48. San Martin, Peru

San Martin, Peru                           

 77F (25C)       Day 44 on the Cruise

We docked in this natural harbor.

And I let the picture speak for itself.

Nothing Here But Sand Dunes

Hello Princess line…?  What were you thinking?

Then you have the guts to charge each passenger US $50 to take a bus to the nearest ‘town’? (Later reduced to $30 because most passengers were in an uproar.)

And then again, later given for free but nobody knew about it, only the people who had already taken the bus.

Sand Storm Blew In As We Were Leaving

The nearest town, El Chaco, was 19 miles away.

The town of Pisco was even further.

Hello!!!  Are you listening Princess line..?  Are you kidding me?

Katia and Zenia

Entertainment was a dancing couple……I kid you not!  Katia and Zenia.

Good dancers, but 2 people dancing for an hour is your idea of ‘entertainment’?

 

Not Everybody's Cup of Tea

47. At Sea, Towards St. Martin, Peru

At Sea, Towards St. Martin, Peru                                   70F (21C)

The destination talks were about Callao, Peru

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callao  but what is there to say? Sometimes Humberto does not have an easy time making a very commercial place attractive.

Cake Was Bigger Than It Looks

I left before Humberto finished, I have been to Lima before and Callao is not a place I or anybody else really needs to visit. It’s a sea port.

This afternoon, our new Captain had a celebration party for Jack who turned 100 years old on this trip. I asked him if he wanted a chair which I had for him but he declined. He stood for about an hour and a half through all the speeches, champagne toasts and cake carving. He and his wife both seemed to appreciate the party.  

The Captain Is Toasting Jack's Longevity

Jack and His Wife. An Amazing Couple

Costumes All Grey and Black

Again, today was another formal night; which also means the ship’s singers and dancers had their performance. The theme for this routine was ‘What the World Needs Now’ and I could not agree appreciate the dance routines. The dancing was noticeably bad to a lay person like me. Half of the retinue were new people and not good at all. It could be that they were new and nervous but there was nothing wonderful about their costumes, a bland grey, nor their dance performance. Blah!

I know I sound negative, but I blame the ship, not the artists. Many changes had occurred during our trip, we have a different captain, a different Entertainment director, now new performers and none of the replacements are better than the old. Is the Princess line feeling the heat of the competition? Some old hat cruisers see differences in the food, the lectures (absent for weeks now) and even the entertainment. I listen to them and now watch more intently what they are pointing out. Jean and Ross tell me that Holland American is by far a better Cruise line. Hmm!

Sea Day, Art Lesson

Sea day, Art lessons                    F 68 (20C)

It must be that time on board is getting to me or the ports we visit just don’t seem to fit what I am looking for while travelling. Not that I feel bored, it’s just not that easy to constantly do nothing. I smile while I write this. Here I am complaining it’s not good to do ‘nothing’. Ah, life is good, right?

One Of the Paintings Outside the Art Store

I spent the day forcing myself to do something ‘new’. I went to the ‘art’ shop they have on board. There was a lecture on Impressionists. This art shop is selling ‘fine art’ pictures of more or less ‘famous’ artists. No, not a Picasso, nor a Van Gogh, but people like Peter Max

Yaakov Agam

Or Romero Britto;

Commercial art so to speak. But the lecture was on the older artist, the Impressionists I know of like Renoir, Degas, Calder, et al. I liked the talks. I could go on and on here about what I learned but I leave it up to you to look up Damien Hirst,

Nano Lopez

or even wacky Ai Weiwei.

What I did not know before was that all of the impressionistic paintings really started with the picture by M.J. Turner. He named his picture "Snow Storm: Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth" and that was way back in 1842. Who knew that?

Snow Storm: Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth

I wonder if there is a café in NYC where today’s artists meet to talk about how they see the world. Paris, way back was such a place where certain places were meeting spots for artists. Do they have those today?  Send me a note if you know of a bar, restaurant or meeting hall like this.

The old school of painters might have an equivalent in today’s world. But where is that?

I tried playing Trivia, something I had not done before. Yes, I even tried Bingo, but I cannot say I liked it. What is this world coming to, me playing Bingo?

I’d rather talk to the art dealer than talk to any Bingo leader.

I guess the cruise is starting to get to me.

We tried to have crew people for dinner and it was ok with John, the Maitre d’, but then when it came down to it, those crew folks were busy almost every night.

The night's entertainment was Fabio Zini, who played the ‘Flight of the Bumble Bee’, all 1000 notes in 1 minutes 20 seconds. Amazing.

Am I losing it?