Two hundred and twenty-six nautical miles down the road, as they say, we found ourselves 90 miles south of Cuba in the birthplace of reggae and its most famous ambassador, Bob Marley: Jamaica. We docked in Falmouth on the north side of the island.

Fun fact: Falmouth was the first place
in the Western Hemisphere to have running water!

From the ship we could see the 3,000 foot limestone mountains and dense vegetation that smother the island thanks to 80 inches of rain each year. It was beautiful from the ship but rather tired and depressed once we took a closer look. Sadly things have gone downhill in some ways since Jamaica got its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. There are lots of walls, gates, and grates seemingly for security. The streets are littered. In contrast to huge, elaborate mansion sized homes were countless shanties that were cobbled together with a mixture of scrap building materials. Small or large, they were colorful: pink, orange, bright blue. There were lots of colorful flowers everywhere.

Fun fact: Ian Fleming, who lived in Jamaica, repeatedly used the island
as a setting in his James Bond novels. Movie adaptations
of some of the books were shot there. 

Dan and I took the Go Native tour which we enjoyed a lot. We drove out of Falmouth (on the left side of the road) through the countryside to Montego Bay. Our first stop was at a small, stone Anglican church. It looked similar to others we had seen except for the two dozen steel drums situated in a balcony by the organ. We crossed our fingers there would be a little concert to satisfy our curiosity, but no. We drove out of town past dozens and dozens of vendors selling their wares in makeshift stalls. Everything from sugar cane to coconuts to clothing to flavored ice drinks.

Our second stop was at Mount Olive Basic School, a preschool for three to five year olds. The school was a single story, one room concrete building painted pastel purple and white with partitions for the three ages. All the kids were wearing uniforms and were busy at tables when we arrived. They were very chatty with us and offered high-fives when we left. One lady in our group had games loaded on her iPad and she sat right down and started playing with the kids. In less than a moment she was surrounded and the iPad was being passed around. I took pictures of the kids which I  showed to them, but that effort rated a zero when compared to the iPad games.

Our last stop was at John’s Hall Plantation. Our guide talked us through all sorts of tropical fruits and gave us samples. We fed our fruit rinds to a little burrow who was happy to gently take them out of our hands. We enjoyed watching the 600 pound pig, David, miraculously raise up on his hind legs so he could get to corn that was placed on top of a low wall for our viewing pleasure. Two male peacocks showed off their plumage to its full advantage for a single disinterested female. The stay was topped off with a jerk chicken and jerk pork buffet lunch that was served outside.

We had a wonderful guide and thoroughly enjoyed the tour. She explained Jamaica’s motto Out of Many, One People which pays homage to their mix of native, Spanish, English, enslaved Africans (emancipated in 1838), and indentured Indians and  Chinese. Although English is the official language, this mix of people, customs, and cultures spawned Jamaican Patois, a native dialect of sorts the locals speak with ease but totally stumps visitors.

Did you know: Olympic gold medalist Usaine Bolt
is a native son of Jamaica. He was center stage on lots of billboards
and much loved for the good things he does for his parish.

We made it back to the ship with plenty of time to clean up for our mandatory happy hour with the junior Mongeons. They took a different tour, so it was fun to share stores and photos. A four course meal followed and then we topped of the night with the comedian Darrell Joyce. A great day!

 

The Cayman Islands are 341 nautical miles from Cozumel. We docked in George Town, capital of the Cayman Islands, which is located on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three islands that comprise this British Overseas Territory. It is a whopping 22 miles long and eight miles wide at its widest point.

Most places that are served by cruise ships rely on tourism as a major part of their economy. Although happy to have us, the Caymans have a different claim to fame: they are the world’s fifth largest financial center with close to 600 banks and trust companies. There are branches of 40 of the world’s 50 largest banks and they are the second largest captive domicile in the world. I just report the facts; I have absolutely no idea what a captive domicile even is!

The four of us booked an excursion that would allow us to be in shallow (3-7 feet) water with friendly stingrays that would tolerate feeding, touching, and swimming with them. We were really bummed when the excursion was cancelled due to rough water between George Town and the sandbar where the rays hang out.

