We left on Friday, December 3 for our long-awaited Cruise through the Panama Canal and to Peru and Chile.

Friday December 3  Leave Dulles 8:45am United Airlines 733 - arrive Miami International Airport (MIA) 11:25am
Friday December 3  - Days Inn Miami International Airport,
December 4 - 23  Grand Circle Southern Discovery aboard the Norwegian Crown

Saturday December 4 - Board Norwegian Crown - Depart port 8pm
Sunday December 5 - at Sea
Monday December  6 - Ochos Rios Jamaica - shore excursion - Best of Ochos Rios
Tuesday December 7 Montego Bay - shore excursion - Jeep Safari
Wednesday December 8 - at sea
Thursday December 9 - Puerto Limon Costa Rica - shore excursion - Puerto Limon Costa Rica - a 9 hour tour that traverses Costa Rica "From Limon to San Jose"
Friday December 10 - Daylight Transit of Panama Canal
Saturday December 11 - Cross Equator
Sunday December 12 - At Sea
Monday December 13  - Salaverry (Trujillo) Peru - shore excursion - City Tour and Archeological Museum
Tuesday December  14 - Lima (Callao) Peru - shore excursion
Wednesday December 15 - at sea
Thursday December 16 Arica Chile - shore excursion - Arica and environs
Friday December 17 - at sea
Saturday December 18 - Coquimbo Chile - shore excursion - Coquimbo and La Serena
Sunday December 19 - Arrive Valparaiso Chile - disembark - transportation to Santiago
Sunday December 19 - Wednesday December 22 Crowne Plaza Hotel
Wednesday December 22 - LAN Chile Airlines - Leave Santiago Chile 10:25pm (Chilean time which is GMT -3 as they are on their Daylight Time)
Arrive Miami International Airport (MIA) 4:55am EST Thursday December 23
Thursday December 23  United Airlines 206 - Leave MIA 8:55am - arrive Dulles (IAD) 11:38am

Subject: Sunday December 5, Day 2

We boarded the Norwegian Crown yesterday (Saturday) around 2:00pm.  Our cabin is on the main deck (6) amidships, fairly roomy, and bright with big windows.  The ship is 616 feet long and holds 1360 passengers.  It was built in 1988.  Thus it is an old, small ship as these things go.  On the other hand, it is comfortable and not crowded.
 

We grabbed a quick buffet lunch in the "Yacht Club", unpacked, and had the mandatory life boat drill.  We had already signed up for 7 shore excursions so we skipped that part of the routine.

We went to the Internet Cafe and signed up for 250 minutes for $100, 40 cents a minute.  Spread over  15 days that is tight but doable if we download and get off, compose off-line and don't spend much time reading traffic on-line.  Email and the web are the backbone of our communications network since we are virtually cut off from the world otherwise. Cell phones don't work, no TV except CNN, ship-to-shore phones much too expensive.

We  met some interesting people at dinner as we probably will throughout the trip--open-seating and "free style" dining means that you don't sit in the same seats each meal.  The age level on this cruise is significantly higher than for any previous cruise we've taken--younger people don't have the time to take a 17 day cruise much less the money.  This is a retired crowd.  One couple at our table was going to add on the Valpariaso to Buenos Aires cruise and then spend 2 months in Buenos Aires.

We skipped the entertainment Saturday night and probably will continue to do so.  The Jean Ann Ryan Company, the dancing couple Duo Miro, the Piano Bar Entertainer Selwyn Wright and Vocalist Carolyn Mailer just don't excite us.  Besides, a little extra sleep comes in handy.  We have such busy days!

It is bright and sunny today (Sunday), high around 87, low about 65.  The ship is moving at the rate of about 19 knots, a fast , smooth clip.  Not hearing complaints about sea sickness.  The ship vibrates and occasionally goes "thump" but just keeps rolling.

We started at 8am with a nice breakfast, highlighted by a fresh fruit platter.  Then came a orientation to the region and the boat by the Grand Circle Tours program directors.  We are planning to skip lunch and take a leisurely lounge in the hot tub,  followed by dinner of Beef Wellington or lobster tails.  It's the life!

