. I had a mild headache here in there throughout the trip which may have been caused by the various altitude changes.

     After lunch we went to Cuzco's main Basilica which was very near the restaurant. There were the “local models” everywhere we went on this tour. They were women and kids dressed in tradition colourful Peruvian garb. Of course once you take the photo they wanted a tip. We even saw kids with llamas walking around. The Basilica as was expected; very ornate and decorate with silver everywhere. Carlos our guide pointed out how the local artisans of the time put things into their artistry to signify ancient Incan ideas. For example mirrors were used to decorate some alters. In a painting of the Last Supper, Judas was painted in the likeness of Pizzaro. In relation to the rest of the painting, he was much darker, looking away, etc. There were this type of thing in many of the paintings. One of the most interesting was a painting of a pregnant Virgin Mary with a child at her side. The artist explained to the local priest that Peruvian women never had just one child.

Judy At The Blocks

Saqsayhuaman

The Blocks

     In mid afternoon we headed out to Saqsayhuaman a ruin not far out of the city. It is very large “short pyramid” like structure without a roof. It was dedicated to the gods of thunder and rain. The interesting thing about this temple is the size of the very large interlocking blocks that were placed together like a jigsaw puzzle without a “cement” of any kind. The quarry used was 5 miles away. Carlos (our guide) showed us how they were able to move such large rocks without the use of animals. They also did it with a much smaller work force than the Egyptians.

   
 We were met by the models again. There was also people there selling our photos! Someone asked if they were Princess photographers. NO! However they took our picture when we got off the plane, then merged them with the those of Incan ruins. These people showed up everywhere we went!

Sacred Valley

The final leg of the journey that day was a drive for nearly 3 hours over the 13000 foot pass into the Sacred Valley. It contains may Incan ruins as well as Machu Picchu one end of it. The valley was very fertile with crops on every available piece of land. The houses were adobe (mud brick) construction. Many looked in very bad disrepair. After passing many small villages, we turned off the good road, went over a bridge and turned down a washboard road passed broken down houses                                       We were on our way to the hotel. All were wondering about the hotel.   The Hacienda gate opened and we arrived at the “Aranwa Sacred Valley” hotel. What a great place to stay in the middle of all this run down area. It is hard to describe how beautiful the grounds were. The property was owned by one of the original Spanish landowners. It had a beautiful chapel (church), pool, running water, ponds, etc. We were assigned to the “Colonial” wing which was built in the 1600's but had completely modern rooms. They were very ornate. We have never seen or stayed in anything like this place.

Aranwa Hotel

There were courtyards all over the place. One of our group said that rate on the rooms were just under $400 to $3000 a night. We believed her after seeing this place. We stayed there for 2 nights. The meals was very nice and we should have done more after dinner but after the very early start and all the travel that day, we headed to bed. That was after it announced that the wake up for tomorrow was at 4:30am! No wonder we headed to sleep!

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 10 Day Out From Lima

        We are on our last day of the transit from Costa Rica to Lima where we will be off ship for 3 days. We did manage to sleep in this morning – well until 8 anyway. We spent the day as a usual sea day on this trip. I think that we have been taking it easy for days! By the time we were up and had breakfast (no cronut today!) it was time for the enrichment lecture which we seem to look forward to every day. Today it was on the use of DNA analysis in anthropology. It was called the life and death of the Pharoes. He traced the search for the identity of some of the unknown mummies. Another interesting lecture that made the hour go quite quickly. After that there was a session with the singers and dancers and their journey to become part of the cast. This troupe is on a 3 term contract. 5 months on one sip, a month off and then another 5 months on another ship. It was very interesting to hear their backgrounds. Most have always wanted to be dancers.

        We decided on a walk around the deck – about 30 minutes worth. Surprising although we are not that far south of the equator, the temperature is getting cooler already. That may be a function of the cold current in the area. A British pub lunch followed – fish and chips, etc. Was a good way to have a different lunch. We are still trying to avoid the buffet as much as possible. Then it was packing for the 3 days ashore tomorrow! We are down to backpacks only which was our original goal. We head out tomorrow at around 7, as soon as we arrive in Lima. By then it was time for the wine tasting session. They really moved it along and we were out of there in about 30 minutes. It seemed that they just went through the motions but there many people around us who were talking all through the presentation. That probably contributed to the short presentation.

          We have signed up for the egg drop contest. You need to drop a raw egg from the 7^th deck to the 5^th deck. If it makes it then you may win something. We have been collecting balloons and other materials for the contest but we still don't know when it will be. We get the egg just before the drop. We have seen it done before and did it once on our way from China to Alaska. We will use a rain poncho, balloons a coffee cup and a paper bag! That is the engineering part of the contest.

