Peru, 2019

The Cruise to Peru

Cruise ship from Springhill Suites

Saturday, February 2

Another cloudy, dreary day in San Diego. Lynn called this morning with some bad news. She’s not feeling well and didn’t want to risk being sick on the ship, so she and Jim made arrangements to fly back to Minneapolis today. We rolled our bags the couple blocks from the hotel (photo above was taken from a hotel window) to the cruise terminal and had to wait a bit to board but went right to the Lido for lunch. It was raining hard and windy at 4:00 when we were supposed to do the lifeboat drill, so when we went out about 45 minutes later for the drill it was still raining but not so windy. We met Larue and Jim for an early dinner in the dining room. Barbara had some delicious pork belly and Jay had turkey. The Unglaubes will be great dinner companions but we’re all disappointed about Jim and Lynn not being with us. We played trivia tonight (just the 4 of us) and didn’t do too well. We may have to do some recruiting as most teams have 6 players. Barbara gambled for a bit, Jay went to the cabin to read. It was a little rocky and we decided to skip the show.

Sunday, February 3 

Our first sea day. We had breakfast in the dining room and met some nice people. We mentioned that we were taking our kids on the Allure in the Caribbean at the end of March. Mimi, who remembered us from the Alaska cruise, said she took her 13 year old grandson on that ship and he had a wonderful time with all the activities for young people. Barbara thinks Henry and Jamie may not want to go off the ship when we’re in port. We had lunch in the Lido again, and as this is a sea day, there was trivia at 1:00. Got the same bad score as yesterday. Maybe our brains are just too old. They were showing the Super Bowl game in the show room, but we didn’t care enough to watch it. Did a little gambling--Jay is up and Barbara is even. Dinner was good again although we had a table that was quite dark. We’re both reading John Grisham’s book The Reckoning and enjoying it.

Monday, February 4 — Cabo San Lucas

The ship dropped anchor around noon and we got our tender tickets after lunch. We had to wait about an hour before our number was called. We’ve been to Cabo San Lucas on several occasions so decided to just walk around. We’d barely started walking when we ran into Grace and her dad Simon, who we met on a previous cruise. She’s a terrific trivia player so we asked her to join our team. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and her dad is in a wheel chair because of a stroke. They missed their flight out of Victoria because of an airline screw-up and getting her dad on the tender to get to the ship was quite an operation. Grace cruises a lot so can tell us about the ports we’re visiting. We were shopping for a new travel water pic as we fried ours when it was accidentally plugged into the wrong voltage. We didn’t find one and probably won’t find one in any port. In one drugstore a lady (probably from the ship) was looking for a laxative, but she asked the clerk for something for constipation and then tried to simplify it by saying “poop!” The things people must do. Then she didn’t believe the clerk as the packaging was a small container that looked like Carmex. We had dinner with Jim and Larue in the Pinnacle tonight. It was great—Jay had a filet mignon and Barbara had halibut with shrimp scampi on a cedar plank. We shared both and went to the show after dinner. A comedian named Dave Burleigh provided the entertainment and was mostly funny. We didn’t leave port until about 11 pm so no gambling after dinner. The casino seems a little better than some.

Wednesday, February 6

Another sea day. It’s warmer than yesterday, about 80 degrees. The humidity is high enough that we don’t have to slather our skin with lotion. We had breakfast and lunch in the Lido where we keep running into Grace and her dad Simon. Dinner tonight was so slow--about 1 hour's wait between the appetizers and main course. Those who ordered warm food had almost cold food. The staff knew we had to wait too long and said they’ll make it better. The entertainer tonight was Bernie Fields from Canada who was a (an?) harmonica virtuoso. Barbara’s mom would have loved him (she played a harmonica) as he made it sound like 3 or 4 harmonicas were playing, especially in Malaguania. After the show we went to the Lido for coffee and dessert, since we didn’t have time after dinner. Trivia starts at 7:00 and we’re always too late to get chairs and a table so we have to set up folding chairs. We’ve found some favorite slot machines and they’re being kind to us, although we’re not up. We set our clocks ahead an hour tonight—our second time—so now we’re on MN time.