That meant we were on our own for the day. We got a map and did a short walking tour. The town center was small and tidy with a few nice statues and memorials plus a museum, library, and post office…all painted white. Once we had the lay of the land we grabbed a local bus, think woman with an over-sized minivan, and headed to Seven Mile Beach, so named because it is seven miles from the center of town. We rented chairs and umbrellas and wiled away the afternoon walking the warm sand, napping, and popping in and out of the clear water. Heaven.

We shared a cab, think large mini-van, for $2.50/person back to the dock and were on board ship in time to clean up and exercise our drinks package once again at cocktail hour. A four course meal followed and then the Celebrity Singers and Dancers did a spectacular production to end our full, fun day.

We completed the 542 nautical miles from Fort Lauderdale to Mexico’s largest (of three) island, Cozumel, just before sunrise. It is situated off the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, ancient home to Mayan and later Toltec Indians.

Dan and I were second guessing our decision to take the eight hour tour to the ruins of Chichen Itza, on the mainland, because we had to be up, fed, and rallying for our tour by 7:00 which is not pretty when you are living on cruise time. Being suckers for USESCO World Heritage sites, we went for it. We didn’t find out until later that these particular ruins are also listed as one of the New7Wonders of the world, so woo hoo for us.

First there was the issue of the 12 miles of water between Cozumel and the mainland. We took a very bumpy 45 minute boat ride, one that made us very happy we had drugged up (Dramamine) just in case. Sure enough, more than a few of our fellow passengers made good use of the handy little blue bags that were passed out. From the boat we boarded a small van and headed inland on a brand new toll road. The land was as flat as a tortilla and smothered in vegetation. It looked like the jungle but with a really low canopy. Our fabulous guide explained that the vegetation exists on a thin layer of topsoil situated on top of a limestone base. Our ride was a little over an hour and a half.

Chichan Itza, a sacred as well as urban center, passed its prime, was eventually abandoned, and fell to ruin well over 600 years ago. What we saw are the results of excavations that started in 1841.

The Temple of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo, stood prominently in the center of things and caught our eye first. It has 365 steep steps—one for each day of the year. The preservationists decided to take stones from two sides to mend the other two sides, so half of the pyramid-looking temple appears to be in perfect shape and the other half looks a bit like rubble. Until earlier this year tourists could climb all over the ruins, but now there are barriers keeping people back a short distance.

Our guide took us to a huge, natural ceremonial well that was used for live sacrifices. Archaeologists have found bones of adults and children as well as the jewelry and other precious objects worn in the victims’ final hours. Speaking of untimely deaths, there is also a huge structure used for human sacrifices that did not involve drowning. Our guide described the practice of removing the heart of the victim and putting it on a special ceremonial table called a Chac Mool. It all sort of gave us the shivers.

Chichén Itzá’s huge ball field, the largest known in the Americas, was fascinating too. It measures 554 feet long and 231 feet wide. The object was to get a 12-pound solid rubber ball through one of two stone rings set high into the 27 foot tall side walls. The scoring rings were not set high like a basketball hoop, but high as in are-you-kidding-me? Considering the players could not use their hands or feet, it seems basically impossible to score, but apparently they did. Being huge fans of premature death, the captain of the winning team of special ritual games was promptly beheaded. A huge honor.

Dan and I really enjoyed our short stay at the ruins and were thrilled to have the guide throwing facts at us left and right and explaining things. After two hours our little group got sack lunches, boarded the van, and headed back to the boat on the toll road just as we had come. The guide pointed out numerous narrow rope ladders strung across the highway that he explained had been put there so monkeys could cross in complete safety. We had a bumpy boat ride back to Cozumel and got back to the ship just in time to clean up and meet the junior Mongeons for cocktails. They had opted for a slower day, so we had a good time comparing notes and sharing pictures.

Listening to vocalist Jesse Hamilton Jr. was a very enjoyable way to end our day. His versatility pretty much guaranteed he had something for everyone.

