Sunday, January 28

Lots of "shrimp" jokes going around the ship as this morning they had to switch to reserve power while they cleared masses of shrimp out of all the engine filters. And one guess what was on the menu for an appetizer this evening...although even the Captain assured everyone that the shrimp from the filters would NOT appear in the dining room. (The Captain has quite a sense of humor, and when he comes on the PA to make announcements, starts off with "It’s me again," instead of the usual "This is the Captain speaking.")

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon cruising down the Messier Channel. Around 4:00 p.m. we sailed up "Iceberg Fjord" to view "Iceberg Glacier" – our first look at a real glacier, and some folks even saw a few penguins (of course on the other side of the sip from where I was at the time).

The show after dinner was very good. Jim and Ann Curry. Jim is a major John Denver devotee and was the one to sing his songs in the biopic about him. They did a number of his songs, both upbeat and ballads while the ship rocked and rolled back out in the Pacific. Later, just as I was going to sleep, one of my closet doors jumped its little stop thing and banged open. I figure it woke the back half of the ship, it was so loud. Then I had to use various bits of clothing to keep the glassware in the bar from rolling around after it fell over. Well, at least I’m not seasick...at least not yet, although if the crossing to Antarctica is much worse than this, I’ll be popping Dramamine like Life Savers!

Monday, January 29

We were supposed to visit another glacier early this morning, but because of a medical emergency (a passenger had a major heart attack yesterday and is still in critical but now stable condition), the Captain decided to skip the glacier and proceed as rapidly as possible to Punta Arenas. We were originally due there tomorrow morning, but should arrive about 7:00 this evening.

So we’ve been sailing down the Straits of Magellan all day with fabulous scenery. We’ve had occasional rain, and it’s pretty chilly out there. This morning I saw a fantastic double rainbow that appeared so close I was tempted to check my verandah for the pot of gold!

Sunday, January 28

Lots of "shrimp" jokes going around the ship as this morning they had to switch to reserve power while they cleared masses of shrimp out of all the engine filters. And one guess what was on the menu for an appetizer this evening...although even the Captain assured everyone that the shrimp from the filters would NOT appear in the dining room. (The Captain has quite a sense of humor, and when he comes on the PA to make announcements, starts off with "It’s me again," instead of the usual "This is the Captain speaking.")

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon cruising down the Messier Channel. Around 4:00 p.m. we sailed up "Iceberg Fjord" to view "Iceberg Glacier" – our first look at a real glacier, and some folks even saw a few penguins (of course on the other side of the sip from where I was at the time).

The show after dinner was very good. Jim and Ann Curry. Jim is a major John Denver devotee and was the one to sing his songs in the biopic about him. They did a number of his songs, both upbeat and ballads while the ship rocked and rolled back out in the Pacific. Later, just as I was going to sleep, one of my closet doors jumped its little stop thing and banged open. I figure it woke the back half of the ship, it was so loud. Then I had to use various bits of clothing to keep the glassware in the bar from rolling around after it fell over. Well, at least I’m not seasick...at least not yet, although if the crossing to Antarctica is much worse than this, I’ll be popping Dramamine like Life Savers!

Monday, January 29

We were supposed to visit another glacier early this morning, but because of a medical emergency (a passenger had a major heart attack yesterday and is still in critical but now stable condition), the Captain decided to skip the glacier and proceed as rapidly as possible to Punta Arenas. We were originally due there tomorrow morning, but should arrive about 7:00 this evening.

So we’ve been sailing down the Straits of Magellan all day with fabulous scenery. We’ve had occasional rain, and it’s pretty chilly out there. This morning I saw a fantastic double rainbow that appeared so close I was tempted to check my verandah for the pot of gold!

