The final two days involved the logistics of packing and organizing for our final day. There is not much time on Tuesday as we arrive at 7 am and are to exit at 8:15 am.
We had dinner with Joe and Anne on Saturday night. They have the World Cruise booked in 2024. On Sunday night we had dinner with Bill and Nancy, Jim and Lois. They traveled together on this trip. The men are ready to do it again but the women are not sold. Nancy said she would do another long cruise if she could fly home once a month, spend time with family, then return. I got the feeling that Jim and Lois could easily sign up for another long one. Everyone agreed that independent shore excursions would have been a better idea and would have made the trip more fun.
We had are final team trivia and brought a bottle of champagne to celebrate.
Richard will be going back to Missouri and then he has a long cruise on the Cunard line. Clare is booked on the 90 or so day Australian Cruise in early January and will only have a few weeks back in Salt Lake City. Kathy and LJ will be doing the same cruise and will return to Oregon and Washington just long enough to pack again. Jose will be heading back to Top of the World in Florida. My guess is that he will book another cruise very soon. We had lots of laughs with these folks and enjoyed the company.
We are looking forward to seeing our family and friends again. Time for home!
We arrived to the San Juan port at 8 am. It had been raining since we finished breakfast but the weather report only called for a small chance of rain and it was beginning to let up.
We left the ship shortly after clearance was granted and we went into customs. Completely hassle free. Why was I surprised?
We took the shuttle into the old town area. Our plan was to do a walking tour and then grab an Uber out to the golf course.
The rain started up again and we stayed dry under the roof of the nearby theater. Since we were carrying our cleats and other golf items, Who has room for umbrellas? We waited for the rain to let up a bit and started our walk. After snapping some photos we went into a drug store and bought some umbrellas. The rain wasn’t going to stop for quite a while. We called the course and cancelled. It would be miserable to try and play.
One of the first stops on the walking tour was an open market area where vendors were just beginning to set up shop. I did speak with a gentlemen who rolled cigars right at his table. He said he would continue when the rain stopped. I told him I was visit him later. We walked though the shop are and the rain made it rather difficult.
San Juan is very clean and very friendly. There were other ships in port and the streets were crowded. As the day wore on, they became even more crowded. The rain eventually stopped. We stopped in a little restaurant for lunch and then continued our walking tour. Somehow, we ended up in the Don Collins Cigar shop. We sat inside and I sampled a cigar and we tasted different infused rum. The passion fruit was our favorite. I bought a box of rum infused cigars and we left.
Puerto Rico is rather fascinating. We took control in 1898 after the Spanish American War. I’m not sure why it isn’t a state but if Hawaii is then Puerto Rico should be.
We spent all day wandering the streets. The rain made it more difficult but we still had a great time. We did stop back at the market and I went back to the cigar maker. I talked with the worker at the stall about a deal on a box. I would buy a box but wanted to try them first. He gave me a price but it wasn’t the same as the owner quoted me in the morning. He pointed to the owner who was out of the market area puffing on one of his hand rolled cigars. “Go talk to him”, the worker said. I purchased one cigar and went to talk to the owner. I asked for a light and he offered his lighter. We had a few laughs and we bartered a bit. He ended up giving me a good price. I went back to the table and bought a box.
We boarded the shuttle back to the ship about 4 pm. The city was just starting to wake up and many areas had stages for live musicians. We decided that this is another area that we would return to and spend more time.
Everyone aboard is preparing for Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday morning. We will pack the 4 bags that we will ship home on Monday and leave them outside our door. The crew will place them out on the dock and we will grab them as we pass through customs. We will each have a bag to check on the plane and a backpack. The 4 large bags we will drop off at the fedex truck on the dock. It is really such a simple operation. The service HAL uses is called Luggage Forward and we already have the tags to go on our bags. A HAL bus will then take us to the Miami airport. Our flight is about 1 pm.
I’m glad I continue to write this blog. We really have a difficult time remember all that we have done, even on this trip. We can look at pictures and say “oh yeah” but where was it taken and what did we do? The blog makes it much easier. This kind of travel takes a lot of planning but is really a great way to see the world. Your “home” comes with you and you look forward to seeing the ship after every day of sightseeing.
Sunday and Monday at sea. One more time change and we are back on EST.…
Another day at sea and we have started to pack. Final laundry drop off is today.
