We are docked in Callao, Peru for Lima. Yesterday after breakfast we took a shuttle to the Marriott Hotel. They were nice and gave me a password so I could use their internet at no charge. I spent a bit of time catching up… checking bank accounts, TA stuff and my photography sites and doing a few personal emails.

After I finished playing computer, we booked a car and did a two hour tour of Lima. We had a great driver that spoke good English, he told us about a number of the buildings we were passing and did a walking tour of the Plaza Mayor which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many of the buildings were built in the 1500s and 1600s; they are very ornate; the churches are especially ornate - their style would probably be called Rococo. Then he dropped us off at the ship. We had missed the lunch buffet so we had soup and sandwiches at 3:30 which meant we weren’t hungry at all for dinner.

So far we have traveled 2743 miles. Our next port is Easter Island which is 2032 miles away. We leave Callao at 1:00 today and then have 4 sea days. This is day 11.

At Sea

Today is the second of two sea days. Yesterday was fairly busy for us as I had signed us up for a couples massage class… Jim whined a lot about having to go, but seemed to have a good time once he was there. I managed to get a double massage out of it as I offered to be the demo person too!

John’s lecture yesterday was on Titanic survivors based on the book he edited for Violet Jessup who was one of the survivors. We had lunch with them yesterday and had a very interesting discussion on cruising today versus 10 years ago.

We have also been going to the afternoon trivia sessions when we can. We don’t join a real team since we are not good at it, but we do get a pencil and paper and sit nearby - over in the smoking area and play by ourselves… we are really bad… or the questions are really hard. What is the plural of cul-de-sac? OR In the U.S. the most used language is English; second is Spanish what is third? (see comments for answers)

Tomorrow we dock (for two days) in Callao. We will be taking the shuttle in to Lima to the Marriott Hotel. I’m hoping they will have free wifi so I can write some personal emails. The internet here on the ship is quite good and they certainly do not overcharge you for minutes… I’m doing pretty well keeping my time down. I can use my tiny laptop in the cabin (sitting on the bed) and pick up the wifi signal if we open the cabin door it increases the signal strength, but it seems to be ok without doing that. So…. Just like at home in the morning, I’m sitting here in my jammies drinking coffee and doing my computer stuff. I wonder how I ever had time to go to work???

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier… it is not hot, the temperatures have been in the 70s, That surprises me; I thought it was supposed to be HOT at the equator.

We docked at the Port of Manta, Ecuador this morning about 6:30. This is an industrial port and they are running a shuttle into the city every 30 minutes with stops at a mall, a handicraft market, and a Marriott. There were ship tours to Quito and some of the surrounding areas. This is also where the people on the multi-day tour to Machu Picchu disembarked. They will rejoin the ship on our second day in Callao (for Lima). We are staying aboard today except for a short walk on the pier so that I can officially add the pin to my world map.

We are watching the ship next to us unload grain and the one next to it unload tuna - it sounds boring, but it’s really fascinating. I’ll hit the therapy pool on the spa deck a little later. In other words… it’s a really laid back day!

We are now Shellbacks

Princess did a great Crossing the Equator celebration. We are now shellbacks. The passenger volunteers and a couple crewmembers were thoroughly drenched in ice cream, chocolate, whipping cream, fruit punch and flour. King Neptune and his Queen were wonderful and had a lot of fun.
Now we will see if these tiny photos will upload in a reasonable time.

At Sea & Panama Canal report

We did the transit of the Panama Canal yesterday. At 5:30 when we woke up we were already in the channel and were entering the first Gatun lock a little after 6:00. Early in the day it was heavy clouds and some rain, but by 9:00 it cleared and it was sunny and hot all day. I alternated between the private spa deck (above the Bridge) with a great forward view and our balcony which was on the shade side of the ship the whole day. The Canal is one of those “must see” places in the world. The early 1900’s technology is still functioning perfectly! Besides being very interesting, it is just beautiful. Between the two of us we probably took 450 pictures… they are now downloaded on the Epson 2000 Hard Drive. I’ll weed through them some today if I find time. I love digital - shoot, shoot, shoot, and erase the bad ones. Think what the film processing would have cost!