Saturday, January 27

We were sailing up a fjord when I woke up. Arrived at Puerto Chacabuco (a really teeny town...barely a hamlet...maybe the size of Ivy) about 9:30 am. John and I went on the "Cruising the Austral Channels" tour which was excellent. On shore, everyone else had to walk from the tender dock to the catamaran, but I (and John) got a ride in the local hotel’s van. The boat was lovely. Downstairs were all airline type seats, but we stayed up on the main deck in the lounge which had nice couches and tables and huge windows. It got somewhat cloudy as we went, but was still totally spectacular! Waterfalls and snow-capped volcanoes on every side.

Once we got down to the Islas Cinquo Hermanos Natural Reserve area, they began passing around wine and other drinks, then several rounds of canapes, then little pizza-like things, then skewers of chicken and beef, then chicken empanadas, then large triangular beef pastries (also containing onions and a big chunk of hard boiled egg an an olive complete with pit), then little candies, and more drinks. Meanwhile a young couple in costume did native dances, after which they inveigled various tourists into dancing with them, etc. A good time was had by all!

The ship sailed out by way of the Darwin Channel...more fantastic views. What a place! Less than 30 minutes underway, there was an odd vibration to the ship. I thought we may have scraped something in the water, but the Captain soon came on the PA system to explain that we had just experienced an earthquake!!

We are also advised that as we sail farther south our Internet access may be interrupted at times. I believe this has to do with our angle to the various geosynchronous satellites. Anyway, I will do my best to keep this up in a timely manner (or at least no worse than so far).

Thursday, January 25

At sea again today. I really like the sea days with not much to do. I did finally see the comet this evening. It is called Comet McNaught for the Australian who found it about a year ago. It is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere and supposedly is the brightest comet (or was at perihelion around January 12) since one in 1965. Now that I know where to look, I should be able to see it easily from my own verandah.

Friday, January 26

Today we were at Puerto Montt which is at the southern end of Chile’s lake district. The difference in general appearance of the towns is amazing. This is due to the very strong German influence from an influx of German immigrants in the early 1900s. The architecture of houses in particular is very different from the Spanish influence areas of the country, complete with pitched roofs, shaped shingles and even some half-timbered effects, not to mention the basic paint schemes which are far more Germanic than Spanish. Some of that is going away as the city has been greatly rebuilt since it was almost destroyed in an earthquake in 1960. However, you can still see it clearly in the resort city of Puerto Varas where our tour went (photo).

This afternoon we are sailing south through the Golfo de Ancud with the Andes rising most majestically to the east of us.

Monday, January 22

At sea today–overcast and cooler than it has been in the morning, but warming up nicely in the afternoon.. Team Trivia in the morning, then Jill and I got together to plan some future skulduggery in relation to Harvey. He is, of course, the pookah who occupies the apparently vacant seat at our table.

We also went to the knitting and needlework group. If you don’t have any needlework of your own, the ship will provide yarn, needles and instructions for making various items that are then donated to orphanages...this trip possibly in Rio. So now I’m knitting a cap for some poor unknown soul...I call him or her that because my knitting skills are rusty, and there’s no telling how it will turn out although the yarn is a lovely, soft blue-green mix.

Tuesday, January 23

Today we were at Coquimbo, Chile. Actually there are two cities on this huge bay; the other is La Serena. Took a half-day tour of the area and again had an excellent tour guide. In these ports which don’t get a whole lot of cruise ships, they tend to recruit tour guides who are English teachers in "real" life. The photo is of the lighthouse at La Serena.

At the University here there is a large observatory...of course the actual telescope facility is way up in the mountains. But I heard from another passenger that his guide’s father is associated with the observatory, and that there is supposed to be a comet visible this evening around 9:30 to the southwest. I have also heard that we are supposed to have fairly high swells this evening, but if I can navigate myself, I plan to go have a look for the comet after dinner.

Wednesday, January 24

Well, I didn’t see the comet...it was cloudy and somewhat rough last night. In fact, it was bouncy enough that just about everything creaked, rattled or thumped. It was like trying to go to sleep in a bowl of metallic Rice Krispies. I can only imagine what it will be like when we get down to the Horn. There is an astronomy session tonight, so maybe I’ll see the comet then.

