LAST THOUGHTS ON SOUTH AMERICA:

We have been to South America three times. The continent is varied in scenery, climate, people, and wealth. I would recommend to all of you that you visit. In terms of cities, Rio would be my first choice, closely followed by Buenos Aires.

Perhaps the southern half of the continent is a little more interesting that the northern part, but then I prefer vineyards to archeological ruins.

Parts of South America are defintely third world (Ecuador, Peru) and an easy way to visit is, of course, on a cruise ship, where you can retreat to your stateroom when the sun goes down.

There is lots of poverty in South America and the system of dealing with it is very different than in North America or Europe. As millions of rural residents have migrated to the cities, they have been left to their own initiatives as there is no welfare state as we know it. The poor squat in shanty towns with 100's of 1000's of residents. As there is no welfare the poor all work, but they work outside the system. As the unregistered they have no benefits, no deductions, and of course pay no taxes.

We were told that a family migrating to a shanty town needs 40 years in order to move on. I wonder how that compares to our welfare system in Canada where Canadians may live in poverty for generations?

LAST TWO SEA DAYS: We had two full days at sea between Recife and Rio. They turned out to be a lot of fun. For two weeks there have been announcements asking for volunteers for a guest talent show to be held on March 31. Only two people had signed up and the show was about to be cancelled. However, at the last minute 4 more of us showed up and the Cruise Director put a show together in a matter of minutes with 2 singers, 2 pianists, a comedian and a magician.

Although the house has been less than full for the professional entertainers, everybody seemed to show up for amateur night with lots of people having to stand. The audience was incredibly enthusiastic and I had a great time getting to sing with a fabulous show band.

Jim Johnson, the guy who early in the cruise cured Betty’s intestinal ills by sharing his prescription drugs, threw a small party on April 1 to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Eight people gathered in the Johnson’s large stateroom (several price categories above ours) for pre-dinner champagne and hors d’oevres prepared by the Johnson’s butler. Then we all went to dinner at the Italian restaurant where Jim had pre-ordered the wines to everyone’s tastes (malbec for Betty and me). I wrote a short birthday tune for Stephanie and I think she was quite pleased.

RIO de JANEIRO: There are many cities of beauty in the world (Madrid, Paris) and then there are cities of great settings (Vancouver, San Francisco). On the setting side I think none can compare to Rio. We sailed in early in the morning of April 2 and watched the skyline in behind the famous beaches and in front of the beautiful mountains. The famous Christ the Redeemer statue which overlooks Rio is currently undergoing repairs so is partially hidden by scaffolding.

BETTY THE TOUR DIRECTOR: One thing we have learned is that cruise excursions offered by the cruise companies are very expensive and not that interesting and you end up on a bus for 40 people. We managed to tag on to privately arranged tours in Lima and in Salavery and when in ports such as Manta, Cartagena, or Recife we privately arranged for tours by taxi drivers. However, for the Rio trip we couldn’t find any private tours to join so people “bit the bullet” and arranged one. On the internet before we left home she found a guy who would rent her a van/bus complete with driver and English-speaking guide. She committed $ 890. for a small bus for two full days. Then she found another couple on the internet to share, so that cut the cost in two. On board ship we found 4 more people to share so the cost got cut in two again. The tour was great. We were picked up on Friday morning, returned to the ship in time for dinner on Friday night. On Sat. we were picked up when we disembarked with our luggage first thing in the morning and then were dropped at the airport in the evening. Over the two days we got to Christ the Redeemer, got up the cable cars to the top of sugarloaf, walked in the National Forest to a waterfall, visited the Botanical Gardens, saw the amazing Catholic Cathedral built in the 60’s and 70’s (only modern church that ever impressed me), walked for hours on Copocabana and Ipanema beaches (never found the girl). One day we had lunch in a Brazilian “weight” restaurant (essentially a buffet where you pay by the weight of your plate when you reach the end of the line.

Rio is an amazing beautiful city. I would have liked to have had more time there.