Subject: Monday/Tuesday Dec 6-7; Days 3-4; Jamaica

Hi Friends,

We have kicked into high gear.  Yesterday, we took a tour of Ochos Rios, Jamaica.  This is a seacoast town with very little to attract interest.  We visited the Shaw Park Botanical Gardens, saw some nice waterfalls.  Saw the humming bird that is the national bird of Jamaica, saw birds of paradise (flowers) that we haven't seen outside Hawaii,  and enjoyed the well-kept lawns and reflecting pool.  The trip wound down with a visit to the Taj Mahal shopping center, where the high prices and tacky merchandise led us to buy nothing at all.
 

Today (Tuesday) was a little better.  Overnight the ship moved from Ochos Rios to Montego Bay.   We took an 5 hour jeep tour of the Montego Bay area.  The vehicles were actually Land Rovers, which was a good thing because the terrain was quite rugged and most of the trip was through an orange plantation with primitive paths for roads.  The most interesting sight for us was a new HP desktop computer, tied to the Internet by cable, sitting on a picnic table in a remote spot of the back country.  We got a good view of the city and saw the ruins Of 1700's Great Houses and sugar factories.  We returned to the ship, had lunch, and took a nap.
 

All in all, Jamaica just doesn't have anything to get excited about.  But the people on the cruise were fascinating.  There are several Rumanians working as wait staff and customer service personnel--Norwegian Cruise Lines actively recruits Rumanians who were uniformly good workers.  We have repeatedly met several of the cruise patrons that we had met over the last several days, somewhat surprising because there isn't any natural ties among us and there are over a thousand people taking the cruise.

Subject: Wednesday Dec 8; Days 5; At Sea

Hi friends

This has been a day at sea, moving between Jamaica and Costa Rica, about 600 miles at about 14 knots.  Its a sleepy kind of a day, starting out sunny and then becoming overcast, temperature in the mid 80's.

We went to the movies last night--saw Terminal with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Its about a guy who is trapped in JFK airport -- because of a revolution in his home country he can't go back and because of bureaucracy he can't get a visa to enter the USA.  It's a good joke spread too thin.  And it requires way too much suspended belief.  Hanks lives in the airport for 9 months and is known by all of the employees in the concessions, the INS is portrayed as a horses ass yet there is not a single reporter nosing around situation.  To top it off, Hanks doesn't get the girl.  Grump, grump.

We also went to the live entertainment last night, the Jean Ann Ryan Company, mediocre but something to do.  Tonight (Wednesday) it was a mediocre juggler/comedian.   On Monday evening we saw Gerry Doyle, a stand-up comedian who had us laughing out load from start to finish.  She is Danny Doyle's (DC Irish pub singer) sister.  The shows are free, only last 45 minutes, and there aren't many alternatives as to what else to do so we are trying everything.  Too bad this isn't a folk music cruise.<g>  I discovered this afternoon that there are three music channels piped into the rooms.  Guess I should do more exploring.

Saw a lecture on the building and operating of the Panama Canal.  Interesting that the French sunk a pile of money into building a sea level canal the flopped miserably whereas the US approach of locks worked from the start even though it was far more complex.

Subject: Thursday Dec 9; Days 6; Costa Rica

This have been an excellent day.  We started with a 6am wake up call (thud) so that we could get breakfast and join our all-day tour of Costa Rica---Rich Coast.  What a beautiful country.  You can drive in 90 minutes from the Atlantic Coast, across the Continental Divide, to the Pacific Coast, passing through active volcano fields and earthquake territory.  We saw acres of pineapple fields, banana trees, and papaya plants. There is no income tax but they do have a 13% sales tax, sensible when the object is to discourage consumption while encouraging investment.  Housing is cheap, partly because homes don't need a lot of insulation.  Unemployment is only 3%.  There are 3.5 million people living here, not very densely populated. If we were fluent in Spanish, Costa Rica would be worth considering as a retirement location.  But there isn't much live folk music so maybe it wouldn't be a grand idea.
 

We went to the National Museum first.  Very nice panorama of the melding of the basic three populations of the area: (Spanish, Indian, Black) and how they are creating their own special melting pot. Very good pre-Columbian art works too. Then we ate a local lunch which was excellent--beans, rice, salad, chicken, custard, and iced tea.