Friday, February 8 — Puerto Chiapas

It was our first time in Puerto Chiapas (also first in Huatulco yesterday). It looked totally different than Huatulco, as there were palm trees and the vegetation was a lot greener. Thought for a minute we were in Hawaii. This port is about a 20-30 minute ride to the nearest city, so we stayed around the ship as we weren’t taking a tour. It was quite warm, but local dancers were performing right along the pier. The costumes were very pretty and colorful. This port is very close to the border with Guatemala. Dinner tonight had a Caribbean theme, and we both had jambalaya. It was good but not nearly as spicy as our recipe from Ina Garten. The entertainer tonight was Russ Stolnack, a comedian who has six local Emmy awards in the San Diego area. He was pretty funny. 

Sunday, February 10

After breakfast in the dining room (Barbara still likes the Dungeness crab eggs benedict and Jay likes the ham and cheese skillet) we went to a talk on things to do in Manta, Ecuador. Interestingly, Panama hats originated in Ecuador but they sold well in Panama. When Teddy Roosevelt was shown waving one in a photo taken in the canal zone, the name Panama hats stuck.  We watched tv to see Amy Klobuchar’s announcement of her run for the presidency. Jeff was there and messaged a photo of all the snow. We did a little gambling and are both up—I think for the first time ever on a cruise after 8 days. We skipped the show tonight because it was BBC Earth’s Planet II in Concert that we have seen recently. Love sea days but they fly by and we don’t seem to get much done. 

Monday, February 11 — Panama City

We went on an excursion that left about 8:30. Panama City is building a cruise ship terminal but we had to go ashore by tender. They put about 20 of us on a little bus and the width of the aisle seemed about 10 inches. It wasn’t very comfortable. Our guide mentioned on the drive that John McCain and Rod Carew were born in Panama. We went by the Frank Gehry’s Biodiversity Museum and also rows of palm trees that were laid out to represent the width and length of the Miraflores locks. We next went to the locks, where our guide told us what to see but didn’t give us much information about the exhibits and the movie times. The building has a viewing platform. We’ve been on two complete transits of the canal, and have waved to the people on the viewing stand as we went through the lock. Now we were on the viewing platform and while there was a big ship going through we didn’t see any cruise ships. We were taking photos of each other when a nice man came up and offered to take one of the two of us. He was very friendly and chatty and told us he was from MN (what a small world!). He and his wife live in North Branch and were visiting their son who is a doctor doing his residency in Panama. Next we looked at the four floors of exhibits about the building of the canal. There were escalators to go from one floor to another and our guide called the them “electric stairs”. We also saw an interesting short film about the building of the canal. We drove through the canal zone next and saw the old Army base where the buildings aren’t used for housing now. When the U.S. military left, control of the canal passed to Panama and they decided they didn’t need a military. The police handle all incidents. When we were in Costa Rica we were told they don’t have a military, either. Our last drive was through Panama City. While it looks very modern from a distance, close up it wasn’t very attractive. Traffic was heavy and there really wasn’t much to see, but someone in our group had lived and gone to school in Panama as a kid, so we think he asked to see the city. It was a cloudy day and the temperature was comfortable, probably in the low 80s. After dinner tonight we went to see VOXX Urban Tenors, a quartet of young men who were pretty good. Trivia is fun but there are two teams who always seem to win. 

