On to South America

Wednesday 29th
Unfortunately the weather has really packed up as we pass through a front.  The ship rolled to an extent that from the cabin I could barely see the sky - just water.  The rain was coming in horizontally, so my excuse for no walking.

Penultimate Formal Night for no reason, other than to improve the photography shop revenues!  Went to the singers and dancers before dinner and while they were OK, the lack of scenery etc detracts & it does not compare to other cruises.

Thursday 30th
Familiar theme - slept in, but when we pulled the curtains back we were blinded by the sun.  A glorious day and ink blue sea, with a lot of orange seaweed. This is typical of the Bermuda Triangle, which we entered just after 2.00 yesterday.... And we are still here to tell the story. Got our mile walk in before morning coffee, but it was very hot and quite windy on deck. 

Cruise Critic lunch again and Mark 2 & Christine joined us, so our numbers were up to 104.  While the temperature is just 30, the humidity is pretty high as we approach the Windward Passage between Cuba & Haiti. Due to hazy conditions we didn't see either as we went through.  The sea has come up quite a bit, so it looks as though bumpy is the story going forward.

Friday 31st
Last sea day for a while as we get to Curacao tomorrow morning. The day is basically a repeat of the last couple of days. We are on the middle of the trade winds and they blow steadily at 30 odd knots from the NE, while we are travelling SE, so plenty if movement still.  Must say that this is not what I imagined the Carribean to be like. However it is 30 degrees and I expect that when we are ashore tomorrow we'll really feel the heat.  Had Pizza for lunch, as we feel that a lighter meal is in order - my clothes have shrunk in this humid weather ☺☺

We had a get together of the groups going to Machu Picchu next week. We were surprised to see that there are over 280 going - there'll be no one left on board. They have added additional planes, trains and hotels to accommodate, but we are in the first original group. The big point they made was that we will be in South America and we should anticipate and accept that things will not go to plan, but............

At dinner we toasted our 10 weeks of friendship. Amazing how the time has gone and how it feels as though we have known each other for years & years. As an aside, flicking through the 3,000 photos, it seems like a dream - it is of course, a dream holiday!

Saturday 1 August
Woke to an overcast day as we approached Curacao, which is only 5 years old as an independent country, 75 kilometres north of Venezuela, with a population of around 160,000. Originally colonised by the Spanish in 1499 and then a Dutch settlement since the 1600s.  Enough history, on with the day.  We have a tour with Maureen & Wyn and assembled in the Princess Theatre at 8.40. after a light breakfast. The day improved as the sun got up and ended up hot and quite windy.

Our first call was at the Hato caves by the airport on the northern side of the island.  Not what we expected, as we had to walk up 50 steps to enter the caves.  It was very hot and sticky inside. After that we went into the town centre and did a walking tour around before heading back to the ship for a special lunch.  This was all part of the tour, but in hindsight a lot of time was wasted as we retraced some of our steps with our afternoon part of the tour.

In the afternoon we drove to the far west of the island to a magnificent swimming beach (no time for that though) and then the wild seas on the north.  There is really little to see, as the countryside is pretty barren with scrub and cactus, lots of cactus, huge cactus - getting the picture?  Oh, also lots of poisonous apple trees - even water dropping off can cause rashes etc.   A full day really and we were quite tired, so retired straight after dinner. Did not even hear or feel the ship leave at 9.00.

A couple of things to comment on.  This is not an idyllic Caribbean Island.  One of it's main industries is oil refining and it was noticeable when we sailed in and saw all these smoking chimneys. Although there are some pretty colourful buildings, the majority are shacks, surrounded by rubbish, like so many Pacific islands we are used to.

The main town is divided by the water leading to the main port, which is effectively inland.  There is a very large bridge over this waterway, but also a pedestrian swing bridge between the ship side and the shop side.  This bridge (it's pretty long) sits on pontoons and is swung open when ships want to go in or out of port. It seems to be driven by a couple of outboard motors!!!  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit although it has altered our opinion on an idyllic Caribbean holiday destination.

Sunday 2nd
Yeah, got another hour sleep in, which now makes us 17 hours behind NZ and this time will stay for the next 10 days hopefully.  They had Sunday Brunch from 10.30, however we opted for room service breakfast and later pizza for lunch. A nice sea day, with the temperature in the 30s but quite a strong wind.  The wind however is astern and pushing us along, so we don't notice it much. 

Maureen joined us at Church and we caught up again after morning coffee.  Big mistake! - they encouraged Vivian to spend money on a watch & necklace set, so Vivian & Maureen can be twins when we get home!!! Other than that it was a lovely day at sea and we did get our walk in before coffee.

Tomorrow we arrive in Cartagena, Columbia so will have to be very careful ashore. On Tuesday (our time) we traverse the Panama 5.00am to 4.30pm.  The ship has provided a web address to view our progress (we are port side, aft, deck 10). www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html   if anyone is interested