Before we headed back we saw the opera house, built in 1907 at a cost of $3 million ($80 million in current dollars).  It had excellent acoustics, lots of local art, gold leaf, and wall paintings.  Moreover it was well-maintained!  The inevitable shopping stop produced nothing and we all got a bit nervous when our bus ran into traffic which resulting in our getting back to the boat 30 minutes after it was scheduled to depart.  We weren't too concerned though since it was an NCL excursion with 50 paying passengers in the bus!  And a second bus with another 50 passengers.

Subject: Friday Dec 10; Days 7; Panama Canal

We went through the Panama Canal today.  Fascinating.  The boat goes through 3 sets of gates which elevates it about 85 feet, it sails a few miles across a lake, it then goes through 3 more sets of gates which drop the boat back to sea level and we sail away.  There are 2 paths side-by-side so you have a good view of what is happening.  Going through with us was an enormous cargo ship that barely fit the canal--no surprise since it was built to barely fit.  The average charge for a cruise ship is $100,000, not chicken feed but only half the cost of going around Cape Horn.
 

Most of the day we sat in a lounge area in the aft area where we had a comfortable air-conditioned view of the  the rear of the ship while we could see the front via video.  This worked out well because we could also read and chat.

We had dinner at the Pasta Cafe, one of the five main dining areas aboard ship.  It specializes in (drum roll please) pasta dishes.  I had lasagna with white clam sauce.  Reba had something similar.  Tomorrow we are eating at Chopsticks, the Asian restaurant.  We ate last week at Le Bistro, the premium restaurant.  We eat breakfast and most dinners at the Seven Seas Restaurant, and there is the buffet-style Yacht Club.  Any food gets boring after a while so multiple restaurants is a very desirable feature.  Overall, the food on this cruise has been good and very plentiful.

Subject: Saturday/Sunday  Dec 11/12; Days 8/9; Equator

We are now in the 2nd week of our cruise and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.  One week would have been too short. Three weeks probably would be a bit long.

Corrections: I did not have lasagna with clam sauce; it was linguine. And Reba had gnocchi with pesto sauce.  That's what happens when I don't have Reba check what I write. <g>

Yesterday we crossed the Equator, watching King Neptune convert pollywogs to shellbacks or some such seaboard nonsense. Today is our third day at sea in this stretch, sailing south off the coast of Ecuador.  Tomorrow we visit Trujillo Peru.  We are going to have a city tour and a visit to the Archeological Museum.  Way we really have been doing is listening to lectures on recent Chilean politics, catching up on Spanish, and reading.  I have finished  "The Dante Club" by Matthew Pearl, a New York Times best seller and polishing off "Life With Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse.  Reba finished Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress" and "Deception Point" and is reading Perri Klass "The Mystery of Breathing".  We have made a home for ourselves in the 8th deck lounge  in the aft end of the ship where it is bright and cheery and we can also chat with newly made friends.

We have noticed, we think, an amazing level of good health among the passengers despite the boat being full and the general notoriety of cruise ships.  This may be due to the posting of hand sanitation machines on the gangway and at the front of all waiting lines in the restaurants.  People use these sprayers and they just may do some good.

Subject: Monday Dec 13; Day 10; Trujillo Peru

We got off the boat today and saw Trujillo Peru. Peru was a strategic territory in Spanish America, much bigger and more valuable than I had realized.  It was a major exporter of Silver whereas most of the rest of Spanish America was agricultural. It's population was more resistant to European diseases, so the Indian population to this day is more unalloyed than the rest of the area. It is an arid country, but a pretty and well-kempt country.
 

In Trujillo we saw an enormous town center including a house residing on land granted to Pizarro.  The house was used in 1824 by Simon Bolivar to plan the final campaign to drive Spain out of Peru.  We also saw the Archeological Museum housing pre-Columbian artifacts. Unfortunately all the narrations were written in Spanish.

Grand Circle Tours, through whom we booked this trip, hosted a cocktail party this afternoon.  The drinks were potent.  I needed a nap--and took one when it was over.

Subject: Tuesday Dec 14; Day 11; Lima Peru

We took an interesting panorama tour of Lima Peru. Driving in we saw the poor side of this million population city. Everything built with adobe, very square buildings, multiple levels, everything touching as if land was very valuable.  Lots of construction but everything uncompleted--buildings without roofs.  Turns out that there is so little rain in the area (4 inches per year) that buildings don't much need roofs and there are no taxes on unfinished buildings.
 