      We have started to take out altitude adjustment medication. We are trying to prevent the 'sickness'

Packed!

that some people experience. It means that we must refrain from alcohol! The other thing is that we need to drink plenty of water . We know a few people going on this trip who may have a hard time of keeping that requirement!

    Tonight was country western night but we did not hurry dinner to get to it. There are more line dancers on this cruise than many of the past cruises e have been on. Every session is packed with people in the aisles and along the back of the room. Of course they always do the same dances!

      The Canadian comic Scott Harris also did a second show. Although we need to be up early tomorrow, we did attend. He talked about all the things we did as kids. Stuff like playing outside, toys we had, etc. A really good show. I will not be taking my computer with me tomorrow so it will be a few days before the next post. We hope that the weather is good for taking pictures although thunderstorms are predicted for the area. Needless I plan on taking plenty of photos anyway.

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 9 Crossing The Equator

      We are on our second last day of the transit from Costa Rica to Lima where we will be off ship for 3 days. Judy was up early to do the stretch class and I stayed back to try to post. The last few days the internet connection was very slow – i.e. non existent. It was working well so I took the opportunity complete the information on the last 2 days. I probably will not get anything done while we are away from the ship.

       We decided on a walk around the deck – about 35 minutes worth. We are headed due south and the wind was seems to be blowing hard. In any case we did manage to get around without loosing our hats! Each morning we need to figure the program for the day and then pick the places to eat. Today it was coffee and tea in the Atrium with a croissant/donut. They are really good! I think I could have too many every day. The port lecture was in mid morning so we did that. It is on the port that we will miss. The ship actually leaves Lima and the goes to San Martin. That is where we will catch up with the ship when we return from Machu Pichu.

Pollywogs and Jury

The Band Played On

       The event of the day was the crossing of the equator ceremony. King
Neptune and his royal court was in attendance. They inducted a few representative tadpoles (that's us) as well as a few members of the crew. It involved raw eggs, cream (whipping or shaving?) jello, etc. It was well attended under nice warm skies; the band was playing and a good time was had by all.

        After lunch we attended another DNA lecture. This one was on the lost dauphin of France (Louis 17^th) . A good tale of imposters, pretenders, etc. Line dance followed in the later afternoon. It was a practice for the deck party tonight. Lucetta said it was a practice for the flash mob event on deck tonight. Actually it was probably the best session of dance that we have had. She taught about 10 different simple things that would all be run together. We had stopped going because it was really basic as usual. The rest of the afternoon was for watching a movie and having a glass of wine.

      We did go to Skywalkers again and had a cocktail with people we have met and then went to the Hawley Magic show. He was a finalist on America's Got Talent. He was very familiar to us. He put on a terrific show. Lots of appearing and disappearing assistants. It was very professional and was probably the best show of that type that we have seen.

       

Dinner and the “Ultimate Deck Party” ended the evening. It reminded me of what they have on the Caribbean cruise and I guess since we are officially south of the equator it made sense. The band played plenty of rock and roll which is perfect for the passengers on a repositioning cruise. We also received more information about the upcoming trip to Machu Pichu. Tomorrow is the last of the multi sea days (I Think!).

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 8 Another Lazy Day At Sea

     After the long day yesterday we slept in this morning. We wee even too late for breakfast in the dining room. After a quick buffet visit, we sat in the Atrium have a cup of tea and doing the sudoku puzzles that they provide each day. It was turning out to be another of those quiet days at sea where we did not find much of interest. If you don't have a trivia team or listen to the many selling seminars, the pickings are thin. We did receive an interesting letter from the Captain today talking about Lima.        Apparently there are some problems with the stop in Lima. Basically there have been a number of reports about armed robbery against foreign tourist. We have never seen such a notice before. Then at the port lecture that we attended (on Lima) there was the tour director talking about some of the changes that they had made to some of the places that they had scheduled. We will be going to the airport and on our way to Machu Pichu while the ship is in Lima. The lecture was alright but as I said before he really needs to get better photos and better technique.

At The Captain's Party

Special Dessert

     There was another lecture this afternoon about DNA. This one
was on the Titanic and the identification of one of the unknown children buried in Halifax. I remember seeing the PBS show about it. He basically went into the science of tracing the name of the unknown child. The place was packed again today.

    Formal night tonight meant that we needed to be ready to receive our chocolate covered strawberries. That was followed by the Captain's Circle party. We met one of our favourite waiters and he treated us well. Every time we looked up he brought another glass of wine. Dinner was lobster tail and a special chocolate dessert. Every few days tey have another special one. It is the 50 ^th  anniversary of princess and the have created special ones for the occasion. A show by another Canadian comic ended he evening.
          The internet has been very slow the last few days.  Posts are delayed.

