Cartagena, Colombia

I go to the Promenade Deck around 7:30am or so to take a look at things. I can see land on the port side of the ship and an island off starboard. Its foggy/misty outside. I take a few photos but most of them are cloudy and no use. By the time I get back to the cabin Kerry is ready to eat breakfast. We head up to the Lido Deck and I get my usual breakfast of cottage cheese, fruit, donut, and apple juice. As usual the restaurant is packed and we join a couple at a table. We head back to the Promenade Deck as the cruise ship sails past Cartagena and watch it come into dock just after 8:30am.
We see a black pirate’s ship in the harbor used for tour excursions.
We’re supposed to meet in the Explorers Lounge on Deck 7 for our tour at 9am and we head there fifteen minutes early. The place is packed, but most of them are going on the city tour of Cartagena. The staff check our tickets and then give us stickers for our shirts with the tour number on them. Around 9am we’re led down two flights of stairs to disembark from Deck 5 and our group is split into 2 buses.

Our tour guide is Bernardo and the driver is Santos. We take a brief tour of Cartagena before heading out of town to the mud volcano at Totumo. Cartagena is very much like towns in Spain with lots of people walking around and shops and sidewalk or outside cafés. There is a mix of run down housing and neat and tidy houses and apartments. We are slowed down at one point by a man riding his donkey directly in front of the bus. Finally the driver turns down another street. As we get to the outskirts of the city we see small communities of shacks built from whatever material can be scrounged and plenty of garbage.

The drive on the highway is nice and we have the Caribbean Ocean in our sight for most of the trip. Fishermen are casting their nets from shore and people are swimming. The scenery is lush and green. There are cattle, donkeys, and some horses. We see some vultures in the trees but the bus is moving too fast to take photos of them.

See my blog about the Totumo Mud Bath Volcano.

Back in Cartagena we had a small city tour that included a ten minute stop at some shops. These were former dungeons. There were a lot of vendors who were quite aggressive. We snapped some photos and returned to the bus. One vendor stood outside my window trying to get me to come back outside and buy a necklace, in particular a pink necklace, I suppose it was because I was wearing a pink shirt. The price kept dropping, finally down to four dollars before the bus pulled away.

The next stop was at the fort where we got off for a few minutes to take photos.

Again besieged by vendors mostly trying to sell us hats, never mind the fact that we were already wearing hats on our head.

Also trying to sell us Columbian beer even though we don’t drink and told them no. One vendor ended up at my window again trying for that $2 sale.

We arrived back at the Island Princess at 1:30pm, plenty of time for the 2:30 all aboard, and the ship was supposed to sail at 3pm, but pulled out of the dock about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Obviously we both had showers and shampooed our hair to get out and traces of stubborn mud. We played trivia in the Wheelhouse Lounge at 4:15. We checked out the dinner menu in the main dining room but nothing appealed to me. Frog legs were on tonight’s menu. YUCK!

We decided to do laundry and that turned into a fiasco. The washing machine was on the fritz and took a long time to finish. The timer was off by about 15 minutes or so. My clothes were very wet when we removed them and put them in the dryer for an hour. They were still damp when I took them out but I decided to hang them in my closet and let them dry. I didn’t come on the cruise to spend so much time doing laundry.

Back to the Wheelhouse at 10pm for more trivia, movie trivia this time.

Tomorrow is Panama Canal Day. Trip of a lifetime.

Totumo Mud Volcano Bath

On May 3 2010 we were on the Island Princess and in the port of Cartagena for a few hours. We booked a shore excursion to the mud bath volcano at Totumo, about an hour's drive from the port. We arrived at Totumo and the volcano is in sight. The driver pulls over so anyone who wants to can step outside and take photos for a couple of minutes. The volcano resembles an oversized anthill.

There is a lake behind the volcano. This is where we will wash off the mud later on.

There are changing rooms for those who need them. Most of us came prepared and wore our swimsuits underneath our clothes and took our shirts and shorts off inside the bus. Bernardo tells us to leave everything in the bus and it will be locked. He tells us to leave our money in the bus and just before we leave one of the villagers will approach the bus for tips that will be shared amongst them. Anyone tipped privately will likely not share.

