2004 world cruise

We met several of our shipmates and crew from the previous world cruise.

Jan 7

We are passing Haiti. We will still be at sea tomorrow. We arrive in Barbados at 7 am on Monday. At Sea days are a lot alike, but we look forward to them. In port days are exhausting but stimulating. At Sea days are relaxing, a time to rest up for the In Port days. Dr Wolfe's lecture was very informative about the history of Haiti. Probably without the revolution against the French in 1801 requiring cash for Napoleon to fight the Haitians, the French would not have sold the Louisiana Purchase to us. The lecture yesterday was well attended but today the auditorium was packed. Dr Wolfe is that good. So far the ride has been good.

Jan 8

Tomorrow we arrive in Barbados. The island was a British colony from 1625 until they were granted independence in 1966. The island is 21 miles long and 14 miles wide and is just east of the Windward islands aprx 500 south of Puerto Rico. Strong British atmosphere still prevails, but the European custom is wrapped in a unique blend of African lifestyles. African language and speech patterns also have a noticeable influence and local cuisine includes dishes with names like cou-cou. The most evident African influence is the rhythm of the Tuk band, calypso and other inventive styles of music. There are no volcanoes or rain forest (hardly any rivers) but there are plenty of clean beaches, lots of pleasantly rolling countryside, and fields of sugar cane. Houses are brightly painted, and anything that blooms seems to grow. Because of its geographical position, trade winds favor the island and humidity is relatively low. Jews were not permitted to worship in public until 1654, three years before such worship was permitted in England. True Blue was originally a private home, but it is now a historic and working Synagogue, under protection of the government as part of the Barbados National Trust. There is a 50 acre flower gardens. There are benches throughout where visitors can rest and enjoy the scenery. There are numerous other sites to visit but the main attraction on Barbados is its beaches.

Jan 9

We spent our first day in port today in Barbados. Our land tour was five hours on a catamaran. First we snorkeled in an area of three sunken ships. We then sailed to an area with large turtles. We had an excellent buffet lunch aboard the boat then sailed to a beach for more snorkeling etc. All beaches are public in Barbados. This particular beach was in front of the hotel Tiger Woods and his bride were married and spent their honeymoon last October. Starting nightly cost is $700 highest is $100,000.00. To circumnavigate the island is 69 miles. While we didn't circumnavigate we did considerable sailing at an average speed of 20 mph. From the ocean it looks like Barbados is home to hundreds of beautiful houses.

Jan 11

We are at Devil's Island, French Guyana off the north east coast of South America. For more than a century, beginning in 1850, a number of prisons were set up along the coast of French Guyana. Of these the most notorious were offshore on French Guayana's ironically named Iles du Salut, or Salvation Islands. It was a place of exile. The cells were meant to hold only the most infamous criminals and political outcasts. Though there are three islands in the group, it is Devil's Island that is most vividly etched in the minds of people around the world as the bleak home of some of the most unfortunate prisoners in human history. Two 650 foot channels separate the three outcroppings. Ile Royale, the largest and central island is sandwiched between the other two. Though the passages are narrow, extremely strong currents are characteristic, and rough waters are common. Because there are lots of sharks, prisoners were often left unguarded. Their fear kept them captive. Ile du Diable is still inaccessible due to rocky shores, currents, and rough sea. A rickety cable across the channel was the penal colony's supply route. Because of its inaccessibility, tourist view Devil's Island from a neighboring island. There are no landings on Devil's Island. A link in the larger French South American penal colony system, the government relied upon malaria and severe climate to finish off "undesirable" citizens. Ile du Diable, considered escape proof with strong currents and shark-invested, waters, was akin to a death sentence-70% of the inmates died. The most famous resident, Captain Dreyfuss, was a political prisoner falsely accused of espionage (his true "crime was being Jewish) The best known account is the novel and Hollywood film Papillon (butterfly) In fact, Henri Charriere, was sentenced to life in prison (for a murder he did not commit) in the French colonies, but was never sent to Devils's Island- the fictional tale was based on accounts taken from other prisoners. Mona rested today. She is doing fine. I went ashore via a tender boat and walked the 70 acre island. It has ruins of the prison including the chapel, children's cemetery, old barracks, lighthouse and prison hospital. The former guard's mess hall has been restored and converted into a restaurant and hotel. We are taking a lot of digital photos. Some will be on the web site after we return. Those who want a CD should notify me when we return home April 20.

Jan 12

Early this morning we started cruising up the Amazon. The blue ocean waters turned into brown muddy waters of the Amazon. The Nile is the world's longest river with the Amazon 2nd. It accounts for 20 % of the world's fresh water reserves. It shelters the largest variety of life forms on earth. Fifty per cent of the world's known species live in the Amazon region. Of the estimated 15,000 species of Amazon creatures, thousands of birds and fish and hundreds of mammals have not been classified.Brazil makes up half of all South America. It is nearly as large as the continental US and shares borders with all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile. It is 2700 miles wide and nearly the same length north to south. It ranks 6th in the world in terms of population. Brazil is a young nation not only in terms of its own independence, but its people are also youthful.. More than half the population is under the age of 30 years, and the represent a broad mixture of indigenous, European, African and Asian ethnic groups. Tomorrow we will make our first port in Brazil at Santarem. Mona and I will cruise on Rio Tapajos in a small tour boat. It is said its waters are similar to the Bahamian blue green crystal clear waters.

Jan 14

Today we are back on the Atlantic. We will cross the equator, which is an imaginary reference line that encircles the earth and divides our planet into Northern and Southern hemispheres. Latitute lines are one of two measurements needed to locate points precisely on the earth's surface. Running north to south, Longitude lines have their zero-point running through the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England. This "longitudinal equator" is called the prime meridian. The equator is 0 point and going north the degree number increases to the north pole and as you go south the degree number increases as you approach the south pole. Longitude lines or either East or West and Latitude lines are either North or South.

Jan 15

As the center point of the earth, the equator is also the center of the tropics. The tropic is the area lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn at 23 degrees 26' north and south of the equator. The climate in the tropics varies; some areas have heavy rainfall and others are very hot and dry. The sun's heat near the equator easily evaporates water from the oceans, so the hot tropical air is also moist. This is why there are rain forests at the equator. Also, at the equator, the sun's rays are unaffected by the tilt of the earth, so the area is always exposed to the sun and receives direct solar rays year-round, regardless of season. We think of it as being very hot at the equator. The heat is most intense at sea level, but as you move into the mountains, it can also get very cold. In fact, you might find snow at the equator! The equator also marks a turning point for the seasons, which are versed in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Jan 16

Today is another At Sea day. Tomorrow we will be in Natal and Wed in Recife both cities in Brazil. Thursday and Friday are At Sea days and Saturday and Sunday we are in Rio de Janeiro. We like At Sea days. There is a lot to do on the ship. There 52 scheduled activities, plus 3 person basketball, golf, swimming, gym activities, casino, library, movie theater and TV in with 15 channels. We have two lectures one about Rio de Janeiro and the other a continuing seminar on the Amazon. There is a bread baking demonstration, Spanish classes, classes about playing bridge. Last night's showtime was 7 dancers and singers who were great. Tonight it is an Irish Flautist. All of this and time for a nap.

Jan 17

We were scheduled to visit Natal, Brazil, today but weather conditions necessitated a by pass. The winds are over 30 knots expected to increase on our beam. Also we have a long very narrow channel to travel into the port and it is narrowed by a bridge under construction. There also is a 3 knot current. I am happy the Captain places safety of his passengers over our convenience. Natal is a city on the northeast coast of Brazil. Because of its strategic position as one of the cities in Brazil nearest to Africa and Europe, an American military base was built in the outskirts of Natal during WW II; this base provided support for allied troops combating in the north of Africa. Thousands of American soldiers were sent to Natal, and their presence left traces in the culture of the city. It is a modern city that has retained its colonial flavor and is beautifully situated among white palm-studded beaches. Its port is important in the handling of coastal shipping and in the export of tungsten. It was founded on Christmas Day, 1599. We would have been the largest ship to have ever docked in the city had we docked. It is becoming one of the largest tourist destinations in Brazil.

Jan 18

We are in Recife, Brazil. Recife is the capital of Pernambuco state, northeastern Brazil. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean south of Natal and is the chief urban center of northeast Brazil and an important transportation hub. It lies partly on the mainland and partly on an island. Dissected by waterways, surrounded by rivers and crossed by bridges, Recife is full of islands and mangrove swamps that magnify its geography. It is known as the American Venice, thanks to its fluvial similarity with the European City, and is considered one of Brazil's cultural capitals. Its fine natural harbor is enclosed by a coral reef. Recife exports great quantities of sugar, cotton and coffee. First settled in 1535 by fisherman and sailors, the Portuguese officially founded it in 1548 as the port for nearby Olinda. The city plundered by the British in 1595 and was occupied by the Dutch from 1630 to 1654, prospering under Maurice of Nassau. After the Dutch occupation, Recife replaced Olinda as capital of the Pernambuco captaincy. During WWII, an Allied air base was there. The city has three universities and several research centers and museums; it has long been famed for its intellectual groups and political ferment. In addition to its modern buildings, Recife has a 17th century cathedral, a Dutch fort, an elaborate government palace, and the ruins of what is believed to be the first synagogue in the New World, which flourished during the Dutch period. We took a 5 hour bus tour of the area. We visited two churches, Sao Coasme and Damiao. They were built in the 1700s. We visited Fort Orange built by the Dutch during the aprx 20 year period they occupied Recife 1630-1650. We also visited the Manatee Center and watched Manatees sucking fresh water from pipes. They hold over 50 gals of fresh water. They don't drink salt water. One of the Manatees is 45 years old.

Jan 20

We will arrive in Rio de Janeiro tomorrow. The Portuguese thought when they discovered Rio de Janeiro that the large bay was the mouth of a river, so they named the area the river of January the date of their discovery. Many say the harbor is the world's most beautiful. Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are famous in part due to the song. Christ the Redeemer statute dominates the harbor and sits on top of Mt Corcovado (Hunchback). Sugar Loaf Mountain is another landmark. The harbor also has Urca Mt. There is a modern planetarium and tropical forest and Rio is noted for entertainment and nightlife. Theater, opera, and Brazilian dances abound. It is a "late" city and the atmosphere of Carnaval prevails year-round. The lush Tijuca Forest, for example, is one of the largest urban forests in the world. Part of it spills right down through the heart of the city. Rio has many museums. Unimaginable wealth came to early South American ventures such as those of colonial merchant Elias Antonio Lopes, who donated his palace to Prince-Regent John VI in 1808. At the end of the century, the complex was converted into a storehouse for a growing collection of valuable scientific artifacts. Now the massive National Museum, it showcases a wide range of relics from fossilized dinosaur skeletons, and ancient pottery fragments to Egyptian mummies and fragments of the Bendigo Metorite that struck earth in 1888. The ethnographic collection reveals cultural details about Rio's diverse populations.The utilitarian, but historic Santa Teresa barrio clings to the side of a steep hill south of the steel-and-glass high-rise mass that mark the Central District. The neighborhood is an enclave for the "the old ways" even as the urban area sprawls below. The tram route that leads to the district traverses Arcos da Carioca, a 17th-century Roman-style aqueduct. Businessman and avid art collector Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya amassed an impressive modern art collection. His private villa at Rua Murtinho Nobre, 93, is a showcase for his collection and opulent lifestyle. The array of modern art include works by Picasso, Miro, Matisse and "Savador Dali as well as important Brazilian artists like Heitor dos Prazeres. The home, designed by Wladimir Alves de Souza, commands a sweeping view of the city and Guanabara Bay. Priceless historical maps follow Brazil's development. Thje décor is lavish and eclectic-Tang Dynasty horses came from Beijing, for example.

Jan 21

This afternoon we are taking a bus tour of Rio. It is the capital of Rio de Janeiro State, in southeast Brazil, on Guanabara Bay of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the second largest city and former capital of Brazil, as well as the cultural center of the country and a financial, commercial communications, and transportation hub. It has an international airport and a subway.We had a fantastic day in Rio. In my opinion it ranks with San Francisco, Hong Kong and Sydney as the most beautiful harbors I've seen. There are so many mountains surrounding the harbor that the city has 20 tunnels. We took a cable car to the top of Sugar Loaf Mtn where the view was spectular. We toured the city and its beaches. I would love to visit again someday but for at least two weeks. There is so much to see. There are 6 million residents in the city proper another 4 million in the suburbs. Fortunately we have one more day to explore this lovely city.

Jan 22

Mona didn't feel up to going on the tour today. As the day progressed she felt better then suddenly she was in pain. Her pill relieved her pain. She has moments of pain but all in all she is doing fine. She loves her little scooter. I took the 7 hour bus tour. It was excellent. It took us 1 and half hour to get to the mountain city of Petropolis. It has 300,000 population. It is the second home of many of the citizens of Rio de Janeiro. Very few cities in the world have as many mansions as Petropolis. It is cold in the winter. Dom Pedro II, the second self proclaimed emperor of Brazil, founded the city in 1843. He gave the city his own name. We visited his palace and viewed his crown weighing 4 pounds. It is studded with 265 diamonds and many precious stones and pearls. We were required to put soft slippers over our shoes to protect the floors, which were the original wood. After a fabulous lunch we went to the Cathedral where the King and his family lie in vaults. Tropical flowers and leafy trees line the drive into the mountains. Brightly colored bougainvillea and hibiscus are abundant. In town, German and Swiss style homes fill the streets.