I was booked on an all day trip to Santiago today, but just didn’t feel up to that long a tour, so bagged it and stayed in Valparaiso. I did go ashore briefly and "managed to find" some lovely lapis lazuli set in silver that I couldn’t resist. Lapis is, by the way, one of Chile’s major exports, so what better souvenir of my various stops in this country...

Valparaiso is built on a thin strip along the shore then on hills that rise so steeply that they have lost of funicular elevators to take people to the top. The photo is of some houses at the top with a funicular going up to them.

I didn’t go see the comet (which someone said is called McNaught, or something that sounds like that), although we did turn up at the beginning of the astroomy session. It was quite chilly and very windy, and Jill and I just weren’t dressed warmly enough to spend time on the upper front deck. Also the astronomy session was later than the best viewing time for the comet, so we’ll try again tomorrow. This comet-viewing is beginning to sound like my experience in 1986 on a Halley’s Comet cruise when I never did see the comet while on board (although I did see it later).

Sunday, Januar y 21 -- I am now proud to say that I was almost born in Antofagasta, Chile. (That was the other choice besides Butte, Montana when my father went to work for Anaconda Copper back in 1939.) Antofagasta is a fascinating city. While it has mostly mining and shipping for industry, and while it is about the driest city in the world (it only rained one day last year), and while the surroundings are virtually devoid of any blade of grass, much less tree or bush, that isn’t watered and cared for, it is an attractive and clean city full of very friendly people. It’s population is about 300,000 and it has several universities, the usual complement of cultural venues, and several very new gigantic shopping malls in addition to its historical areas. The photo is of a formation called La Portada with Antofagasta in the background.

We arrived around 1:00 pm this afternoon to be greeted by a huge crowd of waving spectators on the breakwater to watch us come in, and then at the pier by an excellent brass band and spectacularly costumed dancers. The tour I took was excellent, our guide was very fluent in English, proud of her city and happy to show it off. This is the first time that Holland America has stopped here, and in fact they only had 2 cruise ships stop last year and 2 before us this year, so their tourist industry is relatively new, but they are really working at it and doing a fine job.

Monday, January 22 -- At sea today–overcast and cooler than it has been. Team Trivia in the morning, then Jill and I got together to plan some future skulduggery in relation to Harvey. He is, of course, the pookah who occupies the apparently vacant seat at our table.

Lovely sea day today (January 19). Great weather and just enough motion to know you’re on a ship. Had a great massage from a young lady who did her training at Virginia School of Massage in Charlottesville, so we spent some time reminiscing about Bodo’s. Spent much of the rest of the day out on various decks reading. Tonight was a formal night and the ship’s officer who was a guest at our table was the Environmental Officer...a very nice man with interesting stories to swap for some of ours.

And on January 20, here are Gil, me, and Virginia in Arica, Chile. A real "fancy meeting you here" shot! They had just returned to their ship, ms Discovery, from a trip to Macchu Pichu and came over to the Prinsendam to visit. They loved Macchu Pichu, are having a great time on their cruise and said to say "hi" to all and sundry back home. (For those who don’t know, Virginia and I have lunch with a bunch of friends every Friday, and their itinerary and mine just happened to mesh here.) We visited for about an hour on the dock swapping trip stories. Got some great photos of Discovery as she sailed past us later. I was waving madly, and presume that Virginia and Gil were also. Then to cap the afternoon, I had my cruise-traditional Myers and Coke ("Hi" to Jeff, Mark, and Mary.).

We are in Callao (pronounced Kai-yo), the port for Lima, Peru, for two days. Today (January 17) I took a tour that went to two of the best museums for Inca and pre-Inca artifacts. One had a stairway that I couldn’t negotiate, but the other had ramps that I could get up. That was the Museo Larco. What a fabulous collection of gold, silver, copper and especially pottery pieces! The photo here is just one sample.

