Three Days at Sea

Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday , March 26, 27, & 28, 2014 Three Days at Sea
Can hardly believe that our trip around South America is soon coming to an end! Three more ports and seven days at sea! The time has flown by so quickly!


We have been so comfortable on the Crown Princess ship. Her keel was laid on March 5, 2004 in Italy and she was completed on May, 2006...taking over two years to build! She is registered in Hamilton, Bermuda. She can carry 3,599 passengers and a crew of 1201. We were told that she was full on all three legs of our trip. Her gross tonnage is 113,561 tons. The bridge is manned 24 hours a day by two Officers working four hours on and eight hours off in a three watch system. She has five dining rooms, eight bars, five pools (one is for the crew) , nine hot tubs, and 18 elevators. This trip is her first time in the Pacific Ocean. She is truely an amazing ship.

During the past three days we have enjoyed crossing the Equator...again. The crew makes a big deal of this by having an Equator Crossing Ceremony. Those who want to participate are dressed in sheets, Roman style. Lots of words are spoken and then several kinds of things are applied to your skin...red jello, whipped cream, noodles and then you are dunked into the pool...while everyone is watching! It is as much fun for the crew as the passengers.

During our three days we have enjoyed the shows on the ship...especially the singer, Tony B. He sang a variety of Rat Pack and Bobby Darin old tunes. We had seen him on a previous cruise and enjoyed seeing his show again. We also watched the movies "Diana", "Nebraska", and "Flight" with Denzel Washington. We enjoyed spotting dolphins and flying fish several times. The seas have been like a flat, calm lake. The weather has been mighty warm...great for working on your tan. It has been a fabulous three days.

Lima, Peru

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Lima, Peru

We were astonished to get a letter last evening from the captain of the ship telling us to be very cautious in Lima due to the pick pockets and robberies that had taken place there in the past few weeks. It was suggested that we travel in small groups together and not wander from the tourist areas alone....so at 9:00am we met our new ship friends from Canada, Kate and Rick at the International Cafe. We had decided to spend the day touring together in Lima. Because the Callao Port was a very busy place...probably the busiest marina that we have been to...we boarded a shuttle bus at the dock to take us through the port and out to San Miguel Mall, about an hour ride. We enjoyed having front row seats on the bus so we really got a first hand view of the city.

Our first impression was...WOW...this place is really clean! It was the cleanest city that we have visited on this trip. Peruvians were actually out sweeping the streets and the sidewalks. There was absolutely no trash on the streets or city parks anywhere. Next we thought, this place is enormous! Over 10 million people live here.

From there we hired a taxi to take us to Miraflores, a upscale area with condos and homes on high cliffs and gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean. Marvelous parks, bike paths, and sidewalks line the top of the cliffs. Here we saw the famous sculpture, "The Kiss".

The taxi took us to the city center where we walked through the John F. Kennedy Park . Amazing...a little corner of Americana.

Fabulous flower gardens, manicured green grass, sidewalks, statues... a bust of JFK ; as well as a large number of cats. Yes, the park was loaded with cats...healthy looking ones. The city puts the cats here and advertises them for adoption...can you imagine bringing your child through here....you just know one would go home with you ( one looked like Glebe and we fed him).

We found the Indian Craft Market. Hundreds of very modern, well kept attractive booths displayed the crafts of Peru...silver, alpacca sweaters, hats, pottery, leather goods, Peru mugs, hats, T-shirt, instruments, artworks, and......It was an unbelievable amount of things! We spent about an hour just walking around this and then went to grab a bite of lunch.

                             This English speaking policeman was a lot of fun to talk with.


After lunch we toured the city hall. The guard there became very friendly and took us on a private tour upstairs sharing the board room and the balcony. Did we feel special!

From there we hopped on an open air bus double decker to get a tour of the city. We practically had the whole bus to ourselves. We drove through the city seeing first the archeological site of the Incas...right in the city. It was amazing to see this fine piece of history being protected. We learned that the Incas built their structures with space between the bricks so that they would survive frequent earthquakes....yes, hundreds of years ago they were doing this. Smart folks!