Last stop tomorrow in San Juan. Forecast calls for rain. Not sure about golf.
We need to have a zero count on the ship tomorrow so that means everyone has to get off and go through immigration before anyone can get back on. That shouldn’t be a problem for us. We are leaving early.
We were invited to the Mariners Society appreciation lunch today at 1. We already feel appreciated so we had lunch in the Lido and then group trivia at 1.
We laugh harder than any group at trivia because we can come up with the most creative responses to questions that no one has a clue on. The phobia questions are the best. I didn’t realize there were so many fears.
My date in the dining room.
The evening entertainment was musician Craig Richard. He played tenor sax, piano and guitar. He also sang and the house band backed him up. He was an adequate instrumentalist and his vocals were ok. Terri flashed a 2 again. I gave him a 5.…
Another nice day through the Atlantic. Ship is rolling consistently through the voyage across. Temperature near 80 each day.
The Captain made an announcement at about 10 am. Maritime officials said there was a reported capsize of a yacht. There was some debris that we had passed about 30 minutes ago and we were turning around to investigate. Once we arrived at the site the Captain and crew realized the debris had been in the water for sometime as there was growth of algae. We were turning around again.
4 to 5 hours had passed and the Captain announced that the people on the capsized yacht, now swimming in the ocean, had all been rescued by another craft.
We talked today about the number of countries we have visited. For some reason I thought it would be more than 63. Looks like we have some work to do
visited 63 countries (28%)
I started a new book called Cabin Fever. It is all about this ship, the Zaandam and it’s Captain and what happened as the ship sailed during the beginning of the pandemic. The Captain said that he has not read it as he doesn’t want to relive it. The ship was on a South America voyage and was turned away from port after port as the virus broke out on the ship.
We have a tee time at noon on Saturday at the Bayamon Golf Course in San Juan. We arrive at 8 am and this should give us plenty of time to grab an Uber to get there. It is about 20 mins from the port.
I hope US customs goes smoothly here. Something tells me that it may not.…
Ship still rocking makes for an interesting gym day. As the ship rises the impact of the weight seems to double. Free weights are a little dangerous, machines no problem. Treadmill becomes fascinating.
We sat next to two musicians from the BB King Allstar band. I asked the trumpet player where he learned to play. “Middle school” was his response. I laughed and I said that you are obviously classically trained and he did mention school back in Dallas. He does have a music education degree. I gave them both loads of compliments and they thanked me and we left for trivia.
Our trivia group now just shows up for laughs because most of the answers we give are just gag answers as we have no knowledge of the subject.
I started to pack one bag with the things that we brought that we will no longer use. Fins, snorkel, fins, insecticide, waterproof phone cases. One of the large bags completely packed.
Last day for laundry drop off is Friday. We are trying to organize what we will be shipping home and what goes in the bags we take to the airport. Not really a big deal but we don’t want to ship something we know we will need right away when we get home. Backs may take up to 2 weeks to be shipped home.
The evening entertainment was comedian John Joseph. He really connected with the audience because he was a similar age. He talked a lot about what happens when you age. A great show. 10…
The great thing about traveling west are the time changes. 4 time changes across the Atlantic. That means four 25 hour days. Those are easy to handle.
The Captain had a question and answer session today on the world stage. Surprisingly he was asked some very good questions. One was the fee for getting through the Suez Canal. $400,000. Is cash used to pay for any of the port fees. Not usually he said but Africa was very different. Everyone was asking for money or “gifts”. One even asked for “American Cigarettes”. Did he get them? No. Everything about Africa was very different according to the Captain. A passenger asked why we had to miss a port because of the tide as tide tables are published years in advance. He acknowledged that and said because of the pandemic, ship schedules were cancelled and added back at different times and the tides did not match. The Captain said he knew that he could not get into that port before we even left Ft. Lauderdale.
Team trivia was a bit different today. Erica had asked for questions from all players. 2 maximum per room. She put them in a box and pulled them at random. They were harder than hers. My wasn’t pulled. Which musical instrument consistently reads the also clef. I doubt that there were any violists in the room but one can never tell. We did very poorly but so did everyone else. Some teams had two member questions pulled. We had none.