Yawn…stretch…order room service…more stretching…breakfast on the balcony…and you pretty much have the rhythm of our morning. We all managed to squeeze in some exercise before lunch, so yay us. Never having played Bingo except out of a box with her family, Emily suggested we give it a try and low and behold Dan and I won the four corners match! Well actually there were two bingos, so we split the $316 prize money. From Bingo we transitioned to our private cocktail hour, then to dinner where Emily and I both had frog legs for the first time ever, and finally to a fabulous show highlighting the Celebrity Singers and Dancers.

We spent the day at sea going through the Straights of Florida skirting the northwestern edge of Cuba. We enjoyed overcast skies, warm weather, and calm seas. We set our watches back an hour before turning out the lights excited to explore a very small corner of Mexico tomorrow.

In order to squeeze every ounce of fun out of the cruise we decided to get on the ship, Celebrity’s Silhouette, as early as possible. To that end we took the first hotel shuttle at 10:30. It was an uncomplicated ten minute ride from the hotel to Port Everglades. Easy breezy! Check in was a snap and we were on the ship in record time. We headed straight for lunch (delicious) in the dining room. We had access to our staterooms by the time we finished eating. No luggage yet but access meant we could drop off a few carry-on things and check out our digs for the next week. Our rooms are next to each other, so it’ll be easy to talk from the balconies or pop back and forth like friendly neighbors.

Surprise of the day: our ship has a godmother.
Michelle Morgan to be exact. Who knew?

We spent our afternoon in the small library selecting tours for the four ports. We booked our choices, participated in the mandatory emergency drill, saw a tiny bit of the ship, inaugurated our nightly cocktail hour where we exercised our beverage package to its fullest, enjoyed a four course dinner, and ended our day at the entertainment which we enjoyed a lot. Dan Grueter, a comedian, had us and 1,300 of our new cruise buddies laughing for just under an hour.

Total cruisers: 2,914 from 37 countries.
Over half are from the U.S.; a third from Canada.

Crew: 1,273 from 63 countries.

We said our good nights around 10:30 with the plan to sleep as long as we could and meet tomorrow at noon if we did not run into each other around the ship before then. We all agreed we’d had a wonderful first day.

The family trip this year (Matt and Emily’s turn to pick) is poised to get underway. Not to start on a downer, but Murphy and Josie can’t join us this year; our first family trip without them. Our apologies up front for having tons of fun inspite of their absence and our wish that they were along.

Matt and Emily were up at 3:30 this morning to start their treck across country and Dan and I got our act together in time to be at the airport for our 1:30 flight. Dan had been home from a trip to the Middle East less than 24 hours, so he wins the quick turnaround prize. Enough about him. Due to weather and power outages, we all had minor delays which were not really a problem since our objective was to get to Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise anyway.

All said and done we landed within minutes of each other. The airport looked like a popular mall at Xmas…jam packed with a day’s worth of delayed passengers. We wove our way around the throngs of people and met M&Em in baggage claim at 6:00, grabbed our bags, called for the hotel shuttle, and were checked in by 8:00. Food was the only detail left to chance. We walked across the street and had a quick, light meal, and then headed to our rooms to relax and get ready to pull anchor tomorrow.

 

 

 

Dan and I had an 11:00 o’clock flight last night on a brand new Bowling 787 Dream Liner. It smelled like a new car and was very nice. Destination: Houston. Flight time: 8.5 hours. We enjoyed a light dinner, put our watches back three hours, and then set ourselves to the task of sleeping. We each had a seat that fully reclined, a pillow, and a blanket, so with the help of my trusty sleeping mask, I actually slept for just under six hours.

We went through the expedited immigration process in Houston with the help of the Global Entry kiosks. Then baggage claim, then rechecked our bags, then we settled in at the United lounge where we had a snack and coffee while waiting for our 7:30 flight back to Virginia. Flight time: 2.5 hours.

