Oldies On Tour

Full day at Sea

Posted on 08/03/2018 by Geoff

Today is the last full day of this leg of the cruise; when we get into Fort Lauderdale around 900 guests will be leaving, including our friends, Paul and Debbie Southwell. We understand another circa 600 guests will join for this final leg to Southampton, so the ship will feel a little empty.

A very light breakfast was called for today as the six of us will be having an early farewell luncheon in the “Verandah”, a specialist restaurant on board. For the first time this morning we sat on deck for breakfast, this was so that we didn’t see all the food and be tempted!!!

After breakfast we went to the purser’s office to see what happens tomorrow, though we are staying on the Q V for the next leg of the cruise like so many others, we are actually doing back-to-back cruises. It turns out every single guest, whether leaving the ship or travelling onward, has to disembark the ship and go through US immigration and customs; we can “then” go back on board.

We all met up in the Golden Lion pub for a pre-dinner drink before heading to our table. We had been given to understand that the food was the same as the Britannia Restaurant but with better service; wrong, they had their own menu and yes, the service was superior.

We had a very enjoyable lunch with much banter and laughter, and this caused me to spill my port on my shirt, my trousers and the tablecloth; can’t take me anywhere!!! Naturally I didn’t hear the end of this. We were the first to arrive in the restaurant and guess what, we were one of the last to leave. To enjoy a meal in this restaurant we had to pay $20 each for the privilege; the speciality restaurants were free on Oceania.

We had a short walk after lunch before going back to the cabin, firstly so that Christine could put my shirt and trousers straight into the washing machine and secondly to play on the Internet. Paul & Debbie who are leaving, and being high up the loyalty pecking order, get a “very” large allowance of free Internet minutes and not having used them, they will lose them. They very kindly gave us their codes and we can use up their balance, well until tomorrow morning I expect!

Thank you Paul so generous

Though we had enjoyed a farewell lunch earlier, we all went down to dinner. Paul had to do his “bungs” and “farewells” to the wine waiter and our waitress, who is also leaving this dining room tomorrow, but not the ship, moving upstairs to one of the “posh” restaurants in First Class. Yes Cunard still have a section of the ship reserved for First Class

So much fun, such a good group

passengers.

Dave showing off his new hat and tie

Tonight’s show was the second appearance of the Barricade Boys and though I wasn’t that keen on them at their first performance, tonight was a different kettle-of-fish, they were very entertaining and their songs varied from ballads to rock ‘n roll, we both thoroughly enjoyed their performance.

After leaving the theatre 4 of us strolled around the promenade deck, Paul & Debbie had to go and pack; we wish them Bon Voyage, and a safe trip back to Darwin, Australia.

Fort Lauderdale tomorrow.

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Belize and Costa Maya

Posted on 07/03/2018 by Geoff

We arrived in Belize, formally British Honduras, early in the morning. This small country measuring 174 miles long x 62 miles wide, with a population of 62,000, lies between Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the south and west.

Belize City, situated at the mouth of the Belize River, can’t accommodate Cruise Ships, and with a lot of coral around, meant we anchored 4 miles off the coast and tendered in. On this occasion though, the tenders were supplied by the port

At anchor the Queen Victoria

authority, they were certainly much bigger, defiantly quicker, and probably more robust as the sea, though beautifully clear and warm, was a little on the rough side.

After all the tours had left the ship, it was our turn, the independent passengers. Being fairly large tenders and first on, we waited quite a long time for the boat to fill up, in fact we waited longer for the boat to fill than it took to cover the 4 miles; maybe the smaller tenders would have been better. Also at Anchor was a monster “Carnival” cruise ship, probably around 5,000 passengers so we knew the port would be busy.

Some of the poor buildings

Our two main objectives today were to have a good look round and get the feel of the city and to find a suitable Internet place.

The Maya Civilisation, between 250 and 900 AD, originally inhabited this area of Central America and there are remains of magnificent ceremonial cities, pyramids, temples, and palaces however, by the time the Spanish arrived early in the 16^th century, the Maya empire had collapsed.

