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!