We had a one day stop in Bonaire. This again was mainly a beach opportunity. And thankfully I seemed to have found my sea legs at last, so I was able to enjoy this stop. Bonaire is said to be one of the world’s best places for scuba and snorkeling. I don’t scuba, but I will snorkel. I went out on a small sailboat with 5 others for this adventure. It was a great morning. We had a great time.

We had a one day stop at Oranjestad. This was largely a beach opportunity, but I was still not at my cruise ship best. So I mainly hung out at the port area and took photos. One can get beach photos from the internet and one beach pretty much resembles another. So my photos have a slightly different focus. The main tourist drag had the usual tee-shirt and souvenir shops, along with the up scale shopping and restaurants. I took the trolly on the main secondary street. It had plenty of tourists but also some local residents and shops.

Greetings,

Today I am on the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles west of Cape Verdes. This is the third consecutive day at sea. We have already been to Cartagena, Columbia; Aruba; Bonaire; Bequia (a tiny island in the Grenadines); and three days ago, Barbados. In a separate posting I will post some photos. Today I thought I would offer a personal essay. I don’t know how this will work out. I am sometimes reticent to offer my personal perspective on things. I am sometimes unsuccessful at keeping that perspective to myself. Nonetheless I will try to offer a picture of life as it is for me today.

I am about 2 weeks into this adventure, and it has indeed been an adventure, undoubtedly with even more to come. Some of you, “gentle readers”, are probably seasoned cruisers and well adapted to the vagaries of ocean travels and cruise ship life, but much of it is new to me.

This ship is not very large as cruise ships go, only about 400 guests and about the same number of crew. About 25% of the passengers, like me, will be on board for the entire trip, four and a half more months. Others will come and go. We are an international bunch but not as varied as I expected. The majority are Americans. Next are citizens of the UK and associated countries. That is England, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, and two “Kiwis”. There is a sprinkling of folks of East Asian background, a couple of Germans, and one couple from the West Indies. Sometimes this results in a fairly strong British ambience. There is a fair number of solo travelers, who are like me, “unescorted ladies”. Almost everyone on the ship, like me, is a senior citizen. Some are exceedingly senior. It sort of feels like Blue Skies. I was surprised to learn that most of these travelers already know each other. They have sailed with this cruise line for years and decades. It is not uncommon to find people who have been on 30 trips, or even 100, with this cruise line. They have known each other and some of the cruise staff for decades. I am definitely the “newby”, but everyone has been open and welcoming. It seems that cruising with this line is habit forming. I believe, however, that I am financially immune to this addiction.

I believe that most cruise ships have music, dancing, comedians, and shows. There is no shortage of that here. The talent is top quality. I have been pleasantly surprised about the truly intellectual and informative lecture series. So far speakers or “conversationalists” have included an anthropologist, a photography expert, an astronaut, a oceanographic meteorologist, a marine biologist, and a Hebrew historian. Each gives a series of informative “conversations”. Former British minister of economics and business, Sir Digby Jones, is giving a series on global economics. Retire Royal Navy Commodore Rupert Wallace, is giving an historic to current overview, of how European countries came to dominate the world. Today he gave an overview of slavery and slave trade from the Hebrews (He picked up where the rabbi left off.) to current day human trafficking. This all sounds like an undergraduate liberal arts curriculum. Of course many guest prefer to sit around the pool with a cocktail, but nerdy me is loving it.

There is, of course, gourmet food galore. Not surprisingly though, they are a little weak on vegetarian nutrition. I miss bicycling, but I have been too busy or too tired to think about it. I tried the stationary bikes in the fitness center, but it is just not the same as the Wheelmen and Jubilados. For one thing there are no dogs to keep me motivated. Another thing is that it is hard to ride when the floor is rocking and rolling. You have to hold on to stay on the bike. The seas were atypically rough in the Caribbean, but they have calmed considerably, so far, for the Atlantic crossing. I may get back to the stationary bikes.

So far on the Caribbean islands there have been the usual beach opportunities. I have been snorkeling and sailing. I did some individual exploration in Barbados. I will post pictures in my next photo gallery. (Coming soon, I promise.)

Regards,

Linda

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Cartagena has 1.5 million residents. It was first established as a fortress and port in the 1500’s. Historically it was one of the busiest ports in the Americas, trading everything, including human beings. As other areas of South and Central America grew, it diminished in importance. It has resurged in recent decades and especially since the guerilla war has ceased. It is now a vacation destination for rich South Americans who own most of the condos and hotels. It has much poverty, which was not in our tours.

January 10th is a sea day. Overnight there were 10 meter swells all night. I slept through that with no problems. Swells diminished today, but still I can’t say it’s been a “swell” day for me. Aruba is the next stop.

Greetings All,

Yes, I am alive and well. I am just now getting oriented enough and energy enough to start telling about my journey. There are of course the usual horror tales about airline travel, which of course eventually work out well. I’ll make mine brief. It involves taking off at 5:30 AM only to have to make an unscheduled landing at 6 AM because the plane’s radar “went out”. I got a new ticket on a different plane at 11AM but TSA would not move luggage to a new plane. My luggage did eventually arrive and all is well.

There was a black tie “gala” for the 100 or so people who are doing the same world cruise. There are another hundred or so people who are doing some portion of the cruise, getting off in Singapore, Cape Town, Sydney or elsewhere. There will be others joining the cruise at various ports. I am one of the few relatively novice cruisers. A number are on their second or even third world cruise. Everyone is friendly and generously offers cruise tips and advice.

Our first port was Key West in the good ol’ USA. I was there for the day and I had the wonderful experience of meeting SN, the delightful friend of a friend, who lives in Key West. I promised you no food photos, but I can tell you that we had a lovely brunch at a cafe called “Moon Dog”. Then SN showed me around the island on a walking tour. I didn’t take many photos. Mostly I just loved hanging out with SN. We bonded and I hope we will be long term friends.

The photos I have posted are of my new home for the next 5 months. It is spacious and comfortable. Tomorrow will our first international port, Cartagena, Columbia.

Thanks to all of you who have tuned in and left comments.

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Cairo at Night

I hope you don’t mind a few practice photos.

Linda

Welcome and thanks for coming to my blog site.

Some of you know that I will be doing extensive traveling in coming days. So I have set this up for family, friends, acquaintances, and miscellaneous strangers to keep in touch. It is my more limited and hopefully, somewhat more private answer to Facebook. I am not selling anything; I am not seeking to “influence” anything; I seek no sponsors; and there will be no tally of “likes”. I don’t mind if you share the web address with others. I simply ask that we all be mindful, discrete, and respectful of everyone’s privacy. So please don’t share my or your personal ID or information.

I will post periodic narratives and of course, photographs. I don’t plan on a lot of photos of me standing in front of a monument somewhere and I promise, there will be no photographs of my dinners. But I really don’t know yet what to expect. That’s part of the fun.

There is a BIG learning curve for me, on this blog thing. I hope to get better as I go. I ask your patience as I work through it. You can subscribe with Blue Host and get e mail notices whenever I add a new post. If that is too annoying (and I would’t blame you) you can just go to linda-landandsea.com whenever you get the notion.

I’d love to get your “comments”. I will probably email you back ,admittedly at my convenience. This is a retirement vacation after all. I will be able to select some of your comments to share on the site, but if you prefer that I not do so, just say so and I will respect that.

This is my introductory post. I plan on starting this adventure about the first week in January 2020. Stay tuned. I hope to make this a pleasant, interesting and maybe beautiful endeavor. I hope you will come back and see what happens.

Linda