Panama Canal and more

Had a great time on a beautiful ship. I met the ship mid-cruise in Aruba. From there, we sailed thru the Panama Canal, around the shoulder of S. America and I disembarked in the port of Callao, just outside of Lima, Peru.

This cruise line really spoiled me! I even had my own balcony and I took advantage of the wonderful room service to enjoy a lovely breakfast as we sailed through the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side of the  Panama Canal.

If you haven't had a chance, please do experience the Panama Canal. Even 100 years after construction, it's an incredible feat of engineering. Ships are raised and lowered between sea level and Gatun Lake, 80 feet above sea level.

You know I'm a nut for all the great food I'm lucky to experience. I had lunch in the small port Manta, Ecuador of with some new friends who work onboard. These grilled prawns were just the starter for a terrific lunch right on the beach. Not fancy, but really fresh and delicious!

The excursions obviously have a very different flavor in the Americas from the Mediterrean cruises I enjoyed last year. I don't have quite as much to write about, but there were some very nice highlights, especially from the excursion I took for an overview of Lima, Peru.

This is in downtown Lima, as we toured around one of the beautiful central squares. This is a statue of San Martin, the liberator of Peru, Argentina and I think Chile (?). He was an Argentine so I got a lot of his history when I spent time down there when I was young.

This is the Basilica to St. Francis. We took a lovely tour but unfortunately we weren't permitted to take photos inside:

The biggest highlight of the day was visiting the main Catholic Cathedral downtown.

The Cathedral has been rebuilt four times, it's been destroyed by earthquakes over the years.

This current version is actually all timber and stucco which, due to it's inherent flexibility, is better able to withstand the tremors. All the columns, etc. you see are all faux (stucco over lathing):

One of the niches is the resting place of Francisco Pizzaro, the founder of Lima. The walls are decorated with very beautiful and colorful mosaics.

Ol' Don Pizzaro was thought to have been buried in one location and then his bones started turning up in various spots; including this metal box which is labeled "skull of Don Pizzaro". They gathered everything together and finally arranged for this ornate tomb in the Cathedral.

Here's a detail they left exposed to show the construction of the Cathedral. Pretty impressive!

Attached, but to the left of the main Cathedral, is the home of the Cardinal. The front boasts very elaborate enclosed balconies which are famous in Lima. Not all are as highly decorated, but they're traditionally made of cedar and are a Moorish influence. Ladies could take the cooler air and look out from their perches without being seen from the street. You can see examples on many buildings all over town.

Directly around the plaza from the Cathedral, you'll find the impressive Presidential Palace

We lucked out and arrived during a changing of the guard, which seems to consist of the band playing for the visitors

Around the corner from the Presidential Palace, we visited the private home of a Peruvian hero of their revolutionary war, Juan Aliaga. The home has been preserved and is still lived in by his descendants. 

The upscale business district is right on the coast and boasts an amazing view. 

In Miraflores- Lima, Peru

Africa!

Holiday greetings to everyone! Hope you are all happy and healthy. Since my last voyage, I kept pretty busy with some corporate shows, strolling events and had a great visit with family as we visited lovely Savannah, Georgia and the beach at St. Petersburg, FL.

I met my ship on Dec 15 in Durban, South Africa after a bum-numbing trip that included a 14.5 hour non-stop from NY to Johannesburg. We sailed north, along the east coast and up to Richard's Bay; from there a motor coach conveyed us about an hour and a half inland to the Hluhluwe Game Preserve which is the oldest and one of the largest  in Africa for my one chance at a safari. It's a huge reserve at over 237,000 acres. The only park older in the world is Yellowstone they said.

I know that the people who work the real safaris will hate me for saying it, but the Disney safari at the Animal Kingdom park is spot on... I was amazed at how similar the experience was. Of course, this preserve is one of the public preserves so it has decent roads and you're not allowed to drive off-road to get up close to some wildlife like they do in some of the private preserves.

It wasn't an experience with vast flat savanna plains with herds of antelope frolicking, like you see on Wild Kingdom; in fact, I was impressed by how green and mountainous the area was. It rained most of the tour but we were still fortunate to encounter a good bit of wildlife.

We boarded 10 person trucks that were open sided but with a roof so the rain wasn't too much of an inconvenience. The seats were also tiered with each seat a bit higher than the one in front, so everyone really had a terrific view. Our guide, Wiseman (no, I don't think he was Jewish; he was Zulu) was great and had a good eye for noticing animals on far away hills, birds, etc.