Wandering around this “City”, and it’s certainly not how we would describe a city, but interesting none none-the-less, we firstly had to be very careful not to fall down a drain hole, they were big and everywhere. The streets and local “scenery” was very much the same as many of the Caribbean Islands we have visited in the past though they had a very big and modern museum, quite out of keeping. Anyway we found a rather nice bar and restaurant that had Wi Fi so we had a couple of coffee’s and refreshments, including those calorie reducing sweets whilst Christine sorted her pictures for the web site and I caught up to date.

We now wandered back along a torturous route to the riverside area where there were bars, shops, loud music and heaving with

Belize museum

the “contents” of two cruise ships. It was a beautiful and very hot day so a couple of rum punches was

Terrible picture

called for which we enjoyed sitting alongside the river watching the boats coming and going.

Belize was the home of many British Pirates raiding the Spanish but when the treasure trade evaporated these people became “loggers”. The first settlers, nicknamed the Baymen, appeared in 1638 and the legend has it that the City was built on Mahogany chips, loose coral and rum bottles. Conflicts between the British and the Spaniards were common place until a large Spanish fleet was finally defeated at the “Battle of St. George’s Caye’ in 1798. It was in 1862 the colony became known as British Honduras and it changed to Belize during the independence process with full independence being granted in1981.

Back on board after another 4-mile tender journey and a slow preparation for dinner, smart casual tonight.

Speaking to our friends who went on the river tour, we think we dropped a clanger as they thought their tour was one of their best they have done on this cruise; oh dear, we cant win them all.

Eileen and Dave with us at the theatre

The show tonight was a pianist and he certainly hammered the keys playing all sorts of music, classical to rock with everything in-between. His finale was to ask the Audience to shout out what music they would like to hear; he had a list of about 20 pieces of music and he played a composite of bits of each and every tune he had on his list including Rule Britannia and Land of hope and glory. I found him entertaining but his skills were not quite of a classical nature!!! Christine on the other hand found the show boring and nearly fell asleep.

Sign at entrance

Today we arrived in Costa Maya, Mexico, and have booked a Catamaran and snorkelling tour, but as it doesn’t start ‘till 1230 so we weren’t in any hurry.

Such a lovely place to visit

What I have forgotten to mention is there have been several outbreaks of a stomach vires recently and slowly the ship has been clamping down on things we used to take for granted like helping ourselves at the buffet, using the cruet pots on the table, helping ourselves to tea and coffee from the machines etc., etc., but with this up-surge in cleanliness everything has to be dished out, even to small salt packets as the cruet sets have all been removed. There is also much more evidence of the ships crew cleaning down bannisters, chairs even to the

Walking round the lovely port area

extent of removing all the ‘photos in the ‘photo gallery. If you want to see a ‘photo taken by the ships photographer, you need to put on a pair of rubber gloves and operate a computer terminal to see it on line. To be fair, the Cunard Commodore is taking this outbreak very seriously, though only 3% of the complement has suffered; still life continues and we are all enjoying

In the port area

ourselves.

Costa Maya follows much of the same history as the rest of the region, Ancient Civilisations, Spanish colonists, British

Our local taxi

Pirates etc. We on the other hand were just tourists so went on a tour, we left the dock on a trailer contraption pulled by a 4 x 4 pickup that took us to the quay where our catamaran was waiting.

We puled away from the dock and headed out to the coral reef we

Our guide on the snorkel trip

were going to snorkel on. This coral reef is the second largest in the world, the first being the Great Barrier Reef. This reef runs for 2,000-Kms and in places are 38-Kms wide though we only enjoyed a small part of this reef. We were snorkelling around for about an hour, but were a little upset as the numbers of

After our swim on boat

fish we saw was limited; still the water was warm and we enjoyed ourselves.

The journey back was a laugh, the beer for those who wanted it was flowing, the chap in charge of entertainment had a couple of tricks with a “Conch” and a Sword”, balancing them on his chin.

Back on shore, a taxi ride back to the terminal and a mooch

In the port area

around the shops before joining the ship.

After another enjoyable dinner with our companions we hit the theatre. Tonight the Queen Victoria Theatre band was joined by the Queens room band “and” by the string quartet as well as the harpist. This combined orchestra accompanied then

Debbie and Paul at the theatre

accompanied the Queen Victoria singers who performed all sorts of songs, finishing with a medley of James Bond theme tunes. Many people enjoyed them put a number fell asleep!!!!! At the end we all departed back to our cabins and to bed, as we were all knackered, again!!!