Wearing only my swimsuit and shoes and carrying a Princess Cruises towel from our cabins, we approach the stair to climb to the mud bath. One of the village women instructs us to remove our shoes and she places them in a sack and also takes our towels. We climb the stairs. Kerry is carrying our camera and takes some photos. We are told that one of the villagers at the top will take our camera and take photos for us while we’re in the mud.

The mud bath is packed because of our cruise ship passengers. It takes a little while before we get a turn into the mud and there are at least ten others inside plus 2 or 3 village men who help cover our bodies with mud. The mud is supposed to have healing properties. I don’t know about that because Kerry still has a scar on his arm from the surgery and its not healed yet. I float in the mud and get a lot of mud all over me and into my hair before one of the men comes over to slather mud on me. Kerry is pushed to another part of the mud and has a villager rubbing mud on him. The mud is comfortably warm and very buoyant. You can’t sink in the stuff. Its difficult to move around in it but it was a lot of fun trying to get from one end to the other.

When we emerge at the ladder another village man is there to wipe off the excess mud.

We walk down a rather steep stairway back to the road that leads to the lake where we wash off. Good thing too because I have mud in places where I never thought I would ever have mud! My shoes are nowhere in sight. Apparently the village women have taken the shoes and towels closer to the lake. Once inside the lake is an interesting experience. The village women wash the mud off. They’re really good at getting everyone clean. We go into water that is not very deep, maybe knee high and sit down and they scrub away. The water itself is murky so you can’t really see beneath the surface which is a good thing because now they want us to remove our swimsuits so we can finish washing off our mud and they will rinse out our swimsuits. Its no easy feat getting a wet swimsuit back on again underwater while trying to remain modest. Once I’m out of the water I collect my shoes and towel and go back to the bus to pull on my shirts and shorts.

We wander around the village a bit waiting for the rest of our group to finish so we can leave. I see a dog and puppies and go over to pet them. The old lady sitting nearby tells me there are fifteen puppies and two mama dogs who had the puppies between them. Very cute, a little spotted, almost like some kind of weird Dalmatian cross. I want to take one home with me! We wander back to the bus and I walked off a little bit to look at things but Kerry called me back. One of the ladies from our bus is asking one of the village men for her husband’s watch and hearing aid but he doesn’t understand English. Her husband had forgotten to remove them in the bus and at the top of the hill the villagers told him to remove them. Take them in the mud and take your chances. I speak some Spanish and asked for a watch and I haven’t the slightest idea how to say hearing aid in Spanish so I told him I didn’t know the word but it’s a thing that you put in the ear in order to hear. He pulled two watches out of one pocket and the woman pointed to the one that belonged to her husband. He reached into his other pocket and pulled out the hearing aid. Eeeww. The man who’d been taking photos with our camera came back down the hill and we were able to take some photos of the dogs before we left.

If you are a geocacher, the Totumo Mud Bath Volcano is an earth cache. Don't forget to bring your GPS and take a photo of yourself in front of the volcano. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ceea24a4-d0ce-4e13-8d79-71312146cc12

Photos taken around Oranjestad, Aruba

One of Island Princess's ports of call on the Grand Panama Cruise is in Oranjestad, Aruba. We're in port from 7am to 1pm. It was a Sunday and the shops didn't open until 10am. With a cruise ship in town for only a few hours you'd think they'd make an exception and open up when its in town. Missed out on a few tourist dollars that day I'd think.

We started the day off at Dunkin' Donuts shortly after arrival in Oranjestad. Not that we were craving donuts because they were available for breakfast on the Island Princess but it offers free Wifi so we took in our lap top to check our email. This was our last chance to get Wifi until we visited Los Angeles. Its very sketchy to non-existent in the other ports of call. To get to Dunkin' Donuts, walk off the cruise ship, through the terminal, and down their road, about a block, to get to the main street. Turn right and walk down about a block. Dunkin' Donuts is on the second story of a building. You'll easily see it. Bring your lap top. Its only good manners to make a purchase while here. They accept US dollars but the items are rather high priced. We purchased a couple of iced coffees. Cost $4.10 total.