We have had a fabulous trip and covered a lot of territory. In our view, well worth the time, money, and vacation days. There were few firsts for us (penguins, milky apple juice, outdoor church), but that was expected. The fun was being in such remote parts of the world where not only few live, but few venture. It gave me a huge appreciation for the explorers who got excited about scouting around down there in the first place.

Favorite things
Hettie: being with cruise buddies …and… visiting the penguin rookery
Ronnie: seeing countries, on a new continent, that were on his bucket list …and… the lamb barbecue lunch in Argentina
Cleone: penguins
Walter: happy hour and dinner each night
Dan: being with friends
Schele: the penguins …and… seeing such remote places …and… the magic of Dramamine

Least favorite things
Hettie: high seas …and… traveling with shingles
Ronnie: the graffiti
Cleone: flight to Sao Paulo …and… too many sea days
Walter: flight to Sao Paulo
Dan: rough seas
Schele: rough seas

The four of us started our day with breakfast in the wall-of-windows breakfast room that overlooks the harbor. The hotel is situated near the top of a hill, so the view is spectacular! The best surprise of the meal was the custard apple juice. Milky white, not too sweet, with a hint of pineapple flavor although it comes from the ugly fruit of the cherimoya tree.

Walter (fist bump) had prearranged our pickup and tour today. Michelle, our German guide, and Marcelo, the driver, came by for us at 11:00. Our destination was Santiago, an hour and a half drive southeast. The road was great and the traffic a breeze. We soon noticed a difference in the landscape as we went from the hilly, foggy, green of Valparaiso to the dry Casablanca Valley where wine is grown. We passed tall, beautiful pines, scraggly gum trees, and native palms.

Soon enough we went through a short tunnel and transitioned into a valley that grows fruit, vegetables, and olives. All the while we had coastal mountains (not the Andes) on our left and right. There were lots of short windmills that help distribute the cool morning mist. We passed a pilgrimage church that hosts thousands of walkers who come 45-80 kilometers (multiply by 0.6 for miles) each December 8. It was right along the highway, so during the pilgrimage the road goes from being partially closed to closed completely to accommodate all of the faithful.

We were taken by surprise when we stopped to pay a toll on the multi-lane highway and looked left to see a guy hawking peanuts, prickly pears, and local snacks to the cars that stopped to pay. In full view and with total cooperation of the toll taker.

A second tunnel took us into the Santiago Valley where we had our first, sadly smoggy, view of the snow capped Andes. In contrast were cactus that resembled our saguaro cactus in Arizona.

Fun facts
Chileans are not particularly fond of wine in spite of the world class
reputation of theirs. They much prefer beer and pisco.

Chileans are the #2 consumers, after Mexico, of avocados in the world.

Because of earthquakes, there are no trains because of the expense of
maintaining tracks. An alternative is long distance, luxury bus travel with seats that lie flat, blankets, and pillows. Sigh me up.

Santiago, a city of 8 million, houses almost half the population of Chile. It is huge and offers massive contrasts of the rich and poor, sophisticated and unsophisticated. We passed hovels along the river bank built to house the less fortunate, and large, gorgeous, old homes. Much like all big cities around the world in that way I guess. The streets are wide and very good. At a couple of huge intersections guys were walking between the cars hawking bottled water and soft drinks. One guy was in an intersection standing on a footstool bouncing a ball off his knees, hacky sack style. This I didn’t get!

The architecture downtown was really beautiful, a mixture of French, German, Spanish, and modern. Because of all the earthquakes, the buildings are primarily only a few stories. Most churches lack tall steeples because they’ve long ago fallen down. In contrast to this earthquake construction/reconstruction strategy, Santiago is home to the tallest building (984 feet/60 floors) in all of South America. It’s also home to the largest shopping mall in South America, but it is not a high rise.

We saw some amazing paintings on exterior walls just like in Valparaiso, and thankfully not loads of graffiti. My favorite stop was an urban park that covers an entire small mountain and houses a zoo, picnic spots, walking trails, and so forth. At the very top is a beautifully landscaped outdoor church that is calm, quiet, and beautiful. Soft music was playing. A huge white statue dominates the sky at the very top of the hill, and multiple, painted crosses are tucked away in unexpected places. There’s a small, stone chapel also, but it’s dwarfed by the outdoor, tiered seating and alter that have the city below as a backdrop. Dan and I lit a candle for Aunt Gerry in a beautiful outdoor alcove.