Tomorrow we have another sea day.

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Montego Bay (Jamaica) & another sea day

Posted on 05/03/2018 by Geoff

We docked around 0900hrs and as we weren’t on a tour we didn’t rush too much. After a fairly light breakfast we left the ship, boarded the port shuttle to the terminal and made our way out. It was total chaos outside, apart from the Q V another, larger cruise ship had also arrived and both sets of guests were exiting the port together. To exacerbate the situation outside the port, being too far to walk, we were all forced to get a taxi or a taxi shuttle bus. Additionally being a Sunday the main town was closed, so apart from a tour, the only place to go was an area called the “Hip Strip”, a tourist rip-off area; still like sheep, we had no choice and went along.

$15 lighter, we were dropped off at Gloucester Avenue, known as Hip Strip, a street with tourist shops all selling the usual tee shirts, dresses, nick-knacks and of course, Rum. This street runs parallel to the beach but the only way to get onto the beach is by paying, not that that mattered, as we didn’t have our swimmers with us. Walking away from all the hubbub, further along we got talking to a taxi driver and we agreed to

Our view from ship

go with him on a one hour scenic tour of the area, but only after we had found some internet. “No problem’s” he said, “follow me” which we did. Across the road he introduced us to a shopkeeper who had free Wi Fi so we caught up to date. Once we had finished, we crept out, as we didn’t want to buy anything from this shop, oops!!!!! Our taxi driver was still waiting so in we got, and off we went.

One can’t do too much in an hour but we got a feel of the place, he showed us the international airport and explained that the old road around the Island was cut to extend the runway to enable “Concord” to land; then Concord was scrapped. Next we drove around the local equivalent of

One of the posh houses

Hollywood’s “Beverly Hills”, the big houses, where the wealthy come to escape the winter. We were then driven around areas where “normal” people are living, and then into the city centre.

In town

The first thing to strike us was how busy it was. We were given to understand at the dock entrance that the city centre would be closed down, being a Sunday and all that, but no, there were market stalls and many locals as well as tourists.

The main point of interest here in the centre was the statute

Statue representing the slave trade and Sam Smith

of Sam Sharp (1801 – 1832), erected outside what was then, the courthouse. Sam Sharp was an educated and well-respected slave who fought for freedom and organised 60,000, of the 300,000 Jamaicans slaves, to join in a general strike late in 1831, just at the time when the sugar cane was ready for cropping, hoping the plantation owners, wanting to protect their crop, would capitulate, but they didn’t and Sam Sharp was captured, tried and executed in the market square in May 1832. Sam proclaimed on the way to the gallows, “I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery”, and in 1975, he
The fountain was where the gallows were
was proclaimed a hero.

Though Columbus founded Jamaica in 1497, the Arawak tribe had populated the Island for the previous 500 years, at least. The Spanish were disappointed there was no gold etc., but they did find the island to be fertile and set up their colony but following the Pope’s decree of splitting new discoveries in the world equally between Spain and Portugal, other nations took umbrage and at this time Oliver Cromwell sent out troops out to take this, and other islands for the British.

During the 18^th century, Jamaica was the world’s largest producer of sugar cane but when slavery was abolished, the industry declined.

Though it was still early when our tour was completed, we were very happy we had taken it, and now we were back on board and decided afternoon tea was the order of the day.

This evening’s show had a rather interesting twist. “John Joseph” was an American comic, whose claim to fame was he toured with Julio Iglesias for 10 years. Naturally he told numerous jokes and stories but during all this he was bantering with several people in the Audience; in fact we thought he had not only picked on them, but he un-mercifully kept on, and on; kept repeating the facts he had gleaned from them, un-fairly we thought but then, at the end of his act, he picked up his guitar. He made up a song incorporating everything he had been told by these people; quite extraordinary and very entertaining; now we understood why he kept on at them.

We now had another day at sea but the highlight of the day was a variety show put on by the crew raising funds for the charity “Help the Hero’s” and we thought in one or two instances they were better than some entertainers. It was an

The theatre on board

hour of fun and laughter, excellent and we hope they raised a lot of money; I wonder if we will
Our dinner table, and what a great crowd they are
hear how much.

