February 19

February 19, 2009

Montevideo, Uruguay

Another beautiful city! Montevideo is the capital of the country and called the “Switzerland of South America.” It is considered by many to be the most beautiful city on the continent. They have an excellent standard of living; considered to be the highest in South America. They have a high literacy rate and low crime rate (they seem to go hand in hand). The four of us took a cab to the Gaucho Museum in the old city and were pleasantly surprised to learn museums are free!

We decided to walk back to the ship stopping first at their theater. LuAnn and I wanted to go on a tour so the guys ditched us and said they’d meet us back on the ship. We had a wonderful time checking out all the museums (some for the buildings that were old mansions) and shops. We found it interesting that almost everyone was drinking mate in their gourd – the policemen, workers and people on the street. Lunchtime we headed to the Mercado and were shocked to find that all they sold at every café was barbecued meat over an open fire. It smelt wonderful but this isn’t what we wanted to eat on such a hot day. Earlier that day we went into a shop that sold quiche and decided we would try to find something like that. Walking up the street a women who spoke perfect English asked us if we wanted to go on a wine tour, we said no but asked her if she knew of anywhere that sold quiche and she said her daughter Sophie who was 12 was just leaving to get them some and would be happy to take us. Sophie was delightful; she was bilingual and happy to practice her English. She took us to a perfect place with delicious food! After lunch, we went to the Palacio Taranco where Rona just happened to see us standing on the balcony so she joined us. We all went to the Carnival Museum, which was disappointing.

We couldn’t believe our day had come to an end and we had to head back to the ship. We were supposed to leave at 5 pm but the channel was blocked. While waiting to leave, a group of folkloric and tango dancers came and performed for us on the pier – they were wonderful!

From Montevideo, Uruguay

February 20, 2009

Da At Sea

We are all shocked at how time is just flying by – we don’t want this cruise to come to an end. The ship is so large; we still get confused going from one place to another. We always seem to have something to do – so much for all those good books I was planning on reading! Tonight was our third “elegant night,” second captain’s party and second time to have lobster! We weren’t sure if they were going to repeat the entertainment on each of the three legs and were happy to find out it is almost all different. The only thing that is the same is their dance cast numbers and none of us mind seeing them again!

From Heidi

February 21, 2009

Puerto Madryn, Argentina

This morning we awoke in the city of Puerto Madryn in Patagonia. Town is a 10 minute drive from the port so they provided free shuttles for those that wanted to go. The town was founded in 1865 by 150 Welsh immigrants. Later the Spanish and Italians came.

Today LuAnn and I are taking the only tour we booked to Punta Tombo Penguin Rookery because it is 100 miles away and we didn’t want to take a chance of going out to see the penguins and have our vehicle break and then miss the ship. Somehow LuAnn got an extra tour so she gave it to Heidi. We left at 8 am on a nice, modern bus. It was 62 – finally cool weather – YEAH!!! We drove though a lot of nothing – over two hours of this! The last 20 minutes was on a dirt road. As we neared the rookery, the landscape went from brown to a little green and a few rolling hills. Punta Tombo is the largest penguin nesting ground in South America. Early September every year the males arrive and repair the burrows from previous years. Later the females arrive and early October these females lay two eggs. The chicks hatch after forty days of incubations, where both parents play an active role. Penguins are monogamous. Some penguins walk over an hour off the shore to their nest.

Both parents look after the burrow and feed their chicks. As chicks hatch, they are covered by dark gray fluffy down; in February these feathers are shed to be replaced by juvenile plumage. Only after the molting in the following year will they grow adult plumage. Throughout their adult life they will molt once a year. During this time they will not go to sea.

When we arrived, we were told to stay on the path and penguins have the right of way. As we started up the wooden walkway, we saw a couple of penguins here and there and took lots of pictures. There were three young penguins having a conversation right in the middle of the path – it didn’t bother them in the slightest that people were constantly walking around them. We walked about an hour and arrived at the beach where about 2,000 penguins were hanging out, swimming, diving in and out and just talking to each other. It was amazing! They are brought up with humans so it didn’t bother any of them that we were there. In fact, some were extremely curious and would come right up to you, walk with you or play with your shoelaces.

