Latin America - A New Adventure

I'm all excited!  Tomorrow we'll be boarding a plane and heading over the South American continent to Ecuador.  We'll be landing in a city called Guayaquil (pronounced why-a-kill apparently), which as well as being the largest and most populated city of the country, is also a place where tourists need to be a little bit careful.  I checked out Trip Advisor, statements such as "it's safe for women to travel on buses, as long as they sit at the front near the driver"  or "be careful to get a legitimate taxi, to prevent kidnapping/mugging" do not inspire confidence.  But hey, we're off on holiday - to lots of new and strange places.  How good is that!

Peter is going to be working on the Voyager, on a Voyages of Discovery cruise -"Contrasts of Latin America", and we'll be visting Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica,  Honduras, Belize and Mexico, and that is only the first two weeks - how lucky am I?  Or mebbe it's cleverness, landing a guy who is talented enough to work this way.

So we are in the Cambridge Hotel near Gatwick Airport, just chilling before we go and find some food.  The drive down was easy enough (of course it was, Peter was driving) and we got here about 5pm.  The hotel is OK, obviously used to dealing with hoards of people needing to get to the airport.  Our room is a little dated, but clean and we are happy.  There is just one little niggly thing.

Storm Katie is on her way and she'll be hovering over Gatwick Airport in the early hours of the morning. Knowing our luck, she'll hang around until about the time we are due to take off.  We'll just have to wait and see.......

An evening in Vigo

Well, today has been a sea day, but we have been granted a bit of a pit stop before we start the last leg home across the Bay of Biscay

And a good job too really.  It's been a rough sea day, quite a few people have tipped over in their chairs, there have been a few loud crashes as crockery has taken a dive off the shelves, and a few people have had to take a dive of their own, straight into bed. 

But I've sort of got my sea legs, so apart from feeling heady, I've managed to make it through the day - and this evening we finally got into the blissful, level peace of Vigo.

After a day and a half of rough seas, most passengers were very relieved to take a walk out onto dry land, and we joined them.  We weren't expecting much, since it was dark, and nobody seemed to know anything about the place. 

We only had a short walk, because Peter was committed to taking part in "Blankety Blank" in Scotts Bar, but it was a very pleasant little walk nonetheless. 

We found dinosaurs

Fountains

And statues

There were Christmas and colourful lights everywhere, We think it might be the sort of place we'd enjoy a walk around in the daytime. Unfortunately we won't get the opportunity at the moment, but maybe sometime in the future. 

At around 2am, the ship sets of on the last two sea days before we arrive in Bristol.  The weather forecast I was looking at isn't good.  Fingers crossed eh?

New Years Day - on our way back

So the Horn Chorus was a bit like the Dawn Chorus - a complete mishmash of 6-8 ship horns as opposed to bird song.  There wasn't a lot of tune about it, but it was certainly fun.

And then the fireworks.  8 mins of colour all the way across our vision from left to right.  The fireworks used are massive and can probably be seen miles out.  The ending is particularly  impressive as the fireworks change and become a serious of massive firecrackers - the noise is exhilarating.  The partying on board carried on until way into the wee hours - I know there were a few bad heads the next day -including those of the crew.

New Years Day started well - the sea was calm and the sun was out.  We managed to get a little time on the back deck.  Peter's classes in the afternoon went well, but as he finished, the sea turned on us and the waves started to get higher.   I've got my sea legs now though, and it doesn't feel so bad.  

We went to see the show as usual, "From Russia with Love".  I managed to wear the same dress as one of the other passengers, and afterwards we sat in the Captains Club for another drink.  By bed time the sea really was lifting the boat all over the place - it wakes you up at night.

Tomorrow will be a a sea day and more of the same, with a bit of a leg stretch at a port called Vigo in Spain tomorrow night.  Then we'll be on the last leg back to England...... and work.