Day 89, Tuesday April 3, 2018, Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town,,,, I had no idea what to expect, but this port really excelled far above what we were expecting. It didn’t start out to promising, as there was a tanker ship in our way, some major snaf-foo on the part of the port authority. And the captain kept coming on explaining what was going on, even though he really didn’t have any understanding as to why or birth, was compromised. They finely moved the ship a bit so we could squeeze in, two hours late. 

For Ed and I, it didn’t matter much as we did not have a tour booked for our first day, but waiting around, wishing we could get going is not fun. When we finely could get off, it was almost noon, and we still had to do immigrations, face to face, boy what a hassle. This would not be the end of what South American officials had to dish out, but more on that later. 

So finely we were off, they had a shuttle bus from the ship to the V&A Waterfront Mall and back. This was again a huge mall, and waterfront area. It was an indoor Mall, and an outdoor area, that had a big Farris Wheel ala EYE and an aquarium a hop on hop off bus a big hotel called Victoria and Alberts, which we had been told to go and partake in there English high tea, but it wasn’t serving tea on the day we were there, so,,,,, we had lunch instead!  That turned out to be a great choice. 

 

On our walk about, then it was lunch time, yum this was a one person lunch, but we shared it, and there was still almost too much,,,, almost LOL. It was wonderful and since we had skipped breakfast, we were hungry at two pm. 

Then we moved on to what was named “The Shed” this was a huge building with lots of artisans of all types. From fine art to, cooky things they didn’t want you to photograph there work, so I didn’t but Ed took a photo of me and the girl that made the necklace I bought. 

 

I didn’t buy the one I’m wearing here, but probably should have. There were so many things I could have bought, in here and other shops, but the suitcases are already going to be VERY full.  And we already spent enough, and Ed was tired of carrying all the goodies we did buy, so it was time to walk the long walk back to the shuttle, all in all we walked over five miles and we still had the walk onto the ship. 

 

What a beautiful day it was, table mountain, didn’t look like this, the next two days. 

Back on the ship, we decided to have dinner in the Lido, out on the Aft, pool area, and watch the sunset, forgot the camera. :(

Quote: Never STOP wondering. Never stop WANDERING.”  - Anonymous 

Day 88, Easter Monday, April 2, 2018 At Sea

Today was another busy sea day, we didn’t have watercolor class, but Ed had Ti Chi and I made a rose quartz chip necklace. That was a real pain, as the stones were so small, and the quartz’s were very light in color, so it was hard to see the holes, to get the fishing line through. Fishing line was used as wire would have showed through. 

So when I finely finished, at 4 PM it was time to go to the South African Springbok Festival! This is how they wrote it up:

What better way to celebrate our upcoming days in and around Cape Town then to party like the “Rainbow Nation” does! Join us for a feast of the senses by springbok lounge-hopping our modern-day “boma” stockade and Rugby inspired upper promande deck. Or find yourself in a whole different ambiance amidst the styling of a game of cricket in the Crows Nest. Either way we’re serving the best South Africa has to offer in local wines, drinks and appetizers galore from “Afrikaans resepte”  Topping it all off for this 3.5 hour party, we have local and resident musicians lighting up this unique festival like never before. As we say in South Africa “dis lekker by die see” or in English- have a great time!”

   

 

It was a great party!  All the free drinks we wanted and great appetizer, was dinner for me. I passed up dinner and went to bed, two martinis were my doing in! 

So now we are waiting for Imagration to let us off the ship, it is 12:30 and we were suppose to be docked at 8AM, but a container ship was docked incorrectly docked so we were over two hours late docking, now imagration is holding us up. Ed and I did not have a tour on this first day, good thing!

But we have a gorgeous day, there is nary a cloud in the sky so you can see the top of table mountain! 

 

Easter Brunch, with friends

 

What a day, this is as clear as you will ever see Table Mountain 

Quote:       

                         

TRAVEL. 

“As much as you can. As far as you can. As long as you can. Life is not meant to be lived in one place.”

- The things we say

Day 85,86, March 30/31 And day 87, Easter April, 1, 2018

It has been a very busy few day, some I didn’t list as they were sea days, with the things you’ve heard befor. Painting and making jewelry can get pretty intense, especially when the instructor really through’s you big challenges you weren’t expecting. Then add a couple good lectures and the test kitchen and befor you know it, it’s time to get ready for dinner!  Ed and I were discussing this, and we likened a world cruise to a semester in collage. Everything is planed out, you can’t go home,,,,,, etc. Which brings up one of the things that took up the afternoon and much discussion that evening and, we are all still discussing it. 

On Good Friday, Orlando Ashford, the CEO of Holland America had a presentation on what was going on for HAL in the future. And then people were allowed to ask questions, most of those were pretty lame. But the big news was the 2020 world cruise itinerary which looks interesting if it stays the way they have it right now, and  it is 128 days!  Sorry the map is not more readable, I had to take it from the TV. 

Yesterday we went in to Maputo, Mozambique 🇲🇿,  very interesting place, once again we see evidence of the Chinese take over. This is a very poor country, that has been abused by the Portuguese and the British, and now it is the Chinese, who are in the night buying the land, from unknowning farmers, and clear cutting the old forests, and sending the wood to China! They are building a big bridge in town to connect the town to the town across the river, and we found out that the Chinese were doing the construction, and rather than hiring the locals they have imported Chinese labor.  Now one could argue that the imported labor is more skilled, but how hard is to teach people, to mix cement?

 

The bridge, not finished yet, craft village, nice stuff, but we didn’t bring the right money. They would not take one roller bills, seems the bank has been taken over by the Chinese and they rip off the people on the exchange rate, of a one dollar bill! 