Three hours later, it was time to go so we all got on the bus, pulled out of the parking lot and our beautiful bus died! Our guide said don’t worry, they keep an extra bus there for things like this. Unfortunately, this was a Mexican bus…no AC, just little windows at the top, my seat was broke – it would only lie down and it had no shocks – we know because we sat in the next to the last seat! The driver flew over the dirt road – we think he was of the mentality that this way you would glide of the holes – didn’t work! By now it was about 80 so we had to have all the windows open. You just can’t imagine all the dust that came in – I looked up front and it was a haze. When we finally got to the pave road, we were like Pigpen in Charlie Brown – you would pat your clothes and puffs of dust would rise!

We arrived back at the ship at 4:45 pm and at 5 we were having local dancers perform on the ship so we all ran to our rooms, changed clothes, shook out our hair and washed what dirt off we could so we could see the show. The show was worth rushing to! We then had another delicious dinner and went to the evening entertainment Peter and fabulous violinist who played something for everyone. He has been playing since he was 12 in London, played for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has been on his own for about 5 years.

From Puerto Madryn, Argentina

February 21

February 17, 2009

Buenos Aires, Argentina

It has just surprised us that every port we have been to so far has a skyline similar to New York’s in the early 1900s with 29 low skyscrapers. Buenos Aires is Spanish for “fair winds” and is now our favorite city! It is so nice for us to be back to a country that speaks Spanish so we can talk to the people! It was difficult communicating in Brazil – not many people spoke English. Buenos Aires has a European feel with gorgeous architecture, beautiful parks everywhere, extremely clean and very few homeless in the city center. The most amazing thing is the people….very nice looking and they stand in straight lines for everything unlike the Brazilians or Mexicans who are comfortable with chaos. It was funny, while we were in Brazil the people always talked about what snobs the Argentineans are but we found them very friendly and helpful.

Looking at the map places looked very close so Bob & LuAnn and Bobby and I decided we could walk everywhere, we meandered through a neighborhood with several Embassies and the Presidential Palace (they really knew how to live in the early 1900s!). We walked up Avenue 9 de Julio, the widest street in the world (11 lanes each way!) and enjoyed checking out the wonderful shops. The people in Argentina drink a tea out of a gourd called mate. They fill the gourd (which is about 8 oz) half way with the tea leaves, then fill it will hot water, let it steep and then drink it through a silver straw that has a strainer on the end. When you are about half way done, you put in more hot water from your thermos. Everyone has their own gourd and in the morning you see everyone drinking this. Of course, LuAnn and I had to have one so we were on a quest to find one at a good price.

In the center of the Avenue 9 de Julio is an Obelisk, similar to the Washington Monument – so we felt right at home. We met a tour guide in the morning who recommended a restaurant where the locals eat. By the time we arrived we were extremely hot and tired so it felt great to just sit down. Bob got a big beer but water cost the same as wine so that’s what LuAnn and I ordered and Bobby got his standard Coke. The main item on any Argentinean menu is steak because it is said they have the best in the world. Bob is a vegetarian – he hasn’t had meat in 10 years so LuAnn asked him what he was going to eat and he said “steak” which just shocked all of us! Each couple shared a tenderloin, which was plenty. We agreed it was the BEST steak we had ever had!

Cabs are so cheep here; we took several and at the end of two days paid about $10 a person. After lunch we took a cab to La Recoleta Cemetery. Not only is Evita Peron buried there, but the ornate mausoleums of the rich and famous that line the labyrinth of the walkways provide a unique historical glimpse into the wealth and opulence that was once Argentina. Buenos Aires is divided into 47 distinct neighborhoods or barrios. La Recoleta is reminiscent of Paris with fashionable shops, wide avenues and sidewalk cafes. We walked to their library and then to the Museum of Decorative Arts that is housed in a beautiful mansion from 1857. We decided to take a cab back to the ship since the afternoons seem to be really hot and steamy!

