This is my last post for my 2013 world  cruise blog.  I have put a deposit on the 2015 world cruise but I am not sure whether I will actually  be on it.  I  definitely am not going on the 2014.

We  tendered to one of the islands of French Guiana which includes the infamous Devil’s Island.  I actually walked around the lower part of the Iles Du Salut and saw monkeys and sea turtles.  Unfortunately my little camera didn’t do justice to the sea turtles even though they were huge.  They kind of blended into the rocks.
The island is very tropical  and lush and quite beautiful.  But, hot and humid.

After that we stopped at  St. Lucia which is a typical Caribbean island.  The people there are obviously use to the mega ships visiting the Caribbean on a regular basis.  Most items are made in China and very over priced.  Us world travelers want bargains.    Also, I found the people either indifferent or rude.  We are not use to that kind of treatment.

I enjoyed the steel band show we had back on the ship.  They were fantastic but they certainly have come a long way from the old oil drums.

It has been a good cruise but I have not  been as active.  Read a lot more and I found  that I avoided steps and hills.  Any decision I make will take that into consideration especially in booking future shore tours.

So, I will say goodbye for now.

Our next port in Brazil was Belem at the mouth of the Amazon.  We had to tender to this city but it is not small.  The skyline has many highrises and again it is another city of contrasts.  Graffiti everywhere and garbage filled the sides of the roads.  The Amazon is brown and the water that pours into the Atlantic ocean turns the ocean brown for two hundred miles out.  I am typing this post  the afternoon of the day after we were there and we are still in brown water.

We took the shuttle into town which was about an hour away so we saw a lot of the outskirts and the city itself.  The shuttle dropped us off at the waterfront and Ver o Peso market which consisted of three large warehouses converted to a mall.  Outside of this area there was a local stall type market but for the most part it was not interesting. 

We did find one thing interesting in the Ver o Peso market.  Yes we had a beer but we also found this beer brewery .

Fortaleza, Brazil is a city of contrasts.  It is the third largest city in Brazil and is located on the NE coastline.  The tour we took was a very good tour with an excellent guide who had to reach occasionally for an English word but overall spoke well.  The tour was a city highlights tour since I have never been here before. The city is a study in contrasts.  Old buildings,  new highrises, litter and gorgeous beaches.  My favorite of all the buildings we visited was the theater with wonderful ceiling painted by an artist who had no hands.  He held the brush by his toes.  The pier in the photo is called the London Bridge.

I have my suitcases out  on the spare twin bed and I am slowly packing .  I just hope I can get all my things in them without using a dumb suitcase the ship gave us.  It is a small very heavy carryon.  It is just 7 more days and I will be flying home.  We did cross the equator for the last time.

Since Namibia has a lot of German influence we had a Biergarten party at the Lido Pool.  These parties always end up as a good time probably more so than the formal nights.  This photo is of one of our favorite bar waiters clowning around with one of the large plastic beer mug decorations.

We have now gone over 29,000 miles and still have  12 more days.  I believe we are also going to cross the equator for the 4th time.

St. Helena is a volcanic island which is different than most of the islands we have visited in that it is not plush with greenery.  This is the island that Napoleon was exiled to after Elba.  Elba was considered too close to France  and he had escaped once.   This island is more than 1,200 miles West of Africa so it was considered escape proof and he eventually died on this island. 

The Jacob’s Ladder is most unusual with 699 steps straight up.  Several people from the ship did climb it and one of my friends went up  in 18 minutes and down in 11.  This is a super time.

The next island was Ascension Island and it also was barren volcanic rock.  Unfortunately even the crew could  not get off the tenders so  we were only able to do a scenic cruise around it.  Both of the islands  are British protectorates and use their own currency called the St Helena-Ascension Island pound..  Some of the local people did come aboard and we were able to purchase some souvenirs.

Joan’s friend, Pete, had a birthday and I snapped this at the  Pinnacle where he was being wined and dined,  Pete is from Tennessee and I have become very fond of him because of his good humor and happy demeanor.