The evening entertainment. The BB King All Stars. They just came aboard back in Cape Verde. Wow. Fantastic. Male and Female lead singers, tpt and tenor sax, rhythm and bass guitar pianist and drummer. The drummer was exceptional.The female lead did covers of Midnight Train to Georgia, I Will Survive and Proud Mary. The male lead looked like a young Sammy Davis Jr and covered September, Soul Man, and some Stevie Wonder. Best band we have heard on the trip. 10
After the show, we sat and listened to the ocean bar band. Pianist/vocalist can sing but needs some major mic intervention. The bassist/vocalist is very good. The rhythm guitarist only knows one kind of style in solos Every solo is a rock solo with bent notes.He plays in the “how many notes can I play in a 32 bar solo” style. Its kind of a turn off when you are dancing to Spanish Eyes and he breaks into a note bender solo.
We are heading due west across the Atlantic. Our final stop, San Juan, Puerto Rico seems to be in a direct line from our final port, Cabo Verde. I can’t help but think that this was the route the slaves ships took to get to the West Indies.
The Atlantic is so much rougher than the Pacific, or any other ocean we have been in. The Captain said the huge rolling waves come from opposite directions here causing all of the motion we experience on the ship.
We received a warning about low internet band width in this area. We have even lost some television but it only seems to be Fox News that disappears.
The ship came to what appeared to be a dead stop today. The Captain said there was a scheduled “part swap out” that was planned for the port side engine. We were running on the starboard side engine only. It took a bit longer than planned but he assured passengers that there was no need to worry.
We tied for first in team trivia today scoring an unbelievable 20. “What was the original name of the game twister?” No one had an answer and I saw that Terri wrote down “limb pretzel”. Hilarious answer I thought. The answer? “Pretzel”. Terri is now quite famous amongst trivia players.
The ship sommelier, Rod, had planned a 5 course Italian dinner in the Canaletto Restaurant. It comes with 5 paired wines. The dinner was at 6:30 and we were already hungry when we sat down. We both thought the dinner was fair compared to what we get in the main dining room. Stuff I don’t normally eat. Egg plant, lobster, and scallops. Terris just touched on these. I passed. The wine didn’t help me but Terri said it was good. The main course of beef was very good. Rod kept checking to make sure I was finishing my wine. Some went into Terri’s glass. The dessert was good but I was so full of wine I didn’t enjoy it as much as I normally do.
We decided to play golf in San Juan. No tee time yet. Very difficult to make a wifi call when the internet is so unstable.…
Our scheduled tour today was cancelled by Green Line Tours and we had no replacement. We decide we would hike up Monte Verde. Only 5.6 miles but the terrain was unknown.
We pulled into the port at 8 am and were cleared to go ashore shortly after. Our room safe would not open and there were items that we needed. We waited about 30 minutes for security to open it and off we went.
We took the HAL shuttle into town. Maybe a mile ride and we realized that passengers could walk in this port. We will do that when we return.
After exiting the bus, we went to find an ATM to get some local currency. USD are not widely accepted here and I was out of the more commonly accepted euros. We found a bank and withdrew $20,000 escudos or about $20.
I felt we needed this money in case we didn’t want to walk back down or the hike was too difficult.
The first part of the trip was a winding road through neighborhoods. The farther up the mountain we went, the more trash and dilapidated buildings we passed.
These photos were taken in town before the hike. There was really nothing else to take a photo of until we got to the top.
About 30 or more minutes into the hike up, the road ended. I expected this but I didn’t expect it to end in the midst of more buildings. The path went around and between buildings were people lived. I saw many carrying jugs of water up to their homes. It became quite dangerous because of the condition of the path we were on. We decide to backtrack a bit to a main road and hail a cab. The ride up was worth the view.
We took our photos and had the driver take us to town. It was lunch time and we would go to a market to buy more Pontxe and wine and coffee and then head to a restaurant.
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde to locals produces a coffee bean that is grown on Fogo Island which has a very active volcano. The supply is limited and it is expensive back home. $30 a pound. Fortunately, you can buy it here for $5 a pound.
We found a restaurant and decided we would try the local dish, Cachupa. A mixture of beans, sausage, tomatoes, egg and chicken. Delicious!
We finished lunch and headed back to the ship. We were able to get a bottle of wine and a bottle of Pontxe through security yesterday. We are going to try again. Usually it will be taken and stored or a corkage fee is charged. No problem yesterday and today was no issue either.