Today the guests who were only taking the first leg of the cruise departed and new guests arrived. We noticed there are quite a few more children. We requested and were able to keep our same table for dinner. We think we have the best waitress on the ship. She is from Thailand, remembers everything and is always laughing. Since many of the guests were going to a Dinner & Tango Show they had open seating in the dining room. We had totally different servers so this made us really appreciate Chutima and her assistant Jerome! After dinner, we went to the show and were thrilled to find out the entertainment was a local dancing family – Mom, Dad, 3 boys and 3 girls from about mid teen to late 20s. They performed folkloric dances in beautiful costumes. One of the brothers & sisters was the 5x national tango champions for the country – they blew us away with their dance!

From Buenos Aires, Argentina 1

February 18, 2009

Buenos Aires, Argentina

We are so fortunate to be able to spend two days here – we could spend a month; in fact, we just might come back and rent an apartment and motorcycle and see what we’ve missed! We got off at 8:45 and took a cab to Plaza Congreso, where the magnificently imposing Congress building is located. We arrived before it opened so we went to an Internet café to kill time. I was thrilled because I could now take some time to put my photos in my blog. On the ship it is about $ .40 a minute yet here it is about $ .30 an hour! Unfortunately, the photos on our flash drive came up as numbers and Bobby wasn’t quite sure what to do so we just stuck them in. Later I’ll try to fix it so you know what you are looking at. So, right now good luck trying to figure out which of the preious blogs they are from….sorry! We went to the Congreso and found out they didn’t give tours today – DARN! We decided to ride their Metro on the A line which is the oldest with wooden cars dating back to 1913 – that was really neat! We rode it to Plaza de Mayo to see Casa Rosada where Evita and President Juan Peron gave their famous speeches from its balcony. We also went to the Cathedral that is on another corner and the Town Hall on another.

We took another cab to the colorful barrio of La Boca to Caminito Street that is famous for its brightly colored buildings, street fair atmosphere, outdoor cafes, vendors, shops, tango dancing and music in the streets. LuAnn and I found the deal of the century here and bought a mate (gourd with silver trim), silver straw and a good size bag of tea for $3! We can’t wait to try it!

LuAnn was kicked out of the gym on the ship because she didn’t have “proper” tennis shoes so we decided to take a cab to the most exclusive mall in town, Galerias Pacifico. We all had an excellent lunch in the food court and she was able to find bright orange Keds that look great on her feet – mission accomplished! It was now time to head back to the ship. We walked down Florida Street checking out all the wonderful shops, through a park with lots of dog walkers, lovers and people enjoying the day to the port. Another incredible day!!!

From Buenos Aires, Argentina 2

February 19, 2009

Montevideo, Uruguay

Another beautiful city! Montevideo is the capital of the country and called the “Switzerland of South America.” It is considered by many to be the most beautiful city on the continent. They have an excellent standard of living; considered to be the highest in South America. They have a high literacy rate and low crime rate (they seem to go hand in hand). The four of us took a cab to the Gaucho Museum in the old city and were pleasantly surprised to learn museums are free! The gaucho Museum had and excellent mate exhibit. After seeing that we noticed everyone was drinking out of them....shopkeepers, police (who were on just about every corner) and people on the street. Mate is an herbal tea


We loved Montevideo!!! Very walkable and very affordable. The guys split off from us at the Theater since they wanted to check out stores and LuAnn and I wanted to see all the museums. Most were located in beautiful, old mansions.