Jan 24

Today and tomorrow we will be at sea. We arrive Montevideo (view mountain) Uruguay on Thurs. We have three lectures today. One on the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina, our Friday destination. The second lecture is by Dr Wolfe my favorite lecturer on a cruise ship. He tells the history of the various parts of the world in story form. The new lecturer is Terry Hughes. He was the head of BBC TV Variety and was producer and directory of many British films and shows. In 1980 he moved to Hollywood where he produced and directed many TV shows including the Golden Girls, Rock from the Sun, Friends etc. Tonight Mona, Dick, Ann and I dine with 6 others and the Captain in his quarters. Last time we had a delightful evening so we are looking forward to this evening. I am doing sessions with a fitness person hoping to improve my conditioning. I am off for today's session.

Jan 25

A water color instructor came aboard at our last stop and has free classes. Ann is an accomplished water color artist but is attending anyway. Tomorrow we arrive in Montevideo, Uruguay, where nearly half (1,350,000) of all the people of Uruguay live. Gaucho the Uruguayan cowboy has a museum. Uruguayans are known for their good manners and low crime rate. Circa 8000 BC nomadic Catalan and Cuareim tribes live in the area. Other groups begin to establish settlements in 2000 BC. In 1516, Diaz de Solis explores Rio de la Plata (river) all are killed by the Indians. Ferdinand Magellan anchors off present day Montevideo. In 1603, cattle and horses are introduced to the area. In 1720, a fort is built to stop Portuguese expansion. In 1806, Spain and England battle over Montevideo and Buenos Aires. In 1808, Napoleon's brother Joseph is installed on the Spanish throne. In 1810, General Artigas declares independence for Uruguay and is revered to this date. In 1828, the British aid in establishing the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. In 1843, siege of Montevideo begins and last for 8 years. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay fight Paraguay for five years. Uruguay's domestic factions struggle for the rest of the century. Jose Batlle y Ordonez is elected president. His social democratic policies modernize the country. In 1933 Gabriel Terra suspends the Uruguayan Constitution. In 1945, just after Uruguay declares war on Germany, WWII ends. In 1973, civil war ends when the government enacts the State Security Law. Military law ensues under Bordaberry. In 1984, democracy returns when Julio Sanguinetti is elected President and in 1995 he leads reform. In 2000, a truth committee opens investigation surrounding 160 people who vanished during past military dictatorship. In 2002, Argentina's ongoing financial crisis threatens Uruguayan economy.

Jan 26

We took our bus tour of Montevideo. There are many squares in the city with monuments to the country's heroes and events. They are pretty parks with bronze statutes. The country has 25 million sheep and 20 million cattle. They have a divorce rate of 86%. Education is free through college and is mandatory until 18. At eighteen an apartment is provided to all if the parents established a savings account of a certain percentage. Tax rate is 45 % but their medical services are free after $30 month payment. Medicine is aprx $5.00 prescription. We visited the Palacio de Legislativo built in 1908. Home to the Uruguayan Parliament, the structure was fashioned from locally quarried marble. A high dome covers the main hall, and frescos and stained glass liberally adorn the interior. There is a well stocked library inside and the carpet on the entrance floor was hand loomed in Izmir. We view the Teatro Solis said to have superb acoustics, the theater is used year round.There are no homeless here as public housing is provided for the poor. Mona and I plan to return to Hotel Belmont in the near future. The river looks like the ocean as you can't see across it because it is so wide. It is fresh water. The beaches are beautiful and many people were at the beaches because it is summer until March 25.

Jan 27

We arrived 7 am in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. City proper is 3 and half million people with another 11 million in the surrounding area. City proper is 77 square miles and the surrounding area 1500 square miles. The city is 150 up river from the Atlantic Ocean. It is still too wide to see the opposite shore.

It is another World Class City. It has many parks, squares with monuments and palaces. Its streets are extremely wide one the Avenida 9 de Julio is 18 lanes wide. Our bus tour lasted 3 hours. We did not stop and explore any building. Perhaps our 8 hour tour tomorrow will include stops. I would like to combine a visit to Montevideo with and equal amount of time in Buenos Aires. We saw the statute of Eva Peron. We saw the Plaza de Mayo a square whose building include the Casa Rosada (pink house), the office of the Argentine president, and the cabildo, the former meeting place of the colonial town council and now a national museum.

We got off the bus and shopped on Calle Florida the main shopping thoroughfare. We took over a hundred still photos and 2 hours of video.

Buenos Aires is often described as Latin America's most European city. The population is made up largely of the descendants of immigrants from Spain and Italy who came to Argentina in the late 19th or early 20th century. There are also significant minorities of Germans, British, Jews from central and eastern Europe, and Middle Eastern peoples, who are known collectively as turcos. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion.

Since the 1930s, most of the immigrants to the city have come from the north of Argentina, where the population is predominantly mestizo (mixed Indian and European). Today, the mestizos make up between one-fourth and one-third of the population in the metropolitan area. It is mostly the mestizos who live in the poorest sections of the city, in the villas miserias and the distant suburbs. The area's black an mulatto population is negligible in size.

While there are no ethnic neighborhoods, strictly speaking, many of the smaller minorities tend to settle lose to one another in tightly knit communities. Villa Crespo, for example, is known as a Jewish neighborhood; the Avenida de Mayo is a centre for Spaniards; and Flores is the home of many turcos. The assimilation of these groups has been less than complete, but the Argentine identity has been flexible enough to allow ethnocentric mutual-aid societies and social clubs to emerge. Even the dominant Spanish language has been affected by other European cultures and has undergone changes; in the slums and waterfront districts an Italianized dialect has emerged, and Italian cuisine is popular in the city. We went to a Tango show tonight. It was excellent but Jan and Burt would have given their money's worth in a contest.

Jan 28

Today we took a bus tour for 10 hours to the "Gaucho" country. In the 1700s cattle roamed wild throughout the Pampas (prairie grass) country side and were hunted by gauchos. Today there are 37 million Argentines and 50 million cattle and similar number of sheep. Much of the country side is also growing soybeans, corn, sunflowers etc. There are two soybean crops a year. We passed a Pioneer Seed factory processing sunflower seeds.

Our trip took 2 and half hours to get to the ranch where we spent the day. We rode horses, rode old fashion horse drawn carts, walked around the beautiful well cared for home site. The 100 year old mansion is in the process of restoration. In the meantime the rancher is living in another beautiful home on the grounds. He has a chapel, horse barns, a large open air dining area where aprx 250 of us from the Prinsendam ate a great lunch. We had BB pork, chicken cooked over an open flame. We then watched gauchos sing and dance with ladies. The gauchos were dressed to the T in elegant gaucho style. They also competed against each other riding their horses at full speed and attempted to take a stick and poked into a small circle and unhooked a flower that was then presented to a lady who in returned rewarded him with a kiss. Other competitive events were conducted. The country side looked a lot like Iowa. It was green and lush. Argentinas grow 2 soybean crops a year. We are headed for Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, Argentina.

Jan 29

We left Buenos Aires last night at 8 pm. We are two hours later than EST. We headed south on the Rio de plata (river of Silver) toward Montevideo. Looking astern I can see the skyscrapers of the city. In another hour we will disembark our river pilots. When we pass Punta del Este we will head south toward the Port of Puerto Madryn in Patongia, Argentina. Encyclopaedia Britannia says:
"It is a semiarid
scrub plateau that covers nearly all of the southern portion of mainland Argentina. With an area of about 260,000 square miles (673,000 square kilometers), it constitutes a vast area of steppe and desert that extends from latitude 37° to 51° S. It is bounded, approximately, by the Patagonian Andes to the west, the Colorado River to the north (except where the region extends north of the river into the Andean borderlands), the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Strait of Magellan to the south; the region south of the strait- Tierra del Fuego, which is divided between Argentina and Chile-also is often included in Patagonia.

The name Patagonia is said to be derived from Patagones, as the Tehuelche Indians, the region's original inhabitants, were called by 16th-century Spanish explorers. According to one account, Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator who led the first European expedition into the area, coined that name because the appearance of the Tehuelche reminded him of Patagon, a dog-headed monster in the 16th-century Spanish romance Amadís of Gaul.

Desert and semi desert cover the Patagonian tableland that extends from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. The general aspect of this tableland is one of vast steppe like (i.e., virtually treeless) plains, rising in terrace fashion from high coastal cliffs to the foot of the Andes; but the true aspect of the plains is by no means as simple as such a general description would imply. The land along the Negro River rises in a series of fairly level terraces from about 300 feet (90 meters) at the coast to about 1,300 feet at the junction of the Limay and Neuquén rivers and 3,000 feet at the base of the Andes. The tableland region rises to an altitude of 5,000 feet.

South of the Negro River, the plains are much more irregular. Volcanic eruptions occurred in this area until fairly recent times, and basaltic sheets covered the tableland east of Lakes Buenos Aires and Pueyrredón. Near the Chico and Santa Cruz rivers, the plains have spread to within about 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the coast and reach almost to the coast south of the Coig and Gallegos rivers. In places, basaltic massifs (mountain masses) are the salient features of the landscape.

The coast consists largely of high cliffs separated from the sea by a narrow coastal plain. Thus, the plateaus are formed of horizontal strata, some of sedimentary rocks and others of lava flows. Areas of hilly land, composed of resistant crystalline rocks, stand above the plateaus.

Jan 30

Today we heard John Splettstoesser speak about Antarctica. He is a geologist with extensive experience in the polar regions, particularly in Antarctica. He has authored more than 175 publications in his field, including 5 books and received two polar medals (US and USSR) for his work in Antarctica, where he has a glacier and a mountain named for him. He is currently President of the American Polar Society (2003-2006). He is one of 3 experts who will give lecturers on Antarctica.

Tomorrow we will be spending the day in Puerto Madryn, Patagonia. Mona and I have a 7 and half hour bus tour of the area including Punta Tombo. Most penguins live in Antarctica and Patagonia. More than 500,000 Magellanic penguins nest in shallow burrows at Punta Tombo, a preserve.

When Europeans first explored the Americas, the lands south of Buenos Aires and the River Plate were pretty much ignored. Explorers searching for gold or other means of quick profit, could hardly have known about the rich mineral deposits that would be unearthed in the following century. Even after the first Patagonian settlements were established, colonists ignored the harsh inland regions. Finally, Parry Madryn led a small group of Welsh refugees to the coast in 1865, having appealed to the Argentine government for refuge. In their new home, they hoped to escape British rule, which they perceived as a threat to their proud heritage. Life was not easy for them. Arriving in winter with little agricultural knowledge, they suffered food shortages even after the growing season began. Somehow they persevered with the bounty from the sea, and eventually managed to install irrigation systems that increased crop yields to reasonable levels. After 1900, other European immigrants were attracted to the new community. The colony later spread along the valley.

Feb 1

Yesterday while we were in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, we took a bus tour to Punta Tombo to view 750,000 Magellan Penguins. The first hour was on a good asphalt highway, however the next 2 hours was on a gravel road. The trip was worth it. The hillside sanctuary offers access to a long beach below a cliff face down to the ocean. The penguins had burrowed into the ground a shallow nest where they raised their young. We were instructed to give right of way to the penguins in their waddling march to the ocean a few feet away. The penguins migrate every year from southern Brazil to this area where they mate and lay their two eggs. Both parents set on the eggs and raise the young. They remain in the area until adults and young have molded. Molding allows the young to rid themselves of their down and replace it with feathers that have the oil that keeps the bird warm and floatable. The Galapagos Islands are the northern most natural region. Most penguins live in Antarctica and Patagonia.

Puerto Madryn was a dying community in the 1970s when they attracted an aluminum processing business. It had dwindled to 17,000 but now is 55,000. They have a deep water port but nothing else related to the business. The bauxite is shipped in and the electricity comes from 50 miles away. The process is electrolis. The area receives 6-8 inches a rain a year. Water is carried in an aqueduct for 50 miles to the city and surrounding farmland. Tomorrow will be another day at sea then we will visit Ushuaia part of Tierra del Fuego provincia, Argentina, on the Beagle Channel. It lies on the main island of Tierra del Fuego Archipelago at the southern tip of South America.

The site was first settled by Wasti H. Stirling, an English missionary, in 1870. In 1884 an Argentine naval base was established, and in 1893, after the archipelago was partitioned between Argentina and Chile, Ushuaia was declared a city. Lumbering, sheep raising, fishing, trapping, and tourism are the city's principal economic activities. Ushuaia has the distinction of being the southernmost city in the world. Pop. (1999 est.) 57,334.

Today we heard again from John Splettstoesser who spoke on glaicers. We also heard Dr. Bernard Stonehouse who spoke on the wild life in Antarctica. After his 3 years in the British Navy in WWII he spent 3 years in Antarctica as a meteorologist, pilot, dog-sledder, surveyor and biologist. He lived two summers and a winter with king penguins on South Georgia. He has since spent many summers in both the Arctic and Antarctic, leading university-based research expeditions to study marine mammals and birds. This may be the last email until we leave the Anarctica due to the angle of the earth in relation to the satelites. We may have one more day depending.

Feb 2

Today (2-2) was our first rough day at sea. Mona brought me broth soup and crackers. I took sea sick pills and laid down most of the day. Winds were up to 60 mph on our right side.

Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina. It is in the Beagle Channel the strait separating the islands of Tierra del Fuego (land of fire) archipelago in extreme southern South America. It separates Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from several smaller islands to the south. When Magellan approached the area the natives had many campfires and their were active volcanoes. The eastern portion is part of the border between Chile and Argentina, but the western part is completely within Chile. Beagle Channel is about 150 miles long and is about 3 miles wide at its narrowest point.

Although it is navigable by large ships, there are safer waters to the south, such as Drake Passage, and to the north, such as the Strait of Magellan. Several small islands near the eastern end were the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Chile and Argentina; by the terms of a 1985 treaty they are now part of Chile. The main settlements on the channel are Puerto Williams, Chile and Ushuaia, Argentina.