Back on the ship was a sail away party on the sea view deck. The ocean bar band played and free wine and cheese was served.
The Indonesian staff interrupted the band to play some pop number where they all danced. They all seemed to know it and they all joined in.
Jeremy Hales, our cruise director, came and spoke with us for a few minutes about the trip. He is really nice and does a nice job but he needs to relax a bit on stage.
The evening entertainment was comedian Gabe Abelson. Not stop laughs for me. He did some impressions. Carson, Dangerfield, Seinfeld. All very good. He is from LA and just came aboard yesterday. I gave him a 9. Terri flashed me a 2. …
Today we pulled into port at 7 am. The tour company I was working with sent a message late last night. They were willing to do an afternoon tour for us starting at 1:30 pm. This would work well for us as most of the tours left early and we would have less tourist traffic.
We decided to visit Praia after the ship docked. This city impressed us with cleanliness. More so then most of the stops along the African coast. The city was first settled by the Portuguese in the 15 century. It did not have enough vegetation to begin a colony but it did have a valley that had running fresh water. Soon, plants were brought from Portugal to see what would survive in this area. This was the beginning of the colonization. Slaves were brought over from the African continent to provide the labor needed. Independence was won in 1975.
Tourism provides much to the economy. Most tourists are from Europe and specifically Germany. Weather is very stable year round and the island is beautiful.
We walked to the main market of the city. Partially covered. We passed the head of a recently butchered cow on the sidewalk and its body was in the back of a pickup truck. Interesting stuff but nothing said “buy me”.
We toured the downtown on our own and then took the shuttle bus back to the ship to enjoy lunch. After lunch we walked to the port gate where we met our guide.
Damaris took us to the neighboring Cidade Velha. This is where the valley with the water is and where civilization on this island began.
the island of Fogocisterndefense of the harborprison cells
We did pass a University on the way. Compliments of China.
Universidade de Cabo Verde
Great tour of this city. We met some of the family of our guide and did see some boys do a dance for us.
We left the continent of Africa last night and are on our way to the Cape Verde Islands. Too far to make it in one day so we are traveling very slowly, 10 knots, as to get there on Friday.
We had an independent tour booked but when I pressed the tour operator about it being a private tour, she cancelled and said the minimum number of people was not met. I’ll do some research and we will figure something out.
The gym was interesting with the large swells we were experiencing at such a slow speed.
I missed Jeremy’s talk about Cape Verde. I will watch it on tv to get ideas on what to see in Cape Verde.
The ship has a safety protocol it must follow every 30 days. Just means that you have to report to your muster station and check in. Very easy to do.
We picked up passports again. Not sure where we will need them. Maybe the USA?
Our group is the loudest at team trivia because of all of the laughing. Richard can’t hear anything but is full of great answers. People who can’t hear always speak very loudly. The team next to us can hear him quite well.
We played a round of scategories at 7 since we had already seen the act on the World Stage. There were only two teams and we won by a large margin. Why just answer ring when you can say royal red ring and get 3 points?
My last message with tour provider was at 9 pm. We will see what happens in the morning.…
Today we are to meet our guide at 9:30 am. I sent him a note and told him we were in port at 9 am and were awaiting immigration. His response was that he was already here and would have a sign with my name on it. When we got off of the ship I saw no such sign. I asked if he was inside or outside the port. No response. We walked the short distance to the port gate and found no one with a sign with my name. I called three times and he finally answered. He was back by the ship. Time wasted.
Our tour for today was Goree, an island off of the coast. This is where most of the slaves that came to the Americas were forced on to ships. The island was first controlled by the Portuguese and then by Dutch, English and French. Those countries fought over control of this island.
Goree had 28 slave houses. In the houses, the slave masters lived upstairs and the slaves were kept in cells on the first floor. The slaves were brought here by different warring tribes in Africa. One tribe would conquer another and then bring the most difficult ones to the slave market and sell them. Slave masters prized big and strong men, children with good teeth and women with large breasts. If a man was considered underweight he would be put in a different cell and fed until he gained weight. In this way, the slave masters maximized profits. Very few, if any slaves were from Senegal. Most slaves came from Nigeria and Angola.
The red structures were built by the Portuguese, the yellow by the Dutch and the white by the French.