For lunch we had to have this great looking quiche but we were disappointed to find that the Mercado del Puerto which was recommended for lunch only had grills and lots and lots of meat. As we were standing on a corner a local woman who spoke English asked if we needed directions to the downtown. We explained that we were looking for quiche and she said we could follow her daughter to the cafe. The daughter was 12 and named Sophie. We zigged and zagged through the city and found the best quiche ever and it cost $1.36 US a slice. Quite a change from th $9 lunches in Buenos Aires. Turns out after all that zigging and zagging we were back where we started our day.

We found Montevideo to be unlike any of the travel documents we read. They said there wasn't anything special to see. We found it would be a great two or three day stay.

Since we were not returning to Uruguay we needed to get rid of our pesos. We decided on buying local wine. That was a lot harder than we first thought. We only had $6.00 and wine was between $2 and $20 per bottle. The young man helping us obviously thought we could afford more. We finally showed him all the money we had and ended up with 2 bottles of wine and one 1.5 liter soda.

From Montevideo, Uruguay

February 12th

February 12, 2009

SALVADOR, BRAZIL

Think Africa but with a Portuguese flavor. This was Brazil’s main seaport during the slave trading era (16th and 17th centuries). 80% of the population is direct descendants of African slaves. The city is broken into two sections. The lower section is the commercial area or new section. The upper section is the historic district. Like everywhere in Brazil they have their share of petty thieves and street people.

We left the ship at 8:15 am and took the H. Stern free shuttle to the historic district in the upper section. The architecture here is spectacular! Being so early it was nice to be able to have the area to ourselves for a little while. Our first stop was the church and convent of St. Francis built between 1708 and 1750 and is considered the richest church in all of Brazil. The convent has beautiful tile work but the church is truly impressive because it is covered in more than 100 kilograms of gold. It was built by slaves of the sugar barons and is covered with 100s of the ugliest cherubs you have ever seen. I found out later this was the slaves’ way of rebelling. They gave them the bodies of midgets, homely faces and penus covered with fig leafs. Years later the leaves started falling off raveling their peanus. The Catholic Church was horrified so they chiseled all but two off.

We walked across the plaza to the Cathedral Basilica then wandered around the area with their beautiful pastel buildings, cobblestone streets and many shops.

The city has a 225 foot 100 year old elevator that takes you to the lower section in 15 seconds.

We went to the Mercado Modelo at the bottom, which is indoors and outdoors with a large selection of handicrafts and art work. The following day we were going to celebrate Bobby’s birthday so we wanted to get some liquor that is only made in Brazil cachaca that is similar to moonshine or white lightning. LuAnn and I lost Bob & Bobby in the market but we found out the closest liquor store was only 3 blocks away. We started walking; of course, the street the liquor store was on didn’t look safe. We each agreed that if it wasn’t the first store we would go back. We lucked out – it was! I have to tell you so far in Brazil we have noticed hardly anyone speaks English or Spanish so we mainly have to rely on our sign language. Everyone knows what cachaca is so that wasn’t a problem but getting directions and then trying to select which of the 7 different cachacas to buy wasn’t easy! We settled on a bottle for $2 because we think the owner told us it didn’t matter what it costs since we were going to be mixing it with juice.

We returned to the ship late afternoon and watched us sail away.

From Salvador, Brazil

February 13, 2009

BOBBY’S BIRTHDAY

Today we had a tour of the kitchen. We had a cheese and cracker platter delivered to Bob & LuAnn’s room (since it was the largest with a window) for Bobby’s 61st birthday party at 4:30. We got orange juice, lemonade, guava juice and fresh lemon and limes to mix with our cachaca. We decided it is similar to tequila – our drinks were delicious!

From Bobby's Birthday

February 14, 2009

RIO DE JANEIRO

We couldn’t believe it - this is a port we were really looking forward to having a sunny day but we were greeted with rain and fog! Friends recommended Neyla as a tour guide so we gathered 10 of us and for $35 plus admissions she and her van driver drove us from 8 – 5 pm. Neyla was excellent!

We went to Sugar Loaf (Pao de Aquear) first. This is a rock that juts straight up from the bay and is accessed by two aerial trams for $22. We were early so we were able to go right up. By the time we arrived at the top, the rain stopped and the fog started to lift.