Back at the ship in late afternoon I watched container ships unloading at this huge port, and at one point there was a flock of at least a thousand sea gulls that took off all at once and circled for around 5 minutes. It looked like a scene from a Hitchcock movie and certainly explained why the entire dock area is polka-dotted in white.

Today, January 18, I was supposed to go on a "shopping" tour, but when I discovered that it was to spend 3 hours at a native market, I decided that was too much shopping, so I stayed on board instead. There are several cruise ships in port with us. To our immediate port is the Seabourne Pride. Just beyond that is good ol’ Minerva II, and beyond that I can just see the stack on the Discover from which Virginia and Gil took off at 5:30 this morning for a trip to Macchu Pichu. We’ll catch up to them again in 2 days in Arica, Chile where we are planning to get together for a "fancy meeting you here" photo.

On to Salaverry, Peru (port for Trujillo) today. My tour left at 8:30, so I was up at the proverbial crack of dawn. We’ve been playing hopscotch with the Minerva II taking turns to be first in first out of the ports, and today is our turn to be first.

The tour today was really neat. First of all, it was the very best bus I’ve ever ridden in! Double-decker, but only one step up to the first level which another lady and I had all to ourselves. Big wide cushy leather bucket seats, each with its own cup holder and pull-down leg rest and plenty of leg room. First sightseeing bus I’ve met where I wasn’t all cramped up by the time I got off! Actually, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the fine quality of tour buses on this trip...I was all set for recycled un-air-conditioned school buses, and we’ve had nothing but top of the line models.

So where did we go? To Huaca El Brujo which is a Moche temple up the coast from Trujillo where excavations only began in the early 1990s and which has only been open to the public for a relatively short while. We had an excellent tour guide, an archaeology grad student who really knew his stuff. This temple was where they first discovered that the Moche (a pre-Incan civilization) had used adobe to decorate their temples with high relief figures. Since each lower level of the temple was filled in before the next level was built, the original paint colors are mostly still there, as you can see. After the Incas conquered the Moche, the area continued to be used as a cemetery, and they have found fabarics in some of the graves that have survived this long. One of the most interesting tours I’ve ever been on.

Toured Manta and Monticristi Ecuador today (Sunday, January 14). Definitely coastal equatorial weather...i.e. hot hot hot. I did buy myself a real Panama hat (they were originally and are still made in Ecuador, mostly near the little town of Monticristi). If anyone is in touch with Frank...tell him I thought of him a lot today, but had not contacted him as Quito is a 6 hour drive one way from where I was.

At dinner John had a photo he’d taken a couple of years ago on the Amazon. We told our waiter that the animal it showed would be tomorrow’s dinner and that there should be enough to share with everyone, then showed him the picture. He howled! Then he showed it to the head waiter who almost exploded trying not to laugh and then showed it to the Hotel Manager who eats at a table near ours with his wife. They also got a big kick out of it. The photo was of a young boy holding up the front end of a very large dead snake...probably a young anaconda. John and Jill and I of course were having hysterics all along. It was a fun dinner, especially as none of our table mates had managed to come.

Today (January 15) is another long lazy sea day. Sat in the sun. Played team trivia (our team would have tied for first if I hadn’t been out-voted on one answer). Tonight is a formal night with a black and white theme...I’m sure we shall all look like the ubiquitous penguins.

Here’s my snake from last night. I discovered that he is made from only one large bath towel with little bits of black paper for eyes and a folded foil candy wrapper for a tongue. Can’t wait to see what/who turns up tonight!

Today was a long, slow, cloudy and even a bit rainy sea day. Absolutely perfect for not doing much of anything. There was a "King Neptune" ceremony out on deck this afteroon as we cross the equator about midnight tonight, but I learned years ago to give such activities a miss.

I’ve been having a simple breakfast in my cabin most mornings to a) cut down on calories and b) to be lazy. When we got to Panama, I was quite surprised to find that my little milk cartons have been changed to the "Shenandoah’s Pride" label. Shades of home! We’ll see how long that lasts.