Tonight was another formal night and after dinner

Geoff, Debbie and Desiree

our entertainment was the “Barricade Boys”, singers showcasing famous male voices from
Elaine, Desiree and Geoff formal night
international productions and the Hollywood film of Les Misèrables. They were very good singers and Christine thoroughly enjoyed them, I on the other hand wasn’t that impressed, good singers yes, but not that
Everyone enjoyed the show except Geoff!
entertaining, in my view!!!!! This was followed by a visit to the Golden Lion pub for a 60’s quiz night, thinking we had sufficient knowledge between us to cover that era; wrong. There were some very obscure questions and all the low scores around the room reflected this; still the beer, “Doom Bar” was good.

Tonight was billed as the roaring 20’s in the Queens room, which we now walked to, only to find the roar was more of a squeak, so didn’t hang around and went to bed.

Belize tomorrow.

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The Panama Canal & another sea day.

Posted on 03/03/2018 by Geoff

There was great excitement on board this morning as there are may folk who haven’t transited the Panama Canal and they were up early to be in position to see everything. We weren’t in any hurry; we decided to get up after our tea in bed, and when we were ready, go to breakfast. Because we had been through the

First lock accomplished

same way only a few weeks earlier we didn’t feel the need, and we had also both been through the Canal back in 2014.

A big tanker was in the other locks with us

The one new thing we did see was a tanker using the new cut. This was part of the expansion project; new bigger locks and a new channel, built during the last few years enable much larger ships to travel through the canal.

Looking up on the tanker as we were going down

I have to say though, this may be “old hat” but I still marvel at the engineering that took place back in the early 1900’s to make this short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific possible.

Today we had arranged with our friends, Dave and Elaine, to meet for lunch in the Golden Lion pub for a Ploughman’s and a couple of pints. What we didn’t realise was that this pub has a fairly extensive “pub Grub” menu so no doubt we will

Last lock with unfinished bridge in the distance

re-visit some time. Fortunately we were by a window so could keep an eye on proceedings, as it was Dave and Elaine’s first transit and they didn’t want to miss anything. However, the two girls went off to watch proceedings on deck whilst Dave and I enjoyed an extra couple of pints; real ale too. I think Dave did get out in time to watch the Q V go through the last lock and into the

Water emptying out of the locks

Caribbean!!!! Transiting the 48-mile journey can take anything up to 9 hours, and today was no exception.

Tonight there was a bar-b-q outside the Lido buffet on the stern pool deck; This Bar-b-q was well attended and finding a table was a bit difficult, still the four of us managed and continued having a good time.

After the bar-b-q it was time for the evenings show. Tonight the resident singers and dancers of the Queen Victoria entertained us. The theme of the show was the Movies, and it was a very slick and an entertaining extravaganza, covering most of the silver screen musicals over the years. It was excellent and we wonder why the ship doesn’t put more of these types of show on.

We have another sea day tomorrow.

After the excitement of the Panama Transit, we are back to a normal sea day with the various activities around the ship, including lectures. There were two I went to, one was a potted history about South America and how this continent, being a mainly Spanish, managed to fragment into numerous countries. But the first lecture I went to was nearer to home, and was fascinating.

The lecture we attended was called, “The Impossible Dream” it was about the Wilts and Berks Canal; a canal I hadn’t heard of before, though no doubt canal aficionados will know all about it. This canal was opened in 1810 and linked the Kennet and Avon Canal to the river Thames at Abingdon and there was also a link to the Thames and Severn canal near Cricklade. In 1914 there was an act of Parliament that killed off this disused canal. The reason this lecture was called the “Impossible dream” is due to the fact that much of this canal has been built over; filled in, and many structures such as bridges and locks, destroyed. However, a number of canal volunteers have set up a charitable trust and in partnership with the appropriate councils, land owners and other bodies have set about bringing this canal back to life. Where the original canal has been built over, alternative routes have been found and the trust is well on its way to making the impossible, possible. This was a fascinating and informative lecture, which we both enjoyed.

After lunch, before we did the usual, sun bathe and swim etc., but first there was the ships annual tug-o-war competition.