From there we drove to Corcovado to see the statue of Jesus Christ that is 2,200 feet above the city and can be seen from just about every vantage point throughout the city. We arrived at 11 and had Neyla buy our tickets because they wanted to charge us $50 instead of $23. There are three cruise ships in and thousands of people. We couldn’t get a train to the top until 12:40 so we decided to go to a local street market till it was time. Neyla had us try many fruits, pastries and drinks that we had never seen. One of these was the jack fruit that was brought here to feed the slaves. It is a large fruit, almost the size of a small watermelon, and very sweet, I can’t relate the flavor to anything I have ever tried. Now the trees grow all over the jungles.

We returned and took the cog railway to the top. The train goes through Tijuca National Park (the largest national park within a city in the world), a rainforest with beautiful trees and flowers. When we arrived at the top, the clouds came and went so we had to take quick photos.

We then stopped at H. Stern because this is their largest shop. We had a tour of their “factory” where they cut their stones, visited their museum, shop and each received a gift of three uncut stones.

We drove by the café where the song “The Girl from Ipanema” was written.

Unfortunately, due to the weather the beaches were deserted so the guys didn’t get to see the beautiful Brazilian women in their little bikinis.

We got back to the ship at 5 because we thought we were sailing at 6. We wanted to watch us said away but dinner for us is at 5:45 pm. We were surprised we hadn’t left at 7:30 when we finished so we dashed out on deck to see us sail away. We didn’t leave until 8:30 pm because so many people (including the Captain and lots of crew) were in line at Corcovado so they held the ship!

From Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

February 15 & 16

AT SEA

We really enjoy our time at sea – the days just fly by! Somehow Bob was able to get a tour of the bridge but he wouldn't tell any of us how. The 15th was a formal night followed by a spectacular dance show.

From Formal Night

February 10th

February 10, 2009

Recife, Brazil

We disembarked this morning at 8:30 am and had to take a shuttle outside of the port area if we didn’t have a tour scheduled. When they dropped us off, we were surrounded by van and taxi drivers. Today we had 8 thinking we might have to take two cabs. We wanted to be taken to Olinda so we started negotiating. They started at $35 each just to take us there but we finally found Carlos who couldn’t find his group from our ship. He agreed to give us a 4 hour tour of Olinda and Recife for $25 each and he spoke excellent English (most of the others spoke NO English!). At 9 am we were off in his air conditioned van (this is REALLY important!). We saw Marco Zero Park, which is the actual center of the city.

While we were there, the group Carlos was supposed to meet called and told him where they were so we had to go pick the 8 of them up. We told Carlos we were not happy about this so he agreed to drop the price to $20 each. By now we were thrilled with Carlos and wouldn’t have traded him for anything but he didn’t know this!

We drove to Olinda, which has been appointed a world cultural Heritage City by UNESCO. The architecture of the colorful colonial houses and the steep, narrow streets give Olinda a quaint atmosphere. We parked and walked around the center of town for a fascinating hour. During this walk, we all joked that we didn’t realize we had so many sweat glands! It was extremely hot and humid.

Carnival is only ten days away so in both cities we saw viewing stands, stages and decorations being erected. Many people rent their home for a week. Carlos said when he was young and single 40 – 50 guys would get together and rent one of these homes and just party the entire time – scary! Carlos is now 44 so I asked him if he would ever rent out his house to kids and, of course, he said “NO WAY!”

We piled back in the van and drove up a long, steep, winding street to the highest point of the city to the Alto da Se Square where we had incredible views of Recife and the beaches and walked among the many vendors to the Se church.

We drove back to Recife along the coast and decided these were not the best beaches to swim. Yet, Carlos said if you go out to the reef, there is plenty of food for the sharks so they don’t bother the divers. Carlos is a scuba driver and he said the diving is excellent because of the warm, clear water and the reef has loads of different fish.