BRAZIL: I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of the city we visited on March 28. Fortaleza is Brazil's 5th largest city and has a population of 3.4 million. Seen from the ship it has a beautiful skyline, but inside the city is quite grubby.

No one speaks English in Fortaleza and Betty's one hour Portuguese class insufficiently prepared her to act as a tour guide. However, we spent the day with our sometime tablemate, a Linguistics Prof. from York. Ian is quite amazing. In 1971 he took a summer course in Portuguese and still speaks the language quite fluently.

In the morning we took a cab into the central market where we spent an hour or so shopping for things for grandsons. We then to walk to another market but were warned off by a local who told us it wasn't safe.

In the afternoon we decided to go to a beach and an onboard staff member recommended a particular upscale beach. After a starting ask of $ 50. Ian bartered a taxi fare down to $ 10.0. We headed to a 7 km. beach that was packed the entire length. The system is that you can only enter the beach through one of scores of restaurants. Once shown to a table (on the sand by the water) you only hve to order a round of beers and then you are free to stay as long as you wish. There were rock bands playing and many young people dancing. We didn't see any tourists. The water was incredibly warm, at least 30 degrees, with very high surf, and surfers.

BRAZIL DAY TWO: When I awoke on the morning of Mar. 30 I stepped onto our veranda to see the skyline of Recife as we sailed into the harbor. I was hit by a wall of heat. Recife is Brazil's 9th largest city with a population of about 2 million. I could see miles of beautiful beaches. However we gave up the idea of a day at the beach when we were assured that "swimming is safe, there has not been a shark attack in almost two years." We did notice signs along the beaches we passed warning of sharks.

Since Betty has a birthday coming up I decided we should take one of the free shuttles offered by the Brazilian jewelry guys. Since the store was at the far end of the city we got a good sense of this quite beautiful place en route. However, I didn't find any trinkets under $ 11,000. U.S. so resigned myself to the idea of giving Betty a senior's pass to the Capital Theatre in Antigonish. After the visit to the store we were dropped at the "Cultural Centre" which turned out to be an abandoned prison converted into a shopping centre with each former cell being a shop. There we found a suitable (affordable) birthday gift but neither of the credit cards I was carrying would work (and appear to be frozen). So as not to lose the sale the merchant walked us to a bank so I could use my ATM card. That didn't work so we were walked to another bank and got the daily limit of Real's. I paid the small balance in U.S. dollars.

By this time we were extremely hot so we headed back to the ship. After a lunch of duck confit salad followed by brilled bream we felt more venturesome and headed back out into the heat. Although my negotiating skills were not at the level of Ian's I did get a taxi driver to take us on an afternoon tour of Olinda for the balance of my Real's (about $ 40.). Olinda is close to Recife and is a UNESCO world heritage city. It was built in the 1500's and still has most of the colonial buildings.

TRAVELLING WITH BETTY: Normally travelling in a foreign country with Betty is one constant search for a lavatory. This is especially a problem in Europe where they charge for less than pristine potties. (I think the French are physiologically different than the rest of us and don't ever need to urinate.) However, at the equator where the temperature is in the 30's one doesn't even need to stop at the toilets that one comes upon.

CRUISE NEARING END: By Friday when we dock in Rio we will have been on this ship for 26 days and will have sailed about 7500 nautical miles. Going home is starting to seem attractive.

LAST COMMENT ON ARUBA: In my last posting I was tad disparaging about Aruba. I must add that on Sunday afternoon we took a taxi to a very nice beach and swam in 29 degree water. My view on Aruba then became less negative.

A DAY IN GRENADA (THE SPICE ISLAND): Tuesday morning we sailed into the beautiful little harbour at St. George's, Grenada. Grenada has an interesting history. The Carib people, the first inhabitants, were successful in resisting the Spanish in the 17c. However, the French overran the island and wiped out the entire population, many of whom committed suicide by leaping off the cliffs rather than submit. The French didn't rule long and in the 1700's ceded the island to the Brits. Today Grenada is a constitutional monarch still stuck, as is Canada, with a foreign queen. Of course, you will remember that Ronald Reagan sent in his troops in 1982 after a coup executed the legitimate Prime Minister.