                                                            Inca ruins in Lima

On we rode throughout the city...working on our tan on the top deck. Yes, the sun shone bright, but there was a cool breeze that reached us from the ocean occasionally. Traffic was unbelievable. Our bus driver did a great job! He was aggressive but provided us with a smooth ride.

We stopped at the Larco Herrera Museum. A rich 25 year old Peruvian decided back in 1926 to excavate precious artifacts from the Inca ruins throughout Peru to place in a special museum in honor of his father. The Larco contained Peru's largest private collection of Pre-Columbian art...45,000 pieces of gold, silver, textlies, ceramics and erotic art. Our guide did a wonderful job sharing facts about the Incas that were facinating. I did not know that the Incans were still around until the 1532....the Spanish exposed them to disease and they died very quickly after that year. Anyway the place had facinating displays and we were entertained for over an hour. Trip Advisor named this museum as one of the top five places to visit in Lima.

                                                  Our great English speaking guide!



Back on the bus we visited several important historical sights in Lima:

                                               The Cathedral and The Bishops Palace

                                                               The President's House

Palace of Justice, National Congress, the Lima Art Museum, the Italian Art Museum and lots of other interesting buildings.



We had a great time riding the open air bus all over Lima with Rick and Kate.... our tour ending at 6:00pm. The tour guide lead us to where we could find a taxi back to San Miguel's Plaza. That was a thrilling ride through incredible Lima traffic. When we got to the Plaza, it was dark...our plans had been to get back to the ship before dark, however, we rounded the corner of the plaza to find 3 shuttle buses to the ship waiting for us! After a long day of touring they looked mightly fine!

We boarded the bus and were back on the ship by 7:15. We had a delightful dinner on the back of the ship while watching the tall cranes still at work loading ships. We headed down to the theater to watch the Peruvian Show at 9:30, which was not completely through with the first seating. So, we decided that we didn't want to wait for the show to be over and for the auditorium to empty, having been up since 6:00am to see the sun rise and the ship coming into the harbor so we went back to our room where I almost immediately fell asleep! The day had truely already been full of plenty of Peruvian Adventures!

                                        We loved Lima and would like to come back again.
 

San Martin Port and Paracas, Peru

Monday, March 24, 2014 San Martin Port and Paracas, Peru
After a wonderful night of blissful sleep, Larry and I boarded the shuttle bus to Paracas...a 25 minute bus ride along the Pacific coast. The Crown Princess docked in the desert bordering the Pacific Ocean. It was desolate and dry as well as out in the middle of nowhere. We had to buy an excursion or take a taxi out of this place...it was the only option unless we wanted to spend the day on the ship. Hey...We are in Peru and we had to go see some of it so we purchased tickets to get into the closest town...twenty five minutes away.

                                                  Desert behind the Crown Princess

Paracas had a nice oasis on one side of town with tall palm trees and some green grass and modern looking buildings. Our bus passed this area and then motored into the center of the little town. It had a moderate square with a few park benches. Larry and I passed through the square and headed toward the waterfront. Restaurants and shops lined this area with a view of the bay....but just one block over, very poor housing existed. Local Peruvian Indian women sat on the ground in the shade making beaded jewelry. We saw them when we arrived and they were there when we left at 3:00...they only shifted their seating to follow the shade. Small booths lined the waterfront with a few nice restaurants.

We had decided that we were going to try to get a boat ride to the Isle of Ballestas...the Peruvian Galapagos Islands. It was a National Reserve that protected the wildlife that lived there. We found a young man who sold us tickets for $25.00 each for two seats on a boat for a 30 minute ride...11 miles off shore. The day was gorgeous. Perfect temps and sun that sometimes went behind a cloud or two. When we got to the dock to board we were told we had to pay an additional $4.00 each for the National Reserve Park Fee and a $1.00 each for pier tax, oh well everybody gets to share the wealth.



We boarded the boat where they immediately made us put on orange life jackets. The boat ride was delightful. Smooth waters and lots of beautiful offshore island scenery. We passed hundreds and hundreds of pelicans. Some were feeding around the anchovy fishing boats that were pulling in their nets.

Birds of all kinds scaled the cliffs of the coast. We were amazed to see one of the Nazca Line Drawings made by the Incans hundreds of years ago. It was the shape of a candlelabra. How did they lay these stones that were so enormous to symetric scale way back then?

