EASTER ISLAND

The only way to Easter Island from the ship was by tender 

we were extremely lucky as only one in three ships can access the island due to rough seas

We hired push bikes & rode around the island to see the big heads

Cliff decided a brisk swim was in order

Lunch of local seafood - tuna ceviche & calamari mmmmm

To top off the visit to the island, we stopped at what we thought was a bar but it turned out to be a meeting shed for the local fishermen. The man Cliff was drinking with was the local chief - when we asked for a photo he went & put on his head dress.

We farewelled Easter Island to a fabulous sunset

Pitcairn Island scenic cruising coming up next.

LIMA part 2

Our first day finished with a private evening tour of the old city of Lima. Our driver was Roberto from VIP Transfers. He spoke exceptional English & his tour was much better than the ship tours, he even stopped on the way back to buy us Peruvian chocolates.

More friendly local police

Next day we met "Dawn" a fellow passenger who was travelling on her own. We were haggling with taxi drivers for a tour price when we spotted Roberto, so off the three of us went for another enjoyable day.  Dawn was looking forward to seeing the Huana Pucllama ruins - which was pretty incredible.

We had lots of memorable photo stops but sadly at our next port of call of San Martin we lost our iPad & I hadn't downloaded the photos

The port of San Martin was the most desolate place we had seen so far. The 30 minute bus ride to the town of Paracas was through a never-ending desert 

Paracas is a fishing port but a very poor town, it is still trying to recover from an earthquake from a few years ago. After wandering the local markets there was nothing else to do except to eat & drink. Our barman "Juan" made a mean Pisco sour

after way too many we made our way back to the ship by taxi, by the time we returned to our cabin I realised we didn't have the iPad - Bugger - I kept hoping it was somewhere on the ship but it wasn't handed in, so I can only assume it was left in the taxi - not happy. 

LIMA Peru

 Callao was an extremely busy port & about 35 minutes from Lima. 

Our first day we were off to see the Pachacamac ruins & a Peruvian horse show.  Our guide "Mayra" was very friendly & a font of knowledge. First stop was the national museum of archeology & history.

Alien shaped skulls

Depending on the tribe, babies had their heads bound to shape their skulls - poor little things.

This security guard had a good sense of humour & wanted me to pretend I was talking on his 2 way radio. 

And I thought Cliff had a big head!

Motorcycle police on their way to work

The oldest winery in Lima, sadly for Cliff it was closed.

As we travelled further from the city the landscape changed from clean streets to shanty towns & dry desert. To see the way poorer people lived was a real eye opener. The shanty towns went all the way to the ruins. 

We thought pachacamac had once been an ancient city, but it was only used as a sacred place for priests & sacrifices.

After the ruins we were off to the horse show - it was set in an oasis of gum trees. Before the show we sat enjoying a complimentary Pisco sour mmm - I don't think we could drink too many of these - very potent.

We were entertained by dancers

The Peruvian horses were beautiful to watch, it was as if they pranced to the rhythm of the music.

This had definitely been the best excursion we had been on so far.  

MANTA Ecuador

We arrived in the port of Manta (Ecuador) early morning (6th August) & as it is a working port we were not allowed to walk into town so shuttle buses were provided (at a cost) I was going on an excursion to a wildlife refuge - I couldn't wait to see some howler monkeys. We were advised the excursion was strenuous so Cliff chose to stay in town as his back was still playing up. The drive to the refuge was a real eye opener - as we left the city, the landscape looked as if it had been poisoned, the hills were covered in dead scrub due to the dry season. The closer we got to the refuge the greener it got but it still wasn't as I had imagined

When we arrived 2 howler monkeys were near by (good thing I had Rob's binoculars). The strenuous excursion turned out to be about 40 mtrs down a hill & 40 up where we watched a demonstration of sugar cane being crushed - that was the extent of the walking :-(  A number of us were not happy & we asked our guide if we could walk along another path, which he reluctantly did.

After a disappointing excursion I met Cliff back in town where he took me to a very friendly cafe for a yummy lunch of local seafood. 

We met a lovely Canadian couple Janet & Paul - they moved to Ecuador for a more relaxing lifestyle. Our waiter, Pedro joined in for this photo. 

The beaches are nothing like we have in Australia but they were full of people enjoying themselves.

Lima Peru next stop

CURAÇAO Caribbean.CARTAGENA Columbia. PANAMA CANAL transit

CURACAO 

Cliff hurt his back in NY (must be from me walking all over him) so he spent his day in Curacao resting in our cabin while I went out to do some window shopping. Willemstad looks pretty, but away from the tourist areas it's not quite as pretty & there appears to be very little to do & it's extremely expensive, but the locals are very friendly.

Close to shore the colour of the water is absolutely beautiful

After wandering for a couple of hours I needed a rest so I sat quietly enjoying a frozen mojito slurpie mmm mmmm very refreshing. 

Audrey & Patricia (our dinner companions) were passing by & joined me for a mojito or two (or three!)

Tomorrow at sea & then next stop

COLUMBIA - THE CITY OF CARTAGENA

This was not what we were expecting to see - a massive city of highrise buildings. I think maybe I had watched "Romancing the Stone" too many times & imagined a very old city.

It was only a short stay from 7am-1:30pm & as we hadn't booked any tours we were unsure what to do. Cliffs back was still playing up so we couldn't do a lot of walking. As we left the cruise terminal we entered a bird park full of exotic birds.

And cute little monkeys

There were many eager tour operators trying to secure our business, one man approached us to go on a private tour in his taxi - with Cartagena being the 10th biggest kidnapping city in the world I was too scared for us to go alone, so we opted to do a small tour bus with other passengers from the Sea Princes. "Marlon" our guide was extremely informative - a little hard to understand but very keen to try to please us.

You could probably spend 3 days exploring this city - our very quick tour included the 17th century Santa Cruz monestery on La Popa Hill with a hazy view of the city & suburbs

The Castillo de San Felipe fortress which was built in 1657 by the Spanish. The fort was built for protection from pirates for the gold the Spanish stole from the local indians. It would have been great to see inside the fortress but we would have needed at least 1 hour, time we didn't have.

We visited the brightly coloured shops in the old soldiers quarters

the old walled city, it would have been great to have been able to spend a few hours wandering the streets.

Oh my goodness - what an unusual sculpture

A local women carrying fruit on her head - I thought she was selling fruit but she was actually there for photographs.

we enjoyed our brief stop in Cartagena.

PANAMA CANAL

Nessie - far from home & the wrong kind of loch

Check out the size of this crane "Titan" was it's name, let me tell you the small crane was pretty big, this crane was enormous.

how incredible is this lock system.

Looks like we're almost home - made me feel homesick but sadly not our Harbour Bridge.

Panama is an amazing looking city - we can't understand why this is not a port stop for cruise ships.

Our next stop is the port of Manta, Ecuador - not sure what to expect so I guess we will just have to wait & see.