We had no plans for our visit to Grenada and simply disembarked. A taxi driver convinced us to take a tour with his group and along with 6 other tourists we were taken around the island, visiting some waterfalls, seeing cliff divers, visiting a spice factory, etc. As the day was very hot we ended the tour by being driven to a lovely beach. After we had a swim the driver returned and took us back to the ship. All this cost $20 per person. By the way, the temperature each day seems to be 28 and the water temperature 29.

MARCH 24: A sea day aboard our floating nursing home. Betty attended a cooking class. As we were approaching Devil's Island in French Guyana I spent part of the afternoon watching the 1973 movie "Papillon" with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

A WORD OR THREE ON SERVICE: The other night one of our tablemates complained that he forgot his glasses and couldn't read the menu. The waiter returned with a fancy wooden case and offered a dozen or so pairs of reading glasses. I know that fine restaurants sometimes offer this service but I am not certain that I would get such help in any of my usual haunts, such as "The Wheel" or "DeLuxe French Fries."

Most nights we avoid the buffet and eat in "The Grand Dining Room". This means 4 or 5 courses with fairly traditional items starting with caviar, foie gras, or escargot, followed by a choice of soups, a choice of salads and then such ordinary things as prime rib, rack of lamb, ostrich, or steamed Maine lobster (no more than 2 pounds). Occasionally we get a reservation in one of the speciality restaurants. On March 24 a shipboard friend joined us for a meal in the Italian restaurant. Our buddy is a Canadian who is retired, lives in Dublin and travels the world by himself.

As one would expect in an Italian restaurant we started with a basket of bread with oil and vinegar condiments. Here, however, we were given a choice of 12 different olive oils and 5 or 6 vinegars. Probably the food at this nursing home is better than at the R. K MacDonald in Antigonish.

DEVIL'S ISLAND: Although the seas were rough our tender managed (yesterday) to get us to Ile Royale, one of 3 tiny island that made up the French penal colony commonly called Devil's Island. At first it seemed that we had landed on a tropical paradise with monkeys and peacocks. That impression soon changed as we approache the prison ruins and saw the tiny cells and iron shackles. Some of the stories were quite horrific. One French soldier in the early 20c was sentenced for setting fire to his barracks cots. Once on the island he served 3771 days in solitary confinement. Very few of the 10's of 1000's sentenced here survived to return to France. The prison was established in 1852 and it is absolutely amazing to learn that there were still imates here as late as 1946.

MARCH 26: Another sea day we we approach Brazil. Betty is off taking a Portuguese lesson. I am waiting for the wash to finish and I nurse the aftereffects of 4 glasses of wine at a pre-dinner wine tasting, following by champagne (supplied by a York Prof with whom we ate) and a good bottle of Priorat (from my cache).

AN AFTERNOON IN COLUMBIA: On March 19 we sailed into the harbour of Cartegena de Indies. Cartegena is the second largest city in Columbia (about one million) and was built as a walled city/fortress in the 1500's following 3 raids by Sir Francis Drake. Cartegena was the city from which the Spanish shipped their gold and also ran their slave trade. As such it was frequently attacked by pirates, including Drake, who was little more than a pirate himself.

Today the walled city remains but modern high rises are all around the thick and well-preserved fortifications. The city is surrounded by the sea and is both beautiful and clean. It appears to be relatively prosperous according to Mr. Rum's economic index (no. of new cars/no. of old cars x no. of BMWs/no. of Kias).

As we had not booked a tour and as it was very, very hot we negotiated a taxi to take us on a tour of the city. We saw tourist sites, drove through parts of the new city and then our taxi driver walked with us through the old city. This 3 hour venture, including tip, cost $ 65. The traffic is horrendous and Columbian drivers make Parisian drivers seem like wimps. I am uncertain how our driver managed to stay out of accidents, what with Betty squealing loudly and frequently from the back seat.