There were loads of interesting statues. My favorite was in honor of the natives from this area of the country. These citizens, more than a million strong, are poorly represented in government affairs, sadly, but at least they have not been systematically  eradicated entirely like in Argentina and Uruguay.

We visited a gorgeous cathedral where I saw what was a first for me: confessionals were placed along one wall of the main part of the church. The people confessing knelt in front of the confessionals in full view not only of the priest but also of the visitors to the church. There was no privacy for the priest or the parishioner.

Street dogs and cats were everywhere, and like others we’d seen this trip, not at all phased by all the activity around them. They napped right in the middle of busy, sunny sidewalks or tucked away in quiet corners. Many have owners who expect them home for dinner at night, but lots just live on the street and are fed and cared for by the locals. Many have names. They are, above all, intelligent and street smart. Get this, we saw some wait for the light to change at intersections. For real.

Fresh, hot empanadas ended our tour! Cleone and I had cheese and the guys enjoyed meat. We ladies fell in love but the guys, expecting the traditional ground beef, had the surprise of one un-pitted olive, hard boiled egg slices, too little meat, and gravy. Good but not out of this world.

We four were dropped at the airport Hilton where W&C were spending the night before going on (to a desert up north and to Easter Island, a six hour flight off the coast) another week. We freshened up, chitchatted, and enjoyed a last couple of hours before taking the airport.

We were docked at the port city of Valparaiso when we woke up. The cruise had come to an end. We had what we were told was an unusual morning in that the sun was bright without the usual fog. We said our goodbyes to Hettie and Ronnie who were leaving our little group and heading home via bus transfer to the Santiago airport by way of a day-long tour.

Walter (fist bump) had prearranged a tour and overnight stay for the rest of us in Valparaiso, Chile’s oldest and largest port city located north of the midpoint of Chile’s enormously long coast. A van, driver, and guide were at the dock to collect us at 9:00. Our guide was Thomas, a young Frenchman who came 10 years ago to follow his Chilean girlfriend. (Sidebar: they are still together.) He did a wonderful job of showing us around.

First off he explained that the old port city of Valparaiso, second largest city in the country…with a population of 300,000,  is built on 49 hills that come all the way to the ocean. For that reason there are no hotel chains, only old, grand homes converted into small boutique hotels. Our first stop was at the Zero, our boutique hotel for the night. Free WiFi; we were instantly enamored. And the first tangerine tree I’ve ever seen and more flowering plants than we could count. A beautiful place with a tiered deck system overlooking the port.

Anyway, each of the 49 hills of the city, all smothered in colorful buildings, comprise a sort of neighborhood all its own. Narrow, winding roads, a series of short funiculars (cable-cars),  and stairways get folks from one place to the next. There is way less graffiti here than in Brazil, thank goodness, but does have a lot of interesting art painted on the outside of buildings. Thomas explained that a few years ago a law was passed that made it legal…if you get permission from the owners. From then on, painters brought their A-games, signed their work, and even left social media addresses, so now a few are in high demand not just in South America but all over the world.

An interesting stop on the tour was one of three homes owned by Pablo Neruda (1904-19730), reputed by some to be the greatest poet writing in Spanish during his lifetime. He was a diplomat and politician as well as a writer and won the Nobel Prize for Literature (a busy boy this one) in 1971. His house was multi-leveled with the narrowest of staircases connecting the floors and housed some of the things he collected as a diplomat. All the rooms have magnificent views of the water.