Team from the dinning room, wrapped in table cloths

Teams from each department competed for the coveted Cunard trophy. Last years winners, and defending champions were the “bar staff” and obviously everybody wanted to topple them but there was only one other

Everyone entered into the spirit, so funny

“tough” looking team, and they were the engineers. The final between these two teams was nick and tuck but the result 2-to-1 went to the bar staff; they retained the trophy for another year. Alongside the men’s teams, there were the mixed teams and the winners in this

A good day was had by all

category were the “Pursers Office”, though the singers and dancers gave them a run for their money in the final.

We had to get back to the cabin a little earlier than usual this afternoon, as tonight is another “formal night”, best bib and tucker and all that.

As usual our table gelled and we all had a good laugh with much micky taking by everybody. After dinner we made our way to the theatre to see the MacDonald Brothers for their second show. Their performance was again lively with a variation of music, again very entertaining.

After the show, Christine joined Dave and Elaine for a stroll around the deck whilst I enjoyed a pint of ale; thirsty work listening to Scottish performers.

Next stop Jamaica.

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Manta (Ecuador) and sea day

Posted on 01/03/2018 by Geoff

Today is our only visit to Ecuador so we made the effort to get away fairly early. Again this town is a lively commercial port with a lot of development taking place, but the their main industry here is “Tuna”, Manta is known as the Tuna capital of the world. To demonstrate this, we were moored on

Manta city

the same dock as 4 fishing boats, which were unloading their catch when we left the Q V. These fishing boats were unique as they each had a small helicopter on board used to find the shoals of Tuna; no doubt this accounts for them landing so much fish.

When we disembarked we were ushered onto shuttles that took us to 2-stops in town, the first being the obligatory shopping

Tuna fish round a bout

mall and the second being a small arts and crafts market, but more importantly it’s near a garage that has powerful free Wi Fi available; naturally we elected to take the second stop. Our minutes have run out aboard and Christine has many pictures to load, hence our need.

Manta, not only being the Tuna Capital of the world, it is also the second largest port in Ecuador, exporting agricultural products and Panama hats, it also has a US military base. Here the US operate surveillance AWACS in an attempt to subdue the cocaine producing areas of South America. Manta is also one of the gateways for tourists visiting Quito, Ecuador’s Capital, and the Andes.

The original Spanish settlement was founded around 1526 and within 10 years, the whole of Ecuador was under Spanish control and the Inca’s rule was over. Though we know about the period

Fascinating watching her make the hats

post the Spanish, the area around Manta was almost certainly inhabited some 5,000 years ago, according to archaeological folk, long before the Incas.

We left the arts and crafts market and headed out to the garage, “On The Run”, (where have we seen that before) for our free Wi Fi but en-route we wandered around the sellers and were seduced by the Panama hat stall, mainly because there was a lady actually making one. After trying on several we

Takes up to four months to make

bought “his and hers”, these are genuine Panama hats that fold up so lets hope we get a lot of wear out of them.

Internet requirement fulfilled we headed back to the market to catch the shuttle back to the ship for lunch, I don’t think we have eaten our ration so far today!!

The shuttle dropped us off next to the gangway and we noted those same fishing boats were still unloading their catch.

After lunch we headed back to town, this time to the Mall for a last minute use of free Wi Fi and a fridge magnet; I also visited the Opticians, again. I have visited every optician from Rio to Manta, trying to get new pads for my glasses but to no avail. I lost the pads on our first cruise but obviously these German frames are not sold in South America; oh well I am sure I’ll get then in Campo Verde!!!

So not only did I get my glasses’ pads, Christine couldn’t find a suitable magnet and to finally put the icing on the cake, the free Wi Fi didn’t work. Oh well back to the ship.

Though this country is famous for the Inca Empire, the reality is that the Inca Empire rule over Ecuador, was short lived, and in many parts lasted for less than 50-years in the late 15^th and early 16th century. Back in the day, this coastal region had few attractions; there weren’t many local Indians that could be used as slave labour, and the region was un-healthy due to nasty diseases. However, the region expanded and then the pirates arrived and between 1607 and 1628, and attacking and pillaging.

Ecuador finally became independent from Spain in 1822 after Antonio José de Sucre with his band of rebels defeated the Spanish army at the battle of Pichincha, near Quito.