WINE WITH DINNER: I mentioned in an earlier posting that I had bartered for wine to drink on the cruise. Although I am still going to hold that full story for a future WineWhine I can say that the ship's cellar has many of my bottles to be fetched each night at dinner. As Betty has tended not to drink much for the past several days I am having a bit of a consumption challenge. However, I have not given up hope that I can drink all this stuff by the end of the cruise.

ORANJESTAD, ARUBA: We are spending the day in Aruba, a "Dutch" island that can best be described as a tourist trap. We have been walking by scores of junk and other sourvenir stores, interspersed with very high end designer stores. However, most of these stores are closed as it is Sunday. This is despite the fact that two cruise ships are docked and 100's of tourists are walking up and down desperate to unload the weight of disposable money from their pockets. On the other hand, there are quite a few panhandlers who are offering to help with the problem. This is definitely a spot to miss if you are in the southern Carribean.

Panama

Panama

LEVEL OF SERVICE: The onboard staff are really quite amazing. A couple of nights ago two of us (at a table of six) ordered the lamb curry. When the entrees arrived the waiter (who happened to be from India) gave us our curry and then set a second entree (a grilled shrimp) by each of our plates. "In case you don't like the curry", he commented. Of course, he was correct in that the curry was not up to the usual ship standards.

The next morning I decided to do my walking laps around the track despite the fact that it was raining. As I walked it rained harder and harder and eventually I was the only person on the track. Suddenly a steward appeared along side me and told me that he was leaving a towel in a sheltered spot so that I wouldn't get a chill when I finished.

The rain continued all day so it was impossible to spend any time on the outside decks. By mid-afternoon I was sufficiently bored to attend a class in napkin folding.

Twice we have received messages from management warning us that there were unauthorized Brazilian jewelry salesmen on board. Tuesday night at dinner one of our fellow tablemates introduced himself as : "I am Angelo and I am one of those salesmen from Rio about whom you have been warned." He said nothing further and the conversation turned to the usual drivel. Eventually I asked him about his business. He explained that he was travelling on the cruise in order to meed people and invite them to visit the shop in Rio. His store must handle pretty expensive gems if they can afford to send him off on a cruise only to tell people that he has a shop. Apparently the brands of my watch and my golf shirt sufficiently discouraged him from a personal invitation to shop while in Rio.

PANAMA-MARCH 17: We anchored in Panama Bay and tendered to the outskirts of Panama City from where we took a tour bus to the Gamboa Rain Forest. There we took an aerial tram through part of the jungle. Although we didn't see many animals the flora was quite spectacular.

PANAMA-MARCH 18: Most of the day was spent going through the Panama Canal. The canal was cut through 80 kms of jungle and mountains at a time when Korea didn't turn out gial excavators. One can only imagine the 1000's of French workers who died of malaria and yellow fever before France gave up construction and turned it over to the Americans. We enjoyed watching huge container ships being pulled through the locks by small trains--inches to spare on each side of the ships.

MARCH 19: Betty has been quite ill again with stomach and unmentionable related problems. Today she is feeling quite herself after getting some kind of medication from some Californians who were at our table last night. I had been having nightmares about putting in some Columbian hospital.

In a couple of hours we will sail into Cartegena, Columbia. We hope to take a taxi into town to look around.

FROM PERU TO ECUADOR



Second day in Peru: March 12 we drove down the Pan-American highway south of Lima into the desert. The desert stretches 2500 km south and into Chile and is the driest desert in the world. The purpose of this trip was to see the pyramids at Pachacamac. These were first built around 200 B.C. and there were successive civilizations until they were deserted by the Incas in the 1500’s. These cities (we also visited pyramids at Huaca Pucllana) are huge, built out of mud bricks and are very impressive.