We caught the #10 bus which goes along the beaches. This is Palm Beach, about 15 minutes bus ride from downtown Oranjestad.

These are shots we took around Oranjestad, all within an easy walk of the cruise ship terminal.

The Island Princess in port at Oranjestad, Aruba.

Here's the dinner menu in the main dining room on Aruba day.

Geocaching in Aruba

We arrived in Aruba at 7am. The Island Princess had an all aboard at 12:30pm so there wasn't a whole lot of time to spend here. Going to the beach seemed the best option for a few hours. But we decided to try to find a couple of caches that were in the areas of Eagle Beach and Palm Beach.

Geocaching is an international game using your GPS to find caches that others have hidden and uploaded the coordinates to www.geocaching.com

A couple we met on the Island Princess, Bob and Joyce, were intrigued and joined us in the search.

We started off looking for the #10 bus that drives out to the beaches. We walked out of the cruise compound, turned to our right, and walked down the street a bit. On the left hand side of the street is a bus parking lot. We walked in and found the sign post for the #10 bus. We'd heard that it runs every 15 minutes. But we were in port on a Sunday. The #10 bus only runs once an hour. Nevertheless we only had about a 5 minute wait before a bus pulled in. They take US dollars and it costs $2.50 each for a round trip ticket. We had the GPS on and when we closed in on the coordinates for the first cache, about 10 minutes or so ride, we pushed the button and got off.

The caches we searched for and discovered were the Divi Tree Cache and then we walked down to the Flowers with Wings cache, about 10 minutes walk. Fortunately we did this fairly early in the morning, around 9am, before it became too swelteringly hot in Aruba. I managed a quick swim in the ocean and then we caught the bus back to the port area where we wandered around the shops for awhile making a couple of purchases and then returned to the Island Princess. Ahh, air conditioning! Cold drinks!

Its very easy to find both these caches and do other activities and have plenty of time to make the all aboard.

Have fun geocaching in Aruba!

The Divi Tree Cache is hidden behind this coral. A little out of place in the log.
Team Mermaidude with the Divi Tree Cache.

The contents of the Divi Tree Cache.

The Flowers With Wings cache is hidden here.

Bob watches Mr. Mermaidude search for the cache.

Mr. Mermaidude has the Flowers With Wings cache in hand.

Sanctuary on the Island Princess

On the Island Princess, Decks 14 and 15 aft, is The Sanctuary. Passengers can book the Sanctuary on embarkation day for the duration of the cruise at a cost of $15/day. Alternately passengers can show up at the Sanctuary throughout the cruise and if there is available space rent a chair for $20/day or $10 for a half day. This is the cost for a quieter space on the ship. No children allowed here. The only time I saw the Sanctuary was on Embarkation Day. The rest of the time entry is carefully guarded to ensure only passengers paying the extra fee are allowed in. So what does your money get? A plush cushioned lounge chair and a private swimming pool. Sanctuary staff bring fruit infused waters to the patrons and Evian water sprays. You can also order meals to be consumed in the sanctuary. For an extra fee massages can be booked beneath the canopies.

Photos on Island Princess

Shortly after embarking on the Island Princess April 29 2010 bound for Vancouver via the Panama Canal we were on Deck 15, overlooking the Lido Pool on Deck 14, enjoying burgers and fries from the grill.

Lifeboat drill was different prior to departure. Instead of going to our lifeboat, Princess Cruises has the passengers go to their muster stations. In our case the muster station was the wedding chapel so people were able to find seats. Here we went through a half hour safety drill and learned how to put on our life jackets. But we never did find out which life boat to board if needed.

Some scenes from the sailaway party held around the Lido Pool.

Here is the menu for the main dining room for dinner on Embarkation Day.

Some of the boats cruising around Port Everglades.