Wednesday, February 13 — Equador

This is our first time in Ecuador and we chose an excursion called Manta and Montecristi. On the bus on our way to our first stop we saw surfers in the water right near our ship. Museo Cancebi, which was to be our first stop in Manta, was not available, as air-conditioning, toilets and elevators were not working because of a recent heavy rain storm. We went to Museum of the Central Bank instead and learned a little about the history of Ecuador. Manta has the population of about 250,000 and is the fifth largest in the country. An earthquake of 7.8 magnitude occurred on April 16, 2016 and killed 668 people and injured thousands. We could still see the damage to buildings, so some have not been fixed or rebuilt. From Manta we drove to a ‘factory’ that made something called tagua, or vegetable ivory. It is a very hard substance which is cut and carved into many shapes. It looks like ivory, but elephants don’t have to die to make it.  They sold some of the carvings very cheaply. They also make buttons out of it and we saw most of the processes to make these items. They also make jewelry out of tagua. From there we went to a place where they wove mats and bags from agave leaves. Our guide spoke English, but we had a little trouble understanding him and he had trouble understanding us. Our next stop was in Montecristi where we watched two women making Panama hats. The process of making these looks almost impossible. Women are bent over a stand with padding and they look straight down as they weave the hats. We heard in a ship lecture that the best hats can cost $10,000 and they are so bendable that you could fold and draw one through a ring like a wedding band. The hats were sold here for about $20, but we didn’t buy one. Their selling tactics are like those of very aggressive places like Mexico and Turkey. If you make eye contact they’re there with something in their hands they’d like you to buy. There was a very impressive mausoleum where General Jose Delgado, their elected leader in the early 20th century was interred. He must have been well loved, as it was the most impressive structure we’ve seen in Ecuador. Ecuador’s exports include roses, bananas and fish (especially tuna). It looks like a very poor country and most houses look unfinished, but that’s because tax laws are such that their taxes increase when the facade is finished, so they let it go for many years. When we returned from the excursion Barbara went to the Medical Center to see a doctor as she’d been having an occasional pain in her left ear. He didn’t see anything in the ear but said it might be an infection that was just starting. He prescribed amoxicillin and when the nurse gave it to Barbara she told her it might cause diarrhea. The prescription Barbara’s doctor at home gave her for altitude sickness is basically a diuretic. She’s decided she doesn’t want to spend her time on the three-day Machu Picchu trip looking for a bathroom so she doesn’t plan to take the pills. While she was waiting for the doctor a man came in who had just had an emergency root canal at a dental office the ship’s people had found for him. He said it cost him $80 for two hours of agony. Barbara had one a couple years ago and spent a lot more money. The entertainer tonight was Mike Robinson who is a Canadian ventriloquist. He and his dummy were very funny.

Thursday, February 14

Today is another sea day. We sent birthday greetings to Mary Ann this morning and heard back from her that they are going to SLO tomorrow to celebrate her birthday with her and Bud’s families. We’re busy today getting ready for our adventure to Machu Picchu. The dinner menu featured steak and lobster on this Valentine’s Day and it was a Gala (dress up) evening. The Voxx Urban Tenors were the entertainment tonight but we couldn’t find seats so missed the show.

Friday, February 15 — Salaverry, Peru

Today we are in the port of Salaverry in Peru but our shore excursion will be in the city of Trujillo, which is a short drive away. We first stopped at a temple that was built of mud bricks. We then proceeded to the Chan Chan City, which is a very large area of an old city where thousands lived in this totally mud brick area. We think the structures are about 1,000 years old, and Chan Chan was especially interesting. The inhabitants of this city and also the Lost City of the Incas didn’t have a written language, so their stories have been mostly reconstructed by archeologists. The city of Trujillo is pretty unattractive, as was Manta in Ecuador. There wasn’t much grass and flowers and the trash on the streets overflowed the garbage containers. Our last visit was to see the reed boats that are made of local grasses and are still used today. Tonight was our last night of trivia with Jim and LaRue. We never came close to beating the two teams who always win—The Blue Whales and the Nutcrushers.  The show consisted of repeat performances by the pianist Juan Pablo and the ventriloquist Mike.

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© Jay 2020