Besides visiting Valparaiso, we went to Vina del Mar, the beautiful resort city next door that was established in 1874 as a place where the aristocracy could, as was the tradition in the enviably sophisticated continent of Europe, have a second house near the capital (Santiago) as a getaway of sorts. It is 300 years younger than Valparaiso and developed as a place to spread out and be at leisure, and is now Chile’s premier coastal resort town. There are beautiful parks, a famous floral clock, large hotels, French style casino, and the longest beach in Chile. My favorite was seeing one of only five moai stone statues that exist off Easter Island. Another favorite was a church with a ceiling built by ship carpenters in the shape of a wooden hull. Very pretty.

Thomas left us on our own mid afternoon. We headed first to find lunch and then wandered the street and did a little souvenir shopping. Lapis lazuli is mined here, so I chose a necklace and earrings. We stopped by a shop where a photographer was transferring pictures onto stiff, white cloth. We had to have one of those too.

The day was wonderful and we were so glad we stayed on to enjoy these two unique cities.

 

Day one
Oh boy! So this is what they were talking about? We woke before dawn to heavy seas and immediately medicated ourselves, gulped down some water, and went back to bed in a Dramamine stupor. Yay modern medicine! We were still sleeping when Cleone called at 11:30 to see if we’d be joining the group for lunch. It’ll be awhile before we live that down. After lunch Dan and I elected to watch the matinee, The Intern, which we really enjoyed.

Today we finished sailing the 350 mile long Straights of Magellan, the channel linking the Atlantic with the Pacific, which runs between the southern tip of mainland South America and the island of Tierra del Fuego. It’s namesake, a Portuguese sailing for Spain, was the first European to navigate the straight (November 1520) and the first to circumnavigate the globe. But you probably remember that from school. Big smile.

The seas made dinner a challenge for the wait staff. There were numerous crashes as plates and glasses slide off service stations and crashed to the floor along with trays of rolls and wine buckets. We luckily felt fine and enjoyed all four courses.

Dan and I were the only ones to brave the entertainment and we were so glad we did. It was a fabulous Brazilian tenor, Jorge Durian, and a violinist who lost their balance from time to time but performed enthusiastically throughout. They did not speak English but performed standards we recognized for the most part, so it made no difference.

To bed with more Dramamine. The ship was pitching up and down as well as back and forth, so it took some concentration to fall asleep with the rattling windows and a few things flying out of cupboards. The closet doors would have slammed open and shut all night, but we cleverly propped a chair in front of them anchored with tennis shoes so the chair would stay put.

Day two
We had a wake-up call for 10:30 to make sure we were at lunch on time and not subjected to the ‘did we wake you?’ ribbing of yesterday. We dazzled our pals by not only being there early but securing a table for six in a prime location by the window. After lunch W&C taught us their version of Hand and Foot. It looked dim for Walter and me, but we pulled it out on the last hand and remain undefeated.

Today we passed through the world famous Chilean fjords, known for their unrivaled beauty. Sadly wind, rain, and fog blurred our visibility considerably, but not so much that we couldn’t tell that it would have been specTACular with clear skies. We were truly sorry to have come this far and missed it…just like Cape Horn.

Cocktails at 5:30, per our routine, and then we splurged and had dinner at one of the specialty restaurants; we chose the steakhouse. I say splurge because specialty restaurants involve a surcharge of, in this case, $35/person. It was the last of three formal nights, so we went in our finery. My filet was divine! as were the potato/cheese croquettes. Dan raved over his cream of mushroom soup.

Our entertainment, which was lively and enjoyable, centered on singing and dancing and featured a professional dance couple from the Ukraine.

Day three
Hard to believe this is our last day at sea. Our little gang met for lunch (our first meal of the day) at noon. The Brazilian tenor did an encore performance to a packed house mid-afternoon, so we went to that and then set ourselves to the task of cramming everything back into our suitcases. We met for dinner and sat at our usual table with our usual waiter and assistant waiter, both Brazilians, who we enjoyed immensely. We took down their names so we could call them out when we reviewed the cruise. The entertainment tonight were spellbinding: a teeny tiny, strong woman and a strong guy did acrobatic things on long, flowing lengths of fabric, a suspended ring, and on the floor. A few times the audience did a collective sigh not quite understanding how they managed one move or another. Duo Free Action is their name. They are Ukrainian.