Friday, November 24, 2023

The calendar says it is only 40 days until we begin our journey...January 3, 2024...128 days to sail around the world...our third trip (also 2010 and 2019).



The last few months have been busy with visas, immunizations and planning shore excursions in each port. While 40 days sounds like a long time remaining, there is still much to be done...more visas, routine doctor visits, last minute shopping and planning to be away from home and away from friends and family for 4 months. We have several lists and spreadsheets going at all times. We also have to finalize our luggage shipping (probably 12 suitcases) by December 1 with the actual luggage being picked up on December 14. I always marvel at all the gear required by climbing teams when they plan an assault on major peaks like Mt. Everest. However I don't think we are much more economical in our packing...clothes...from hot and humid to very cold climates and from casual to formal, gear (bike and swimming), cameras, computers, health and beauty products for 4 months, etc.

While the map above was first planned in 2022 and then rescheduled for 2024 due to Covid, this trip is hardly set in stone. We already have potential challenges navigating the Amazon (due to historic low rainfall and draught), the Panama Canal is restricting ship traffic due to the same draught, Italy, near Naples, is having earthquakes and the underground magma that created Vesuvius and Pompeii is threatening. There are also all the obvious changes (all Israel ports are now canceled) due to world politics, war and chaos. These trips are never "by the book" but this one seems posed to break new ground in the need to be flexible and "pack your patience".

While excited, we also have occasional pangs of "why are we doing this". The expense, the time away from friends and family, the disconnection from groups and organizations, the disruption from our "routine". But perhaps that is why we travel...to disconnect occasionally...and see new things with fresh eyes...and break our routine...and see the world.

This post is basically a "test" of my rusty blogging skills and to begin the story of the 2024 Grand World Voyage...stay tuned...

Craig (and Di) 

Monday, February 4, 2019

We’ve been busy!

Sorry for the gap in blog posts...but we’ve been busy! Since leaving Northern Peru we then traveled to Callao, the port to Lima where we spent a few days. As you may know, Lima is the capital of Peru...a third of the population lives there and it is the 5th largest city in South America with about 11,000,000. Since we have been to Lima several times before, we explored new areas of the city on our own as well as going to the nightly Circuito Majico del Aqua...a major city park with 13 colored and clever water features. It draws huge crowds each evening. We also explored some of the historic plazas which are beautiful and remind us of European cities. Peru is on the comeback after some bad political and economic times. People seem happy and industrious but it is still poor in many areas with tired infrastructure. They are excited about the new president and are hopeful for a bright future. We then traveled South to Arica Chile where we are now. Chile is the world’s longest country and home to the driest desert in the world...the Atacama desert. This is a cute town (been here before too) that always impresses us by how much everyone walks and bikes here. It seems no one is using a car! This is a “resort” area for Chile so it has a slightly more prosperous feeling. However, as a Gringo, you stand out here...they don’t get many North American visitors here. The newspapers today all have a big cartoon of Trump on the cover squeezing the hose at a gas pump with a headline about “Trump trying to make Venezuela American again”. In between long walks (almost 8 miles today!) we have also been busy with ship life. We’ve been getting regular excercise...a tough spin class every at-sea day, swim workouts in the pool using a swim belt tether (you basically swim in place and it works very well) and climb about 20 flights of stairs a day. Di has even played pickleball! We also had a huge Super Bowl party on the ship last night...great food...like lobster rolls...and lots to drink. Too bad the game was such a snoozer.

We now start heading West...5 days at sea before reaching Easter Island our next port of call. This is a bucket list item for us. More news then...














