ingridandleotravels

Day 97 – Fort Lauderdale. Kay and Blane arrived! Yeah. We leisurely spent the day at the Galleria Mall basking in the glow of being back in the USA for a few hours. It was so great to be back in the US, on familiar ground and be greeted by the first words from our Uber driver, “No speeka da Englis, - Cuba”. Ingrid and I just smiled as we knew the Uber app had already told him where we needed to go. After a quick immersion in Starbucks, Macy’s, Dillards etc. it was back to the Pacific Princess to welcome Kay and Blane. They had already boarded, so we greeted them at the back of the ship on deck 9 overlooking Fort Lauderdale harbor. Ingrid had ordered guacamole and salsa delivered to our room and before we could even start the festivities we received a call from our real estate broker, Carol, that we received a full-price offer on our house! Nothing final yet, but it seems another piece of the master plan is falling in place. We were then able to celebrate the beautiful sail away from ...

What a relief to be back in the USA, even if it is only for 9 hours. Somehow it is quite amazing to see your own country after being away for so long. Too soon to wax philosophical about what the trip has been like, but I now feel even stronger that the US needs to remain a beacon of light for the world. It will be so great enjoying the rest of the trip with our good friends Kay and Blane Armstrong. We will see them this afternoon when they are allowed to board and then we proceed south, eventually going through the Panama Canal.

Day 95 - Waterspout! Right after dance class we were all gathered for a group picture when someone calls out “Whale”. We all rushed to the windows in the Pacific Lounge, where the dance floor is to see what we could see. Well, it turned out to be a waterspout rising from the ocean. Think a dust devil on the water. Only this one rose probably a thousand feet or more from the surface of the ocean right into the clouds and lasted for over 10 minutes. It was amazing to see the churning funnel of moisture rising in a tight column into the heavens. We all watched in amazement and recounted other such events that cruisers had seen throughout the world. And now the excitement mounts as we anticipate picking up our good friends Kay and Blane Armstrong in Fort Lauderdale. They will be joining the Pacific Princess in Fort Lauderdale and continuing the cruise though the Panama Canal and on to LA. Can’t wait to enjoy the last leg of the cruise with Kay and Blane!

Day 92 – Barbados Beautiful independent British Commonwealth nation. We had a lovely day snorkeling from a sleek catamaran. The fantastic lunch, great fellow cruisers, and rum punch helped make the day one of our most favorite. We will probably return some day to this lovely spot. Day 93 – Guadeloupe Guadeloupe was an interesting stop. Our bus ride through lush jungle included a stop at a beautiful waterfall, but the tropical rain put a little damper on this stop. The sun shown through as we arrived for the glass-bottomed boat ride for snorkeling in the Jacques Cousteau’s Underwater Reserve. After the glass-bottomed tour we decided to skip the 20-minute snorkeling and just enjoy the rum punch. This seemed to be a theme in the Caribbean! Day 94 – St. Martin While Ingrid, Jan and George were shopping at Grand Jewelers I took a walk to see how close I could get to one of the largest cruise ships in the world – Allure of the Seas. She was also stopped at St. ...

Day 86 – Natal, Brazil and the world’s largest cashew tree. We are not talking big, we are talking ginormous! You actually walk among the branches of this tree on a boardwalk as you are impressed by trunks and branches all around, all stemming form the same tree. LINK Observation deck over the largest cashew tree! Ingrid on the boardwalk under the largest cashew tree. Dinner with Jan and George Wehrstedt and crew members, Sandy (Future Cruises) and MJ (Princess Personnel) Day 87 – Fortaleza, Brazil and one of our best guides ever. He really made the sights and sounds of Brazil come alive. He actually taught us some Portuguese, much to Ingrid’s delight, and was able to convey the love he had for his country. The sunset on a nearby beach, within sight of the Pacific Princess as the moon shown brightly was beautiful. Next – Four days at sea on the way to Barbados with day three being scenic cruising around Devil’s Island (Isle Royale).

Day 4 of 4 at sea. You might think that sea days would become boring by now, but actually we love them. Tomorrow Natal, Brazil then Fortaleza the next day.

Day 81 (4/11/2019) – St. Helena Island. Up close and personal with the world's oldest animal - Jonathan the tortoise – at 187 years old! Jonathan even has his own Wikipedia page – LINK. Jonathan even greeted us when we arrived by standing up and posing for pictures. We thought he might be sedentary, but he was way more spry than I thought he was going to be. Jonathan is an Aldabra Giant Tortoise from the Seychelles. We heard about these old tortoises when we were in the Seychelles and I heard that Jonathan was still alive in St. Helena. I knew that our trip was going to St. Helena so I was hopeful to get to see Jonathan. I never thought we would be able to romp with him in his field! Romp may be taking a bit of a literary license, but he certainly was more active than I thought he would be – at 187! He was about as spry as I felt after scuba diving, wine tasting, visiting the site where Napoleon died, visiting the castle and touring the island. St. Helena (p...

Day 76 – Luderitz, Namibia is about as exciting as it sounds. We took a quick walking tour of the town, which included two churches and the “main” street (think one paved road with dirt roads at the intersections). We then stopped at the Portuguese restaurant that was suggested by our tour guide (certainly some relative!) We had a lovely snack and the beers were cheap and Ingrid and I both got small lobsters with butter and garlic sauce that we also thought were cheap at 85 rand per lobster. So close to the sea we thought we would try them. The owner of the restaurant, also our waiter, even came out curiously to tell us that one lobster was 285 grams and the other lobster was 385 grams. That sounded good to us so we said go for it. The lobsters came and were wonderful until I went in to pay. She said our bill was 644 rand, which was almost $50 US dollars. We then found out that the fine print said that the lobsters were 85 rand per 100 grams and the curious actions by the owner of t...

I wanted to say a few more things about the safaris from Rhino Ridge. The pace of the day was amazing. They try to organize the day to fit in with the rhythms of the animals.   You get up early to catch the jeep in the morning, usually rising around 5:30 to catch the jeep at 6:00.   That way you are on the road when the animals are still waking up and active.   The guide will then select part of the park that he thinks will be best for the morning. A number of mornings we were barely away from the lodge, about 5 minutes, when we ran across a beautiful feeding elephant. The second time this happened we stopped on the road and the elephant was literally 5 feet from the truck, pulling down the trees between the truck and the elephant, just off the road. We could literally hear his grinding teeth. He adjusted his weight forward and I thought he was going to touch the truck. Amazing being that close. After the morning safari, usually around 9:00 AM or so, you return to t...

WOW! – What an amazing morning watching lion cubs play. We started out at 6:30 this morning and about 2 minutes into the trip we stopped to watch a bull elephant eating by the side of the road. He was barely visible in the dense foliage just outside the truck on Ingrid’s side. He was literally about 4 feet from Ingrid as he broke branches and stripped them for breakfast. That was exciting enough until we again found the lion pride, this time with the cubs visible and playful. Watching them frolic, just 50 yards from the truck, was an amazing joy.  The family of 3 cubs and two lionesses lounged and scrambled under a beautiful shad tree. It looked as though they had planned their play to be mostly visible from the road to allow for optimum viewing for the passing safarists (that was us!). Occasionally the cubs would disappear into the high grass just to reappear nearby chasing each other or mom.   At one point one of the two lionesses sprang effortlessly over the other in...