As we crossed the calm Pacific Ocean we began to smell a most unpleasant odor. What could it be? It was the Ballestas Islands.The smells were from thousands of sea lions and bird poo.

The islands were a remarkable area of incredible land formations...caves and hollowed arches washed away from the ocean waves....very pleasing scenery to the eye.

We saw the cutest Humbolt penguins hopping around the rocks and swim out into the waves...perhaps for a midday snack. 

                                                             They were so cute!


We saw sea lions swimming and laying around the rocks. We went to an area called Maternity Beach...Sea lion pups were all over the place and we enjoyed watching them swim with their mothers. One mother actually helped her baby climb the rocks by picking it up with her mouth.

                          Can  you imagine the sounds that were coming from this beach?

             A local fisherman proudly held up the octopi that he had dived for earlier in the day.

We saw all kinds of birds...terns, cormorants, turkey vultures, some birds nesting with babies peeking out. It must have been a paradise for the animals because there were thousands of them everywhere.

It was so enjoyable to sit back and watch it all. We had a fabulous ride back to the dock.

After lunch and a local Peruvian beverage we boarded the bus at 3:00 and arriving back at the ship at 3:30. The boat pulled anchor at 5:00 and we moved slowly out to sea. What a fantastic day...our first of two days visiting Peru. We can hardly wait to see Lima tomorrow!

                                                              The local fishing fleet!

Two Days At Sea

Saturday and Sunday, March 22 and 23, 2014 Two Days at Sea
Two wonderful days! The weather got sunny and just perfect temps...low 70's. We enjoyed walking the outside deck both days and soaking up a little sun on the back deck of the ship. Larry played music with his friends one day...two fluta-phones joined them....guitars, a violin, a ukelale, singers...they have a good old time. We enjoyed an oriental buffet for lunch and had dinner under the stars one evening while watching the movie, "The Way, Way Back". One evening we went to see one of our favorite cruise rock n roll showmen....Bobby Wilson...we had seen him two other times on a previous cruise. This guy can really sing (son of soul singer Jackie Wilson). Larry bought one of his new CDs and we found out that he is going to be in the Tampa area during the Christmas holidays. I was able to finish making a DVD of the first half of our trip..."The East Side of South America". Our two days at sea were fantastic.

Coquimbo, Chile

Friday, March 21, 2014 Coquimbo, Chile
After breakfast, Larry and I looked off the side of the ship at the town of Coquimbo. The town rose up the hill with a layer of dilapidated, old houses extending as far as the eye could see. We decided to just enjoy a little walk to the local downtown.

We walked off the ship heading to the port entrance. We had to run our small hand bag through the electronic scanner...the Chilean port authority folks are very strict about not allowing fruits, plants, meats, from outside the country to enter. We walked through a very modern marina welcome center and out into an unpaved, path to walk along the waterfront. Here we encountered a large plaza with views of the fishing vessels that were anchored out in the harbor. We walked on through the plaza into a large tented area full of local vendors who were selling the Chilean trinkets and woolen wear knitted from the Alpacas. This led into the local fishing market.

What a bunch of fish! Any kind that you would ever wish for and some that we had never heard of. The people were friendly wanting to show their stock to you. Some locals were eating a little cup of a raw fish stew with tomatoes and peppers. We could only imagine the effects it would have on our intestines if this was tested and politely said, "No, gracias".

We wandered behind the fish market and saw the fisherman at work, scaling and beheading their catch of the day....by the way there was no refrigeration or ice to be seen on any of the fish for sale. The smells were quite, well....fishy.

Large dogs lay everywhere...sleeping on sidewalks and every street corner. They looked healthy and didn't seem to mind the bustle of the traffic that went by. We also saw a lot of stray cats. They looked skinny and unkept. It was very heart breaking to see these animals in excess roaming about the town.

We watched enormous seals wallow about in the water. They were the largest seals I have ever seen. Why were they so big? They just swam around close to the docks and ate up the cleanings of the fisherman's catch of the day. A kind of free meal everyday. It was fun to watch them and hear their barking.

We crossed the street and passed the local O'Higgins Park, heading for the hillside toward the Cruz del III Milenio (Third Millenium Cross).

