Thoughts, impressions, and observations for the World Cruise.

[island lady]

10 hours ago, pstone1 said:

We had a fantastic dinner at Chops tonight!  Our Waiter Paulo spotted a Pod of about 8-10 humpback whales right outside the window!  So cool!  Hope we continue to see whales as we move north towards LA!  Beautiful sunset as well!  

 

Wow...sorry we missed them!  Will be on the lookout now.  Starting to get close to Arica, love seeing the mountains on the horizon now.  

[island lady]

Current position...following the mountains to Arica.  Very warm now, already almost 80 degrees now that the sun is fully up, supposed to be 86 in Arica.  We don't arrive there until 11 am.  

 

 

Edited January 26 by island lady

[island lady]

Hello Mr. Sunshine!   Peeking up over the Andes.  🙂 

 

 

Edited January 26 by island lady

[Ocean Boy]

I must be spatially challenged. How is the sun up in the Pacific when it is still dark here?

[d9704011]

2 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I must be spatially challenged. How is the sun up in the Pacific when it is still dark here?

Summer in the southern hemisphere and they are in a more easterly time zone.  Sunrise in Santiago, Chile was about one hour ago local time.

[Ocean Boy]

10 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Summer in the southern hemisphere and they are in a more easterly time zone.  Sunrise in Santiago, Chile was about one hour ago local time.

Yes, thanks. Sometimes I lose track of just where this ship is located.🙃

[mo&fran]

17 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I must be spatially challenged. How is the sun up in the Pacific when it is still  here?

Two reasons.  the  west coast of south America is  close to the same longitude

and it is summer there. Days are longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[island lady]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

I must be spatially challenged. How is the sun up in the Pacific when it is still dark here?

 

It is 9:12 am right now...while you are 7:12 am, though seems weird to me as well...it is simply the way South America lines up under Central and North America and being in the southern hemisphere.  Your winter up there...is Antarctica (And Australia/NZ) summer. 

 

Time change tonight...get to gain back one of the hours we lost on the way south on the Atlantic.  😉 And with the big "bump" of South America coming up....we will changing the clock quite a bit as we head north.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26 by island lady

[island lady]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

Yes, thanks. Sometimes I lose track of just where this ship is located.🙃

 

Currently pulling into Arica Chile.  😉 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26 by island lady

[pstone1]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

Hello Mr. Sunshine!   Peeking up over the Andes.  🙂 

 

 

Beautiful sunrise this morning and beautiful sunrise pictures!

[island lady]

Arica pilot boat greeting committee....

 

 

[SteelCityCruiser10]

19 minutes ago, island lady said:

Arica pilot boat greeting committee....

 

 

Just watched the St Maarten pilot boat pick up a diver from Chops breakfast table 

[Ocean Boy]

I love St. Maarten. I never tire of it and always look forward to returning.

[island lady]

17 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I love St. Maarten. I never tire of it and always look forward to returning.

 

Me too...always one of my favorite ports in the Carib.  🥰

[island lady]

Pulling into Arica.  Huge condo buildings on other side of the "big hill", other side of town.  Busy port area.  Big fleet of fishing boats with massive drag nets.  

 

 

Edited January 26 by island lady

[Ozark_Kid]

3 hours ago, island lady said:

Hello Mr. Sunshine!   Peeking up over the Andes.  🙂 

 

 

I was looking for the sun all night last night..... and then it dawned on me!

[island lady]

We have a new chef, since Chef Ronald left us (though not sure if it was due to contract, or due to he had to go to the hospital...hope he is OK).   The pastry Chef must have told him how much we adored the dried fruit and nut cups....so we scored another plateful that was sent to us today.  😋

 

 

[island lady]

Kept hearing parade/band music and shouting when we docked up here in Arica.  Found it with the binoculars on the other side of town near the big condos.  So now (1 pm) they have all moved to be in front of where the shuttle buses drop off pax by the big white tents.  Googled it to find today is the start of their big Carnival festival celebration through the weekend. 

 

Not sure if we want to shuttle into town from the ship now or not.  Anyone get to enjoy (or get caught in) that parade already? I am wondering what that will doing for traffic in town with tour buses. 

[orville99]

45 minutes ago, island lady said:

Kept hearing parade/band music and shouting when we docked up here in Arica.  Found it with the binoculars on the other side of town near the big condos.  So now (1 pm) they have all moved to be in front of where the shuttle buses drop off pax by the big white tents.  Googled it to find today is the start of their big Carnival festival celebration through the weekend. 

 

Not sure if we want to shuttle into town from the ship now or not.  Anyone get to enjoy (or get caught in) that parade already? I am wondering what that will doing for traffic in town with tour buses. 

We got caught in one of those in St. Thomas last year, and it was absolute gridlock trying to get from the port into the city and back.

 

I wish they would borrow a page out of St. Maartan's  playbook and start running water taxi's into downtown.

Edited January 26 by orville99

[island lady]

6 minutes ago, orville99 said:

We got caught in one of those in St. Thomas last year, and it was absolute gridlock trying to get from the port into the city and back.

 

I wish they would borrow a page out of St. Maartan's  playbook and start running water taxi's into downtown.

 

We were half wanting to go to see the festival...but half not wanting to go.   We are not fans of crowds and crowding at all.  Though I am sure it was fun to watch close up.  With the big problem of pick pockets here (though we rarely carry much)...we finally decided to stay on the quiet ship to relax.

 

 I was able to watch a lot of it with the binoculars...and could definitely hear it.  Lots of colorful feathers!  

[Another_Critic]

4 hours ago, SteelCityCruiser10 said:

Just watched the St Maarten pilot boat pick up a diver from Chops breakfast table 

 

Why was there a diver on the breakfast table?  Was this part of an "adult" show?  😉 

[pstone1]

We got off the ship after lunch to walk around and see a few sights!  The International Andean Carnival was so much to watch!  It was easy to walk right up and get a front row position!  At one point, a nice young man came around with a stack of stools in case anyone wanted to sit!  The colorful dancers and bands are from Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and the US.  We watched for almost an hour as the groups paraded by dancing and playing their instruments!

[pstone1]

We wanted to see the Cathedral de San Marcos, which was designed by Alexandre Gustavo Eiffel, the same engineer as the Eiffel Tower. The Cathedral was pre-fabricated in Paris, and shipped around the world to be assembled on site.  The entire church is made from stamped and molded cast iron with paint!  We had no idea the church steps would be a major Carnival viewing point!

[pstone1]

We also found the Arica Customs House, which was also designed by Eiffel. It was also pre-fabricated and shipped, and is also constructed of cast iron and painted!

 

 

[pstone1]

There was a side street full of small cafes, bars, and restaurants, that intersected a long, uphill, decorated pedestrian shopping street.  Oddly, that street and all the sidewalks were constructed of terrazzo tiles, which seemed like they would be very slippery when wet!  Jim found a couple of nice shirts in a surf shop, so it was worth the walk!