The cannons in the pictures below were put there by the French and used in WWII. The only documented instance of usage was mistakenly sinking a British ship. Our guide said these were the guns used in the movie the Guns of Navarrone. I couldn’t find anything to support this.
Catholic ChurchMemorial representing a ship and sailSlave HouseCellCellMemorial Commemorant l’esclavageLocal beer
We toured the island and then took the ferry back to Dakar. Once there we walked over to the market area.
Very crowded and reminiscent of other markets we have seen. The Pullman Hotel seemed like a nice way to finish the tour. We stopped for some refreshments and then walked back to the ship.
We watched the ship leave the port as we enjoyed dinner. Team trivia and discussions of our activities with our other team members. Entertainment was a film on the main stage. We opted to skip.…
Another day at Sea. Since we missed a previously planned stopped, we are moving faster than normal to reach Port of Dakar at the right time. We had breakfast with Jim and Bill. I think thee wives have had it with the ship people on the tours. Thankfully we are able to avoid most of the HAL tours.
Team trivia has been going better than ever. Maybe Erica is making it easier. She created “trivia for elementary schoolers”, just to see if we could keep up. She had questions from first grade, second grade and so on. An elementary question she gave was a music question. Is an oboe a brass or wind instrument. A brass instrument is a wind instrument and so is an oboe. I think she meant to say brass or woodwind. I did mention that to her but I just got a blank stare. LJ argued with me quite a bit. She was a trumpet player, don’t ya know. “Brass is not a wind instrument”, she said. I laughed and tried to explain winds, percussion, strings. Winds can be broken down into brass, woodwinds, upper woodwinds, double reeds. It’s hard to argue with a trumpet player. Of course we said oboe and got it right but I would have argued for brass also.
We had dinner in the Pinnacle with Anne and Joe. They are brother and sister and have been traveling together for a few years. Joe lost his wife some years ago and Anne her husband. They grew up in Cleveland and also went to Bowling Green University. We had a lot to share and had a lot of laughs. I had a few calls during dinner about a tour we were trying to set up for tomorrow. I finally did reach him and we set up a tour for 9:30 am.
It was PJ’s birthday so we did a FaceTime call before going to bed. The grandkids are growing up too fast. PJ did a demonstration on his new violin. Good for him!…
The internet is very unstable in this part of the world. The satellite television and internet were down all morning. It’s nice to get the current news but this morning it was next to impossible.
Breakfast behind Miss Muffins again today. She seems to have a consistent following but still insults all of them. This morning she listened to a woman talk about her grandson. Judging from the appearance of this woman, her grandson would probably be in his 20s. Like any grandparent, this woman began to brag about all of what her grandson has accomplished in his home city of London. Miss Muffins couldn’t tolerate that kind of talk and proceeded to ask about the women in his life. “So he is a momma’s boy”, Muffins said. The woman began to defend her grandson but Muffins stood up and said, “He’s a momma’s boy”, and then left.
It was fun to get back to team trivia. Jose told me that he is really going to miss being on the ship and was making plans to book another cruise. Kathy and LJ have already booked others. Clare keeps commenting how liberating the homeless life was and I think he will get back to that life after this cruise. 6 plastic totes and an SUV was all he owned for 7 years prior to his knee surgery.
Who recorded the tune Red, Red, Wine? I was sure it was Bob Marley but it turned out to be Neil Diamond. The UB40 version sounds just like Bob Marley and it is often attributed to him. It was a good round for us and we have more laughs than any group regardless of our score. I made up for my musical failure with my knowledge of Ar on the periodic table. My answer to the question of “What is it called when a therapist use art to help someone”? Art therapy. Over ruled. The answer? Art therapy.
Dinner was a “dressy night”. It used to be that cruise ships would require this kind of dress at dinner. Now even the special nights like this have no requirement. I think the way someone dresses really says a lot about them. Mom taught me this one. I’ve heard all of the excuses. Uncomfortable, too much trouble, don’t want to get them dirty. We have been to some of the poorest countries on the planet and the majority of the people are better dressed when they are walking down the street than in most places in the USA. Men in suits walking to work in 90 degree heat and very humid weather. Women in nice dresses and heels doing the same. At dinner, there is a mixture of dressy and sloppy. We’ve lost something.