We saw the large central squares in Lima, surrounded by the Presidential and Mayoral palaces, cathedrals, and government buildings.  The buildings have been rebuilt many times to repair earthquake damage.  These quakes range from 3.5 to 9.1 on the Richter scale, and bad quakes occur on the average of every 10 years.  Thus few buildings are higher than 6 floors and most older buildings have mixed architectural styles.

The way out of town was through the wealthy section.  Still lots of apartments and condos but nicely built, lots of small flower garden plots, and wide streets.  There were large, fancy  hotels like the JW Marriott.  The contrast was really striking.
 

The cost of Internet service at Internet cafes in town was about 33 cents per hour.  Aboard ship it is 40 cents per minute.  But since we don't stop in town long enough to use local cafes, we can't take advantage of the good prices. Reba did get a prepaid telephone calling card so she could call home for about 30 cents a minute, far better than the $5.95 per minute aboard ship.

I'm glad we brought along the laptop.  We would be totally cut off from the world without email and brief Internet news clips. The shipboard Internet cafe is too expensive to read even full news summaries, there are no newspapers aboard and the only TV news is International CNN and even that is unreliable due to frequently losing lock on the satellites.  Even the Internet has had its problems--the network was down this afternoon and evening, and we had connection problems a couple of days last week.  But what we have been able to get has been worth its weight in gold.

Subject: Wednesday/Thursday Dec 15/16; Day 13/14; Arica Chile

It is currently Thursday 7:30pm  and it's bright and sunny outside -- sunset is 8:16pm tonight.  It sure is nice having long days again--even if we won't be here long to enjoy it.  And we should see the Southern Cross after 9pm tonight. From our Australian experience the Southern Cross is the Big Dipper upside down.

Today we spent in Arica Chile.  Very interesting town.  The northernmost Chilean town, it is 2000 kilometers north of the capital city, Santiago.  It does not rain here -- 2-3 times every 100 years.  The average annual precipitation is 0.13 milliliters.  A large port for shipping from southern Peru, Bolivia (which has no access to the Pacific and uses Arica to ship to the world and receive shipments) and northern Chile.
 

It was the focus of the Peruvian War of 1879 between Chile on one side and Peru and Bolivia on the other.  Peru massed its forces on the enormous hill called El Moro overlooking the coastal plain.  Chile moved troops in by boat onto the plain and feigned preparation for an attack while actually moving its troops behind El Moro and attacking from the rear.  The battle lasted 55 minutes, Chile won, and that was about it for the only war Chile fought in the post colonial period.  Now Arica is an "open city" and all countries have equal access to its port.

Its other major claim to fame is that it is home to the cathedral designed by Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame), made of iron and assembled in the main square in the early 1900's.  It was intended for Peru but was erected on a "temporary" basis after a tidal wave washed away most of the city.  Apparently it is a high maintenance item, needing priming and painting to protect against the salt air from the ocean.

Back at the boat, this afternoon was the chocolate buffet.  Chocolate pie, chocolate cake, chocolate candy, chocolate ice cream, chocolate fondue, chocolate cookies, champagne in glasses with chocolate rims.  We went (relatively) easy.  Tonight is a French dinner in the dining room.  With the freestyle cruising of Norwegian Cruise Lines, we can go to dinner anytime between 5:30 and 10:00pm.  Probably be around 8 tonight.
 

Subject: Friday/Saturday  Dec 17/18; Day 14/15; Coquimbo & La Serena Chile

Friday was a day at sea.  We read and did email.  I was tempted to go to the casino but resisted the temptation.  Reba was never tempted so she had nothing to resist.  It is easy to drop $100 in a couple of hours so I didn't go in.  Instead we did some book swapping with our fellow travelers--cheap and doesn't fill the suitcases.
 

The tour also took us out into the desert where we saw large geocliffs--large mosaic animals built into the mountain sides--some dating back more than 1000 years.  The lack of rain has helped preserve these magnificent figures.