 We were entertained by the Filipina crew and it was one of the finest crew shows that I have ever seen.  They had traditional music and dance and mixed it with some more modern numbers.  There was standing room only.  The Indonesian crew show will be next week.

We have 3 days in Cape Town so I thought I would type this after my first day. I had been here before but I went on  a day safari instead of seeing the city.

 I  took a tour of Cape Town which included a cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain.  The mountain did have a cloud cover over a lot of it but the view to the city was clear.  Last time I was in Cape Town I was fortunate to see the phenomenon of the table cloth.  The cloud cover actually looks like it is a tablecloth covering the mountain.  That was absent yesterday..  The cable car has a rotating floor so it gives everyone an opportunity to see all angles.

We then took a general tour of the city and there are beautiful areas.  As a matter of fact I didn’t see a bad area.  Gorgeous Beaches with a lot of outdoor restaurants and cafes.  One historical area consists of streets filled with colorful pastel houses.  These are old huts that have been rehabilitated to quaint small houses.  They were originally used to house freed slaves.

The next day we went to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area with its many shops including local craft centers.  After a reasonable time we got on the Blue Route Hop on and Hop Off bus for a tour of the outer route around the city.  The mansions along this route are incredible  The beaches are just beautiful with hundreds of seals bobbing around in the surf.  The seals were too far to get a good shot of them with my little camera.

The third day we took a  group visit to the Isiphiwo primary school in Harare, Khayelitshatownship which services over  one thousand students from one of the poorer areas of Cape Town.  On the way we saw where a lot of these students live and this photo is an example of one of the nicer areas.  The structures are called zincies.  They do have porta potties around the outer parts of these areas.  If the family is lucky they live in government housing.  The little houses consist of a small kitchen with the toilet in the kitchen with a wall between the toilet and the rest of the kitchen and one other room which is the bedroom.  Families of as many as 8 people live in these homes.  You do see little zincies next to the houses which apparently act as additional bedrooms.  Sometimes there will be an addition to these little houses.

The children were wonderful and they loved seeing their photos.  Marty (one of our organizers) put on a magic show for the kids and the applause was thunderous.  A sea of little black faces.  They were adorable.  We did take a lot of items for the school and clothing  for the children.  These items were collected along the way.  Many on board bought items and sent them with us to take to the school.

I am now in Walvis Bay  and again I got my towns mixed up.  We had docked at two ports in Namibia in 2010 and I confused Walvis Bay with Luderitz.  Walvis Bay was the jumping off place for the desert tour I took and Luderitz was a quaint seaside port.  Walvis Bay (the city) is a dismal place and I wish I had taken a tour.  We are not going to Luderitz this year.  Anyway, I took the shuttle into town and I believe we stayed at the most 45 minutes.  One lady had her purse snatched and the warnings was not to leave the area where we were dropped off.  Today, I am staying on the ship and I will now post this episode.

The day before we docked in Durban, the girls wanted to take the shuttle to the mall and possibly a taxi to the Indian district.  I reluctantly said ok but I was not looking forward to another American style mall.  I had been on a tour of Durban before so I was thinking it might be nice to stay on the ship especially if we had rain again.

We woke to a glorious day.  Low humidity and temperature around 70 degrees.  Sun out but not with the intensity that we have come to know.  The mall was lovely and certainly not an American style mall.  Open and airy and it was called Ushaka shopping area.  It is next to an amusement park so many children were present.  Different musical and dancing groups added to our pleasure.  Prices were right  and interesting stores and since it overlooked the beach we had great scenery as well.  We thoroughly enjoyed the day and did have a nice lunch overlooking the beach.  We never did get to the Indian district.

Maputo, Mozambique is a very large city but not particularly a pretty city.  I did find this mural which was very long interesting.  This is just one portion of it.