Recife, which means reef in Portuguese, is known as the “Brazilian Venice” because of its many canals and waterways and innumerable bridges that span them. There are actually three main islands. We spent 45 minutes in the Casa da Cultura, which used to be a prison. It is in the shape of a cross and all the cells are now little shops. They had a lot of hand-made lace products as well as arts and crafts.

Like Barbados they have Baobab trees. It took 8 of us women to encircle the tree standing finger tip to finger tip!

From here we drove through the city. We saw the Kahal Zur Israel, the first synagogue in the Americas. Carlos, who is Jewish, told us that in 1654 twenty-three Dutch Jews went to New Amsterdam (New York) to start a new life. When they arrived, they saw there was a natural wall like they had in Recife so they called it Wall Street. In 2004 they had their 100 year celebration in NY, and his mother was selected to go to represent Recife!

Five hours later we sadly had to bring our tour to an end. Carlos dropped us all off at the shuttle that brought us back to the ship. Everyone went back but LuAnn and me. It was only 2:30 pm and we didn’t have to be back till 5:30 so we took H. Stern’s (the jewelry store) free shuttle to their store at the other end of the beach so we could see more of the city. Bobby gave me the copy of our passport because he just knew we wouldn’t make it back in time. We were back by 4:30.

After dinner, we went up to the pool at 10 pm to watch the movie Casino Royal on the big screen under the full moon and stars. It is wonderful – they give you a big soft blanket so you can curl up on your lawn chair. Yes, it was still 80 but when you are sailing there are little breezes so that blanket feels really comfy, cozy!

From Recife & Olinda, Brazil

February 11, 2009

We love these days at sea, especially after a day in port! The women all try to go to the 8 am aerobics class followed by breakfast. They have a restaurant on the ship that is optional at $30 p/p – we all think this is a little much! But, today they had their second cooking class where they make an appetizer, entrée and dessert that they serve. Of course, we get large samples of everything! After this, we went to get a bowl of soup for lunch and saw they had a Chocolate Buffet for dessert! We just couldn’t pass this up!

February 8, 2009 Fortaleza, Brazil

February 8, 2009, Fortaleza, Brazil

We arrived in Fortaleza, Brazil, and disembarked at 8 am. It took us all by surprise to see all the high rise buildings along the beach. We took the H. Stern (a jewelry company) van to town since it was free and then 6 of us crammed into a taxi and had it take us to the center of town for $7 – such a deal! He dropped us off at a four-story market. We found the prices to be very high. We then walked to the Cathedral, which is the third largest church in Brazil.

We were glad we started early because it was warming up quick. Being a Sunday the streets were almost deserted. It was an easy walk to the visitor’s center that also was another market with more handicrafts. The printed tourist information said to see the Englishmen Bridge. We had a map so we started walking; the closer we got to the water the more graffiti we saw and bums. We were told not to wear any jewelry and keep everything close because there is a lot of petty crime in this city. When we arrived at the beach, we saw quite a few people set up to spend the day. We were going to walk out to the bridge but several people came up to us speaking Portuguese (we didn’t understand a word) and told us with hand gestures to leave NOW because it was very dangerous! We took their advice and headed back to the ship. You know it’s bad when the bums and prostitutes also come up to you and tell you to leave their neighborhood. (That evening on the ship we were told that 6 guests from the ship were mugged!)

By now it was REALLY HOT so we stopped and Bob got a cold Artica beer. He tasted it and said it tasted like chocolate so we all had to try it – it was delicious! Next stop a grocery store where we got money from an ATM and I bought an Artica beer that Bobby and I shared – it hit the spot! We now arrived at the Malacon which is about a two mile walkway along the beach. It was a lot cooler here and more interesting seeing all the families at the beach for the day and the vendors. We walked to the end arriving at the hotel that H. Stern was in and took their van back to the ship.

