Our World Cruise

 Even though we had quite a few days at sea it was a busy and fun week. We started our week by sailing into a fiord and seeing beautiful glaciers. Although there were many, we photographed the two main glaciers for the blog: Amalia and Bruggen. That day was cold, rainy, and windy but did clear up for awhile for us to see the spectacular vistas. We had a specialist explain each glacier and we were served the best hot cocoa EVER! Then the ship dropped a tender so that the crew could retreave a piece of ice from Amalia to carve for a restaurant display. So much fun watching them do this and then saying "they are crazy". Love this crew.                                                        Amalia Glacier                               ...

 After 7 days at sea, we arrived in Valparaiso, Chile. This city was established in the 1500s but has seen good times and bad. The bad times have seen the city shaken by strong earthquakes which occur about every 7 years.  Luckily, the last one was five years ago. It has faced attacks in numerous wars including a major battle during the American/British War of 1812. It was the capital of the nation and still has several major government buildings located there including the Congress Building and is the site of the Naval Command. In 2019, the city, along with the capital at Santiago, was the cite of political unrest. The results of that unrest is seen there in the shells of buildings burnt, graffiti everywhere, broken windows, and closed shops. None of this was helped by the impact of Covid19 causing the city to lose 4/5ths of its tourist income. The nation has risen to the challenge with almost 100% vaccination rates AND booster rates.  The businesses require weekly Covid...

  This past week has been interesting and fun. We started the week in Panama City with a Jungle Excursion by boat on Gatun Lake. WOW it was so much fun going around the islands in the lake looking for wildlife. We saw LOTS of wildlife from monkeys to birds and even a lizard. Jeff's pictures turned out so well. In just under over an hour he took 200+ photos. We then started our 6 day sea voyage to Santiago, Chile which we will arrive at on February 1.  While at sea we crossed the Equator at 3 am Thursday morning. The ship celebrated our crossing at noon on Friday with the Shellback ceremony for first time crossers. There were 8 officers who were polliwogs who had to endure the ceremony. It was so much fun. The passengers were the jury and each officer was charged with derilection of some stupid offense by King Neptune. We then declared each of them guilty. At that point the mermaids smeared them with whipping cream and the had to dive into the pool. After the trial ended. They ...