Saturday we docked at the port city of Coquimbo near the resort city of la Serena.  Coquimbo is a small town by US standards, population 81,000.  There were pelicans and brightly colored canoes on the sand.  a "third millennium cross" high on a hill overlooked the town.  the main square had some of the nicest handicrafts we've seen.  another Eiffel church sits prominently in the square.  Despite being a pleasant looking place, you have to remain upwind of the fish meal piles on the dock.
 

La Serena is a Chilean regional capital although with a population of only 107,000.  it is heavily dependent on agriculture and tourism--people from Argentina, Peru and Bolivia join vacationers from Santiago.  One reason La Serena looks so new is that it has been the target of many substantial earthquakes.  It even has occasional rains to wash down the dust from the desert.  This area is the home of the distillery that produces Pisco, the heart of the Pisco Sour (which tastes much like a daiquiri.)


Subject: Sunday/Tuesday  Dec 19/21; Day 16/18; Valpariaso & Santiago

We disembarked Sunday morning.  The last couple of days at sea had been a bit rough so that we had a sensation of pitching and rolling even after we were on dry land. Norwegian Cruise Lines had made us all comfortable.  We would ride them again.

We drove through the port city of Valpariaso, population 294,000. It is a regional capital and home of the Chilean legislature which moved there in the early 1990's after democracy was restored.  The idea, I guess, was to make a coup d'tate more difficult but it separates the legislature from the executive branch and from the diplomatic service. A suburb Vina del Mar has luxury hotels, villas, gardens and a casino but rocky beaches with little sand.  A beautiful flower clock was created for the 1962 Soccer World Cup.  All its numbers are made of flowers.

We checked into the Crowne Plaza hotel in Santiago around 3:30pm tired but happy.
 

On Monday we had a tour of Santiago, a major city with a population of 6.7 million of the Chilean total population of 15 million. We saw the main square, the changing of the guard at the Presidential palace, and thousands of big yellow buses.  The bus drivers are not salaried--they earn their living on a percentage of the fares they collect.  Since it is in their interest to maintain an equal distance, the custom has grown up of kids with clipboards writing down the time each bus passes selected points and telling the next driver how far ahead is the previous bus. For this the kids get 100 pesos or about 20 cents.  It wasn't clear to us that the system was very effective--there were far more buses them seemed necessary.

On Monday evening we had a great adventure, culminating in a marvelous dinner with Bethany Yarrow, her husband Sebastian, and his brother and wife.  They  were running late so they suggested that we grab a cab and meet them at the restaurant.  We did, quaking in our boots.  We didn't speak Spanish, the driver didn't speak English, and the restaurant was in a blocked court so the driver couldn't put us in front.  We could imagine being lost in this major city but it didn't happen and we had a lovely dinner.

Santiago has an underground subway system.  It is clean, rapid, crowded, and for the most part handicapped unfriendly.  We rode it on Tuesday, starting off badly by going 3 stops the wrong way  on the wrong line.  Easy to do, easy to correct, and frustrating.  But after we caught the hang of it, it was a snap.

Subject: Wednesday Dec 22; Day 19; Santiago & Home
 

On our last day in Santiago we took a cab to the fish market and had a splendid lunch at Donde Augusto, a native fish restaurant.  We had a fish stew, tomato & onion salad, avocado salad and paella.  Very good.
 

We checked out of the hotel at 6pm. The drive to the airport was slow because of dense traffic but we made it in the allotted time. Security was on a par with US screening.  We took an LAN Chile Boeing 767, configured in the most uncomfortable possible arrangement.  A full airplane, with narrow seats and no leg room, flying  for 9 hours was enough to make us scream.   Moreover, the mix of inside air was set high and smelled like it.  The cabin crew only spoke Spanish.  And most of the Grand Circle passengers found themselves sitting randomly around the plane, widely separated from spouses and unable to get satisfactory adjustments.  We all had a miserable night.

Clearing Miami was painful as well.  At LAX, once your bags cleared customs you put them back on the conveyor belt and don't see them again until your final  destination.  At Miami, you have to cart them back to the ticket counter as if you were beginning your trip, including a fresh run through security.  What a waste.

Finally we reached home, adjusted the thermostat from 55 to 68, turned the water heater back up, and listened to the beating of a very heavy rain storm.
We met David, Ellen, Andrea and Ben for dinner at Seven Seas.  Then to bed by 8:30pm.

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