Until a few decades ago, Ushuaia had a population of only a few thousand people, but now there are more than 40,000 residents, many lured by government incentives. Because staples must be imported, the region is also one of Argentina's priciest, but if beauty is the prize for a little inconvenience and high prices, Ushuaia residents are well rewarded. The town's steep (really steep) streets laid out along the whirling green Beagle Channel. The Channel is named after the boat Charles Darwin was a 22 old shipboard naturalist.
Today (2-3) was a beautiful day. It was 55 and party sunny. We took a 4 hour bus tour into the mountains. We stopped at a ski lodge and viewed the husky dog pens used in the winter to take lodgers to explore. We viewed the ski lifts. We were totally surrounded by snow capped mountains. We stopped at another ski lodge on Lake Escondido (hidden). Most of the time when you come thru the pass the lake is not in view because of clouds. Today it was visible and beautiful. The area reminds me of Alaska especially the city of Ushuaia.

Feb 4

Robert Scott ( 1868-1912)

British naval officer and explorer who led the famed, ill-fated second expedition to reach the South Pole (1910–13).

Scott joined the Royal Navy in 1880 and by 1897 had become a first lieutenant. While commanding an Antarctic expedition on the HMS Discovery (1901–04), he proved to be a competent scientific investigator and leader and was promoted to captain upon his return to England.

In June 1910 Scott embarked on a second Antarctic expedition. Its aims were to study the Ross Sea area and reach the South Pole. Equipped with motor sledges, ponies, and dogs, he and 11 others started overland for the pole from Cape Evans on Oct. 24, 1911. The motors soon broke down, the ponies had to be shot before reaching 83°30′ S, and from there also the dog teams were sent back. On December 10 the party began to ascend Beardmore Glacier with three man-hauled sledges. By December 31 seven men had been returned to the base. The remaining polar party—Scott, E.A. Wilson, H.R. Bowers, L.E.G. Oates, and Edgar Evans—reached the pole on Jan. 18, 1912. Exhausted by their 81-day trek, they were bitterly disappointed to find evidence that Roald Amundsen had preceded them to the pole by about a month.

The weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad. Evans died at Beardmore (February 17). Food and fuel supplies were low. At the end of his strength and hoping to aid his companions by his own disappearance, Oates crawled out into a blizzard on March 17, at 79°50′ S. The three survivors struggled on for 10 miles (16.1 km) but then were bound to their tent by another blizzard that lasted for nine days. With quiet fortitude they awaited their death—11 miles from their destination. On March 29 Scott wrote the final entry in his diary:

Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. . . . We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.

On Nov. 12, 1912, searchers found the tent with the frozen bodies, geological specimens from Beardmore, and Scott's records and diaries, which gave a full account of the journey. After his death Scott was regarded as a national hero for his courage and patriotism, and his widow was given the knighthood that would have been conferred on her husband had he lived.

ROALD AMUNDSEN (1872-1928)

Norwegian explorer who was the first to reach the South Pole, the first to make a ship voyage through the Northwest Passage, and one of the first to cross the Arctic by air. He was one of the greatest figures in the field of polar exploration.

Amundsen studied medicine for a while and then took to sea. In 1897 he sailed as first mate on the Belgica in a Belgian expedition that was the first to winter in the Antarctic. In 1903, with a crew of six on his 47-ton sloop Gjöa, Amundsen became the first man to sail through the Northwest Passage and around the northern Canadian coast; his east-west journey ended at Herschel Island in the Yukon in 1905. This achievement whetted his appetite for the spectacular in polar exploration.

Amundsen's next plan, to drift across the North Pole in Fridtjof Nansen's old ship, the Fram, was affected by the news that the American explorer Robert E. Peary had reached the North Pole in April 1909, but he continued his preparations. When Amundsen left Norway in June 1910 no one but his brother knew that he was heading for the South Pole instead of the North. He sailed the Fram directly from the Madeira Islands to the Bay of Whales, Antarctica, along the Ross Sea. The base he set up there was 60 miles (100 km) closer to the pole than the Antarctic base of the English explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who was heading a rival expedition with the same goal. An experienced polar traveler, Amundsen prepared carefully for the coming journey, making a preliminary trip to deposit food supplies along the first part of his route to the pole and back. To transport his supplies, he used sled dogs, while Scott depended on Siberian ponies.

Amundsen set out with 4 companions, 52 dogs, and 4 sledges on Oct. 19, 1911, and, after encountering good weather, arrived at the South Pole on December 14. The explorers recorded scientific data at the pole before beginning the return journey on December 17, and they safely reached their base at the Bay of Whales on Jan. 25, 1912. Scott, in the meantime, had reached the South Pole on January 17, but on a difficult return journey he and all his men perished.

With funds resulting from his Antarctic adventure, Amundsen established a successful shipping business. He acquired a new ship, the Maud, and tried in 1918 to complete his old plan of drifting across the North Pole, but he was forced to abandon this scheme in favor of trying to reach the North Pole by airplane. In a flight (1925) with the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth he arrived to within 150 miles (250 km) of the pole. In 1926, with Ellsworth and the Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile, he passed over the North Pole in a dirigible, crossing from Spitsbergen (now Svalbard), north of Norway, to Alaska. Disputes over the credit for the flight embittered his final years. In 1928 Amundsen lost his life in flying to rescue Nobile from a dirigible crash near Spitsbergen.

ERNEST SHACKLETON (1872-1922)

British Antarctic explorer who attempted to reach the South Pole.

Educated at Dulwich College (1887–90), Shackleton entered the mercantile marine service in 1890 and became a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1901. He joined Captain Robert Falcon Scott's British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition (1901–04) as third lieutenant and took part, with Scott and Edward Wilson, in the sledge journey over the Ross Ice Shelf when latitude 82° 16′ 33″ S was reached. His health suffered, and he was invalided out on the supply ship Morning in March 1903. In January 1908 he returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition (1907–09). The expedition, prevented by ice from reaching the intended base site in Edward VII Peninsula, wintered on Ross Island, McMurdo Sound. A sledging party, led by Shackleton, reached within 97 miles (156 km) of the South Pole, and another, under T.W. Edgeworth David, reached the area of the South Magnetic Pole. Victoria Land Plateau was claimed for the British crown. On his return Shackleton was knighted and was made a companion of the Royal Victorian Order.

In March 1914 the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–16) left England under Shackleton's leadership. He planned to cross Antarctica from a
base on the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound, via the South Pole, but the expedition ship Endurance was beset off Caird coast and drifted for 10 months before being crushed in the pack ice. The members of the expedition then drifted on ice floes for another five months and finally escaped in boats to Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands. Shackleton and five others sailed 800 miles (1,300 km) to South Georgia in a whale boat and then made the first crossing of the island, to seek aid. He led four relief expeditions before succeeding in rescuing his men from Elephant Island. A supporting party, the Ross Sea party led by A.E. Mackintosh, sailed in Aurora and laid depots as far as latitude 83° 30′ S for the use of the Trans-Antarctic party; three of this party died on the return journey. Shackleton died at Grytviken, South Georgia, at the outset of the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition in Quest; his exertions in raising funds to finance his expeditions and the immense strain of the expeditions themselves wore out his strength.

RICHARD BYRD (1888-1957)

Byrd's first Antarctic expedition (1928–30), the largest and best-equipped that had ever set out for that continent, sailed south in October 1928. A substantial and well-supplied base, called Little America, was built on the face of the Ross Ice Shelf, a wide plain of shelf ice fronting the Ross Sea near an indentation in the ice cliff named the Bay of Whales. Flights were made from this base over the Antarctic continent. A range of high mountains, named the Rockefeller Mountains, was discovered; and a large tract of hitherto unknown territory beyond them was named Marie Byrd Land, after Byrd's wife. On Nov. 29, 1929, Byrd, as navigator, and three companions made the first flight over the South Pole, flying from Little America to the Pole and back in 19 hours with no mishap. Byrd was afterward promoted to rear admiral for this achievement.

In 1933–35 a second Byrd expedition visited Little America with the aim of mapping and claiming land around the Pole; he extended the exploration of Marie Byrd Land and continued his scientific observations. During the winter of 1934 (from March to August) Byrd spent five months alone in a hut at a weather station named Bolling Advance Base, buried beneath the ice shelf face 123 miles (196 km) south of Little America, enduring temperatures between −58° and −76° F (−50° and −60° C) and sometimes much lower. He was finally rescued in a desperately sick condition, suffering from frostbite and carbon monoxide poisoning. This was perhaps his most controversial exploit.

At the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Byrd took command of the U.S. Antarctic service and led a third expedition to Antarctica in 1939–41, this one financed and sponsored by the U.S. government. Bases were located at Little America and Stonington Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Byrd's discovery of Thurston Island greatly decreased the length of unexplored coast of the continent.

During World War II Byrd served on the staff of the chief of naval operations and, among other duties, evaluated Pacific islands as operational sites. After World War II Byrd was placed in charge of the U.S. Navy's Operation High Jump. This Antarctic expedition, his fourth, was the largest and most ambitious exploration of that continent yet attempted and involved 4,700 men, 13 ships (including an aircraft carrier), and 25 airplanes. Operation High Jump's ship- and land-based aircraft mapped and photographed some 537,000 square miles (1,390,000 square km) of the Antarctic coastline and interior, much of it never seen before. Byrd flew into Little America from the deck of the aircraft carrier Philippine Sea north of the ice pack, about 700 miles (1,100 km) from the camp. He made a second flight over the South Pole and took part in several other flights.

In 1955 Byrd was made officer in charge of the United States' Antarctic programs and became the senior authority for government Antarctic matters. In this capacity he helped supervise Operation Deep Freeze, a major scientific and exploratory expedition sent to the Antarctic under navy auspices as part of the program of the International Geophysical Year (1957–58). Byrd accompanied the expedition aboard the icebreaker Glacier and took his last exploratory flight over the South Pole on Jan. 8, 1956.

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We passed Cape Horn at 7 am this morning. Due to relationship between Chile and Argentina, actually rounding Cape Horn would require the ms Prinsendam to sail in Chilean water and involves a long and complicated clearance procedure for the ship. As a result, and due to regulations, we must maintain a 3 nautical mile distance when we pass Cape Horn. The Cape was first rounded on 1-26-1616, by the Dutch expedition of Willem Schouten and Jacob LeMaire who named it Kaap Hoorn after the city of Hoorn, Schouten's birthplace. The Cape is notorious because of poor weather conditions that make it difficult to round in sailing ships. We had ideal weather and was able to clearly view the rock island.

Today we heard Captain Pat Toomey, the person designated to navigate us thru the ice bergs in the Antarctica. He commanded ice breakers in eastern Canadian waters and the Canadian artic. He is retired as a Captain but spends about 10 months of the year either in the Artic or Antarctica assisting cruise ships through the area.

Later we had another lecture from Dr Stonehouse. He spoke about the 4 most important explorers of the Antarctica in the 20th Century. In a second email I have summarized these 4 person's biography. I believe cruising Antarctica willbe the highlight of this cruise.

Feb 5

Today we have been cruising 1 month. Also today at 9 am we arrive in the Antarctica. The ice packs are enormous. The mountains are rugged and rise right out of the sea. There is no color anywhere, everything is white except where the mountain is too steep to hold the ice. We enter at Anvers Island. We went to 65 degrees and 5 minutes south Latitude into Lemaire Channel. We saw many seals, penguins and whales. There is more ice then anywhere else in the world. Although it was cold outside dressing warm made it tolerable to film the adventure.

Tonight we are scheduled to watch the Super Bowl on ESPN at 8 pm our time So far (5pm) the signal is holding. Tomorrow if the scenery is not too spectacular I will compose a more detail description of the Antarctica.

Feb 6

Antarctica is 5,500,000 square miles. US is aprx 3 million square miles. Antarctica consists of two major regions: west Antarctica (aprx 2,500,000 square miles) a mountainous archipelago (large expanse of water with scattered islands) that includes Antarctic Peninsula. This where we are now.

East Antarctica is 3,000,000 square miles, geologically a continental shield. They are joined into a single continental mass by an ice sheet thousands of feet thick. At the seaward margins of the ice sheet masses of ice break off and float away as icebergs, leaving ice cliffs. Where the outward creep of the ice is channeled into ice streams (zones of more rapid flow), great floating ice tongues project into the sea; where mountains retard outward movement the flow is channeled into great valley glaciers. Less than 5 % of Antarctica is free of ice; these areas include mountain peaks, arid and dry valleys, small coastal areas and islands. Except for mountain ranges (some buried beneath the ice), much of east Antarctica's rock surface is near sea level; however, the continent's domed, snow-covered glacial surface rises to about 13,000 feet. In west Antarctica there is great variation in the sub-glacial relief, suggesting mountainous islands or submerged ranges separated by deep sounds beneath the ice cover. Since 1970s lakes of liquid water have been found underneath the continental ice; the largest know of these is Lake Vostok 174 by 36 miles 1600 feet deep.

Today we continue to cruise at a slow pace around the floating ice bergs. There are thousands of them and they range from a foot square to thousands of square feet. They rise out of the water from 1 foot high to hundreds of feet high. They look like they were sculpured by an artist. Some resemble the super dome, the pentagon, a castle, the Empire State Bldg., skyscrapers etc. We cruise into bays, sounds, straits etc with hugh mountains all around us.

We were able to watch all of the Super Bowl on ESPN. We had a choice of watching in our room in the bars, or the 3 big screens in the big theatre called the Queen's Lounge. It seats about 600 people.

Feb 7

We continue to cruise in the Antarctic. We were to go to Paulet Island today but the fog was too thick and the ice bergs too numerous. We will arrive earlier than planned at Elephant Island. Tomorrow we will cruise the South Orkney Island. We will continue to cruise the Antarctica until we visit Edinburgh at Tristan da Cunhaon Feb 14. Then we will have 3 days at sea before arriving Feb 18 at 8 am at Cape Town, South Africa.