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 7 A Disappointing Day In Punta Arenas

         Our tour today was not scheduled to leave until 10. We took the opportunity to have breakfast in the dining room since we were not under any pressure. We gathered at the tour spot at 9:30 and waited about 40 minutes in line to be seated in the theatre. This was highly unusual as normally they are very efficient at getting people into the right groups. The story was that someone did not put out the seating signs in time. Later we heard from other people that they waited over an hour before their tour left. Part of the problem was that the dock was very long and narrow. Buses had to back in to were the ship was located.

At Freddo's

   We were finally off around 10:30 on our way to the volcano. The tour guide talked for 20 minutes then said “I see everybody? Is sleepy so I will continue later.” This should have been the first clue about the guide. His line was we will talk about that later. We left in warm sunny conditions for or 2 hour 30 minute ride to the stop of the mountains. Our first stop was for lunch at Freddo Fresas. We had a buffet lunch that was “ok”. The best part of the meal was the strawberry smoothies! After the hour, we finished the trip to the rim of the volcano, about 10 kilometres away. The biggest clue as to what was to come was the steady mist at the restaurant.

   

By the time we arrived at the volcano, we were in a steady rain.
As we walked the 600 meters to the rim, hope was eternal. We did have our small rain ponchos with us and they came in very handy. The view from the rim was spectacular – or at least the photo that was on the sign indicated. We could not see a foot over the railing. Needless to say a major disappointment after almost 3 hours on the bus. It was the reason that we picked this tour. We were suppose to get a tour of the small museum with the guide explaining things. He was already directing people back to the bus. We spent a few minutes looking through the very basic display.

Artisan

   Back on the bus for another 90 minutes to arrive at Sarchi, the

The Workshop

painted oxcart store. We had brief stop at an all metal church where the guide said “take a picture out the window”. Yea right, we can get a good one from out seat! At the store – the stop for shopping – we wandered through the workshop and the hand painting area. The craftsmen were quite skilled. One of the things about the workshop  is that it had an old water driving line shaft system. II did not know what was so unusual about that having worked in a shop with that technology years ago. The shop itself was probably one of the better ones that we have been through on these tours. They really had unique items and we could not find one “Made In China” label. Having viewed the carvers and painters, everything looked like it was made locally.

      Another 90 minute bus drive and we arrived back at the ship after 7! The last thing the guide said was “there's my boss, tell him what a great guide I am”. When he asked is everybody had a good time the response was muted! From he Volcano to the ship he did not talk very much. Normally you have information overload. He did explain about coffee, bananas and pineapple growing but generally it was a disappointing trip. Maybe if we had seen the volcano we would have been in better spirits.

We were back with just enough time to clean up and dress for dinner. Only 4 of us were at dinner. We have officially gone down to a table of 6. There were a lot of empty spaces in the dinning room last night and it seems that the there are plenty of spaces every night. I guess set dinning st 8 is becoming less popular. None of the entertainment interested us so we headed back to our room and watched a movie. Time change again tonight.

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 6 The Run Down to Costa Rica

        Today was the last sea day before we get to Costa Rica. I either lost count of how many days we were suppose to spend on this leg or just plain forgot. In any case with all the reference today that tomorrow we would be in port, I guess the ship knows. After that we only have 5 more sea days until we get leave in Santiago.

          Our routines are pretty set these days. We walked the deck for about 40 minutes and then headed for the Atrium for the small buffet. Limited choices but that was the idea. There was a digital photo seminar this morning but when he started with “this is a camera and here is the flash”, we left and went to the enrichment lecture on forensics. Today's hour presentation was on the use of generics to profile a suspect. Sometimes in hindsight it is unbelievable how the clues as to the killer were obvious. He also made the point that eyewitnesses are the least reliable at identifying as suspect. He cited a case where the suspect was a white male driving a white pick up truck. The criminal turned out to be African American driving a gold Mazda. The theatre was nearly packet again.

Was it a torpedo?

          The ocean was a bit rough today with white caps and foam all around. We saw what looked like a torpedo go by the ship. We saw all kinds of things in the ocean: birds (albatroses?), flying fist, torpedoes, etc.

         They had a South American bbq on deck for lunch. We could not find many items that were bbq'd let along South American. A little bit better line dance session followed and then we decided to take a dip in the pool. Since the ship is still rocking a bit, it was like being in a wave pool. The rest of the afternoon programme did not interest us. I sat in on the art auction and did a crossword puzzle. Princess seems to have gone completely upscale in their art offerings. We noticed the trend on our last cruise and it was confirmed today.