There are 640 passengers on the ship so with the extra cabins for the entertainment and lecturers we have a full ship. The median age is lower than I had expected; I’d guess it is between 65 and 70. We aren’t the babies - there are a few couples younger than us and I have seen two children onboard. I’ve seen the little girl, who looks to be about 8, several times with grandma and she is constantly saying “I’m bored- there’s nothing to do”. I can’t really figure why people would bring children on one of these small ships for a 107 day world cruise knowing there will be no children’s activities.

Today is another sea day and it looks to be a little better sky but showers are predicted. It is nice and warm out on the balcony. Our favorite lecturer, John Maxtone Graham is onboard and will be starting his first 3 lecture series today based on his book The Only Way to Cross - my day will be planned around his lecture time. He also did a lecture two days ago on the Panama Canal. - Jim just handed me the Patter (the daily program) and it is at 11:30.

At 9:45 astronaut Russell Schweickart is speaking and at 3:15 gossip columnist Sue Cameron will speak. At 1:30 this afternoon we will have our CROSSING THE EQUATOR CEREMONY where King Neptune will promote us from polywogs to shellbacks! Ok, go ahead and laugh… this is a big one for me; even with all our cruises we haven’t ever crossed the equator so I will be very glad to get my certificate!

That’s all for now folks!

At Sea

Sunshine! Today was a sea day and it was beautiful; hot and sunny with a few clouds. Seas were very calm all day. I bought the access pass to the spa deck and therapy pool for the whole cruise. It is a private deck right above the bridge. They only sell 20 access passes for the entire cruise, although some day passes are available. So far there has never been more than one other person up there. I have been going in the morning after our coffee in the cabin. The pool itself doesn’t begin to compare with those on Mercury or Galaxy, but it is a nice heated private pool with a couple jets and a bubble lounger.

Tonight was the first formal night and the welcome party. It was quite nice with all the officers and primary staff introduced. Perhaps ¼ of the men were in tuxes and almost all the rest in dark suits - - very few gowns for women but almost all in sparkly tops and black skirts.
Tomorrow is the Panama Canal - Jim is going to get a 1 day pass to the spa deck. The view should be wonderful and a complete contrast to our last trip through the canal where we were in the Penthouse on Infinity which is the aft corner of the ship.

Finally we have internet access!

Here is our first onboard post. The internet has been down for servicing so I’ve not been able to post until now. This is a combination of posts from the time we left Denver until now; the morning of day 3 - heading into Grand Cayman.

We’re onboard. Our flight yesterday went perfectly; no delays of any type. We spent the night at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66; nice room with a balcony on the 12th floor.
We stayed at the hotel until 12:15 on Monday as I wanted to watch the inauguration. Then a quick ride over to the port and we were onboard 15 minutes after getting out of the van. It’s a small ship and we have a regular size balcony cabin. The cabin is very nice, but has little storage - actually we did very well putting things away and stored our clothes for much cooler weather under the bed in a suitcase.

We did the dinner buffet the first night and the food was very good. Tuesday morning we had our usual coffee and pastries delivered to the room after we awoke. Then we wandered around a bit more of the ship. She really is lovely; much ornate dark wood everywhere. The library is huge (well comparable huge - tiny ship but one of the biggest libraries I’ve seen except aboard QE2). The casino is very small but I don’t usually do much there except give my $10 charity to the starving slots. We had lunch in the dining room - it was very good and I’m glad to learn that it will be open every day - even port days. Dinner was in the buffet area in the Bistro which is offered more than the buffet dinner. It has two menus; an Italian pizza and pasta one and one that offers steak, chicken, etc. We will probably be having dinner there many nights.
Weather this morning is gray, cloudy, wet with moderate to high seas. We are expected to anchor in GrandCayman at 9:00am.

Thank you for the gifts. It was such fun to receive them.

Seas have been moderate to high and winds at 20 knots so we are doing a bit of rocking and rolling. This seems to be a well traveled bunch of people and I haven’t heard anyone mention seasickness. We did have some sun after lunch and spent some time sitting our on the balcony. Now I’m going to try to post this as it looks like I have access.