The evening entertainment was vocalist Rebecca Kelly. She was part comedian and vocalist. The vocals were very strong. Worthy of a 10. She covered Adele and even Frank Sinatra. The humor could have been left out. More of physical comedian and that added nothing. She came out in what look like an over sized man’s suit. It appeared to be 4 times her size. I kept thinking she was going to take off the suit to show that it was just a joke. We saw here later when we were playing cards on the Lido. She had a nice dress on. I don’t get it. I would drop the attempt at comedy and stick with the vocals.
Another sea day tomorrow and then a stop in Senegal. We are doing a walking tour on our own. We have two more ports, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, and then we start to head back across the Atlantic. …
Today we arrived in the Ivory Coast. Our port was the city of Abidjan. We picked up the pilot at about 6 am and were at the port about 7 am. Lots of irony on this stop. The ship had to be first cleared by the Ivory Coast health official. The port had a very foul smell, the water on the cruise in was full of debris (captains language) I called it garbage. The port was a working port but there were broken pallets and other garbage everywhere.
The ship we are on is immaculate. Crew members are constantly cleaning, polishing, painting. It may be 20 years old but it looks brand new. We were approved by the health official about 20 minutes later.
Men supposedly at work.
After the health approval, the official immigration officials and the team of official passport stampers. The problem the stamping team had was that passengers were told they would need to carry their passports with them as they left the ship. The ships crew passed them out the day before. I mistakenly thought that we would have immigration officials stamping our books as we left. We were also told that we would need our “original” vaccination card. No such thing happened. No passports or vaccination cards needed. What a waste of time and energy.
Just another example of how stupid government can be. Different country, different levels of stupidity.
Our goal today was to meet up with a guide we hired through trip advisor. She would meet us at the National Library at 9:15. Pedestrians were not allowed in the port so we hopped on the HAL shuttle. Believe it or not, the HAL passengers were already complaining about something. We were dropped off at the Pullman Hotel at about 8:50. We can walk fast but 1.5 miles in 25 mins was not be doable. I sent our guide a note that we were on our way but would be a few minutes late.
We arrived at the point on our map that said Biblioteque de Nationale de Cote d’Lvoire. There was no guide. I did ask a woman where the Bibliotheque was and she pointed and spoke in slow and loud French. I guess since slow and loud English works for us, other countries are adopting this attitude when speaking to foreigners. The library was 4 blocks further.
We made it to the library. No guide. I sent her a message or two on WhatsApp. I finally called her. “5 minutes” she said. When she arrived, there were 2 other couples in her car. Ship people and we recognized them. They stopped for pastries on the way and that is why they were late. We were already fuming because our guide was 45 minutes late and all aboard was 3:30. I took the guide aside and told her we would do the tour ourselves. One of the ship people was unloading his walker from the car. No way he was going to make it on a walking tour in this city. Broken sidewalks, wide open man holes, drainage ditches wide opened. I told the guide we would request a refund and we left. I sent a refund request and chatted with the tour company. They were very understanding and send us a refund.
Just of sample of the infrastructure in the country. Manholes open everywhere. You must looked at the ground constantly. The exposed drainage ditch. Get out of the car on the right side and you be in a 3 ft deep ditch.
We chose to hike back to the center of town and see what there was to see. We did find a rather hidden market area that was not visible from the street. An article I read about the city did give the location of the market. This was like the bazaars we have seen in many cities with the difference being tourists. There are little to none here. This market served the local population. Terri started to barter with a jeweler and we did convince him to take USD. We wanted to look at more shops and decided we would need local currency. They use Francs here. France uses euros now but a few former colonies still use the Franc.
Fortunately, there was a bank close by with an ATM. After some laughs with the security guard, I was able to get $50,000 Francs.
Back at the market, we stopped into a little stall and had a local beer and wine. The beer was 500 Frances or 80 cents USD, the juice container full of wine may have been a bit more. Very little if any English spoken in this country. We had some great laughs trying to communicate. Both parties always defaulted to Google translate.
We stayed for a bit. A gent approached me with some men’s socks. Quite nice. I bought 5 pair.
On our way back to the shuttle bus we decided to grab some lunch. We went in a nice little cafe and bought a sandwich, a pain au chocolate a croissant, a San Pellegrino and a Perrier. $9 USD. Huge bargain and great food. The pastries were good but still didn’t meet Paris standards.
We ended up back at the Pullman Hotel and had another drink.