 

We conquered one hill following the paved ramp up the hill and decided after seeing the neighborhood that it might not be a good idea to continue on so we headed back down the hill to the Plaza de Armas...City Center. Here was a stage for performances and a large fountain....nicer area.

We continued to walk toward the Barrio Ingles, an area of bars, theater and live music...we did not hear any while there. We passed El Domo which exhibited some of the items of the locals who lived in the region from 900-1200AD.

We saw a colorful mural on Freire Street that depicted the first inhabitants. As we approached the edge of the town the sidewalk and road became less accommodating and we decided to head back into the maintained part of the city.

We ate lunch in the Casa De Las Artes Plaza. Here was a Puma sponsored tractor trailer display of the Chilean Soccer Team that was going to the World Cup in Rio in a few weeks. Some local students were displaying their winning soccer skills.

We decided to head back to the ship...the day was another overcast foggy day....happy that there was no rain and the temps were a moderate 69 degrees. We are beginning to believe that the west side of South America is a very foggy area in the mornings and the fog burns off for a short period of time in the late afternoon. Today the sun came out about 3:00 pm and by the sail away time of 5:00, the fog returned.

We ate a nice Red Snapper dinner in the Horizon Cafe. We watched a Gacho Show in the Princess Theatre and then went to our room to watch last movie made by James Gandolfini,"Enough Said" .

Valparaiso, Chile

Thursday, March 20, 2014 Valparaiso, Chile
Valparaiso is the beginning of the third leg of our cruise. 570 passengers disembarked the ship and another new group of passengers boarded in Valparaiso(60 mi. from Santiago) to go to LA, California. From the beginning of the second part of the trip in Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, we traveled a total of 3,729 nautical miles.


After having breakfast in our room, Larry and I walked off the boat to catch a shuttle bus to the marine terminal....this commercial area was too busy with big container ships, 18 wheelers, and cranes moving containers for passengers to be walking around.

At the terminal, Larry exchanged US money to Chile pesos and we headed for the train station. Valparaiso was described to us as basically a poor working man's city. Vina del Mar was described as an internationally known resort with municipal casino, elegant hotels, restaurants, flower bedecked condos, homes and villas with wide beaches along a scenic rocky coastline. We decided to go to the resort town , Vina del Mar. Using our best Spanish we bought tickets from the attendant and boarded a train paying about $6 (3,200 pesos) for the round trip for both of us. We rode the train five stops and got off at Vina Station.


. Here we walked up a flight of stairs to a city of tall high rised buildings, a historical cathedral, and a busy highway. Taking the city map, we wandered away from the traffic to the nearest city park called Quinta Vergara where we spent the good part of an hour touring the grounds of the Vergara Palace (built in 1901). This romantic home with unforgetable botantical plants and trees was having a 1.5 million dollar facelift. The building showed the age of several earthquakes with cracks within its walls. Enormous trees surrounded the palace with many floral gardens. It was some joint in its day but was surely in need of some TLC.

The weather was in the 60's and cloudy...perfect temps for walking about town. Where was the sun? Both Valparaiso and Vina del Mar were covered with a dense fog most of the day. The sun finally came out about 4:30 when we discovered that much of the fog was smog....the hillsides remained covered with a thin smoggy layer while the sun was shining.

On we walked through a upscale neighborhood of fabulous homes that backed up to the palace to the Plaza Vergara and did some shopping. Larry enjoyed talking to some store owners about some electronic gadgets and also looked at a small travel style guitar. He loves to practice his Spanish skills with the area locals. We visited the local post office, a beautiful old hotel, and then walked across the Quinta Bridge. The streets were lined with colorful floral hanging pots.

Amazingly, we spotted a large number of big dogs roaming around everywhere...many were sleeping on the sidewalks...we actually had to walk around them...Apparently there is no leash law.


We moved away from the heavy traffic areas to a quiet side of the town walking toward the beach. Exclusive condos, villas, and gated homes lined the streets. Horses clip-clopped pulling carriaged riders from the ocean into this fashionable area.