 

Our guide and me, ed in the natural history museum, they had the largest cole toon of elephant fetuses, I’ll spare you. 

 

The Queens pet lion. And more evidence of the Chinese taking over. 

 

The train station. They have a train to Cape Town once a week. 

Happy Easter! 🐣 

We have a full day today, first it was the Easter Sunday brunch, at 11: am, actually, the day started with sun rise service, we didn’t go. We did go to brunch, it was very nice. 

 

All decorated for Easter, and good company makes for a good time. 

 

 

Menu:

Tonight we have the  Mariner’s appreciation day cocktail party, and then a big Gala night dinner, and we already received our Easter candy this morning, when our room Stewart cleaned the room and made the bed. All very nice, but we wish we were with the kids and grand kids. 

So more tomorrow, another sea day. 

Quotes: “ TRAVEL is FATAL to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”  - Mark Twin

              “ TRAVEL is about the GEORGEOUS feeling of teetering in the unknown.”  - Anonymous 

Day 82, Tuesday, March 27, 2018 La Possession, Reunion

Today is the second of three sea days, between Reunion Island and Mapoto, so I guess I better catch y’all up on the going’s on and what we did on Reunion, which was wonderful, by the way. 

We found that everything that was missing on the Seychelles was here on Reunion, the beauty of the island, and the care the people have for their island. You can tell the influences of the EU. Not a big tourist island, but there working on it,,,, working, is the optimum word here, everyone was working and it was evident by all the work on the infrastructure, and we had one of the best meals we have had on the whole cruise.  Do you think we liked it? 

The tour we took, took us all the way around the island. We started in La Possession a tiny port on the north side of Reunion, was originally settled in the 1600s, the British used it as an entry point when they took over the island in 1810. Today it is known as the gateway to the Cirque de Mafate, the  ‘caldera’ ( collapse cone of a volcano) that was once a refuage for runaway slaves, and is now a mecca for hikers. One of the worlds most active volcanos, it last erupted in 2006. Lucky we didn’t see an eruption, but we did see a lot of the island. 

We went to a beautiful botanical garden, and this time I loved it, it was like what one migh have imagined the garden of Eaden might have been like, so serene and beautiful, not groomed and manicured, like the one on the Seychelles. 

 

Our guide, we had two, the one from the bus, who spoke English and the one from the garden who only spoke French, showed us what uncut looked like a small peach, but when you cut it, you have a nutmeg. We also saw the orchid that you get vanilla beans from, but they are not in season right

  

This was the most groomed path, the orchid that grows vanilla is way up in this tree

 

This was called a black widow orchid, not sure why, we never, heard the reason, I guess I will look it up when I have WiFi. 

Anyway then it was on to the volcano. 

 
It is hard to show the scope of the lava flow, it was a lot! 

Then on to lunch, and a beautiful place by the sea to eat. 

 

This was the back yard of the restaurant Etoile De Mer where we ate

  

This was our afternoon rest stop. 

 We arrived back at the ship in time for the sail away party, that the CEO of Holland America through for the whole ship, nothing like free drinks and live music to bring out the best in people, we all had a great time, reminded Ed and I of the New Years Cruise we took. 

Quote:  “ The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.”  - Sir Richard Francis Burton

(Backup) Day 79, Saturday, March 24, 2018 Victoria, Mahe Seychelles 🇸🇨

We arrived a bit ahead of schedule this morning, but that was still much later then our normal port arrivals, it was 9:30 AM when they cleared the ship. We met the others that had signed up for the tour, in the Queens lounge at 10, and by 10:30 we were meeting the bus. We were on bus #4, there were eight buses for this tour all carrying about 17 people each. It was air conditioned and we were all very happy about that, as the temp was already getting very warm, 86* and would get hotter, and the humidity was about 80%. 

The Seychelles is composed of 115 islands and Victoria on the island of Mahe’ is there capital: among the smallest national capitals in the world. France colonized the islands in the 1700s, then Great Britain controlled them until their independence in 1976. There is a very strong Creole influence this is because of the,  Africans, Indians, and Chinese that were brought in to work on the, spice, sugar, and cotton plantations, and their language and music, and foods are still very much of today. 

So first stop was the botanical gardens, which was beautiful, but a lot of walking up hill!  Now if it was cooler, it wouldn’t have been bad, but in this heat, it was a killer for most of us. 

First stop was to see the coconut this island is famous for. More then just a novelty, the oil is supposed to be very good for your skin and hair, himm we’ll see. It is the Coco de Mer, it is the only native coconut to the Seychelles, and very provocative to say the least. 

If you look at the right on the shelf and you can see the long flower stem that hangs between the crease in the coconut, didn’t I say it was provocative? 

There were also huge tortoises in this garden, well protected, so we couldn’t get very close. 

   

 

Some of the flowers in the garden. 

 

After leaving the gardens, totally exhausted, the picture doesn’t show it well, but it was all uphill, we head into town, to see the market. 

 

 

 

These shells were so pretty, we bought one. 

Now we traveled over to the other side of the island, and it reminded me of Tahiti. 

 

 

Then there was the lunch and beach stop at a Hilton double tree, that was fun, but after walking in the Indean Ocean, it was very clear, and warm.  I have now put my feet in all the oceans on the globe, how about that!

We returned to the ship a bit late, but since we weren’t sailing until 10:30 PM it didn’t matter.  We were both so hot and tired, we showered, and Ed went up to the Lido and brought it back to the room. They were having a shellfish extravaganza. 

In the upper left is the chocolates they gave us in the apology for the water in the room, and a bottle of wine. We had them in the fridge, and after the 10,573steps, in the oppressive heat we could indulge a bit. 

Quote:  “ To travel is to take a JOURNY into yourself.”  - Danny Kay