Tonight was Heidi’s birthday so we celebrated in their room with wine. The head waiter said he would send a cheese platter to their room for us. At dinner he asked how we liked it and we said it never arrived – he was shocked. Come to find out, housekeeping transposed the numbers! To make up for the mistake, they sent us a bottle of champagne and a delicious birthday cake!

From Fortaleza, Brazil

February 9, 2009

Today several of us played 9 holes of miniature golf outside. The guys stayed and played another round so we met them for lunch at noon. When we got to the restaurant, they looked totally exhausted so we asked them what they had done and they said “you’d be exhausted too if you had just played 18 holes of golf without a cart!”

February 5, 6 & 7, 2009 At Sea

February 5, 6 & 7, 2009

These were days at sea and they just flew by! Richard and Heidi are both personal trainers. First Richard spent time with LuAnn and me giving us a routine we can do in our homes with weights. LuAnn took what we thought were very good notes, that is until the next time we went to work out. So many people came up to us to offer suggestions we knew we needed more help – it also didn’t help that every time we looked up someone was watching and trying to hide their laughter. Heidi then went over everything again and added a few more. LuAnn and I are hoping we can master this after 50 days!

The 7th we had a crossing the equator celebration. We also had a harry man contest that Richard entered. I have to tell you he “enhanced” his chest hair. He carves carnival horses so brought a horse tail and taped it to his chest! Even with this and his grand entrance he didn’t win – we think he did great for 82!

From Harry Chest Contest

February 4, 2009 Barbados

February 4, 2009, Barbados

Today we were off the ship in Barbados by 8:30 am. Seven of us hired Bob (that made for 3 Bobs in the van) for $25 each. Bob has been a tour guide for 27 years so he was excellent! We said we wanted him for 5 hours – he said if we needed him that long he would take that long with us. In 1536 the Portuguese “discovered” Barbados and gave it the name “the bearded one” because of all the fig trees that have roots resembling thick beards. The British landed a century later and ruled until 1966 when they claimed their independence. It is 21x14 miles and quite flat; the highest point is only 1,115’. The island is blanketed in sugarcane, their main crop.

We drove around the entire island, weaving in and out of the interior to see all of the little towns. It surprised all of us how many oil rigs they had.

Our first stop was Sunbury Plantation a 300-year old plantation followed by a church on top of a hill with beautiful views of the ocean. I have to say they have perfect weather here – always in the 80s! The coldest day ever was 65!

By 12:30 pm we were back to town. Bob dropped us girls off to check out all the shops while the boys went back to the ship. Heidi checked out the fish at the market to see if they were fresh.

From Barbados

February 1, 2009 First Full Day on the Ship

February 1, 2009

We are pleasantly surprised at how big our room is! We are in a perfect location on the sixth floor right in the middle of the ship. The décor is quite interesting – they really like the color pink!

We are traveling with several friends – you might just know some of them: Bob Mauhar & LuAnn Patterson, Terry & Heidi Young, Richard & Rona Cummins, Bob & Connie Sykes, Dave & MaryLou Thun and Lee & Lois White.

We met a couple that was lucky enough to be on the ship before the bomb scare so they were able to take pictures of what was happening. This is a photo of the little robot (looks like Wally) that checked out all the suspicious luggage. They said they didn’t allow any traffic around the port for miles and wouldn’t allow any ships to come in. Also, they had two helicopters looking for a man who had run away when all this happened. CNN was there recording all this.

We spent the first two days at sea catching up on our eating and sleeping. The ship is so large; it’s going to take at least a week to find our way around!


February 3, 2009, Dominica

We arrived in Dominica at noon. Eight of us hired a van for $20 each. Our driver Hawkins had a wonderful sense of humor and was an excellent tour guide. Dominica is a beautiful mountainous island. In 1493 Christopher Columbus and his crew were the first Europeans to sight the island. They sailed past it on Sunday and named it Domingo (Spanish for Sunday). It is 29x16 miles, has a lush mountainous interior of rainforests, waterfalls, lakes, hot springs and more than 200 rivers.