Peru has 3 geographic regions: Coastal is mostly desert (Lima gets 4 inches of rain per year) but is where most of the population lives; The Andes; and the interior Rain Forest.
Although Peru generates much wealth from mining (silver, copper and gold) there are millions of very poor people who live in Shanty Towns. There is no welfare system. We drove by one Shanty Town (out in the desert near Pachacamac) where more than 1 million people live. The people are mostly of mixed heritage (largely indigenous Indians). Our tour guide was very proud of his ancestry and referred to the Spanish conquerors with great disdain.

Trujillo: March 13 was another day of archeological sites. We visited the Temples of the Sun and Moon from the period when the Mochicas were the dominant culture. Then we visited the 14 sq. km palace at Chan Chan from the period when the Chimu took over, prior to their defeat by the Incas.

If you like archeology then you would love Peru. If not, Peru is a land of sand and not very attractive cities. I have never been big on pre-Columbian civilizations which perhaps was obvious to our guide who did remind “Mr. Rum” (rum in Spanish is ron) to pay more attention.

March 14: A day at sea as we sailed close to the equator on our way to Manta, Ecuador. I spent the morning bartering for bottles of wine to drink with dinner for the rest of the cruise, but that’s a story I’ll leave for my next WineWhine.

A Day in Ecuador: With only one day in Ecuador we could not get to the capital Quito up in the Andes. Rather than taking an expensive tour we chose to take a shuttle bus into the small city of Manta (a fishing port where our ship docked). From there we negotiated with a taxi to drive us to the town of Montecristi. Montecristi is the town that invented the Panama hat. Craftsmen still make the hats here. The Panama hat was never made in Panama but got the name when Teddy Roosevelt was photographed wearing one at the time of the opening of the Panama Canal.

Shopping was very good in Montecristi and our taxi driver stayed with us as we bartered our way around. He then drove us back to Manta. The charge for the 25 minute drive each way and his waiting while we shopped was US $ 15.

FROM PERU-March 11

Because our first scheduled stop (Coquimbo) was cancelled due to the Insignia having to wait for us travelers from Toronto on Sunday we started the cruise with 3 sea days. Today is the first of 3 shore days in Peru. Betty came down with something and spent Tuesday in bed. She thought at first it might be seasickness, but I think it is just a delayed reaction to stress. Wednesday she accompanied me to meals but isn’t ready to eat just yet.

The ship is relatively small (compared to our previous cruises) and our stateroom is also smaller although quite adequate. The meals, on the other hand, are fabulous. On Tuesday while Betty tried to down some room service consommé I headed out to the Captain’s champagne cocktail party and then on to dinner in the Grande Dining Room. There I started with a huge mound of black caviar, skipped the soup and salad courses, and then went directly to my prime rib which I washed down with an excellent Cab from California. It was difficult to choose the prime rib over the Peking duck and the Maine steamed lobster, but I did manage. Last night we (really just I) ate at one of the specialty restaurants where my oysters were followed with about the best rack of lamb I have ever tasted. The wine list is very good with lots of affordable wines from California and South America. There are also lots of high end French wines, but I fear that many (Chateau Petrus, for example) are out of my price range. There are also a lot of wines from Uruguay which I have yet to try.

There is open seating in all the restaurants and we usually ask to be seated with others. Virtually everyone on board is retired so in a way you could call this ship a floating nursing home. Nonetheless, each passenger is interesting in his (her) own way. At the table last night was a nuclear physicist who was just publishing his first novel and a dentist who will follow this cruise with a trip to Scotland to chase ghosts. Most are veteran travelers who have been to many more places than we have.

This morning the ship docked in Callao (a city port of about 1 million) which runs into Lima (9 million people). Prior to the trip 12 people via the internet arranged a two-day tour of Lima. Our bus/van picked us up at 8:00 this morning and it was a long day.
Because of this being an earthquake area no buildings are tall so the city is spread all over. Some of the city is nice but huge portions are slums and our tour guide seemed to want to show us all of them.

