Pisco Peru - Pacific Princess

[raysig]

We are on the Pacific out of Tahiti on December 15th to Fort Lauderdale. It is something that we have looked forward to for several years.

 

One of our ports was to be Pisco, Peru.

 

I just picked this up on Lonely Planet website (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldgui...-america/peru/) for Peru:

 

"Lima Earthquake - Areas Out of Bounds

 

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck near the capital on 15 August. Some structural damage has been reported in Lima and more damage and casualties reported in the town of Ica, south of Lima. Aftershocks have been experienced and more may follow. Travellers in the area should monitor local media and expect delays and disruption."

 

"Areas where the government is conducting counter-insurgency campaigns have been designated 'emergency areas' and should not be entered. The Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrilla movement is still known to conduct occasional operations in the Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Huanuco, Junín and San Martín areas. Border areas with Ecuador and Colombia are dangerous due to the presence of drug traffickers. The Cordillera del Cóndor region, near the border with Ecuador, is planted with landmines."

 

The way this reads, Peru might not be the best place to go this year. Pisco (just north of Ica) was near the epicenter of the earthquake

 

Excerpts from Associated Press today(8-19-07):

 

"PISCO, Peru - More than 300 relatives and friends filled the towering colonial-era adobe church to pay tribute to the family patriarch, a popular man who managed a fleet of minibuses in this dusty port city and succumbed to a heart attack at age 67. "

 

"Just as the Mass was ending, the earth began to heave and the church collapsed. Two minutes later, hundreds of friends and distant relatives were dead or dying in a giant pile of rubble."

 

"As the Rev. Jose Emilio Torres finished the service, a magnitude-8 earthquake struck, leveling 85 percent of this city of 90,000. At least 540 people were killed."

 

Pisco, Peru as a destination this December, I don't think so.

 

Include those folks in your prayers.

[Sea Island Lady]

Doesn't look like you will be stopping there. Check with your TA or RCCL to find out.

[raysig]

Doesn't look like you will be stopping there. Check with your TA or RCCL to find out.

 

RCCL?

 

What's up with that?

[Sea Island Lady]

Sorry, thought I was on the RCCL board. :D Call Princess!

 

Actually, don't call Princess...look on the web page. When we were in hurricane Wilma on the Coral, we got all of our information from the Princess web site, because calls to Princess gave us no information and the pursers desk would not tell us anything that was going on. We found on the website that the ship would be out to sea for two extra days because of damage to the FFL and Miami piers. Princess Coral staff didn't release the information to us until the next day! By that time, we had already told many people around us, so they could be prepared and make flight arrangements.