World cruise 4

January 8

The ship developed some "ocean motion" last night. Not a whole lot of moving around, but enough to know that you are at sea. Also enough to make for very good sleeping. The old phrase "rocked in the cradle of the deep" has some truth behind it. Fortunately, this morning I was up before the ship's alarm went off for a Crew Emergency Drill.

The rest of the day was much like yesterday except for continuing motion as we are out in the middle of the Caribbean away from the protection of any islands. I do like days at sea, and there are lots of them on this trip. So far, my only problem is that I seem to have forgotten to pack my sea legs in all those suitcases I brought. I do realize that our cabin at the far aft end of the ship so will be bouncier than elsewhere on board. I finally did get some photos of the cabin so here they are.

We did go meet Helen who is the representative of a travel group called vacations.com with which my travel agent is affiliated. As members of her group on board (along with 50 or 60 others) we get several free tours, a party, etc. Plus she can organize things like tours, dinners, or lunches ashore etc. for small groups of us. At a meeting this afternoon, it became apparent that many in the group have been around the world on this ship before and have good advice to offer.

January 9

Up early, just in time to see us come in to the harbor at Santa Marta in bright sunshine. This is evidently a freight terminal rather than a cruise terminal. I later found out the Holland America only began stopping at Santa Marta this past year.

I had a nice tour of the city with the usual obligatory stops at a cathedral, a restored manor house, a modern hotel for a folkloric show on the beach and a museum. The folkloric show was loud drumming which I listened to from as far away as I could. I was more interested in the plaza at the cathedral than in the building itself. At the manor house, there was a great deal of walking involved, so I opted out of some of it and found a lovely shady spot with a nice breeze under a huge tree which I think was a banyan. I got out my crocheting and several local people stopped to ask what I was making. I did manage to get the idea of a string shopping bag across even with my very limited Spanish.

The stop I enjoyed the most was the Museo del Oro Tairona (the Gold Museum). It was very nicely done and featured pre-Colombian gold pieces and pottery from the Tairona area near Santa Marta. Interestingly, there were 4 previously unknown groups of natives in the Tairona Forests discovered in 1975. Evidently, after their initial exposure to the Spaniards' violent ways, they just determined to hide from white men. However, some of their tribe's burial sites had been discovered quite a while back. The gold piece here is a bat man from te group that has the bat as their totem. The pottery piece is also a bat man, but rather more ferocious looking. Many  of the other pottery pieces were extremely graceful and beautiful.

M

January 10

Half day at sea, and half at the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama. This is a tender port with about 20 miutes' ride in one of the ship's small boats to get to the island. As much as I have always loved seeing the molas and the fine sewing of the women who make them, I'm skipping it this time. I still have a number of molas at home and don't really need more. However, M has gone to look around.

As we approached San Blas, we were passed by the Thor Heyerdahl which is a 3-masted barque. Here is a photo of her with sails set just perking along.