18-miles South East of Manta is the small town of Montecristi, founded by the Spanish in 1628 it is, and has been, the place where the finest Panama Hats are made. One can pay anything up to $2,000 for a handmade one, as apparently it takes up to 8 months to make. The main way to ensure you have a real Panama hat is firstly it is woven very thin, and secondly it should roll up, and when unrolled, go back to its original shape.

After our disappointing trip to the Mall we went back to the Q V, licking our wounds.

As one goes around all these ex-Spanish colonies and reads about the history, the conclusions one draws is what a murderous bunch many of them were. For example, the Liberal president of Ecuador, Elay Alfaro, President from 1897 to 1901 then 1906 to 1911 made many enemies and was locked up in 1912 when a mob broke into the prison he was being held, and murdered him. His tomb is in the town hall and he has a statute in the main Plaza; little comfort!!!

Tonight’s act were a couple of Scottish lads, the MacDonald Brothers, singers and musicians who first arrived on the wider entertainment scene after appearing on the X Factor and they were very good.

Late tonight or in the wee hours we cross the equator back into the northern hemisphere, so no shenanigans this time. Tomorrow we have another day at sea.

Today we woke in the northern hemisphere but to be fair nothing felt different as we continued up the west coast of South America. We passed the Galapagos to the west but didn’t see them, we carried on passing Colombia to our east and didn’t see anything there either, but I have every confidence the Commodore knows where he is going.

As mentioned before, nothing really happens on sea days other than sun, swim, Jacuzzi, eat and the show in the evening.

Tonight’s entertainment was billed as a musical sensation, “Claire Gobin’, she is a violinist who played Beatles to Classical and everything in-between; she was good.

Tomorrow we transit the Panama Canal, again!!!

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Callao, (Peru) and more

Posted on 27/02/2018 by Geoff

Firstly, we are officially in the tropics again, we went across the Tropic of Capricorn sometime during the night.

We awoke to find we were moored onto the commercial dock in Callao, the port area of Lima; Peru’s Capital city which has a population of just under 10-million.

Today, unusually for us, we booked a tour, “Lima Highlights” as we were informed the area around the port is un-savoury; where have we heard that before, I ask! And the old town is 15Kms away. Now we must admit that on this cruise ship we haven’t been bombarded by “Dotty” with extreme warnings for our safety, on the contrary we are treated as responsible adults so as we did receive a warning, we decided to heed it and hence we booked a tour.

After a little misunderstanding between Christine and I, we just made the 1030am departure time; we were the last to board!!!! Once we left the port gates we realised why we it had been suggested we didn’t walk about the area. Apart from they’re being nothing to do or see, the area was very run down and poor.

Lovely square at Lima

After Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas and delivered South America to Spain, he founded Lima in 1535 though back then it was called “Ciudad de las Reyes”, City of Kings. Callao was created 2-years later as the main port for Spanish traffic in the pacific. Goods were taken to Callao from Peru, Bolivia and northern Argentina, crossing the Andes where necessary, then shipped up to the west coast of South America to Panama. Here they were unloaded and transferred by mule and foot across the 50-mile Panamanian isthmus, and re-loaded onto ships to be taken back to Spain via Cuba. This rich port soon attracted Privateers and Pirates and city walls were constructed between 1684 and 1687 to defend the city.

We arrived in the “Plaza de Armas” (known locally as the Plaza Mayor) in the historic centre of the old town and it was here where we started the walking part of our tour. Many fine colonial buildings surround this large, colourful plaza

Lima cathedral

but the two most impressive are the Cathedral with the Bishop’s palace attached alongside, and the Government palace. But before we headed for the

Colourful band changing of the guards

“compulsory” visit to the Cathedral, we heard a brass band; this was the start of “changing of the guard” at the Government Palace. They marched about the parade ground in front of the palace, which is set behind railings; this in turn has Police, armed with small machine guns, standing guard. The band marched their way onto a large concrete plinth and played contemporary music for the public. Unfortunately we didn’t have sufficient time to wait around until the actual changing of the guard took place, our tour leader summoned and we all obeyed.

This Palace was built on the original site that Francisco Pizarro built his home.