Sunset

           We were up on deck for the sunset which was very nice. It has been windy but we were aft in a protected area. Very nice. We followed that with a visit to Skywalkers (deck 17) for the goat's cheese hors d'oeuvers and a cocktail where we met up with some people we talk to from New Zealand.. A surf and turf dinner followed by a comedy showtime with Doug Funk, the Canadian comic. This time he did a stand up routine. He reminded us of Ron James although he is from Cambridge Ontario. He was very funny, the best part being where he did some improv.

       

The evenings seem to be better than the daytime activities. Costa Rica and the volcano visit tomorrow.

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 5 Off The Mexican Coast

In The Pool

     With the time change last night Judy did not make it to her abs class this morning. Instead we walked the deck for about 40 minutes. The weather was warm and sunny again . We decided to do the light breakfast today. With the program being light this morning, we decided to go for a swim and and spend a few hours by the pool. Lunch consisted of a piece of pizza and a beer on our balcony.

     We attended another enchantment lecture on forensics and History. Today's hour presentation was on the Mystery of the Romanovs. It traced the history of their last days and then detailed how they determined who was found in the first shallow grave. It detailed the findings in the second pit . It was quite a fascinating story. The theatre was nearly packet again.

     A very basic line dance followed (again). There was a workshop on Improv comedy by Doug Funk; the same comedian that had a show the other night. He went over some of the keys to improv. He had 5 people on stage but 2 of them never got it so the session was a bit of a drag.

     The weather deteriorated a bit in the afternoon. The wind picked up and we hit a patch of rough weather this afternoon. The ship was rocking more than it had since we left LA. The captain announced around noon that by 3 pm we would hit rough seas and by midnight we would be back in calm waters. I don't know how they did that but it worked out perfectly.

    The watched the tango dancers in the atrium, followed by a nice dinner. One couple did not show for dinner so we finished in a short period of time. We did take in the Rock and Roll party, something that we had never seen before because of the timing. All in all a generally relaxing day at sea. Tomorrow is the last of the continuous days at sea . Costa Rica follows that.

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 4 - On A 4 Day Run To Costa Rica

        Another early morning! We have started the first of a 4 day run to Costa Rica. For some reason (I can probably guess) we are dead tired at night but up early this morning. There is no Zumba certified instructor available on this cruise which is something that I was looking forward to. We have had them on the last 3 cruises! Anyway we decided that since today was going to be hot, we decided to do an early morning walk. Actually there are people up at such an early hour. OK 7 isn't that early. Just as we finished our 30 minute jaunt, we spotted some foam on the nearly flat ocean. Then again. Then the breaching whale, then the spot, etc. Actually it was not that far from the boat. It certainly made the morning special.

Tango Lesson

      After a light breakfast the morning passed quite quickly. There is a tango couple on board. They are the same ones as the last time we were here. We went to their tango lesson. The place was packed with 150? crowded into a space about the size of our living room. We did get the basic steps after a couple who knew how to tango showed. We wee so far back that we could not see the steps. They also talked on forever. In any case we did spend an hour at the lesson.

    We decided to go to the dinning room for lunch and were entertained by a recently retired professor from Michigan and an Australian couple from north of Sydney. He had been a tour guide in his youth and some of the stories were quite funny. He said that he answered the same questions many times a day and when he did not know the answer simply made it up.

      We attended a session (lecture) on solving cold cases. The first lecture the other day was on CSI shows and the techniques that they use. Today it was on how DNA testing started, how it is down, the markers that they look for, etc. He was a bit technical but it was very interesting. He then went into how they are able to solve cold cases using evidence gathered years ago, including how they are able to link murders that seemed to have been committed by different people. The oldest cold case solved was from 1967. Most of these old cases have been solved in the last 3 years.

 

At The Pool

   
A very basic line dance followed (we learned the Wobble!) and a swim finished the afternoon. We did meet up with a New Zealand couple that we had talked to before ad had a relaxing chat before dinner. After dinner we did go to a show. We have seen the singer before and she was quite entertaining. Neither of us fell asleep this time. Another hour time change was in order for overnight!

South America Cruise Day 3 A Day in Cabo

     The weather has turned warm and the sun was shinning this morning. We are on the port side of the ship and since we are heading south it means that we have the land mass to the east of us. I tried to get a sunrise photo this morning but we had turned due east as we approached Cabo. The sun was directly ahead of the ship but a cloud bank covered the sunrise until for about 30 minutes. No photo there. The morning program of activities was very light with the 4 things that we were interested in all running concurrently. I hope that in the future there is better spacing of activities.