Peru is still a very Catholic country. Until 1920 you could be sent to jail for not being Catholic. Part of that heritage was to build churches everywhere and I think I walked through all of them today. First we saw 100’s of paintings of dead Catholics. Then we saw 100’s of statues of dead Catholics. Then we went down to the catacombs under the biggest Cathedral and saw 1000’s of very dead Catholics.

At noon we went to the changing of the guard at the President’s Palace. Unlike the wimpy ceremony in Stockholm last year, this one was quite impressive. On the other hand, it seemed a bit like watching an old Zorro movie.

Somewhere in the Pacific – March 8, 2010

Thursday, March 4 to Saturday, March 6 were somewhat nerve wracking as we had 5 flights on 3 different airlines cancelled. On Sunday we were finally scheduled on an Air Canada flight leaving Toronto at midnight. Although an hour late departing we did get airborne and flew directly to Buenos Aires, Argentina. There we landed but were not allowed off the plane. By the time we landed in Santiago, Chile we had been in our economy seats for 16 hours. However, a mixture of sleeping pills and bad French wine had made the time pass more quickly than I would have thought possible.

At Santiago the terminal is still closed so we were processed through a series of tents and eventually found our bus to Valparaiso. A two-hour ride through the Casablanca Valley showed us no signs of the earthquake, although people at lunch today talked about feeling aftershocks in their hotel beds in Santiago on Saturday night.

Our ship was supposed to depart at 6:00 p.m. Sunday. However it was kicked out of the port at 3:00 p.m. so that ships carrying relief supplies could unload. The Insignia (our ship) sat out in the Bay and waited for 60 Canadians to arrive on our plane from Toronto. We were tendered from Port to the Insignia and boarded at around 8:30; tired, hungry and no doubt smelling like a compost bin. However, as the Dining Room was soon to close we headed straight there. A wonderful 5-course meal along with a good bottle of Carmenere Reserva made life seem worth living. We then left our balcony doors opened and slept soundly to the roar of the sea. I managed to make breakfast but Betty only got up in time for lunch.

We were supposed to dock at Coquimbo this morning and then have a tour of the Tabali Winery. However, because the Insignia had to wait for the delinquent Canadians last night it skipped that stop. We will now be at sea for 3 days before reaching Peru where we will be in port for 3 days. We have organized tours for all 3 days in Peru.

Travel Whine with Ron

March 3, 2010

Betty and I have been anticipating this holiday for a couple of months now. Our plan was to fly to Santiago, Chile and from there make our way to Valparaiso and board the Insignia for a 27-day cruise up the coast, through the Panama Canal, and down the coast to Rio. We have tours planned in Peru, Equador, Panama and Brazil, and other stops in Aruba, Grenada, and French Guyana.

The trip has yet to start but it has not been without adventures. First, the cruise line told us we could not board without a Brazilian Visa. Then we learned we could not get a Brazilian Visa without documentation of Yellow Fever shots. Then we learned that Yellow Fever shots are not given to those over the age of 65. Fortunately, an Antigonish doctor agreed that we weren’t a lot older than 65.

You all, of course, know of the huge earthquake (500-1000 times more powerful than the one in Haiti), that hit near the city of Concepion (about 275 km from Santiago) on Saturday. Betty and I spend out days on the internet seeking information. The airport in Santiago was severely damaged and closed until yesterday, when it was partially opened using tents to process people through customs and immigration. Out flight which is scheduled to leave Toronto on Saturday evening is on Lan-Chile and Lan is still not showing any scheduled flights. However, there are indications that flights may return to more-or-less normal by Friday. If we don’t make it to Santiago, we can’t catch the ship in Valparaiso. This means we are out a lot of money and that this Blog may not have more than one entry.

On our last several trips we sent e-mails to a distribution list. This time, however, I have opened a blog. That way we may be able to more easily send pictures. However, unlike what I do with my wine blog I will not send e-mails indicating when a new entry has been posted. If you are interested in what happens to us just check the blog every now and then. I expect to post entries every few days starting early next week.

Finally, I have attached one pre-trip picture to show you that Betty has learned to pack lightly.