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Published: March 18th 2012
Still no decent internet connection I'm afraid. Arrive in Honduras in a couple of days so will try and get this up to date and put some photos on it too. Having a great time. Hope everyone is well. Love to all. xxxx It's 18th now and we're just sailing out of Costa Rica. Lovely place - lovely people.
I’m writing again on 15 March as we are at sea today and it’s a bit cloudy so have decided to spend a little time in the cabin catching up. The crossing the line ceremony is to be a little later so will have to rush things a bit – we actually crossed the equator during the night – so are back in the Northern hemisphere.
On the 11
th we arrived at Callao which is the port for Lima in Peru. We went ashore with Elly and Chris and negotiated a taxi on the dock side – always a fraction of the price of the organized tours on board. We got a really nice taxi driver who took us through a pretty awful port area and into the heart of Lima old town on a quiet Sunday morning. There were beautiful colonial buildings and piazzas, and, of course, a few churches. It was very pretty indeed and a bit of a shame we couldn’t see it a bit more bustling. After an hour or so our nice driver took us back to a coastal town called Miraflores, which was very modern around some nice squares with an interesting craft market selling allsorts of Peruvian goods. No Alpaca slippers to be found anywhere though – sorry Grant! I, of course, managed to find a little item or two of really nice Peruvian jewelry and after a bit of bartering got the price to a very reasonable amount – I really don’t like bartering though. We strolled through a park area where artists were selling their paintings and there was also an exhibition of crafts by the indigineous people of Peru who were also in their various national costumes – it was really interesting. Time was moving too fast and it was also very hot so we had to sit down and take stock and drink a few Pisco Sours!! … and Peruvian Beer. A small hiccup when it came to paying as the bank had blocked Scott’s card – again – and a long and probably very expensive call had to be made to the fraud department of the RBS to tell them it was us using it. Really gets on my nerves especially when you tell them beforehand you are travelling – but apparently it is to stop your card being abused (obviously they don’t realize that I am also very good at abusing it). After this it was time to make our way back to the ship.
The food on this ship is excellent although dinner times can sometimes be a bit of a strain as the six of us on our table are good pals but a table of two next to us has decided they will join in every conversation – listening all the time and then holding court with not so very interesting stories. Hence there is always a mad scramble between the six of us (still friends at the moment!!) to avoid sitting in the end two seats as these are dangerously close.
The following day we arrived after lunch at a place called Salaverry, close to Trujillo, still in Peru. Having done some research we decided to use a ships coach tour as we were only here for the afternoon and the details of things to see and do was a bit sketchy. We went to see the Hucan Dragon Temple (ancient pyramid) which was sand and mud coloured and not really that interesting. Then we went on to Chan Chan an ancient city created before the Incas but then taken over by them – it was really enormous and quite interesting but it did go on for ages and ages and walking around surrounded by mud walls can only be interesting to a point (I think anyway). Our guide, Napolean, was a very sweet chap but also very difficult to understand so maybe we would have found the experience more interesting if we had been able to hear more about the place. As is usual with this part of the world all the old ways finished as soon as the Spanish arrived.
Peru seems much less wealthy than Chile, or should I say Chile is less poor than Peru!! Nevertheless the people in almost all cases seem really nice, happy and are good humoured. (Much better humoured than a fair few of the passengers on this ship – and there is certainly NO comparison in standards of life).
The next day was a day at sea – so very relaxing. We are trying to spend at least an hour in the gym every day and do at least a mile of fast walking to try and counteract the good eating. I have also joined in with the Bridge classes – which are interesting and also quite amusing. The couple who run it are very middle England Bridge school type people (or what I think these are like anyway). The wife, Anne, is very very talkative, very very self opinionated, throws in a mild expletive every now and again to try and emphasise she is a woman of the people and is very bossy and a little bit scary. Her husband John is fairly uncommunicative, describes the game in an unintelligible manner, is very bossy, very grumpy and very scary. I say scary – I find it very amusing in a sit-com kind of way. (Also a note for my bridge chums back home – I am apparently now playing Acol rules, using only one pack of cards, in a little plastic thing and its not rubber bridge – it’s the other one!!! OK – all seems very similar to me tho.) The entertainment on the ship is cringingly bad and as it is a small ship there are not many options – so we just keep on drinking – and we have our friends here so we are still enjoying ourselves. Really wouldn’t like to have to rely on the entertainment staff tho as it makes Butlins look like the superior one. One other moan is the air conditioning – its bloody freezing inside. Can’t wear posh frocks as its too bleeding cold!!
Nearly done now. Yesterday we were in Manta which is the largest port in Equador. It handles most of the country’s trade and has an enormous Tuna industry. The ship berthed next to ours unloaded 3,000 tons of tuna and it took the whole day. This was only one ship and there are lots of them. Also there are individual fishermen who go out in small boats with only an outboard motor on but who spend three days at a time out at sea fishing – the boats are so small I don’t know how they go to sleep. The small boats sell their catch to the local restaurants and fish shops. It was an amazing sight to see.
We, once again, took off in a taxi with Elly and Chris. We did the negotiating with a man at the port gate who said he was a taxi driver and once we struck a deal we followed him past all the yellow official taxis to the oldest beaten up Nissan car – it’s floor was covered in newspapers, the inside really mucky and with only two working seatbelts. There was also 960,000 miles on the clock but we weren’t going to let this deter us and off we set for the town of Montecristi. It was originally built by the Spanish in the 1600s. The first thing our taxi man did was take us to his mates shops which were out of the town – can’t blame him really. It worked too – we all invested in Panama hats because apparently Panama hats are from Equador and are called Panamas because the western world thought that they were made in there but really they just transit the Panama Canal – so there!!!!! The most expensive ones apparently cost thousands of dollars – we paid 20 dollars!!! Not sure how long they’ll last but the man who sold them to us did say they last for ever ….. hmmmmmmmmm. They are really cool tho and they roll up and are kept in a box.
After that he took us a tour up the mountain above Montecristo to a newly built Mausoleum honouring the guy who liberated Equador in the late 1890s – really impressive – as were the views. Then on to Montecristo for a wander around the square and the church.
It was incredibly hot and humid (even with our hats on) so our driver took us back to the beach where the fish market was and after a quick wander around we settled in one of the fish restaurants situated on the beach and tucked into the most delicious fried prawns. And the obligatory beers,
When we were back on board we were told that we were to be delayed as a party who had got off a few ports ago and travelled overland and been to Machu Pichu had been held up (one of them had lost his passport). But it all ended happily and two hours later we were on our way – Scott and I have decided we will go to Machu Pichu one of these days. Would like to spend longer doing it than this trip offered tho.
After dinner, where Scott and I drew the short straw again (the odd couple on the end) we went to see a comedian who was apparently on New Faces (just shows how old all the acts are) – he was Liverpudlian and he was a little bit funny – and the best act to date on the ship. Don’t think we’ll bother with too many more.
Right, the loud speaker is just saying they are having the crossing the line ceremony in a mo so will go off for a nosey at that.
Also tomorrow we transit the Panama Canal – so looking forward to that. Hopefully we will get good internet connection soon. Too slow and long from the ship and incredibly expensive!!! Costa Rica next and doing the Rain Forest so maybe it will have to wait till Mexico.
Until the next time xxxxx
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michela
non-member comment
i am surprised some people went to machu pichu!! and yes, I imagine more time on land would habe been great, but it seems a very interesting cruise!! i am jealouse, of course.... in a good way. ciao micheka