We passed the Casino Vina Del Mar stopping to have lunch in a local park. After lunch we walked Marina Avenue along the waterfront taking in all the gorgeous views of the Presidential Palace, Brunet Castle, a wonderful ship-shaped condo/ restaurant,

 an unusual castle built by a German immigrant built right on the sea,

 and the Clock of Flowers (Reloj de Flores).

The scenery was magnificent with waves crashing against jagged rocks and two surfers trying to catch a great wave by running from the beach to meet it. They were fun to watch!

We caught the train back from Miramar Station and got off at our stop to head back to the ship just meeting our 5:30pm on board time.

We attended the mandatory fire drill before heading to the back deck to watch our ship leave the port. A heavy fog engulfed the city before we made it there making it hard to capture our sail away...with no possibility of a sunset picture that night.

During the evening we read and enjoyed getting ready for our final day of exploration in Chile in the town of Coquimbo.

Monday, March 17, 2014...Happy St. Patrick's Day Puerto Montt, Chile

We took a tender boat into the shore around 9:00am. What a nice smooth ride! The tide was way out...boats lay on their side on the shore where the low tide had left them. We climbed a high arched gangway to the marina where our bags were checked for ...items that were not suppose to be brought on shore....fruits. meats, cheeses and who knows. This was the first port to do this.


Once outside the marine terminal we were immediately approached by several tour and taxi drivers, but we worked our way through the masses. One gentleman who stood a few blocks outside the area spoke to Larry about taking us to Petrohu Falls....our destination for the day. He and Larry talked for a while and finally settled on a $85.00 deal.....The ship trip to the same place was $299.00. Our driver, Carlos, spoke excellent English and took us by his house to tell his wife where he would be for the next 5 hours.

                                                             Carlos and my man!

We stopped at an Alpaca Farm...so much fun to watch these friendly critters.

He drove us through Puerto Montt pointing out the town center, the government buildings, the shopping area, the mall, and took us up a big hill on the edge of the town to take a picture of the harbor and our cruise ship.

He drove us through the countryside where we were able to see nice German styled homes and farms with cows and sheep. Carlos played some great Chilean music while we traveled. Not far out of the city, a police road block stopped us and Carlos had to get into his car trunk to provide papers that proved who he was. On we went coming to Lake Llanquihue...the 4th largest lake in South America....30 miles across at its its widest point and covering 350 square miles. Just beyond this sparkling lake, we spotted the Osorno Volcano, snow capped and Fujiyama-shaped; it peeked out from a billow of clouds.

We followed the lake's edge along a two lane highway that was being converted to three lanes. Holiday cottages edged the lake while farms and orchards dotted the rolling hills on the opposite side of the road. Huge Eucaliptus trees dotted the lake sides of the road.

We passed through the little town of Ensenada that had a few restaurants and hotels. We continued on to the National Park Vicente Perez Rosales around 12:30pm. Here we came to the Petrohue Waterfall.

Larry and I hiked around the falls for about a half and hour. The water was a greenish color rushing wildly from the melting snow capped volcano.

  

We returned to our taxi where Carlos drove for about 45 minutes to Puerto Varas known as the City of Roses. We found this to be a lovely resort town with dozens of hotels, inns, restaurants, coffe shops and upscale shopping as well as a casino.

The streets were lined with roses. It was a beautiful area with scenic views of the lake, volcano, and a black sandy beach. After strolling the street for a while, Carlos drove us back to Puerto Montt arriving around 4:00pm. Here we tried calling home . It was a highlight of our day to reach Kristy and talk with her for a little while after a month of no phone service.

Larry and I just got back to the dock just in time for the last tender boat at 5:00pm. We headed to the back of the boat to watch the ship pull out of the harbor at 6:30. We had a wonderful sail away from Puerto Montt having the top deck to capture three volcanos at once in the horizon. The clouds had finally dispersed from Osomo Volcano, but were still hanging around Calbuco Volcano...and the third volcano we had no identity for.

A first for us...sighting three volcanos at the same time.The temperatures cooled as the sun sunk so we went to the Horizon Cafe and had a delishous meal....Salmon, Roasted potatos, Brocolli, Mushroom Soup, and Egg & Rice Custard.

During the evening we watched a movie called "Taken 2" starring Lliam Nielsen. WHAT A FABULOUS DAY!