Last year 25,000 tourists visited the Antarctic in 39 cruise ships. There were also 6 sailing ships. Just a few years ago the number tourists were in the hundreds. This number does not include the many people who man the various stations. We passed Palmer Station the large research station run by the US. The largest activity occurred during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) from July l957 thru December 1958, planned to correspond with a period of maximum sunspot activity in the Antarctica. As part of the IGY, 12 nations maintained 65 stations and operational facilities in the Antarctica. The more difficult logistical problems of establishing inland bases were undertaken by the US and USSR. The US planes covered 2 million square miles in 1955 to 1956. These and later support flights, the tractor journeys to build bases, and geophysical traverses by tracked vehicles during the IGY left little of the continent that had not been seen. We are only visiting the 5 % that is not covered by the ice shelf. The ice shelf is thousands of feet thick and rises hundreds of feet above the ocean. We have seen parts of the shelf. It is unbelievable.

Last night we viewed Deception Island named because the harbor is hidden. There is a small opening into volcanic wall known as Neptune's Window. Ships steer clear of the shallowly submerged Raven Rock in the middle of the channel. Because of the rock we were not able to enter the harbor because our ship is too wide. The multi-hued cliffs are spectacular. After the fog raised today we were able to view many ice bergs including one with many penguins on it.

There are 36 marine bird species in the polar region including the albatross, petrels, skuas, cormorants, terns and sheathbills. The albatross has a wingspan of more than 11 feet and travels over 500 miles a day. There are 18 recognized penguin species but only four of them (Adelie, Emperor, Chinstrap and Gentoo) breed on the continent itself. They can't fly, but are believed to have evolved from petrel-like flying birds some 50 million years ago. Common features include torpedo-shaped bodies, and paddle-like wing vestiges that are more useful for swimming than flight. Narrow feet and snub tails act as rudders. Thick feathers form a waterproof coat, and blubber both insulates and stores energy.

Feb 8

1030 am: After departing Elephant Island last night, we proceeded on an easterly course in the Powell Basin. We expect to make landfall with the South Orkney Islands today at 1200 noon. We will then scenic cruise south of Coronation Island, where Laws Glacier and Sunshine Glaciers are located, and then pass south of Laurie Island. At aprx. 6:00 pm, we will continue on a northeasterly course to Cumberland Bay, South Georgia.

The South Orkney Islands are a group of sub-Antarctic islands situated southeast of Cape Horn in the South Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago comprises four main islands. In total these islands have a surface of about 372 square miles most of which is covered with ice. The South Orkney Islands
were discovered in 1821 by two sealers: American Nathaniel Palmer and British George Powell. In 1823, James Weddell visited the islands, gave the archipelago its present name and also frequently visited the islands, but no thorough survey was done until 1903. A meteorological station was established renamed Orcadas is still in operation today and is the oldest research station continuously staffed in the Antarctic.

We are hoping the dense fog will lift by noon so we can see the South Orkney Islands.

Feb 9

Another day at Sea. Tomorrow we will go ashore on South Georgia Island then have 7 days at sea with a stop in between at Edinburgh before arriving in Cape Town, South Africa. We have left the Antarctic and now are cruising in the South Atlantic.

Sir Ernest Shackleton left South Georgia Island in 1914, planning to cross the Antarctic continent. Within a few weeks his ship HMS Endurance became trapped in ice and remained stuck for a year and half. When the ice finally began to break, the unrelenting pressure crushed the ship and the 28 man party was marooned on the ice. Five months later they left the ice in life boats landing on Elephant Island. Shackleton and five crew members went in one of the life boats 850 miles to the whaling station on South Georgia Island. All the men were saved.

Whaling continued in South Georgia until 1965. At the peak of the whaling industry 2000 residents lived on South Georgia Island. Today there are two research stations at Grytviken, Cumberland Bay, South Georgia Island. King Edward Point Staation has been restored as the local government offices (British). The Post Office is in the same Building. The structure also houses the offices of the British Antarctic Survey Applied Fisheries Research Station. Just past the Research Station, a memorial cross was placed at Hope Point to honor Sir Ernest Shackleton. He died 1922 at age 48, on South Georgia Island of a heart attack. He was preparing to leave for another crossing of the Antarctic continent.

Feb 13

Yesterday Mona and I celebrated our 6th anniversary with Dick and Ann. We had dinner in the fancy restaurant that costs extra but is elegant. Tomorrow we are scheduled to go ashore at Edinburgh, Tristan Da Cunha, an island in the middle of nowhere. It is a volcanic island with very little flat land. Three hundred people inhabit Edinburgh and most of them are distantly related. Most of the people work for the territorial government. There is no airport. A volcanic eruption in 1961 required a forced evacuation of all residents to Britain. Most of them later returned. There is no television on the island. There is one school, hospital, post office, museum, café, pub and swimming pool. At the age of 16, those who wish to can continue studies in Britain. The main source of foreign income is stamp sales and South Atlantic lobster.Because of seasonal gales all gardens are walled in. Each family on the island has several patches of potatoes and other vegetables. The soil is very fertile. The harbor is not protected so our chance of going ashore is weather dependant.

Feb 14

We were able to go ashore today in Edinburgh, Tristan da Cunha; however we had to go in a single inflatable craft that only held 10 people. Everyone had to wear a life jacket. The town site is very green and pretty. The town is at the base of a huge mountain that covers the whole of the island. What qualifies as flat land is on a slope up the mountain side. Today is Valentine Day. Everything is beautifully decorated and a special Ball will be held this evening.

Feb 17

Tomorrow we should arrive in Cape Town, South Africa. We have been at sea 6 out of the last 7 days. Also we have been without CNN. Last night we finally received the signal via satellite from Cape Town. Cape Town legislative capital of South Africa and capital of Western Cape province. The city lies at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula some 30 miles, at its southernmost boundary, north of the Cape of Good Hope. Because it was the site of the first European settlement in South Africa, Cape Town is known as the country's “mother city.” Cape Town has a beautiful setting: parts of the city and its suburbs wind about the steep slopes of Table Mountain (3,563 feet high) and neighboring peaks and rim the shores of Table Bay; other parts lie on the flats below the slopes or stretch southward across the flats to False Bay. The city covers an area of 116 square miles. South Africa has undergone tremendous change in the past few decades, and it is perhaps a testament to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, led by Bishop Tutu, that even though the changes have been revolutionary, there has been little trouble. For many years the Dutch governed the Cape so there is a large contingent of them called the Boers. There are 90,000 Jews in the city. One of the city's main cultural sites is the Old Synagogue (1863) which is now a museum for ceremonial Jewish treasures. The new Synagogue next to the old was opened in 1905. We will be in Cape Town for 3 days.

Feb 18

We arrived 7 am this morning in Cape Town, South Africa, a city of 2, 900,000. We are 7 hours ahead of EST. The harbor is one of the best in the world but doesn't equal San Francisco, Sydney, Hong Kong or Rio De Janiero. The city is in a bowl with the table (mountain) in the background. We took a tour bus to Table Mountain. At 1000 ft we took a cable car to the 3500 ft peak. The cable car rotated 360 degrees as we ascended the mountain. We could see about 20 miles in all directions. At the top there were paved walk ways in all directions. We remained for 2 hours then drove thru to rich communities on the water's edge. The beaches are beautiful but few go in the water. The surfers do in the wet suits. The Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet here and the water is about 50 degrees most of the time. There is a lot of wealth here judging by the beautiful homes. There is a political campaign on with many posters. Some of them say: "End ANC racism by voting for the NP (white party)".

Tonight we took a cultural tour to West Cape a black community of 53,000 with 700 deaths per month from Aids. The homes varied from shanties to nice small homes. The shanties are unsanitary and very sad and are next to the new homes. The government has a big housing program. We went to a community center and watch a demonstration of 20 native musical instruments. We watched a native dance program. We went to a native restaurant in a house in housing project. During dinner we had native music played on xylophones (4) drums (3). We heard a fantastic tenor singer (age 20) see an opera. Then we went to another home that is a local tavern at night where three female singers performed. There are several more communities like West Cape in the area.

Feb 19

The area known as Cape Town was settled by the San and Khoikhoi tribes, collectively known as the Khoisan, long before the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a supply depot in Cape Town in 1652. By and large the indigenous people refused to deal with the Dutch so the VOC imported slaves from Madagascar, India, Ceylon. Malaya, and Indonesia to deal with the colony's chronic labor shortage. There was also a shortage of women in the colony, so the Europeans exploited the female slaves for both labor and sex. In time the slaves also mixed with the Khoisan. The offspring of these unions formed the basis of sections of today's Cape population and also helps explain the unique character of the city's Cape Malay population. During 150-odd years of Dutch rule Kaapstad, as the Cape settlement became known, thrived and gained a wider reputation as the "Tavern of the Seas", a riotous port used by every sailor traveling between "Europe and the Orient. But by the end of the 18th century, the VOC was nearly bankrupt, making Cape Town an easy target for British imperialist interests in the region. Following the British defeat of the Dutch in 1806 at Bloubergstrand, 15.5 miles north of Cape Town, the colony was ceded to the Crown on August 13, 1814. The slave trade was abolished in 1808, and all slaves were emancipated in 1833.

Feb 20

We leave Cape Town at 6 pm tonight. I am very impressed with Cape Town. It is a very clean and prosperous community. From the outside looking in it appears to have overcome much of its recent past. The following is a brief overview of that past. Bubonic plague in 1901 gave the government an excuse to introduce racial segregation: Africans were moved to two locations, one near the docks and the other on the western flank of Table Mountain. This was the start of what would later develop into the townships of Cape Flats. In 1948, the National Party stood for election on its apartheid policy and won. In a series of bitter court and constitutional battles, the limited rights of blacks and colored to vote in the Cape were removed, and the apartheid was erected. This resulted in whole communities being uprooted and cast out to the Cape Flats. The government tried for decades to eradicate squatter towns. In the last attempt between May and June 1986, an estimated 70,000 people were driven from their homes. But this attack was unsuccessful in eradicating the towns, and the government accepted the inevitable and began to upgrade conditions. Hours after being released from prison (after 27 yrs) on Feb 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela made his first public speech in decades from the balcony of Cape Town's City Hall, heralding the beginning of a new era for South Africa. Much has improved in Cape Town since; property prices are increasing greatly and the city centre is becoming safer, with the development of loft-style apartments in grand old structures. Full integration of Cape Town's mixed population, however, remains a long way off. The African National Congress (ANC) black and the New National Party (NNP) white are jointly controlling the City Council, which is headed by Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, a black women. The reason the minority whites were able to match the majority blacks was because the coloreds supported the whites. The coloreds are mixed black and white.

Feb 21

Another Sea Day. Every Sea Day for the past month I have particapated in the Exercise and Yoga classes. It is beginning to tell. Today we will receive our first lecture from Ambassador Howard K. Walker. He was Ambassador to three countries in the area and Director of the State Department office responsible for formulating US foreign policy in 17 countries. In retirement he teaches at Universities. He and his wife live in Maryland, New Hampshire and Cape Town. We also will have a wine tasting seminar.

Tomorrow we will arrive at Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It lies on Algoa Bay of the Indian Ocean. Port Elizabeth was established in 1820 as a British settlement around Fort Frederick (1799), the oldest British building in southern Africa, and was named by Sir Rufane Donkin, the acting governor of the Cape Colony, for his deceased wife, Lady Elizabeth. Completion of the Kimberley Railroad (1873) spurred development of the port, which at times handles imports for Zambia and Zimbabwe and exports manganese and iron ore, wool, coal, and citrus fruit. Its deepwater harbor is enclosed by a breakwater. The city climbs the foot of a 200 to 300 foot plateau and occupies both banks of the small Baakens River. The residential area is on flat tableland, with an industrial sector at the north end. Port Elizabeth is dotted with parks, notably St. George's Park and Settlers' Park Nature Reserve, and is known for its oceanarium. The University of Port Elizabeth was founded in 1964. Excellent communications, cheap power, and water combine to create one of the country's busiest manufacturing centres, mainly concerned with the automotive industry. Tourists are attracted by fine beaches, excellent surfing, and the nearby Addo Elephant National Park. Inc. town, 1861; city, 1913. Pop. (1985) 272,844.

Feb 22

Today we went to Kwantu Game Reserve for 8 hours. We are in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We drove 1 hour into the country side to the Reserve. It is aprx a 10,000 acre farm converted to a tourist attraction. There was a nice gift shop and an excellent dining facility. Ten of us to each vehicle then traveled over pasture like land looking for wild game. The vehicles were open air with canvas covers overhead. The Land Rover was 4 wheel drive and in one ravine we would still be there without it.

We saw lions in a 20 acre fenced in area. Our driver went into pen and played with lion cubs of 1 yr 3 months. We saw tigers also in a penned area. The rest of the animals were in the open area. We saw hippopotamuses, many kinds of antelopes including gissels ,wildebeest, ostriches and many birds. A group of black young people performed native dances with drums. The weather was perfect and the scenery fantastic. The day was great. Mona lost her key for her scooter but the ship made her a new one from scratch.

Feb 23

Tomorrow we will arrive in Richards Bay, South Africa. It is part of KwaZulu Natal Province one of South Africa's most culturally diverse. The majority of the people are ethnic Zulus, but there is a healthy blend of Indian and European peoples as well. The eastern seacoast climbs to the hilly north before reaching the majestic and rugged Drakensberg Range. We have cruised just off the coast viewing this beautiful mountain range all day today. The peaks are over 10,000 feet high.

Named for British Admiral Sir FW Richards, Richards Bay is a gateway to the traditional Zulu homeland. Richards Bay was first developed as a resort destination. Richards Bay is situated on the north KwaZulu-Natal coast, marking the point at which the Mhlatuze (forceful) River empties into the coastal lagoon. The wetland area is home for a large population of hippos and marine birds. Richards Bay Game Sanctuary was created in 1925 to preserve the delicate wildlife habitat. Richards Bay harbor opened in 1976 to manage mineral transport from the interior. An industrial zone, the naturally sheltered inlet features fine beaches and lovely unspoiled dunes. The port is also KwaZuluNatal's busiest.