We took the shuttle back to the ship We were wringing wet again as it was in the 90s.
It was Orange Night in the dining room to celebrate the founding of Holland America in the 1800s. Lots of silly costumes.
The evening entertainment was another performance of Ch2. New tunes although they did play Billy Jean again. I think it is used to highlight how the rhythm guitarist uses the body of the guitar to produce percussive effects. Another great performance. Look them up.…
Today we arrived in port about 8 am. It was 9 am before the official passport stamping team were done with passports and collection of the worthless forms passengers filled out.
We decided that we would do this port on our own. There wasn’t much to see that was very close to the port and the thought of a 2 hour bus ride didn’t excite us. Sometimes just experiencing the culture by taking a walk is the way to go.
Outside the ship, a school band of some kind assembled. I saw one of the ship passengers borrow one of the trumpets and he proceeded to play a portion of Handel’s Water Music. Not bad. Maybe he is free on Tuesday night.
The band consisted of brass and drums. A few trombones,tubas, trumpets, a bass drum, snare and cymbals. When the band began to play they were loud and obnoxious. They couldn’t really play any music, they just played a 4 note riff over and over. Some tried to solo over it but it was awful.
I can appreciate young musicians, or any musicians, presenting music at any level. I don’t appreciate a bombastic performance of sound. I can get that walking down most streets in Africa with the car horns blaring constantly. It is a poor country and instruments and instruction cost money. I would rather hear a major scale being performed carefully and correctly.
We took the shuttle into town as pedestrians were not allowed to walk in port. Pictures in port were also forbidden. The pictures of the band are illegal.
We were dropped off at a Best Western Hotel. We decided that this would be a day of shopping. We needed some coffee and some other items. There was a shopping mall 2.7 miles away and the route took us right through the center of town.
Another country with crumbling infrastructure. I guess these are the remnants of colonialism. Another country gains freedom but has no way to maintain the infrastructure created by the occupying power. The drainage system next to the road is not covered. It is made of concrete and is about 3 feet deep. What would prevent someone from falling in? Not a thing. There are some flimsy boards laying across in sections. Not sure who would chance crossing over using these.
There is real hypocrisy here. The ship was forced to check the temperature of every passenger before anyone could get off. Everyone was forced to buy a visa at $85. Didn’t matter if you left the ship or not. Where did the approximately $120,000 USD go? They are worried about Covid 19 yet allow holes in the sidewalk that can swallow a child. Of course we are much smarter back home. We are building windmills while we allow people to live on the sidewalks in tents
Along the way we stopped in a grocery store to buy some water to drink. We each purchased a 500ml bottle. Price was $1.50 in local currency. I used my credit card because I didn’t have local cash. After the cashier rang it up I received a notification of the charge on my phone with the conversion already in place. $3 local currency, 24 cents USD. That $120,000 USD is going to go a long way here lining someone’s pocket. Half a million bottles of water at the grocery store.
It is amazing that KFC is found in almost every country we visit. We walked past a market with people selling goods on the street. This is not a tourist town. We were clearly outsiders. Some people did yell “welcome to Ghana” to us. The only white people walking down the street creates some attention.
We passed under a bridge under construction. The China sign underneath told me that this was another “belt and road” initiative. This will eventually come at a price to the country.
We finally made it to the mall. It was 90 and very humid. The mall AC felt good but many of the stores were closed. The ShopRite was opened and we went to buy some coffee. I found some whole bean Guatemalan Coffee. 1 kg or 2.2 lbs for 14 USD. Back home that would be nearly $60 for that much coffee.
We did see some other ship people at the mall. They took a cab to get here. Too dangerous because of crime and poor infrastructure.
We decided to walk back after doing a bit of shopping at the market set up in the parking lot. We passed Pee’s Gym on the way back. So much irony. Surviving Covid? How about surviving until your next meal.
It was Sunday and Church was letting out as we walked. People were dressed very well. Even those we passed on the street were wearing very nice outfits. I guess the trash, holes, failing infrastructure didn’t mean as much to them as there was nothing that the common citizen could do.
We walked back to catch the shuttle bus. We ate lunch on the ship. Much safer food and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Quite the experience. We finished the evening at the Sea View Bar and played some cards.…
Today at 9:45, we passed by null island. 0.0 latitude, 0.0 longitude I took this photo from the treadmill. Pretty exciting stuff.