We drove through the town of Roseau, where we docked, then up to the Morne Trois Pitons National Park where we did a 15 minute hike through the hot, humid rainforest (we’re not used to the heat yet) to the Emerald Pool with a 50’ waterfall. We were tempted to dive in and would have if we had dryer clothes to put on!


We returned through the Layou Valley through banana and citrus plantations – it was beautiful! We then drove through the botanical gardens where an African Baobad tree blew down during Hurricane David in 1979. Fortunately, no one was in the bus at the time.

We arrived back to the docks at 3 pm. We checked out all the little handicraft stalls where spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and cloves are popular items as well as a few handicrafts; nothing exciting.

When we got back on the ship, it was time to try out the pools and BIG water slide!

From Dominica

February 5, 6 & 7, 2009

These were days at sea and they just flew by! Richard and Heidi are both personal trainers. First Richard spent time with LuAnn and me giving us a routine we can do in our homes with weights. LuAnn took what we thought were very good notes, that is until the next time we went to work out. So many people came up to us to offer suggestions we knew we needed more help – it also didn’t help that every time we looked up someone was watching and trying to hide their laughter. Heidi then went over everything again and added a few more. LuAnn and I are hoping we can master this after 50 days!

The 7th we had a crossing the equator celebration. We also had a harry man contest that Richard entered. I have to tell you he “enhanced” his chest hair. He carves carnival horses so brought a horse tail and taped it to his chest! Even with this and his grand entrance he didn’t win – we think he did great for 82!



February 8, 2009, Fortaleza, Brazil

We arrived in Fortaleza, Brazil, and disembarked at 8 am. It took us all by surprise to see all the high rise buildings along the beach. We took the H. Stern (a jewelry company) van to town since it was free and then 6 of us crammed into a taxi and had it take us to the center of town for $7 – such a deal! He dropped us off at a four-story market. We found the prices to be very high. We then walked to the Cathedral, which is the third largest church in Brazil.

We were glad we started early because it was warming up quick. Being a Sunday the streets were almost deserted. It was an easy walk to the visitor’s center that also was another market with more handicrafts. The printed tourist information said to see the Englishmen Bridge. We had a map so we started walking; the closer we got to the water the more graffiti we saw and bums. We were told not to wear any jewelry and keep everything close because there is a lot of petty crime in this city. When we arrived at the beach, we saw quite a few people set up to spend the day. We were going to walk out to the bridge but several people came up to us speaking Portuguese (we didn’t understand a word) and told us with hand gestures to leave NOW because it was very dangerous! We took their advice and headed back to the ship. You know it’s bad when the bums and prostitutes also come up to you and tell you to leave their neighborhood. (That evening on the ship we were told that 6 guests from the ship were mugged!)

By now it was REALLY HOT so we stopped and Bob got a cold Artica beer. He tasted it and said it tasted like chocolate so we all had to try it – it was delicious! Next stop a grocery store where we got money from an ATM and I bought an Artica beer that Bobby and I shared – it hit the spot! We now arrived at the Malacon which is about a two mile walkway along the beach. It was a lot cooler here and more interesting seeing all the families at the beach for the day and the vendors. We walked to the end arriving at the hotel that H. Stern was in and took their van back to the ship.

Tonight was Heidi’s birthday so we celebrated in their room with wine. The head waiter said he would send a cheese platter to their room for us. At dinner he asked how we liked it and we said it never arrived – he was shocked. Come to find out, housekeeping transposed the numbers! To make up for the mistake, they sent us a bottle of champagne and a delicious birthday cake!

From Fortaleza, Brazil

February 9, 2009

Today several of us played 9 holes of miniature golf outside. The guys stayed and played another round so we met them for lunch at noon. When we got to the restaurant, they looked totally exhausted so we asked them what they had done and they said “you’d be exhausted too if you had just played 18 holes of golf without a cart!”