The traditional Zulu nation homeland has not changed much during the many centuries of Zulu civilization. Zulu means heaven. Zululand covers most of the central portion of the province. The British defeated the Zulu nation in 1879.

Tomorrow Mona and I will be going on a catamaran boat cruising Lake St Lucia. St Lucia Wetlands Park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. It surrounds Lake St. Lucia. The brackish swamp sections of the park host a thriving population of crocodiles. The swampland is also home to a healthy population of hippos.

This afternoon we will have a lecture by Ambassador Howard K. Walker on the political change in South Africa.

Feb 24

We took a boat tour on Lake St. Lucia, South Africa's largest lake. The surrounding region forms a series of wetlands, swamp forests and grasslands, serving as important habitat for the entire region. The park surrounding the Lake covers 580,000 acres. Fossil found along the shore date back more than 25,000 years and even though European explorers nearly damaged the habitat beyond repair, a group of conservationists proclaimed it a game reserve as early as 1897. The park was one of the first protected habitats in South Africa and is held up as a model for other preserves.

We saw many hippo and birds. One looked like the American Eagle its wing span was 7 feet. It was magnificent in flight. We saw many Crocodile at a Center.

There are two dinner sittings every evening 6 and 8:15 pm. Our dinner is at 6 pm. Tonight Dick and Ann couldn't join us because there tour was late. Mona was at the dentist. Fortunately he was able to cure the pain and she was able to join me late.

Holland America makes you feel like family on all their cruises but especially on the World Cruise. Tonight was special because everyone seemed sincerely concerned about Mona.

Feb 26

Today we have reached the half way point time wise. We have 3 lecturers today. One on the next port and one by the Ambassador and one by the international relations professor.

Our only stop in Madagascar is at Nosy Be an island lying about 5 miles off the northwestern shore of Madagascar. The name means “big island.” It is 19 miles long and 12 miles wide and has an area of 120 square miles. Nosy-Be is a volcanic island that has forests and numerous craters and crater lakes. Its highest point is Mount Passot (1,079 ft). It has an annual rainfall of 78–118 inches. The island's products, chiefly sugar and oils for perfumery, also include rum, vanilla, black pepper, and bitter oranges. The capital, in the south, is Hell-Ville, a resort and port for foreign shipping and trade along the west coast of Madagascar. There is an airfield at Fascène, 7 miles away.

Madagascar a country lying off the southeastern coast of Africa. It occupies the fourth largest island in the world—after Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo—with a surface area of 226,658 square miles. Located in the southwestern Indian Ocean, it is separated from the African coast by the 250-mile wide Mozambique Channel.

In spite of Madagascar's proximity to the continent, its population is primarily related not to African peoples but rather to those of Indonesia, more than 3,000 miles to the east. The Malagasy peoples, moreover, do not consider themselves to be Africans, but, because of the continuing bond with France that resulted from former colonial rule, the island has developed political, economic, and cultural links with the French-speaking countries of western Africa. French and Malagasy are the country's official languages.

Madagascar remains a geographic and historical paradox, linked in practice to Africa but identified in feeling with Indonesia, which is so far away as to have hardly any awareness of Madagascar or to maintain any contemporary ties of substance with it. The animal life and vegetation of the island are equally anomalous, differing greatly from that of nearby Africa and being, in many respects, unique.

Although the coastlands have been known to Europeans for more than 400 years and to Arabs for much longer, recent historical development has been more intense and concentrated in the central plateau, which contains the capital city of Antananarivo (formerly Tananarive). The road network and communications are generally better on the plateau, where the majority of the inhabitants have received some school education and are professing Christians, while in the coastal areas the majority follow traditional religions and generally have not attended school.

Madagascar carries on a relatively small foreign trade, and the annual value of imports is usually higher than the value of exports. The main imports are metals, machinery, petroleum, transport equipment, consumer goods, and food products. The leading exports are coffee, vanilla, shell fish sugar, textiles, chromite, and petroleum products.

Feb 28

We are in Nosy Be, Madagascar. We are surrounded by tree covered mountains. It would be great to import this island to US. It wouldn't be long and there would be hundreds of expensive homes on the island.

This morning we had at least 50 dug out canoes with a sail with one to five people in the boat. They surrounded the ship and wanted to sell fruits and carvings. We went into town via our tenders (small boats) as we had to anchor as there was no large pier. We were met by many many people trying to sell us beautiful carvings. Many children were begging for money. The people appear like Indoneasins.

Mar 1

Mayotte, southeasternmost island of the Comoros archipelago and a French dependency, situated in the Mozambique Channel of the Indian Ocean, about 193 miles northwest of Madagascar. Pamandzi, an islet lying about 1.5 miles east of Mayotte, is connected by a 1.2-mile causeway to the rocky outcrop known as Dzaoudzi, site of the capital city and port. Area 144 square miles. Pop.(1991 est.) 85,800. We are anchoring off Mamoudzou the largest town. I can see 3 ferries at the moment going between Mamoudzou and Dzaoudzi. The ferries have ramps fore and aft.

A volcanic mountain range forms a north-south chain on Mayotte island, with summits of from 1,600 to 2,000 feet in elevation. Protected waters for shipping and fishing are created by surrounding coral reefs some distance from the shore. The climate is warm, humid, and maritime, and average monthly temperatures range from 75° F (24° C) in August to 81°F (27° C) in December. The island's average annual rainfall is 200 inches. The vegetation comprises lush green tropical forest.

The pilot joined our ship at 6 am and helped the Captain guide us thru coral reefs surrounding the huge bay area. The contrast from the poverty of Nosy Be and the resort appearance of Mayotte, from the ship is amazing. The geography of Nosy Be and Mayotte is very similar.

We went ashore on the tender. The same type of people that were in Nosy Be are in Mayotte. Also there were hundreds just standing around. The difference was the people were not begging for money nor trying to sell merchandise. There is a large outdoor market with individual covered stalls with everything imaginable. The women were very colorfully dressed in full length material sari style. No one said hello or expressed any friendliness perhaps because they speak French.

Mar 2

Tomorrow we will dock in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa.

Zanzibar is the city and port of the island of Zanzibar, Tanzania. The island's principal port and commercial center, it is on the western side of the island behind a well-protected natural deepwater harbor. In 1824 Sultan Saīd ibn Sultān of Oman established his capital there, shifting it from Muscat on the Arabian Peninsula. During the remainder of the 19th century, the city flourished as the base for Arab and European activities in eastern Africa, becoming infamous for its trade in slaves. Zanzibar subsequently declined in importance as the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, Kenya (on the coast of the eastern African mainland) took over much of its trade. Zanzibar's port is still a major exporter of cloves, coconuts, citrus fruits, and other tropical products. Pop. (1988 prelim.) 157,634.

Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean 22 miles off the coast of east-central Africa. In 1964 Zanzibar, together with Pemba Island (q.v.) and some other smaller islands, joined with Tanganyika on the mainland to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Zanzibar island covers 637 square miles. Coconut palms and other vegetation cover the land surface. It is 53 miles at its greatest length and 24 miles broad. The highest point of the central ridge system is Masingini, 390 feet above sea level. Higher ground is gently undulating and gives rise to a few small rivers, which flow west to the sea or disappear in the coral country.

The climate is typically insular, tropical, and humid, with an average annual rainfall of 60 to 80 inches. Rainfall is reliable and well-distributed in comparison with most of eastern Africa. Northeast trade winds blow from December to March and southeast trade winds from May to October. The “long rains” occur between March and May and the “short rains” between October and December.

Small patches of indigenous forest and isolated large trees support the view that much of the island was originally covered by dense evergreen forest. The open coral-outcrop country supports a dense thicket vegetation. The flat clay plains are grass-covered. The major wild animals include leopard (a variety peculiar to Zanzibar), civet cat, mongoose, two species of monkey, lemur, the African pig, forest duiker, pigmy antelope, about 20 species of bats, and 30 forms of snakes. Mosquitoes breed freely during the rainy seasons. Insect pests such as the coreid bug, which attacks coconuts, and animal pests and parasites, such as tsetse fly and ticks (which transmit east coast fever to cattle), have been the subject of research and control.

The southern and eastern portions of Zanzibar island have been mainly populated by a Bantu-speaking people known as the Hadimu; the northern portion of Zanzibar island and the adjacent Tumbatu island have been occupied by another Bantu-speaking people known as the Tumbatu. These two groups represent the earliest arrivals in Zanzibar. Throughout the 19th century, and after, they were expropriated from the western and more fertile parts of the island by later arrivals, notably Arabs. The nationalization of land in 1964, however, was followed by economic reforms that redistributed the land. Fishing has traditionally been highly important in coastal villages and remains so.

The language most widely spoken is a highly Arabicized form of Swahili (Kiswahili). Among the Arabs, the language of the home is usually Swahili, and use of pure Arabic is confined to scholars and recent arrivals from Arabia. Gujarati, Hindī, Urdu, and Konkani are spoken by the Asian communities, and English and Swahili are widely used and understood.

Before the development of eastern African mainland ports, Zanzibar was the trade focus of the region and enjoyed an important entrepôt trade. The island's economy now depends on agriculture and fishing.

Considerable areas of fertile soil and a favorable climate enable the production of a variety of tropical crops, most importantly cloves and coconuts. Local food crops, such as rice, cassava, yams, and tropical fruit, are also important. Fish is an important part of the diet, and local fisheries employ perhaps about one-tenth of the population.

Zanzibar's history was greatly shaped by its geography, the prevailing winds of the region placing it directly on the Indian Ocean trade routes and making it accessible to both traders and colonists from Arabia, south Asia, and the African mainland. The first immigrants were the Africans; the next were the Persians, who began to land in Zanzibar in the 10th century and who, over a brief period, became absorbed into the local population and disappeared as a separate group. Their influence was left in the gradual consolidation of disparate villages and rural populations into what came to be recognized as two peoples, the Hadimu and the Tumbatu. This African-Persian population converted to Islām and adopted many Persian traditions. (Even today, most of Zanzibar's African population calls itself “Shirazi,” in echo of the ancient Persian principality of Shīrāz, from which the earliest Persians came.)

Arabs had the deepest influence on Zanzibar, because the island's position made it a perfect entrepôt for Arabs mounting slave expeditions into Africa and conducting oceangoing commerce. Arabs from Oman became especially important, for they began establishing colonies of merchants and landowners in Zanzibar. Eventually they became the aristocracy of the island.

The Portuguese then came in the 16th century and conquered all the seaports on the eastern African coast, including Mombasa, the richest and most powerful, as well as such islands as Zanzibar and parts of the Arabian coast, including the Omani capital of Muscat. The purpose of the Portuguese, however, was largely commercial rather than politically imperial, and, when their power dwindled in the course of the 17th century, they left few marks of their stay.

The Omani Arabs, who expelled the Portuguese from Muscat in 1650 and were the leading force against them in the entire region, gradually established at least nominal control over many settlements, including Zanzibar. After a lengthy turmoil of dynastic wars and losses and gains on the African coast, the ruling sultan of Oman, Saīd ibn Sultān, decided to relocate his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar. The rapid expansion of the slave trade in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, caused by the demand for plantation slaves in North and South America, made Zanzibar central to the slave (as well as the ivory) trade routes into the interior of Africa. Zanzibar itself also had significant resources of coconuts, cloves, and foodstuffs. The sultan of Oman made it his capital in 1832.

In 1861 Zanzibar was separated from Oman and became an independent sultanate, which controlled the vast African domains acquired by Saīd. Under the sultan Barghash (reigned 1870–88), however, Great Britain and Germany divided most of Zanzibar's territory on the African mainland between them and secured economic control over the remaining coastal strip. In 1890 the British proclaimed a protectorate over Zanzibar itself; the sultan's authority was reduced and the slave trade curtailed.

In 1963 the sultanate regained its independence, becoming a member of the British Commonwealth. In January 1964 a revolt by leftists overthrew the sultanate and established a republic. The revolution marked the overthrow of the island's long-established Arab ruling class by the Africans, who were the majority of the population. In April the presidents of Zanzibar and Tanganyika signed an act of union of their two countries, creating what later in the year was named Tanzania (q.v.). Pop. (1988 prelim.) 375,539.

Mar 3

We arrived at 7 am but were not cleared to land until 930 am. Apparently there were security concerns. The dock was under repair so we had to anchor and tender into port. The tide was low and landing was a little problem but we made it and boarded our van. We were the only guests on our van probably due to the confusion. We toured the old and new part of town and visited the Zanzibar National Museum. Built in 1925, the collection is laid out in two buildings and details Zanzibar history from the time of the Sultans through the colonial period. Some of Dr. Livingstone's personal effects are part of the collection and rare old photographs provide and excellent visual historic record. He lived in Stone Town (Zanzibar) and used it as a base for his famous travels.

Next we visited Beit-el-Ajaib (House of Wonders). Sultan Barghash built the palace in 1883. It is the tallest building in town (four stories). The Portuguese cannons at the entry date from the 16th century. The British navy attacked the building in 1896 as they tried to win control.

We viewed the city fortress it dates from 1700. Although the Portuguese built it, it is referred to as the Arab Fort. The courtyard is used for performances.

Mar 4

We have docked in Mombasa, Kenya. We will be here for 3 days. Tonight we are going on a bus tour of the city then going to a sailboat for a cruise and dinner. It is billed as "Arabian Nights-An Evening on the Tamarind Dhow". It is a 3 and half hour tour. We got off the ship and braved the merchants selling thousands of wooded carved items. We bought a giraff who is 3 and half feet tall. Mona has a spot in our house she says will be his home.