The Arch

     The day was very warm with just some high clouds in the blue sky. As we approached Cabo we rounded the tip of southern California. The arch and all the outliers (rocks in the water) made for some good photo taking. The sun was in the right place as well. We arrived about an hour early and had to wait before we headed ashore. This is a tender port and it took awhile to get ashore as a “wandered” as they take all the scheduled tours first.

Golden Princess At Anchor

      The visit to Cabo was quite pleasant. It has changed plenty since we were here 11 years ago. The marina seemed to be much bigger than we remembered. We followed the marina around and then headed down the beach. The sand is quite different from what we see in Florida. You sank into it as you took a step. It did not support like the fine sands at Clearwater. After a very nice walk we arrived at the bar that we were in years ago.

Return To The Bar

A Safe New Bar - Only One

     The last time we were there we arrived in the morning and it was pretty calm. This time it was mid afternoon and the party had started. We watched the beer guzzling contest which was followed by a conga line. Anyone who got in the line got a free shot. After we left they had a shake your booty contest. By then we had wandered back to the main part of the city and found a nice quiet bar right on the marina. Having walked a bit from the tender port, this bar was not packed with the people from the ship. We did have a Margarita (one only – no mescal this time – we asked!) and some tortilla chips. It was a pleasant afternoon. More wandering followed as we made our back to the tender area. It was packed as a Holland America ship has also arrived while we were in port.

Sunset Over The Rocks

We sailed after sunset. The sky was really beautiful with the reds being very vivid. We watched a tango demo in the Atrium before dinner. The couple were the same that were on the ship last January.     

      They are very good and will be teaching tango during this cruise again. Dinner was pleasant again. We only had 6 at the table. There is still 2 either missing from the table. Usually tables of 8 are all subscribed. We tried to go to the late show but cut out early. It seems that by the end of the evening we are tired. I wonder why!

South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 2

     Talk about your lazy day at sea! After the long tiring day yesterday needless to say we slept in today. I think that the entire ship did the same. We also had a time change (advance) last night as

Smooth Sailing

well. By the time we were out and ready for breakfast, it was pushing 9:30. We simply went to the International Cafe, the small food service in the Atrium! We sat with a couple from Thunder Bay who indicated that they we on their way to Machu Pichu as well. They winter in Arizona. So far just about everyone we talked to is going. We think nobody will be left on the ship!

    There was a port lecture on Cabo that we attended as well. He was a great speaker but his slide presentation could have used a bit of improvement. His information was very through but he talked for 20 minutes then showed photos of what he talked about. From a presentation point of view not the best. In addition some of his ocean shots were tilted! The ocean was apparently draining away! Shopping followed for us. I did find a new Citizen watch. I have been looking for a dress watch for some time and we found something that I liked. Apparently now I am getting a Christmas present! We managed 2 discounts on it which of course fits my mold! Judy also did some shopping as well.

Atrium Decorations

   We had lunch in the dining room where we sat with 2 couples. They are going to Machu Pichu as well. Either we have incredible luck finding everybody going to the ruins or everybody on the ship is going. The day was warm and very sunny so we took the opportunity to walk the deck for 30 minutes. We missed the ballroom lesson this morning but went line dancing for 40 minutes. It was packed and the staff did 5 dances. She really kept the class moving. Here are the steps, practice, play the music. The rest of the short afternoon was spent relaxing and getting ready for the first formal night tonight.

     Tonight was the first of the formal nights – the Captain's welcome aboard party. We did spend a bit of time just relaxing and waiting for our chocolate covered strawberries which are part of our Elite package. We waited until an hour after they were suppose to be delivered. We needed to call they to get them delivered. Someone messed up somewhere.

James Bond And Friend

     We had our formal pictures taken as we waited for the Captain to speak. His Italian was great but English limited. He said all the ok words but not much else. At dinner another couple did show up. Lil is recently retired and has a interesting way about her. After that we opted to go to the improve comedian from Second City in Toronto. He set situations and then it went from there. It was a bit like whose line is it. In any case he was looking for a James Bond type (see the photo of Judy and I) and since we were seated near the front, he asked me to join him on stage. For whatever reason, I did.

    The scene was James returning a bra to a store. The improve entailed starting everything that was said with the next letter of the alphabet. He said something that started with I, I answer with B, etc. We made it all the way to Zed! He did say that most people can't get through the skit but it was not that hard. I just concentrated on the next letter and ignored what he said. He never said that it needed to make sense!

   

Oh when we returned to our cabin we found another plate of berries in our room. Cabo tomorrow!