The overall experience was exactly like the Disney tour, bouncy roads, a little mud, some exciting encounters with animals, but the big difference of course is that these animals were completely wild and on their own. We came across quite a few groups of zebra right in the road and they were close enough to touch. One of the zebra was suffering from two huge gashes, about 8-10 inches long on it's side from some cat attack.

Everyone had their eyes peeled, on the look-out for one of the "Big Five". Back when big game hunting was in fashion, hunters had a Big Five they named as the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt. Thus it was a big deal to bag your five. When times changed for the better (for the animals!) preservationists sort of pirated the title to help stave off extinction of these animals so that tourists also now look for the Big Five: Lion, Leopard, African Elephant, Rhino, Cape Buffalo (the African variety, not the water buffalo).

We got conflicting info but it seems that the Rhino and Buffalo are the most dangerous.  Also, more people are killed by hippo's than by other animals; our guide guessed that since they're such water oriented animals and people also need to use the rivers and lakes for water, washing, etc. that we're just thrown into more opportunities for danger. The African crocodile is much the same.

The buffalo are dangerous because they give no warning before attacking and trampling you. If they sense you near, they stay still behind a bush or something, then just come out charging. Not unlike a WalMart shopper on Black Friday.

(These are not buffalo charging, but our group at lunch)

They provided us with a light lunch at a gorgeous pavilion area; signs warned us not to wander too far off the common areas.

Then, back to the trucks for the trip to return to the main gate of the preserve. About 5 min into our return we almost stumbled an incredible bull elephant only about a hundred feet from our road. After a few minutes I guess he got tired of us and started making signs that we better move on, which we did before things got out of hand. Our elephant friend crossed the road (why did the elephant....?) into the bush. A real exciting treat to wind up our visit.

Beware the endangered White Hippo, shown here with our tour guide, Wiseman

Overall, a great experience which I'd very much recommend!

Mediterranean, Ionian and Aegean Seas

Been a while since I've updated my little blog. I've been seeing some wonderful places but many of them don't hold universal appeal like Rome, Pisa, etc. I don't mean to imply that they're not amazing, wonderful ports, but only that these cruises are more for enjoying the wonderful scenery with a touch of their ancient history.

Most of the ports on these last two cruises of this contract take us to the Greek Islands and Turkey. We sailed from Athens to Istanbul and now have reversed the itinerary for this final cruise. Some of the ports are one's we've visited before, which is fun for me as I can either take a different excursion to see different sights, or more usually, visit the port city to take in some local food, shopping, or just sight seeing

Rather than lots of historical commentary as I've been giving, here's a collection of photos from several recent ports. The weather's been almost universally fantastic, which you'll see in the photos.

Santorini, Greece

I decided to be adventuresome and walk the 600+ stairs from the top of the cliffs down to the port... watch out for the donkies!

Mykonos, Greece

Made famous by the jet-setting couple Jackie and Aristotle Onasis, the village of Mykonos is certainly delightful.

Sorry I have to dash... I just spent an hour tweaking these photos w/ captions, etc. only to find out that my time had expired at this internet cafe and I lost all the work... err! I hope to have another post soon; tomorrow we return for our 3rd visit to Santorini and there are 9 ships scheduled to be in port... ya don't wanna be there then!

I'm going on an excursion in which they'll pick us up at the ship and take us to the island where the volcano is located. We'll hike up the volcano and then go swimming in the caldera where there are some hot springs in the sea. Should be fun!

Yiassou! from Athens, Greece

Thanks to everyone for following my travels; I really appreciate the emails!


This tour continues to amaze me; I think I'm going to have to start a new "Bucket List" of places I gotta see because I'm hitting almost my entire list in this one tour!


Remember, to please click on any of the photos to see in full size.


We docked in Piraeus, Greece; sort of a surburbs of Athens proper. It was a short trip by motorcoach thru the very congested Athenian traffic to the mountain where the Acropolis is situated.

It's such an odd feeling to visit these world renowned venues; we see them all our lives in films or on TV and to be there in person and get a feeling of the surroundings is a strange sensation.

We climbed a series of stairs through a lovely grove of olive trees to the entrance of the Parthenon. From there, it was another 10 min walk up all sorts of terrain until we reached the ancient entrance of the site. The Greek government has been working on a preserving these ruins for decades; they made it clear that the plan is only to preserve, not restore the ruins.

Here you can see the columned entrance thru which you walk to approach the more famous Parthenon itself.

In both of these photos you can see the whiter marble where the workers have replaced unstable original stonework with new marble, quarried from the same site as the original thousands of years ago.