Mobasa is the second largest city in Kenya and the center of the coastal tourism industry. In Kiswahili it is called Kisiwa ya Mvita, which means "Island of War", due to the many changes in its ownership. The city has a population of around 900,000 and is located on Mombasa Island, which is separated from the mainland by two creeks; Tudor Creek and Killindini Harbor. The island is connected to the mainland to the north by a bridge, to the south by ferry and to the west by a causeway along which runs the Uganda Railway. The port serves both Kenya and countries of the interior linking them to the Indian Ocean. The Muslim Miji Kenda/Swahili people mainly occupy the town but over the centuries there have been many immigrants from the countries of the Middle East and Indian sub-continent. More recent immigrants are peoples from the interior of Kenya brought to the area by opportunities to work in the tourist industry. Traditional dress for the Swahili women is a brightly colored, printed cotton sheet called a kanga, which may have inspirational slogans printed on it, and a type of black headdress and veil called a bui bui. Men wear a type of sarong, which is colored in bright bands, called a kikoy.

Mar 5

We enjoyed the sailboat dinner cruise on the creek (river). The weather was perfect the dinner excellent and delightful musical group playing and singing our vintage music plus a little African music, too. We view Fort Jesus and the two Mosques plus many homes of the Europeans. We are still in Mosbasa but Mona and I are taking a lump day.George (the giraffe) goes into the freezer today for 48 hours to kill any bugs.

The ship's program sheet said today:
The Republic of Kenya is located in east Africa and lies astride the equator. It is bordered by Somalia on the east, the Indian Ocean on the southeast, Tanzania on the south, Lake Victoria on the southwest, Uganda on the west, Sudan on the northwest, and Ethiopia on the north. The country is made up of several geographical regions. The first is a narrow, coastal strip that is low lying except for the Taita Hills in the south. The second,an inland region of bush-covered plains, constitutes most of the country land area. In the northwest, straddling Lake Turkana and the Kulal Mountains are high-lying scrublands. In the southwest are the fertile grasslands and forests of the Kenya highlands. In the west is the Great Rift Valley, an irregular depression that cuts through west Kenya from north to south in two branches. It is also the location of some of the country highest mountains, including Mount Kenya (17,058 feet). People of African descent make up about 97% of the population; they are divided into about 40 ethnic groups, of which the Bantu-speaking Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Kamba, and Gusii and the Nilotic-speaking Luo are predominant. Small numbers of persons of Indian, Pakistani and European descent live in the interior, and there are some Arabs along the coast. The official languages are Swahili and English although many indigenous languages are also spoken. About two-thirds of the population is Christian, while a quarter follows traditional religious beliefs; the remaining are Muslim or Hindu.

Mar 6

We took a bus tour of the city of Mombasa, Kenya. This is our third day in port. We went to a Hindu temple. We have many beautiful photos of the temple. Then we went to the old city port where only wooded sailboats now offload their cargo. Then we went to Fort Jesus built by the Portuguese in 1589. It was a fairly good condition and gave us a good indication of the manner of living by its occupants. Then we toured the city of Mombasa. Kenya has 55% unemployment and until recently education was not mandatory. The current President was elected on a promise to raise teachers salary 200%. He has a year to go and has raised the salaries 150%.

The Omani Sultan ruled Mombasa 1660 to 1741. The British gain control of large parts of the African coast, including Mombasa in 1873. Following WW II the British offered Kenyan farmland to war vets. The Mau Mau Rebellion lasted from
1953-1956. In 1963, Kenya becomes an independent member of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Since independence, Kenya has maintained relative stability despite changes in its political system and crises in neighboring countries. Particularly since the re-emergence of multiparty democracy, Kenyans have enjoyed an increased degree of freedom. A parliamentary reform initiative in 1997 revised some oppressive laws that had been used to limit freedom of speech and assembly. This improved public freedoms and contributed to generally multiparty national elections in December 1997 that was marred by violence and saw the incumbent President Daniel arap Moi win by 30% of the votes. In December 2002, Kenya held democratic and open elections and elected Mwai Kibaki as their new president under the NARC coalition. The elections, which were judged free and fair by local and international observers, marked an important turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution.

This was written by the ship's staff prior to the recent raid by the President's police on a TV station and newspaper who wrote things the President didn't like.

Mar 7

We are at sea. We will arrive 3-9 at Victoria, Seychelles.
Britannica says:
Victoria, town and capital of the Republic of Seychelles, located on the northeastern coast of Mahé Island,the largest island in the Seychelles group. Victoria is the only port of the archipelago and the only town of any size in Seychelles. Three-fourths of the people of Mahé Island live in Victoria. The port has deep water for large ships and is capable of accommodating four ships at one time. An inner harbor provides facilities for smaller craft. An international airport was built near Victoria in 1971, subsidized by British funds in compensation for the temporary removal of certain islands from Seychelles hegemony. As the business and cultural centre for the country, the town has modern facilities including a hospital and a teacher-training college. Victoria is connected by paved roads to major points on Mahé Island. Pop. (1980 est.) 23,880.

The land Republic of Seychelles island republic in the western Indian Ocean, consisting of about 115 islands. Situated between latitude 4° and 11° S and longitude 46° and 56° E, the major islands of the Seychelles are located about 1,000 miles east of Kenya. The capital is Victoria. Area 175 square miles. Pop. (1993 est.) 71,000. Seychelles is composed of two main island groups: the Mahé group of 40 central, mountainous granitic islands, and a second group of over 70 outer, flat, coralline islands. The islands of the Mahé group are rocky and typically have a narrow coastal strip and a central range of hills. The overall aspect of these islands, with their lush tropical vegetation, is that of high hanging gardens overlooking silver-white beaches and clear lagoons. The coralline islands, rising only a few feet above sea level, are flat with elevated coral reefs at different stages of formation. These islands are largely waterless, and very few have a resident population.

The climate is tropical-oceanic, with little temperature variation during the year. Daily temperatures rise to about 86° F in the afternoon and fall to about 73° F at night. Rainfall varies greatly from island to island; on Mahé, the annual rainfall ranges from 90 inches at sea level to 140 inches on the mountain slopes. Humidity is persistently high but is ameliorated somewhat in locations windward of the prevailing southeast trade winds. Wildlife includes giant tortoises and green sea turtles.

The people

The original French colonists on the previously uninhabited islands, and their black slaves, were joined in the 19th century by deportees from France. Asians from China, India, and Malaya arrived later in smaller numbers. Widespread intermarriage has resulted in a population of mixed descent. Nearly 90 percent of the people live on Mahé, a great number of them in the capital city, Victoria. Emigration has kept the annual population growth rate to a minimum. More than one-third of the population is less than 15 year sold, and about nine-tenths is Roman Catholic. As of July 1981, Creole, also called Seselwa, the mother tongue of most Seychellois, replaced English and French as the prescribed national language, but all three are considered official languages.

The economy.

Seychelles has a mixed, developing economy that is heavily dependent upon tourism. Despite a visible trade deficit and high inflation rates, the economy has experienced steady growth. The gross national product (GNP) is growing more rapidly than the population. The GNP per capita is significantly higher than those found in most of the nearby continental African countries.

Agriculture accounts for less than one-tenth of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs about one-tenth of the workforce. Arable land is limited and the soil is generally poor, but coconuts, cinnamon bark, vanilla, and essential oils are produced for export. The Seychelles has a modern fishing industry that supplies both domestic and foreign markets. The extraction of guano for export has also become an established economic activity. The nation's relatively small manufacturing sector is composed largely of food-processing plants. Services account for the largest share of the GDP and employ the largest proportion of the workforce. Since the opening of Mahé international airport in 1971, the tourism industry has grown rapidly, currently providing almost three-fourths of all foreign exchange. The Seychelles' main imports are petroleum products, machinery, and foodstuffs. Canned tuna, copra, frozen fish, and cinnamon are the most important exports, together with the reexport of petroleum products.

Government and social conditions.

Seychelles is a socialist one-party state whose 1979 constitution provides for a president as head of state and commander in chief and a unicameral People's Assembly. The president also appoints the Council of Ministers. The normal life of the legislature is four years. The political party that dominates the republic is the Seychelles People's Progressive Front (FPPS), which nominates the president, who is then subject to approval by popular vote.

The basis of the school system is a free, compulsory, nine-year primary-school education. Education standards have risen steadily, and nearly all children of primary-school age attend school. Radio Seychelles is under government control, and in the mid-1980s the government launched television broadcasting to some islands. There are several newspapers.

History.

The first recorded landing on the uninhabited Seychelles was made in 1609 by an expedition of the British East India Company. The archipelago was explored by the Frenchman Lazare Picault in 1742 and 1744 and was formally annexed to France in 1756. The archipelago was named Séchelles, later changed by the British to Seychelles. War between France and Britain led to the surrender of the archipelago to the British in 1810, and it was formally ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. The abolition of slavery in the 1830s deprived the islands' European colonists of their labor force and compelled them to switch from raising cotton and grains to less labor-intensive crops such as coconut, vanilla, and cinnamon. In 1903 the Seychelles became a British crown colony. A Legislative Council with elected members was introduced in 1948. In 1970 the Seychelles obtained a new constitution, universal adult suffrage, and a governing council with an elected majority; self-government was granted in 1975 and independence in 1976 (within the Commonwealth of Nations). In 1975 a coalition government, with James R. Mancham as president and France-Albert René as prime minister, was formed. In 1977 René became president in a coup d'état. In 1979 René revised the constitution and created a one-party socialist state in the Seychelles. The FPPS began moving toward more democratic rule in the early 1990s, however."

Mar 9

We are in Victoria, Seychelles. It is a tropical paradise. It is clean and no large groups of people standing around doing nothing. Here the government gives unemployed people jobs improving the island. I wish our governments would do the same.

There are many beautiful birds and thousands of colorful flowers. Victoria is on Mahe island. There is six other islands near by. All are mountainous.

We took a bus tour around the north end of the island. The bus was not air conditioned. The bus driver said there wasn't room for Mona's electric cart. We went to a Botanical Gardens. There was a collection of native plants and flowers. The Coco de Mer palms, the orchid garden and the resident giant tortoises were most interesting. The tortoises live up to 200 years. There were 12 tortoises.

Next we went to the market for one half hour of shopping. We watched a white bird cover its offspring on a limb. We were informed it does not build a nest. We drove for over an hour up the mountain side. It was a very winding road but the scenery was spectecular. We We stopped at a resort hotel on the beach where we had drinks.

We would love to spend a month (Mona two weeks) visiting this beautiful island.

Mar 10

We are at sea for the next 3 days. Our next port of call is Cochin, India, a city of aprx 1 million 300 thousand. The following is an introduction to India from Britannica:

officially Republic of India , Hindi Bhārat or Bhāratavarsha country that occupies the greater part of South Asia. It is a constitutional republic consisting of 28 states, each with a substantial degree of control over its own affairs; 6 less fully empowered union territories; and the Delhi national capital territory, which includes New Delhi, India's capital. With more than one-sixth of the world's total population, India is the second most populous country, after China.

The land of India—together with Bangladesh and most of Pakistan—forms a well-defined subcontinent, set off from the rest of Asia by the imposing northern mountain rampart of the Himalayas and by lesser adjoining mountain ranges to the west and east. In area, India ranks as the seventh largest country in the world, covering 1,222,559 square miles (3,166,414 square kilometres), just slightly more than 2 percent of the Earth's total land surface.

India's frontier, bordered by six countries, is 9,425 miles (15,168 kilometres) long, of which 3,533 miles (5,686 kilometres) is coastline. Neighbouring countries of particular concern to India are Pakistan to the northwest and China to the north, both of which have intractable border disputes with India, and Bangladesh, which is surrounded on three sides by Indian territory. The other nations on India's frontier are Nepal and Bhutan to the north, situated between India and China, and Myanmar (Burma) to the northeast.

Much of India's territory lies within a large peninsula, surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east; Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, marks the dividing line between these two bodies of water. Off the extreme southeastern coast, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait separate India from the island nation of Sri Lanka. India has two union territories composed entirely of islands: Lakshadweep, in the Arabian Sea, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lie between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly sophisticated, urbanized culture—the Indus Civilization—dominated the northwestern part of the subcontinent from about 2600 to 2000 BC. From that period on, India functioned as a virtually self-contained political and cultural arena, which gave rise to a distinctive tradition that was associated primarily with Hinduism, the roots of which can largely be traced to the Indus Civilization. Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, also originated in ancient India, but their presence in India is now quite small.

Throughout its history India was intermittently disturbed by incursions from beyond its northern mountain wall. Especially important was the coming of Islām, brought from the northwest by Arab, Turkish, Persian, and other invaders beginning early in the 8th century AD. By the 13th century much of the subcontinent had fallen under Muslim domination, and it largely remained so until the mid-18th century. In the intervening period the number of Muslims steadily increased, and by the early 20th century they formed almost one-fourth of India's population. Only after the arrival of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 and the subsequent establishment of European maritime supremacy did India become exposed to major external influences arriving by sea, a process that culminated in the absorption of the subcontinent within the British Empire.

Direct administration by the British, which began in 1858, effected a political and economic unification of the subcontinent, the legacy of which is found in many aspects of the current Indian state, including its parliamentary system of government. When British rule came to an end in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines into two separate countries—India, with a majority of Hindus, and Pakistan, with a majority of Muslims. (The eastern portion of Pakistan gained independence as Bangladesh in 1971.) Although Hindi was declared India's official language, English continued to be a widely used lingua franca, especially by educated Indians in business and government.

India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. Apart from its many religions and sects, India is home to innumerable castes and tribes, as well as to more than a dozen major and hundreds of minor linguistic groups from several totally different language families. Religious minorities still account for one-sixth of the population, and Muslims alone for more than one-ninth. Earnest attempts have been made to instill a spirit of nationhood in so varied a population, but tensions among neighbouring groups abound and not infrequently result in violence.