Mozambique is a very poor country with 40% unemployment and an average wage of $100 per month.  It was first war torn with their war of independence from Portugal and then by a civil war between factions within its own government.  It appears to be trying to put things together but the only decent buildings are the government buildings.  The riches lady in Mozambique is the 29 year old daughter of the President.  I think that says it all.

Our guide was particularly good  and I enjoyed the tour because of him since there were not much to see.  He told us the story of his neighbor.  A man with nine wives and 33 children.  Each wife had her own hut where she lived with her children.  He could not explain how this man could afford to feed everyone in his family.

The next port was Richards Bay and the contrast between Mozambique and  South Africa is like night and day.  Good roads and a lovely mall.  The people seem happy, well fed and well dressed.   Unfortunately, it was pouring and the wind whipped the rain past umbrellas and we were soaked.  Also, a two inch puddle was in front of the ramp and we had to wade through the puddle to get back on the ship.  Now, common sense would tell me that a longer ramp would have covered the puddle and kept us from wading through  in our shoes.

I have been lazy and I should have typed this post yesterday.  We have three ports in three days and I am just now waiting for my tour of Mozambique and starting to type the post for Madagascar.

I also  celebrated my 73rd birthday and you can see my flowers I received from home and my peanut butter pie.  This is one of my favorite desserts but I didn’t realize we had two people allergic to peanuts so they ordered their own desserts.

We actually tendered into the small docks of Nosy Be, Madagascar, which is the largest island off the coast of the main island of Madagascar  and is part of the country. Madagascar is truly a third world country and very few people have running water and electricity.   These boats met us and people were throwing T-shirts, dollars, etc. and they would scoop up these items with nets or their hands.

Our mode of transportation was a large van with no air conditioning but we had a good driver and he spotted this Chameleon and backed up so we could see him.  He was about 8  inches long and about 3 inches around his belly.  Beautiful colors.  The female is said to be plain brown but we didn’t spot one.  The island is also known for its Lemurs but we saw none in the wild.  Only  lemurs we saw were the ones people were carrying and wanted a dollar to have our photos taken with the lemurs on our shoulders.  That is not for me especially since a friend was recently attacked by a monkey  in Malaysia.

The scenery was beautiful but I was more interested in taking photos of the people.

My friend, Pat, did it again.  Put himself in the middle and some thought it was hilarious and great fun and some were offended  believing he was disrespectful of the Catholic Church.  Pat is Catholic himself and many Catholics thought it great fun.  Pat with the help of some of the crew was dressed as the pope by the use of table napkins and cloths, and a nose mask for his  skull cap.  He was pushed to the dining room table in the Pope Mobile (wheelchair).  Here is a photo of Pope Patrick with Marilyn at our table.

Leslie, Linda, Peggy and others demonstrated how to use scarves to dress up outfits and where to buy materials for cheap and make interesting outfits.  They are planning to put together shopping expeditions next year to teach a few how to and what to buy and how to bargain.  I would sign up except I will not be going on the World Cruise next year.  The itinerary is so close to the one this year.

The next day I wore myself out with a 7 ½ hour tour of the island of Mahe’  in the Seychelles. Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles,  is the smallest capital city in the world.

The island is very plush with beautiful beaches.  The tour took us around the whole island including the botanical gardens with giant tortoises and flying fox (fruit eating bats the size of large crows).  The giant Coca-de-mer palm is a native and appears different than other coconut palms or is it my imagination?

Next stop --- Colombo, Sri Lanka, another new country.  On this tour we  were taken to a Bhudist Temple which was a huge complex with so many Bhudas that I couldn’t pick one  photo to put here.  Instead I enjoyed seeing three boys feed this elephant  with those tiny bananas.  He would take the bananas from them with his trunk then pop the bananas right into his mouth.

Later we stopped at an old hotel for refreshments and across the way we spotted a snake charmer  with a cobra and a huge python.

Fortunately, Sri Lanka was a welcome respite from the heat.  It was warm but not oppressively hot but I still was happy to get back to the cabin after all our sight seeing.