I’ve also been meaning to tell you about Joco, my cabin steward. He’s from Indonesia and has worked on ships for quite a long time. He is most efficient and has a sense of humor as evidenced by the nightly turn-down service. While I am at dinner, he turns down the bed, arranges things like the next day’s schedule and other little announcements, and makes a animal from towels to greet me when I return to the cabin...usually with chocolates for eyes. So far in this first week I’ve been met by a bunny, a lobster, a ray, a cephalopod (probably squid), a frog, a dragonfly and a puppy. Tonight after dinner I returned to my cabin to find a large snake on my bed...if the photo comes out, I’ll post it tomorrow. It’s truly spectacular! I’m waiting to see how long he can go without repeating himself.

So, in less than 36 hours I have made the trip ocean to ocean 3 times: once by ship, once by train, and once by bus. All 3 were different and interesting. The train (I was in a very nice dome car with an excellent view) ran right alongside the Canal. The bus took a different route back, and in fact, we got special permission for the bus to drive across the upper dam on the Chagras River (which is the source for the 52 million gallons of water PER SHIP that goes through the Canal). Wow!

Leaving the Canal
Sea birds screaming their farewells
From every buoy

The photo shows a fuzzy beige patch with a brown stripe in a tree. According to our guide at the Tortuguero Canal in Costa Rica, said fuzzy patch was a 2-toed sloth. Right. I was actually more entranced by a flock of little black bats asleep on a palm tree. They looked like black ravioli pasted in a vertical line on the trunk.

Our tour driver was a real pro at avoiding the millions of potholes that the government has decided there is not money to repair...this in a rain forest area that gets 250-350 inches of rain per year (and it didn’t rain a drop while we were ashore!). Off the main road, there was far more hole than pot, and a one-bus-wide bridge that I would not have gone over by myself given any kind of choice!

We have just pulled up next to the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama, so I’ve got to get ready to go ashore and get my share of molas!

- - - So I’m back on board, cooled off, cleaned up, and we’re rolling (literally) back up the coast to the Panama Canal which we will traverse tomorrow. And for the first time, I came back from the San Blas Islands with less than $40 worth of molas instead of my usual $200 dollars worth. Of course there’s still plenty of opportunity to change that total before we leave Panama...

Now we are in the middle of the Pedro Miguel locks at the Panama Canal.This was the first time I have seen the Centennial Bridge over the canal...a lovely construction.

Hissing wake bubbles
Underscore rushing whitecaps -
A far horizon

I finally got hooked up with the ship’s Internet system, so hope to get this entry out today. I’m typing this on the back deck aabout 30 feet from my cabin with a nice breeze and a view of Georgetown, Grand Cayman. (No photo this time because it’s basically all flat with white houses...nothing particularly scenic, at least not from this distance.

My trip down from Charlottesville on the 4th was uneventful (Thanks again, Jan, for the ride to the airport.) That evening I had a nice visit and dinner with Jayne Byal, a friend of Bob’s from his Punahou days who is a cruise travel agent in Ft. Lauderdale.

On to the ship on the 5th. I did get a little nervous when the ship finally sailed and my luggage had’t turned up in my cabin yet, but it was there when I got back at the end of the evening. I spent most of yesterday morning at sea unpacking and arranging my little “nest” for the next 2+ months.

The ms Prinsendam is a lovely ship. It was originally built in 1986 in Europe as the Royal Viking Sun. The only disadvantage I’ve found so far is that there is only one “American” electrical outlet, but it is conveniently located and I think/I have at least one adapter buried in my stuff somewhere which will help.

In the dining room I am at a table for 8 that seems to be all single people traveling alone. We haven’t seen everyone yet, but so far there are 2 from Canada, 1 each from Denver, Charlottesville, England, Germany, and perhaps India.

I went into Georgetown, Grand Cayman briefly by tender...mostly a test of how the tender system works for me and my walker. It worked just fine. I didn’t stay long as I was just there at Grand Cayman last January.