Pitcairn Island

Today we arrived at Pitcairn Island. It is a very small island about 4 km in length. It was first discovered by Europeans in 1767. It has been made most well known by the Mutiny of the HMS Bounty. Today all of the inhabitants, approximately 50 people, are descendents of the mutineers and the Tahitians who traveled with them on the Bounty. Our ship as well as others are too large to dock here, hence the islanders came out to the ship to greet us. They boarded the ship and provided a narrative about the island as we sailed around it. The mayor of the island also held a question and answer session which was very interesting. We found out that they have some vegetable and fruit crops, otherwise all their goods are shipped in. They have a large boat that they bring out to meet the ships and transfer goods and take back to shore, including things as large as a car. There is one on the island. Our ship provided us with a viewing of the movie Mutiny on the Bounty, Clark Gable version. This gave us a crash course about the island before we arrived. At noon today, we are now on Pacific time, we started for Tahiti.





January 29, 2008

Easter Island

January 27, 2008

Yesterday we arrived at Easter Island at 8;30 in the morning. The sea still had some large swells, so much so that they delayed the tender service to the island. This delayed our tour slightly, but we were fortunate to be in one of the first groups to get to shore. This island is not large and has only one city. It had 3 volcano eruptions. It is now believed to have been first inhabited by Polynesians from Tahiti as early as 400 A.D. It was not until the late 1800’s that explorers found the existence of the most unique thing about this island. These are the Moai. These are large, 10 to 14 meters tall, volcanic rock sculptures that represent ancestors of the people of the island. These had been carved in a quarry up the side of one of the volcanic mountains and laboriously moved down the mountain. Some of these weigh as much as 80 tons. They were then erected on platforms of rocks and faced inward with their backs to the sea. This was to show that they were looking over the people for their protection. Many of these were not found until the 1960s and restored to their original positions.

For those of you wondering. It was named Easter Island as that was the day the explorers landed here and no there are no Easter eggs to be found! It certainly was a very unique Island.

Well the final word is in from all the computer knowledgeable on this ship. There is no way for me to be able to upload and enter pictures into the blog. It seems they do not have a strong enough bandwidth for that. I am disappointed because it would be so much nicer if I could send pictures along with the blog entries. At the end of the cruise I will try to make a short slide show that will hopefully bring together all of the most interesting shots. It is again a very beautiful day as we are at sea on our way to the Pitcairn Islands, due to arrive January 29, 2008.

Lima Peru

January 23, 2008

We stopped in Callao/Lima, Peru on January 20, 2008. The weather has been good. Lima is a very interesting city. All of the cities on the coast of Peru are essentially desert areas with all of their water received via irrigation systems from rivers and reservoirs from the Andes mountains. The city is beautiful with many small parks and wide boulevards. The median areas are covered with many plantings and flowers. The structure of the city is now much more secure but they went through a period of national revolution from 1980 to 1995.

For the next 5 days we will be at sea. It started out and has continued to be fairly rocky with winds up to 25 knots. Tin does well and I am doing alright as long as I am “medicated.” There also has been some problem with a Norovirus onboard the ship. This has affected many passengers and crew. They are treating with quarantining passengers, etc. So far I have dodged it, but Tin was not as lucky. He did not have a severe case thank goodness. He had to stay in 1 day, which was the day of the Packer’s game. So that was not so bad until of course they lost! We have been keeping active with exercising, attending some lectures that are held onboard on various subjects, reading, and watching the Australian Open tennis tournament. We will arrive at Easter Island on January 26, 2008.

Ecuador

January 18, 008

Yesterday we were in Ecuador, which is located at the equator, hence the name. It is a small country with abundant natural resources. However, due to lack of any refining or processing facilities, the materials are sent to other countries for finishing products. Consequently, things here are not less expensive. The city of Manta is known as the tuna capitol of the world. It even has a giant tuna statue in the center of the city. We visited a local archeological museum telling of their ancestry from the Inca Indians. We also watched ships being made by hand from wood. While in Ecuador we also visited Monti Cristi, which is the city where the Panama hat originated. This is quite a process that can take up to 4 months to complete one hat. We are now on our way to Lima, Peru.

Every night there are entertainment programs. The most impressive so far has been a harpist playing broadway and flamenco music. Tin also likes comedy shows and magic shows. The sea has remained calm and the weather has been good, so we are having a great time, but we surely miss all of you.

Sailing

I have not been good at keeping this up-to-date as there have been computer issues with accessing my program onboard the ship. Well hope I have those worked out now. We stopped at a small island of Panama called San Blas. The island is quite primitive and is inhabited by an Indian tribe. They live in thatch roof homes, which are tightly positioned almost one on top of the other. The women do embroidery work and that seems to be about it except for asking for one dollar to have their picture taken in their native dress.

January 15, 2008

Today we passed through the Panama Canal. This was a very exciting day to see the lock system and what an engineering marvel it is. There are a series of 7 locks. Four that raise you up to get to the largest man-made reservoir in the world and then 3 locks to lower your ship back to sea level on the Pacific side of Central America. This whole process took us from 7 a.m. until 4 pm. We were very fortunate to enjoy all of this from a balcony where we enjoyed a champagne breakfast compliments of our travel agent. Interestingly enough, also several people from Panama came out to see the ship go through the last set of locks before entering the Pacific. Tomorrow we will be at sea again on our way to Ecuador.

Tin and Sue's World Cruise Begins

Hi all,

We set sail yesterday from Fort Lauderdale Florida. The weather was beautiful. We were too tired though as the night before we only slept 2 hours due to a very early flight at 6 a.m. and a pick up for the airport at 3:30 a.m., but all went smoothly with fights, transport to the ship, and checking in. Today we took it easy because we are at sea and trying to get everything organized. The ship has a capacity for 670 passengers. It is smaller than some other ships we have been on but it is very nicely appointed. Tonight there is the first formal dinner and tomorrow we will be in the Grand Cayman Islands.

Tin and Sue Eng's beginning of their world cruise

January 11, 2008

Hi all,

We set sail yesterday from Fort Lauderdale Florida. The weather was beautiful. We were too tired though as the night before we only slept 2 hours due to a very early flight at 6 a.m. and a pick up for the airport at 3:30 a.m., but all went smoothly with fights, transport to the ship, and checking in. Today we took it easy because we are at sea and trying to get everything organized. The ship has a capacity for 670 passengers. It is smaller than some other ships we have been on but it is very nicely appointed. Tonight there is the first formal dinner and tomorrow we will be in the Grand Cayman Islands