This morning we had a pirate drill We are now in pirate territory and our Captain actually had a drill for crew and passengers if a pirate boat is spotted.  We now have razor wire all around deck 3 together with high pressure hoses.  Some of the passengers actually get worried about this sort of thing.  The chance of pirates able to board our ship is next to impossible.

Next on our agenda was Phuket, Thailand and I had a tour since I had never been here before.  We were treated to a Hindu temple complex that was beautiful  and a cultural performance of dancing and music, in addition to a combat performance with both offensive and defensive weapons.  This performance was outside under a roof and by that time of day it became so hot it was hardly bearable but there were some fans.   After that we were treated to a Thai lunch and what little I ate was delicious.  The lunch was served outside under a roof and it was so hot that sweat was running down my back and front and my clothes were wet and sticking to my body.  Later we found out it was about 100 degrees with 98% humidity.  Our only relief was the air conditioned bus so I was glad to get back to the ship.

The next day was my date with the Captain for dinner at the Pinnacle.  I actually sat at the Captain’s table in third seat which gave me an opportunity to converse with him.  I have been at the Captains table on previous cruises but never seated close.  It was a lovely dinner and as it  was a formal night  we did have a party later up at the Crow’s Nest with dancing and prizes.

Grace, to answer your question there just wasn’t enough time to see everything.  I have always wanted to go to the American Cemetery but that will have to wait also.  Many did go to Corregidor  Island and that is why we had to wait for the last ferry even though we couldn’t stay at the pier.  The Captain left a tender for them as we sat idling at sea and watched the fireworks.   I noticed that the first part of my sentence  in my Manila post about that was cut off .watching

We docked in Singapore around 2:00 p.m. and stayed until 11:00pm the next day.  I know everyone will figure I was out of my mind not really doing anything of import in Singapore.  I still was not at l00% and with the weather as dreadful as it was I didn’t want to leave the port area.  It was 98 degrees and 98% humidity.

The port area is a large mall connected to another mall.  I needed to go to certain stores and beauty spa so other than sitting outside in a shaded and breezy area for a beer I stayed in this port area.

Every time I go to Singapore new buildings have sprouted.  The high-rises in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai cannot be beat.

St. Patrick’s day was celebrated the first night we were in Singapore so not much was happening since so many people were off the  ship.  But, as usual the decorations were fantastic.  It was also Marilyn’s birthday so we had a celebration at our table.

Our next port was the Island of Langkawi, Malaysia.  I have been to the mainland of Malaysia but not this  island.  It is a beautiful island and five of us hired a taxi for 3 to 4 hours.  He took us all around the island  and this water buffalo was right along the road.  We also saw monkeys but I wasn’t able to photograph them.  The island had so many different types of scenery  to beaches, jungles, arid topography, farmlands, etc.

I only have one complaint and that is Fran bought a beautiful dress for $5.00 and I paid $8:00 for a blouse.  I did not do the proper bargaining.  We each paid the taxi driver $15.00 for the tour.

ferry from Corregidor   The port authorities would not let us stay at the dock as another ship was coming in to dock.  We were close enough to watch the Italians and Dutch compete for the best fireworks displays.  I didn’t even know there was a competition between countries for firework displays.  Anyway it was a treat but we don’t know who won.

I had a tour to go to Macau the first day in Hong Kong and I am happy I did.  First it is a magnificent city and has more gambling casinos than Las Vegas.   It is a combination of Chinese and Portuguese, and the old and new.  Tall skyscrapers and ancient sites.  The Macau Tower is the 10th highest freestanding tower in the world and we went there for a buffet lunch,  We even watched five people get ready for bungee jumping but we didn’t actually see them jump because  our tables kept moving around the buffet.   We took a ferry over and back and on the way back I felt my throat get scratchy.  Needless to say I got a cold so I stayed in my cabin for a day and one half trying to get rid  of itr fast so my experience in Hong Kong consisted  of going to the pharmacy.

Oriental night was fun and Julia (93year old mother of Fran) dressed as a Geisha girl.  A very fun night and I started to feel human again.