The whiter marble will eventually age to match the yellow-ish hue of the original. We saw one sample of an earlier repair done only 8 years ago that was already aging nicely. This is the "restored" Temple to Athena:

There's really not much to say but, Wow!  Our tour guide had a very detailed talk about how the previous Parthenon was destroyed by the Persians. It was rebuilt and then taken over by the Ottomans who used it as a storehouse for gunpowder. In 1687 the gunpowder (and a lot of the building!) was blown up during a battle with the Venetians.

If you'd really like to know more about it, here's a link that might be of interest:

http://www.answers.com/topic/parthenon

After descending the hill of the Acropolis, we took a short walk to the fantastic and brand new Acropolis Museum. This is an astonishing, world class museum that beautifully and artistically showcases historical items from the area of the Acropolis.

I encourage you to check out their website:

www.theacropolismuseum.gr

Apparently when construction began, new ruins were discovered on the site of the future museum. The designers made huge sections of the floors completely out of glass so that as you enter the museum and lobby you can look down over the wonderful historical site.

Inside, the displays are gorgeous, with descriptions of each item in both Greek and English. Even those with little interest in archeology will find this a fascinating and beautiful attraction.

The building is modern and very formidable in size to hold the very extensive collection. Here you can see some of the glass flooring I mentioned:

Unfortunately, it's prohibited to take photos inside the museum, except at the very top level. You work your way slowly up 3-4 stories of exhibits, original statuary and vases, etc. until you arrive at the top level of the facility which is dedicated to the presentation of the frieze which originally surrounded the entire Parthenon, just above the tops of the columns. This frieze is almost a movie-like story book for citizens of the day, describing battles and the glories of their gods and civilization.

Over years the frieze has been destroyed, stolen and generally misplaced until pieces can be found in many places; esp. the British Museum. In creating this museum, the remaining original pieces have been matched with casts from other original pieces from around the world or created wholly from drawings of artists over the centuries.

The result is a huge, 4 walled display within the room and the frieze recreated in its entirety. You walk around the carved reliefs, the museum walls completely glass from floor to ceiling at this point. Rounding a corner, you're presented with an awesome view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon itself and you realize that you've walked the distance of the parameter of the actual building on the hill. 

We were allowed to photograph to the outside, thru the glass, just not inward, toward the frieze or sculptures.

Then, back to the motorcoach for a brief tour of downtown Athens, including a quick stop at the Panathenaic stadium which was the site of the first modern Olympic games in 1896:

We were all getting peckish after all this effort, and fortunately our tour included lunch at a lovely little garden restaurant, tucked behind some buildings in the crowded city center.

The rest of my tour will consist of visiting a variety of Greek islands, both large and small. I'm sure there will be some surprises in store for me, but I think I've been so fortunate to hit dozens of World Wonders in such a short tour.

Please keep in touch and safe travels!

a little note...

Just a reminder that all of the photos posted on my blog are "clickable"; that is, you can click on them to view the photos in full size.


Also, if you don't mind signing up for the blog (just click the "follow" link in the blue bar at the top of the page... it's free and easy), you should receive a little notification whenever the blog has been updated. You'll also be able to post comments if you'd like.


Of course, feel free just to send me regular ol' emails anytime too! Love hearing from everyone!


Safe travels,
JOHN

Odessa, Ukraine

I took a day off from organized tours and just enjoyed a leisurely walk and some lunch with a couple of friends (The Doctor and a bartender... I like to cover my bases!) thru the beautiful city of Odessa. Sorry I don't have much "back story" for you, just a few photos and observations.

The first major feature you run across is this hillside of steps that lead from the port up to the level of the main city.

They're sort of famous because when you view them from the bottom towards the top (as seen here with my friend, Dr. Ian), one sees only stairs, no landings:

But, seen from the top down, one sees only landings and no stairs; kooky, huh?

It was Sunday and the locals enjoyed gathering under the tree lined boulevards:

The Opera House was spectacular and a very popular spot for taking wedding photos. We saw dozens of weddings going on in both Yalta and Odessa:

Literally a dozen or more luxury cars and stretch limos would be lined up, waiting as bridal parties take turns with the photographers memorializing their special day of nuptials. Check out the oversized plastic wedding rings and floral tributes that most of the vehicles sported:

More impressive yet, were the bridal fashions... check out the post-soviet era threads:

I was more impressed with the lovely croissants and pastries at a sidewalk coffee shop!

So we're off to Bosnia tomorrow (I think!). I've got my second big show tonite for this cruise so no tours booked for a bit. Might have to see Mary's House in Kusadasi at the end of this voyage in a couple of days... we'll see how it goes!

Keep in touch and safe travels!!