Economically and socially, India has made great strides since independence: it has a well-developed infrastructure and a highly diversified industrial base, its pool of scientific and engineering personnel is reputedly the third largest in the world, and the pace of its agricultural expansion has more than kept up with the growth in its population. Social legislation in India has done much to alleviate the disabilities previously suffered by formerly “untouchable” castes, tribal populations, women, and other disadvantaged segments of society. At independence, India was blessed with several leaders of world stature, most notably Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Not only were these leaders able to galvanize the masses in their own country but, because of their prestige and enduring legacy, they also helped enable India to play an important role in global affairs, often as a champion of the causes of the world's colonially exploited and less developed nations.

Mar 12

Today is our third day at sea. We arrive in Cochin, India, tomorrow. Today we had a lecture by Ambassador Peck, and a violin concert, among the other 50 some things to do on the ship. Tonight we have a night at the opera-featuring popular opera arias and ensembles including the music of Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Bizet and Puccini.

The following is the ship's info of today re India:
Stone age rock shelters with paintings at Bhimbetke in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared 9,000 years ago and developed into the Indus Valley Civilization, which peaked between 2600 BC and 1900 BC. From around 500 BC onwards, many independent kingdoms came into being. In the north, the great Mauya dynasty contributed greatly to India's cultural landscape. From 180 BC, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed, with the successive establishment in the northern Indian subcontinent of the Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian kingdoms, and finally the Kushan Empire. From the 3rd century onwards the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as India's Golden Age. In the south, several dynasties including the Chalukyas, Cheras, Cholas, Palliavas, and Pandyas prevailed during different periods. Science, art, literature, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, religion, and philosophy flourished under the patronage of these kings.

Following the Islamic invasions in the beginning of the second millennium, much of India was ruled by the Delhi Sultanate, and later, much of the entire subcontinent by the Mughal dynasty. Nevertheless, several indigenous kingdoms remained in or rose to power, especially in the relatively sheltered south.

During the middle of the second millennium, several European countries, including the Portuguese, French and English, who were initially interested in trade with India, took advantage of the fractured kingdoms to colonize the country. After a failed insurrection in 1857 against the British East India Company, most of India came under the direct administrative control of the British Empire. The Indian independence movement followed, eventually led by Mahatma Gandhi, who was regarded as the father of modern India. On August 15, 1947 India gained independence, later becoming a republic on January 26, 1950. As a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, India has its share of sectarian violence and insurgencies. Nonetheless, it has held itself together as a secular democracy. India has unresolved border disputes with China, which escalated into a brief war in 1962, and Pakistan, which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, and 1971. In 1974, India conducted an underground nuclear test, making it an unofficial member of the Nuclear Club, which was followed up with a series of five more tests in 1998.

Mar 13

We are in Cochin, India.
staff says:
Cochin is both a city and a former state (known as Princely State) in southwest India on the Arabian Sea. Now part of Kerala state, the region of Cochin has one of the highest population densities in India. Agriculture is the chief economic activity. Ernakulam was the former capital and Kochi (formerly Cochin) the chief port. Thought of as the finest port south of Bombay, Kochi, with its naval base and shipbuilding industry, is the primary training center for the Indian Navy. After Vasco da Gama visited the city in 1502, the Portuguese established a settlement. The Dutch captured it in 1663 and the British in 1795. In adjoining Mattancheri there is a small community of descendants of Jews expelled from Portugal in the 16th century, thought to be the oldest Jewish enclave in India. India is a large, triangular-shaped country in southern Asia, buttressed by the long sweep of the Himalaya in the north and protruding into the Indian Ocean in the south. It's bordered by Pakistan to the northwest, Chine, Nepal and Bhutan to the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. Sri Lanka is the teardrop-shaped island hanging off its southern tip. India covers a land area of some 1,281,930 square miles, though disputed borders with Pakistan and China make this figure somewhat arbitrary; it still remains that India is the seventh largest country in the world.

Our tour today was a short bus ride to a dock where we boarded a boat and cruised the islands of Cochin harbor. It was a totally different view of Cochin from the last time we were here in 2004. There was a delightful breeze cooled by the water that kept us comfortable for the 4 hour trip. We were able to up close view the fishing boats bringing in their daily catch. We watched them unload the fish into the factories or to the ice houses where they were packed on ice. We stopped at a fancy hotel and restaurant on one of the islands. We saw many nice homes lived in by the fisherman and also some fancy condominums and expensive homes. My previous image of poverty stricken Cochin is not universal. I even felt like I would like to visit Cochin again. The national TV station was interviewing tourists as we got off the boat and they selected Mona to interview. Even she said on TV she would like a return visit to Cochin.

Mar 14

We left Cochin last night and are heading for Mumbai (Bombay) arriving tomorrow at 6 am.
Staff says:
Mumbai was originally made up of seven isles. Artifacts found near Kandivali in northern Mumbai indicate that these islands had been inhabited since the Stone Age. In the 3rd century BC, they were part of the Maurya empire, ruled by the Buddhist empperor Ashoka. The Hindu rulers of the Silhara dynasty later governed the islands until 1343, when the kingdom of Gujarat annexed it. Some of the oldest edifices of the archipelago Elephants Caves and the Walkeshwar temple complex date to this era. In 1534, the Portuguese appropriated the islands from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. They were ceded to Charles II of England in 1661 as wedding gifts of Catherine de Braganza. They were in turn were leased to the British East India Company in 1668 for a sum of 10 pounds per annum. The company found the deep harbor at Bombay eminently suitable, and the population rose from 10,000 in 1661 to 60,000 by 1675. In 1687, the East India Company transferred their headquarters from Surat to Bombay. From 1817 the city was reshaped with large civil engineering projects aimed at merging the islands into a single amalgamated mass. This project, Hornby Vellard, was completed by 1845 and resulted in the area swelling to 168 square miles. Eight years later, in 1853, India's first railroad line was established, connecting Bombay to Thana.

Mar 17

In a few minutes we will leave Mumbai and head for Oman. It has been a much more pleasant experience then it was in 2004. Mumbai is very much cleaner then before. The shacks have been removed from the city proper and moved out in the country side as they do in Cape Town, South Africa. The beggars are not so numerous. There aren't as many people sleeping on the sidewalks.

I went on a tour to the Elephanta Caves. Mona was unable to go as there were 132 steps to climb. We took a boat ride for 45 minutes to get to the mountain where the caves are. We took a ten minute tiny train ride and then climbed the mountain side. There were 4 bearers who had long bamboo poles with a chair on top and they carried people who didn't want to climb. The ever present peddlers lined the walk to the caves. The caves were sculpted between the 5th and 8th centuries and its magnificent carvings are dedicated to Shiva, a 3 part god, creator, destroyer and sustainer.

In the afternoon Ann and I took a taxi to purchase drug store items. Dick has a sore throat and lung congestion and feels terrible. It is quite an experience to travel in a city of 17 million. Everyone drives with their hand on the horn.

Mumbai is worth a repeat visit.

Mar 18

The wireless has been not working for two days. We are crossing the Arabian Sea on our way to Salalah, Oman. The current Sultan overthrew his uncle and has been a benevolent dictator.
Britannica says:

Oman is governed by a monarchy (sultanate). The sultan is assisted by the Council of Ministers, the members of which he typically appoints from among Muscat merchants, informal representatives of interior tribes, and Dhofaris. The sultan is the head of state and commander in chief of the country's armed forces. Although he acts as the prime minister, the sultan is allowed to appoint one if he chooses. There are no political parties or elections.

The Consultative Assembly, formed by the sultan in 1981, was replaced in 1991 by a new Consultative Council (Majlis al-Shura), whose 82 appointed members serve three-year terms, represent the wilāyāt (provinces) of the country, and discuss legislative matters. In 1994 women from a few constituencies were given the right to serve on the council. In 1996 the sultan announced the establishment of the Basic Law of the State, which outlined a new system of government, placed the Consultative Council within what was named the Oman Council, and clarified the succession process; in addition, the right to serve was extended to all Omani women. A Council of State (Majlis al-Dawlah), comprising 41 members appointed by the sultan, was also created as an upper house of the Oman Council to discuss policy issues. Local government is carried out by a combination of traditional walis (representatives of the sultan) and by more recently established municipal councils.

Oman has a two-tiered judicial system: Islamic courts, based on the Ibāḍite interpretation of the Sharīʿah (Islamic law), handle personal status cases (family law and probate), and secular courts oversee commercial matters. There are also courts of the first instance and criminal and specialized administrative courts.

The Sultan's Armed Forces, formed in 1958 from several smaller regiments, has grown since 1970 to more than 40,000 personnel, spurred in part by the rebellion in Dhofar in 1964–75.

Mar 20

We took a 5 hour bus tour in Salalah, Oman. We stopped at a native Bosellia tree. Our guide demonstrated how the bark is cut to enable them to extract the white resin to produce frankincense. Next we visited the beach and observed blow holes where the sea bubbles up thru holes to produce a spray. We also saw caves in the mountains where people live especially during the cooler months. Today the government is offering free housing in town with jobs to improve their living conditions. We then visited Job's Tomb. The mountainside setting is lovely and offered a splendid view of Salalah. Just beyond the small mosque, the tomb is a tiny white building with a gold (painted) dome. We finally shopped in bazaar locally called a souk. Merchants set up stalls and sell a variety of items on a specialty basis.
Salalah is the capital and seat of the governor or Wali of the southern province of Dhofar. It is the second largest town in the Sultanate of Oman and a traditional stronghold and birthplace of the Susltan Qaboos bin Said. The Sultan traditionally lives in Salalah rather than in Muscat, the capital and largest city in Oman. Salalah, despite lying in the Arabian desert, enjoys a temperate climate through most of the year. The town is also subjected to the southeast monsoons between late June and early September. Visitors from across the Persian Gulf flock to Salalah to enjoy the monsoons and avoid the harsh heat faced by the rest of the region during the same period. Also in this period, the town's population nearly doubles and various fairs are organized. The town has a large expatriate community, mainly from India, as well as a private Indian school, known as Indian School Salalah. The city of Salalah is known as the perfume capital of Arabia. The city is a popular destination for tourism due to the natural attractions of the Jabal al Qar mountains and abundant stands of frankincense trees lining mountain stream courses. Around the city and into the mountains the country side is lush and green with the vegetation supporting herds of cattle and camels.

Mar 22

We are into our 2nd day at sea. We are in the Red Sea. We have two more days at sea before we arrive at the Suez Canal. We will travel aprx 12 hours thru the Canal then head for the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The Captain notified us today that Libya refused to change its policy that denies US citizens entering the country for short visits. HAL had thought there was sufficient reason to expect the change; it was one of the major selling points of this cruise. I am not disappointed because we are getting 3 new ports to replace the two ports in Libya. The new ports are: Kusadasi, Turkey, Piraeus, Greece the port city for Athens, and Valletta, Malta. We are happy for the rest the AT SEA days gives us. We are thoroughly entertained with 3 excellent lectures a day and the continuation of great entertainment at night.

Mar 25

We have entered the Mediterranean. The Suez Canal community has made many improvements since we were here in 2004. Most of the security people are on the Sinai side of the canal. Pursuant to the Cape David agreement a military build up is not permitted in the Sinai. The US troops make certain the agreement is kept. We have not seen any of those troops. The security people are very friendly waiving their arms at us sometimes those arms include a AK 47. Tomorrow we visit the pyramids.

The Suez Canal is a sea-level waterway running north-south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt to connect the Mediterranean and the Red seas. The canal separates the African continent from Asia, and it provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It is one of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes. The canal extends 101 miles between Port Said (Būr Saīd) in the north and Suez in the south, with dredged approach channels north of Port Said into the Mediterranean, and south of Suez. The canal does not take the shortest route across the isthmus, which is only 75 miles, but utilizes several lakes, from north to south, Lake Manzala (Buayrat al-Manzilah), Lake Timsah (Buayrat at-Timsā), and the Bitter Lakes: Great Bitter Lake (Al-Buayrah al-Murrah al-Kubrā) and Little Bitter Lake(Al-Buayrah al-Murrah a-ughrā). The Suez Canal is an open cut, without locks, and, though extensive straight lengths occur, there are eight major bends. To the west of the canal is the low-lying delta of the Nile River; to the east is the higher, rugged, and arid Sinai Peninsula. Prior to construction of the canal (completed in 1869), the only important settlement was Suez, which in 1859 had 3,000 to 4,000 inhabitants. The rest of the towns along its banks have grown up since, with the possible exception of Al-Qanarah.

Mar 26

Today was a fantastic day. We took a 3 hour bus trip from Alexandria, Egypt to the Cairo and the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. The hour and half spent in the museum was 1 month too short. We had an excellent lunch at a 5 star Hotel Hilton, browsed at a souvenir shop and then visited the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Our tour lasted 12 hours and tonight I don't have the words to describe the incredible sight of the Pyramids.

Mar 27

I went into Khafre pyramid. The walk way was only tall enough to walk with my back 90 degrees from my legs. It was hot and stuffy. It was mostly uphill. Part of the way the walkway enlarged to tall enough for me to stand. This was only a quarter of the way. It seemed like a long ways until I was in a chamber about 70 ft long 40 wide and 80 ft tall. There was an empty tomb site. I was surprised by the size of the pyramids; they are huge. It truly is one of the Wonders of the World.

Britannica says of Pyramids of Giza:
three 4th-dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 BC) pyramids erected on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile River near Al-Jīzah (Giza), northern Egypt; in ancient times they were included among the Seven Wonders of the World. The ancient ruins of the Memphis area, including the Pyramids of Giza, aqqārah, Dahshūr, Abū Ruwaysh, and Abū Ṣīr, were collectively designated a World Heritage site in 1979.