Our team really did well today. We scored a 15 out of 18 with only one team ahead of us. Must have been all of the studying we have been doing. Jose is our history guy. Kathy fairs well on literature. LJ handles the more obscure questions. Terri on science and medicine and I definitely can handle the music.
A few changes to the itinerary have created some issues. We had a HAL tour in Puerto Rico that was cancelled due to lack of interest. Out tour in Cape Verde requires 8 people minimum. They want us to find people? We cancelled. Still adjusting times on our tour on Monday in the Ivory Coast. Tour operator is a bit slow in responses.
At our dinner with the other night, we learned that the wives of Bill and Jim aren’t really cut out for life on the ship. I think they spend too much time in their room and not out on the deck. You really have to learn to ignore the 75 year old, very over weight man in the Speedo. If you look, you can’t unsee. The 75 year old, very heavy set woman with the cell phone between her boobs is another. Learn to ignore and you have it made. Meals prepared, laundry done, live music any time of day. Tough life.
The evening entertainment was CH2. A classical guitar duo from South Africa. What a show. One guitarist was on a nylon string classical guitar. The other was on a more standard steel string. The steel string guitarist was the rhythm player and he was able to provide the drummer that was needed by striking different parts of his guitar. The other guitarist played the lead, melodic parts. The did a cover of Sinatra’s My Way, Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean, and also dug deep for an arrangement of the Canon in D by Johann Pachebel (I ignored it when the lead guitarist referred to it as Bach’s Canon in D). Outstanding performance. Worth looking them up on YouTube. I gave them a 10. Best performance on the cruise.
We had breakfast with Bill and Jim. They invited to have dinner with them and another couple tonight. We have this habit of always sitting at the same table. Behind miss muffins. Not much changes. Always complaining.
Another sea day, another day at the gym.
We had a new player join us today and after trivia we chatted with him and Clare about being homeless. Dan has been homeless for a few years and claims South Dakota as his home state. No income tax and easy to get a drivers license without a physical home. A post office box is all that is needed. Dan and his wife sold everything they own a few years back and now live anywhere they choose. Clare has done this for 7 years but it ended when he needed knee replacement. He bought a house in Nevada and calls that home. He has lived in Alaska, Thailand, Hawaii, and other places. Dan and Clare admit that the lifestyle is not for everyone but they were able to make it work. They went from rented homes, cruise ships, hotel rooms. Dan said that South Dakota is the easiest state in the union to do something like this from. It is very popular with people who live in RVs.
Team trivia is nothing but laughs as it is so difficult. I think I was the only one in the packed crow’s nest that answered the “number of notes in a chromatic scale” question. I’m guessing there were no other musicians in the room.
Dinner was fun and Dick and Betty joined us. They were both originally from Pennsylvania but now live in Florida with just about everyone else on this cruise. When we tell people we are from Michigan, they always say “still?”. We chatted about all kinds of stuff but left politics out. We all agreed that the HAL excursions need improvement. Too much wasted time. Too many unfit people. I shared my idea of having separate busses with ice cream and cookies and those without as a way to have more fit people grouped together. It would be simple. One line says “This way to ice cream and cookies” the other would have no identifier. I have a feeling that if the ice cream and cookie bus never left the port but just supplied ice cream and cookies to passengers, it would be a hit. Of course there would be complaining about the type of cookies. Both busses would have happier people. Maybe I’ll contact tour administration.
The piano bar pianist was on stage tonight. We didn’t care for her singing at the piano bar so we skipped it.…
Today we begin 3 days at sea to reach our next port in Ghana. The captain said we will be passing 0 latitude and 0 longitude sometime on the 3rd day. Exciting news!
It’s getting very warm and humid. Sitting on the balcony is possible again.
We did our usual workout routine in the gym Once we finish it is usually close to lunch time.
Team trivia is getting much harder. Simone tends to make them much harder than Erika. Most teams finish in the single digits.
We had Ms. Able in the dining room move our table. It was next to a woman who would eves drop and then interject herself into our conversations. We like it private.
We decided to skip the evening entertainment and do team trivia instead. This was a bit different than usual. Erika named a company slogan and we had to come up with the company. “Builds strong bodies in 12 ways”, “Come see the lighter side of…..”, “Bet you can’t eat just one”. We did better than usual scoring a 12.…