Beautiful parts of the cathedral

Building the Cathedral originally started in 1540 by the city’s founder, Francisco Pizarro. Unfortunately before the Cathedral really got going there were a series of Earthquakes, which resulted in numerous fresh beginnings. This is certainly a magnificent

building oozing with Gold and silver and the choir stalls were all beautifully, and individually, carved in the local hard wood. Today the remains of Francisco Pizarro are in a special side chapel within this Cathedral.

After leaving the Cathedral we were marched across the Plaza, down one of the main streets to the San Francisco Church and

Fountains everywhere so lovely

Monastery. Passing along the way we saw one enormous queue and upon enquiring we were informed this was a queue of people waiting to go into the bank; to take their money out or not we don’t know.

Visiting this monastery was OK but we had seen several before and this looked like several others we visited and to make

Library inside monastry

things worse, we were all thirsty and couldn’t have the time to stop and buy some water.

One point of interest was the buzzards flying about and one in particular was perched up on the centre statute in the

quietly sitting in the monestry

quadrangle, at the top where there was water flowing; no doubt his feet were hot!!!!

Back on the coach and I am pleased to say there were bottles of water on our seats, we headed out to Miraflores, this is an up-market district of Lima and it’s on the beach and certainly more congenial.

Our next stop was a private town house built at the start of the 20^th century. We are not too sure why we went

Private house !

there but they made us welcome and gave us a couple of “Pisco Sour’s” to drink, very nice, and a few Canapés.

We next went to the top of the cliff overlooking the pacific to

Modern statue of the kiss

view this “Statute” of a couple, well we think, kissing.

When we did our trip to Galapagos in 2013 we spent a couple of night in Miraflores but things looked different now.

Back to the ship at the end of our tour and when we arrived we were just in time for afternoon tea, finger sandwiches, dainty cakes and scones with lashings of cream and jam; lovely.

When we took stock of our day but we weren’t very impressed; we would have loved to spend more time in and around the Historic town instead of heading to Miraflores, to visit a house of no real significance, and a statute that meant nothing to us. To make things worse, we also found out that there had been a free shuttle to the Historic town from the QV laid on, but not been told.

The Queen Victoria is moored in a very tight slot with a container ship at her stern and a box carrier at her bows, both at 90 degrees to her so we decided to watch the process of getting her out. We were waiting on the top deck when the commodore came over the tannoy and apologised that we were late leaving but the ship was held up because 1-passenger had not returned. We waited and we waited and naturally we were all speculating as what will happen, do we go without him or what anyway about an hour later we cast off and eased out of our berth, very gingerly but well executed.

This evening, having indulged in afternoon tea, dinner was only a quick visit to the Buffet to tide us over ‘till breakfast.

Our evening show was a couple of acrobats, but with a difference. The girl was a classically trained Ballet Dancer, and the chap was an acrobat and when they got together they amalgamated their individual skills to produce this show. The show was entertaining but again, they were asked to fill ¾hr with an act that was really designed to last ½hr so in the middle we had a series of slides showing them doing hand stands all around the world; quite un-necessary. I think the production team should re-consider how to fill the ¾hr slot without extra time wasting, added padding.

Today we have another day at sea so we will follow the now well-practiced procedure of sun, pool, Jacuzzi and lecture, before getting ready for dinner.

This evening we had a full house on our table, the six of us all met in the bar before heading down to the Dining room together. Tonight Christine and I were celebrating the completion of our house sale; we had already enjoyed a half bottle of Champaign in our cabin, we stopped off at the bar for a couple of Dry Martinis’ and we then enjoyed a bottle of Malbec with our dinner.

The show tonight was the singers and dancers of the ships theatre followed by a ventriloquist who doesn’t use a dummy. He gets a couple up from the audience, puts a sort of mask over their mouths, and with a pull string behind, opens and closes their false mouths, these folk are now the dummies. He was quiet amusing but we have seen this done before and better, still he had a good reception and he was entertaining.

On our return to our cabin we looked in at the “Golden Lion Pub” as Christine wanted to hear more R & B and Soul music whilst I enjoyed a couple of pints of Guinness, this was followed by bed.

Tomorrow we visit Manta in Ecuador

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Full day at Sea

Belize and Costa Maya

Montego Bay (Jamaica) & another sea day

The Panama Canal & another sea day.

Manta (Ecuador) and sea day

Callao, (Peru) and more

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