Christine and Ed Retirement Travels

Our journey continues further into the Southern Hemisphere, where the seas have been mostly calm with fairly easy one metre swells, the breezes have been gentle and temperatures have varied from the low 20s, at sea, to around 30C, when ashore. For the most part we are enjoying very pleasant sailing conditions and comfortable trips ashore. Our most recent port of call was Pisco (also known as San Martín) which is situated approximately 240 km south of Lima and was established in 1640, by the Spanish, for the export of ‘pisco’ - a type of brandy which is made by distilling fermented grape juice. Pisco Sour is a very popular local drink. Our trip ashore followed our usual pattern of taking a bus to a local town, and doing some exploring. Our chosen destination was the very small town of Paracas - population around 4,000 - which hosts the activities of the local inshore fishing fleet, and is also a rest stop for back packers. Just off shore their are several small islands which are

Our ship is berthed in the port of Callao, a massive sea port and gateway to Lima, capital city of Peru. Lima is home to almost 9 million people, is noisy, crowded and today a very muggy 29C. Despite a number of general warnings regarding an uptick in crime targeting tourists, we decided to still head out for the day. We always dress down when touring, but today we went to another level to try and avoid bringing unwanted attention to ourselves. Not one piece of jewelry between us, even removed our wedding rings, no wallets or bags, one credit card, one piece of ID - driving license,  $30 in small denominations and our oldest and most drab clothing, and hopped on a bus. The journey took the better part of an hour through some of the most horrendous traffic that we have seen in a long while - motorcycles weaving between cars, buses, and 18 wheelers, horns sounding continuously, many near misses but surprisingly no collisions. To describe this scene as chaotic would be a gross misrepre

Manta is situated almost on the equator, only108 km south of it to be precise, on the coast of Western Ecuador, and the fabled Galápagos Islands, an archipelago belonging to Ecuador, are 1,000 km directly west of Manta. Ecuador is bordered to the north by Colombia, and to the south and east, by Peru. Manta has been inhabited since pre Colombian times, its history dates back to around 3,000 BC and has a  current population of around 260,000. Manta claims to be the ‘tuna capital of the world’. It is the largest sea port in Ecuador, the main port for tuna fishing in the Eastern Pacific and has the largest fishing fleet in South America. To put this information into perspective and perhaps validate this claim to ‘fame’, in the first 7 months of 2019, 105,000 tones of canned tuna were exported, not including the additional many tonnes of flash frozen, unprocessed tuna and other fish species. Although there is a period of time, close to 3 months, when no tuna fish are harvested, b

Our home away from home, The Island Princess, looks so very large to me but it could be reasonably considered to be a mid sized ship, when compared to some of the much bigger floating hotels presently out on the worlds oceans. The Island carries approximately 2,000 passengers and 895 crew members, is 965 feet long and including bridge wing has a beam of 122 feet, it has 16 decks for a height of 203 feet and its tonnage is 91,627. The much larger ships are, in some cases, more than twice as long as The Island, twice the height and width, much more than double the weight and carry up to 5,000 passengers. Our ship is of a size that has space for many amenities, is not overcrowded and one can still find quiet places for reading etc., but more importantly, it is small enough that you will come across the same folks on a regular basis - we have met several interesting couples who we can spend easy chat time with. On board there are two formal dining rooms, a casual dining buffet style res

Puntarenas, located on the north west coast of Costa Rica, is a very convenient location to sail into. The ship ties up beside a very long pier which provides a very easy walk of 500 meters, or there about, walk into town. The community of Puntarenas is stretched out along a sandy peninsula, ocean one side and river estuary on the other, and has a population of around 14,000 people. Ocean near side, river far side - not a great location if a flood situation occurs. Beach bar looking towards the ocean.   Restrooms back behind a beach bar, hammocks, perhaps to have a rest if you are planning to be out late, or for a quick nap maybe. The town itself is quite small, is very easily accessed by a sharp left turn at the shore end of the pier, flat, and very easy to wander around over a sauntering couple of hours. Slow walking, with regular refreshment stops is highly recommended - high humidity with temperatures in the low 30s, which is not too uncomfortable providing yo

To traverse the Panama Canal, in a ship, is a wonder to behold. We approached from the east through the Caribbean Sea and proceeded west to the Pacific Ocean. A journey which took almost all of  ten hours through various locks and Gatun Lake. The lake, which is at the high point of the system, sheds water, east and west, to all of the locks. The lake is fed from rainforest rivers and its size is large enough to ensure that there is always sufficient water to fill the locks. The Peace Bridge is behind us and one of the trusty tugs is ensuring we enter The Canal appropriately. The locks are 110 feet wide and our ship at its widest point is 105 feet, which only leaves 30” clearance, on each side, when the vessel is correctly positioned in a lock chamber. Not much room for error. Along each side, of each lock, there are tracks where small, but powerful, trains run alongside the ship. The trains are called ‘mules’, two each side are situated toward the bow of the ship, and the same