Thursday, January 31, 2019

Northern Peru

Today we arrived...about 2:30am..in the port of Salaverry on the Northern coast of Peru...a tired dusty working class port that serves at the gateway to Trujillo, the country’s 3rd largest city and home of the pre-Incan civilization...the ancient Chimu empire. Today we toured Huaca Dragon (Dragon Temple) a pyramid of adobe baking in the Peruvian sun for centuries, that was the former home to 50-60,000 people. Then we toured Chan Chan, a UNESCO World Heritage site that covered 8 square miles and is over 1000 years old. It shows the sophistication of the native South Americans before Incans and Spanish arrived. We also toured Huanchaco beach, the tired “tourist” area for wealthier Peruvians and saw the frishermen in action on their small reed boats navigating the surf line. These use the same reeds that Thor Heyerdahl used when he built Kon Tiki many years ago and sailed it to the South Pacific to test his theory that these people traveled great distances in these reed boats. All day, our ship was next to a Chinese ship that was unloading tons of corn...from Argentina...to feed the many Peruvian chicken producers in this area. It was fascinating to watch the unloading processs...labor intensive and dusty and probably expensive. I guess it averages out over a huge load but how do you ship corn from Argentina to Peru to raise chickens and have it all pencil out? This area of Peru, new to us, was poor and filled with trash. The people were modern looking with clean clothes but they looked out of place against this third world backdrop. Most lived in  squatters Camps with partially built homes made of scrap. They complained that Venezulian refugees were taking the jobs. They were great tour guides and very friendly but living in a very dry tough part of the world.  








Monday, January 28, 2019

Panama...not what you might expect

The country of Panama is booming! The skyline is impressive with construction cranes everywhere. Even more impressive is the cycling infrastructure.. really exceptional. We could have ridden all day along the causeway bike path between Fuerte Amador (a huge beautiful cruise port under construction there now) and downtown Panama City, but this is our third and final day in this surprising country...our ship weighs anchor about 5:00pm. And in case you were wondering about the Panama Canal...since the U.S. turned over the canal to the Panamanians in 1999, it is doing very well. It too is growing...the new expanded locks are open for mega ship traffic and the whole Canal Zone seems well managed and thriving. As they say here...Panama is the new Miami...


Sunday, January 27, 2019

Old...and new...


I’ve been here before...the Panama Canal...first opening in 1914. But there is much that is new. As we arrive at dawn, we pass under the nearly complete new suspension bridge and see signs of the recently completed canal expansion, which opened in 2016, that allows much larger ships to transit. However, they still bring the cables out to each ship using the historic row boats. We see ships of all sizes and shapes...a few cruise ships, LPG tankers, huge car carriers and massive container ships...even a few proclaiming “hybrid solar” power and most from Asia or China. It’s new...and changing here...but also much like it has been since the early 20th century.






Photographer’s dilemma..,

Today we’re in the San Blas Islands, a collection of 365 tiny low islands (only 49 are inhabited) just off the coast of Panama. The area is known for its lack of hurricanes, beaches (though we saw none), cayuko’s (dugout canoes in which one paddles and other passengers bail like crazy), and the colorful fabric “molas” all the women here sew and create. I’m guessing Molas represent their largest source of island income. Having grown up with framed molas on our household walls, I was looking forward to a visit here to see more of them...and the women who create them.

After a short tender ride from the ship, we arrived and were faced with a classic photographer’s dilemma...to show the village as you expected to see it? To focus on making pretty images? Or to photograph reality...even if poor and shabby. I’m still not sure which approach is best? Do you document? Do you pay for the opportunity to photograph? Here are a few images...representing all the directions a photographer might go. You decide which approach is best...


Saturday, January 26, 2019

In the footsteps of Simon Bolivar...

After about 1200nm and skirting between Cuba and Haiti, we arrived in Columbia today. Our port was Santa. Marta, the first city settled in Columbia, a country of 55M. While their neighbor Venezuela is collapsing, Columbia seems to be doing fairly well...a tired infrastructure but happy busy productive people. Unlike our own country, they are welcoming refugees from Venezuela...their “brothers and sisters” who are struggling. Everything here seems to highlighting Simon Bolivar...who helped 5 countries, including Columbia, win independence from Spain. He is imotalized everywhere. We visited Santa Marta...the gold museum (Bolivar died here), the cathedral (Simon buried here twice), the botanical gardens (Bolivar monuments everywhere) and also the beach tourist areas where brand new high rise condos are selling for $25,000...$3000 pesos to one US dollar. Their “Starbucks” is Juan Valedez Coffee shops but while coffee is their primary export, they admit most of their best coffee is exported and not available here. They also export flowers and coal. We had a college educated very professional tour guide but most interesting was when his mother called to ask what he wanted for his lunch today...she was at the fish market. Lunch would be waiting for him at home...then a short siesta. This was our first visit to Columbia...we think it’s the 81st country we have visited...and we’re eager to see more.