The designations of the pyramids—Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure—correspond to the kings for whom they were built. The northernmost and oldest pyramid of the group was built for Khufu (Greek: Cheops), the second king of the 4th dynasty. Called the Great Pyramid, it is the largest of the three, the length of each side at the base averaging 755 3/4 feet (230 metres) and its original height being 481 2/5 feet (147 metres). The middle pyramid was built for Khafre (Greek: Chephren), the fourth of the eight kings of the 4th dynasty; the structure measures 707 3/4 feet (216 metres) on each side and was originally 471 feet (143 metres) high. The southernmost and last pyramid to be built was that of Menkaure(Greek: Mykerinus), the fifth king of the 4th dynasty. Each side measures 356 1/2 feet (109 metres), and the structure's completed height was 218 feet (66 metres). All three pyramids were plundered both internally and externally in ancient times. Thus, most of the grave goods originally deposited in the burial chambers are missing, and the pyramids no longer reach their original heights because they have been almost entirely stripped of their outer casings of smooth white limestone; the Great Pyramid, for example, is now only 451 2/5 feet (138 metres) high. Khafre retains the outer limestone casing only at its topmost portion.

Khufu is perhaps the most colossal single building ever erected on the planet. Its sides rise at an angle of 51°52′ and are accurately oriented to the four cardinal points of the compass. The Great Pyramid's core is made of yellowish limestone blocks, the outer casing (now almost completely gone) and the inner passages are of finer light-colored limestone, and the interior burial chamber is built of huge blocks of granite. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone were cut, transported, and assembled to create the 5,750,000-ton structure, which is a masterpiece of technical skill and engineering ability. The internal walls as well as those few outer-casing stones that still remain in place show finer joints than any other masonry constructed in ancient Egypt.

The entrance to the Great Pyramid is on the north side, about 59 feet (18 metres) above ground level. A sloping corridor descends from it through the pyramid's interior masonry, penetrates the rocky soil on which the structure rests, and ends in an unfinished underground chamber. From the descending corridor branches an ascending passageway that leads to a room known as the Queen's Chamber and to a great slanting gallery that is 151 feet (46 metres) long. At the upper end of this gallery a long and narrow passage gives access to the burial room proper, usually termed the King's Chamber. This room is entirely lined and roofed with granite. From the chamber two narrow shafts run obliquely through the masonry to the exterior of the pyramid; it is not known whether they were designed for a religious purpose or were meant for ventilation. Above the King's Chamber are five compartments separated by massive horizontal granite slabs; the likely purpose of these slabs was to shield the ceiling of the burial chamber by diverting the immense thrust exerted by the overlying masses of masonry.

The question of how the pyramids were built has not received a wholly satisfactory answer. The most plausible one is that the Egyptians employed a sloping and encircling embankment of brick, earth, and sand, which was increased in height and in length as the pyramid rose; stone blocks were hauled up the ramp by means of sledges, rollers, and levers. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the Great Pyramid took 20 years to construct and demanded the labor of 100,000 men. This figure is believable given the assumption that these men, who were agricultural laborers, worked on the pyramids only (or primarily) while there was little work to be done in the fields—i.e., when the Nile River was in flood. By the late 20th century, however, archaeologists found evidence that a more limited workforce may have occupied the site on a permanent rather than a seasonal basis. It was suggested that as few as 20,000 workers, with accompanying support personnel (bakers, physicians, priests, etc.), would have been adequate to the task.

Constructed near each pyramid was a mortuary temple, which was linked via a sloping causeway to a valley temple on the edge of the Nile floodplain. Also nearby were subsidiary pyramids used for the burials of other members of the royal family.

To the south of the Great Pyramid near Khafre's valley temple lies the Great Sphinx. Carved out of limestone, the Sphinx has the facial features of a man but the body of a recumbent lion; it is approximately 240 feet (73 metres) long and 66 feet (20 metres) high. (See sphinx.)

In 1925 a pit tomb containing the transferred burial equipment of Khufu's mother, Queen Hetepheres, was discovered near the upper end of the causeway of Khufu. At the bottom of a deep stone-filled shaft was found the queen's empty sarcophagus, surrounded by furniture and articles of jewelry attesting to the high artistic ability and technical perfection of the 4th-dynasty craftsmen.

Surrounding the three pyramids are extensive fields of flat-topped funerary structures called mastabas; arranged in a grid pattern, the mastabas were used for the burials of relatives or officials of the kings. Besides the core mastabas of the 4th dynasty, numerous mastabas have also been found that date from the 5th and 6th dynasties (c. 2465–c. 2150 BC), as well as from the 3rd dynasty (c. 2650–c. 2575 BC).

In the late 1980s and ‘90s, excavations in the environs of the pyramids revealed labourers' districts that included bakeries, storage areas, workshops, and the small tombs of workers and artisans. These tombs range from simple mud-brick domes to elaborate stone monuments that appear to emulate, in miniature, the mausoleums of kings. Statuettes and other artwork depicting scenes from daily life were found within some of the structures; hieroglyphic inscriptions on tomb walls commonly identify the deceased, and many invoke curses on would-be tomb robbers.

Mar 28

We are in Antalya, Turkey. We took a 5 hour bus tour thru the city into Aspendos and Perge.

Brittanica says: Greek Aspendos , modern Belkis ancient city of Pamphylia, now in southwestern Turkey. It is noted for its Roman ruins. A wide range of coinage from the 5th century BC onward attests to the city's wealth. Aspendus was occupied by Alexander the Great in 333 BC and later passed from Pergamene to Roman rule in 133 BC. According to Cicero, it was plundered of many of its artistic treasures by the provincial governor Verres. The hilltop ruins of the city include a basilica, an agora, and some rock-cut tombs of Phrygian design. A huge theatre, one of the finest in the world, is carved out of the northeast flank of the hill. It was designed by the Roman architect Zeno in honour of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned AD 161–180).

We viewed the theatre. It is made of evenly cut stone blocks, with limestone decoration on the gates and window frames. There are five entries, the largest in the center of the eastern wall. The stage, featuring a double tiered façade and four rows of windows is extraordinary for it looks pretty much as it did 2000 years ago.

In Perge, we viewed an Agora (shopping mall) ruins. A church and a Roman bath are nearby. A 1,000 foot long street lined with marble pillars, extends from the entry gate. It ends at an ornamental fountain or nympheum. Just west of the fountain, the well preserved palaestra was dedicated to Roman Emperor Claudius in 50 AD.

Brittanica says re Antalya:
Ancient Greek Attalia, city and Mediterranean port, southwestern Turkey, on the Gulf of Antalya. Attalia was founded as a seaport in the 2nd century BC by Attalus II, a king of Pergamum. It was bequeathed to the Romans by his successor, Attalus III. St. Paul and St. Barnabas embarked from the seaport on their evangelical mission to Antioch. The “Hadrian Gate,” a marble portal of three identical arches, was built to commemorate a visit by Hadrian in AD 130.

During the Middle Ages the city was a Byzantine stronghold and an important embarkation point for troops going to Palestine during the Crusades. It was captured by the Turkish Seljuq ruler Kay-Khusraw in 1207 and soon became the most important town and port of the region. Although it was first occupied by the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I in 1391, its incorporation into the Ottoman Empire was delayed until the late 15th century because of the disruption caused by the invasion of Timur (Tamerlane). In the tripartite agreement of 1917 for the postwar division of the Ottoman Empire among Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, Italy claimed Antalya and its hinterland. Italian troops occupied the district in 1919 but were driven out in July 1921 by Turkish nationalist forces.

With a subtropical warm climate and an abundance of ancient sites nearby, Antalya is the chief tourist resort on the Turkish Riviera. The old town, surrounded by fortified walls restored during Roman, Byzantine, and Seljuq periods, occupies the summit of a low cliff overlooking the harbour. Notable monuments in the town include an ancient tower, probably once used as a lighthouse, and a Seljuq religious college and mosque dating from 1250. Yivli Minare, a former Byzantine church converted into a Seljuq mosque, now houses the local archaeological museum. Pop. (1990 prelim.) 378,726.

Mar 29

Today we watched the total eclipse of the sun. It can only be seen in a limited band around the world. This was one of the reasons for the planned stop in Lybia. So the astrologer and the Captain selected a spot out in the Aegean Sea where the band would allow our viewing. I don't know the width of the band. We cruised from 8 pm last night until 1200 pm today. The eclipse took about one hour and half from the first black spot at 4 o'clock on the sun until the sun was blacked out. It got colder, we could see Mercury and Venus. The horizon got red as it does at sunset. Darkness was as it is one half hour after sunset. The darkness lasted for 3 and half minutes. It will take another hour to restore the sunlight to fullness. We were able to see the Sun's corona and the diamond shape that last for a second when the last and first rays of the sun are visible.
There was a big hype on the ship. As I watched for the hour and 15 minutes for the black to fully cover the sun I felt like I was watching grass grow. When the eclipse blacken the sun, my sense of amazement surprised me. It was spectectular.

The staff says: A solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth are on a single line with the Moon in the middle. Seen from the Earth, the moon is in front of the Sun and thus the Moon eclipses part or all of the light of the Sun. Thus it may seem that a piece has been taken out of the Sun, or that it has suddenly disappeared. The Sun's corona can only be seen during a solar eclipse. Total eclipses both occur when the Moon lines up with the Sun exactly, but since the Moon's orbit is not perfectly circular it is sometimes farther away from Earth and doesn't always cover the entire solar disc from an Earthly vantage point. A solar eclipse can only be seen in a ban across the Earth as the Moon's shadow moves across its surface, while a total or annular eclipse is actually total or ring-formed in only a small band within this band (the eclipse path), and partial elsewhere (total eclipse takes place where the umbra of the Moon's shadow falls, whereas a partial eclipse is visible where the penumbra falls). Total solar eclipses are rare events. Although they occur somewhere on the Earth approximately every 18 months, it has been estimated that they recur at any given spot only every 300 to 400 years. After waiting so long, the total solar eclipse only lasts for a few minutes, as the Moon's umbra moves eastward at over 1,056 miles per hour.

Mar 30

Today we took a 6 and one half hour bus tour of the Kusadasi, Turkey area. We first visited a couple of the 28 sites of the ruins of Ephesus. Then we went to Selcuk and viewed Temple of Diana. Only one pillar remains. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Some of the original pillars were removed from the site and can be seen in the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. Ephesus became a center of the fledgling Christianity movement. St. Paul is said to have visited, and the Basilica of St John was erected to honor its namesake's tomb. Nearby, in the House of Mary, the virgin is said to have spent her last days. We viewed the foundations of the Basilica of St Johns and Ayasuluk Fortress.
Then we went to Sirince a pretty hilltop (mountains in Iowa and Florida) village where favorable climate fosters a number of wineries and fruit orchards. It is a Greek looking town with Turkish inhabitants. We walked the market area and I felt like we were back in time to the middle ages. We had lunch in a home of a widow and her sister. She had lived there 60 years (she was 79). She moved in when she was married. She cannot modify the house as the community is a historical site. She told us thru the interpreter some of her life's experiences. After we drank the Turkish coffee she told our fortunes. We went to a local café and tasted the excellent local wines.
The country side is beautiful and clean and look very prosperous.

Mar 30

We are in Iraklion, Crete, Greece. We took a bus tour of the highlights of the city and the ruins of the Palace Phaestos. The most memorable sight for me is the lush country side. There are hills and mountains everywhere. Both are covered almost every square inch with either beautiful wild flowers or grape vines or olive trees. The vineyards patches are of every shape and dimension. The tallest mountains are always snowcapped. It is spring here and all the fruit and nut trees are in bloom. It is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

Brittanica says: Iraklion also spelled Herakleion historically Candia largest city, principal port of the Greek island of Crete, and capital of the nomós (department) of Iráklion. The city lies on the north coast just northwest of the ancient Minoan capital of Knossos. Its name derives from the ancient Roman port of Heracleum, which likely occupied the same site. As the capital of Saracen Crete in the 9th century AD, it took the Arabic name Khandaq (“Moat”), which was corrupted to Candia by the Venetians, to whom the island was sold in 1204. Most of the extensive system of walls built around the city by the Venetians survives.

In 1669 the city was ceded to the Turks after a siege of more than 20 years. During the long Turkish occupation, which ended in 1897, Candia was known as Megalokastro. The Turks permitted its harbour to silt up, and the port of Canea (Khaniá), the future capital of Crete, took over Megalokastro's former commercial preeminence. The Turkish rule ended after an insurrection (1897) by the Greek population, demanding union with Greece. Iráklion was part of the international protectorate of Crete (1897–1913) and then became part of Greece. During the German invasion in 1941 the city suffered heavy damage from bombing.

After World War II the city gained considerable commercial prominence, with a new harbour with moles, an airport, and several hotels to serve the tourist trade. Among the port's principal exports are grapes (especially sultanas), olives and olive oil, wine, carobs, citrus, almonds, soap, vegetables, and leather. Numerous earthquakes, notably in 1664, 1856, and 1926, have taken their toll of the city's buildings and monuments, including many fine churches and mosques. A modern museum contains one of the finest collections of Minoan antiquities in Greece. Pop. (1981) city, 102,398; nómos, 243,622.

Britticania says of Phaestos Palace: Phaestos, ancient city on the western end of the southern plain of Crete, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from the sea. The site was occupied from the 4th millennium BC, and its importance grew in the Early and Middle Bronze ages (c. 3000–c. 1600 BC). In the latter period its palace was first built and later remodeled. In the Late Bronze Age, about 1400 BC, it was destroyed in the same earthquake that destroyed Knossos and other sites on Crete. It was reoccupied in the final phase of the Late Bronze Age (13th century BC) and was widely known in classical and Hellenistic times (c. 6th–1st centuries BC) until neighboring Gortyn eclipsed it under the Roman Empire.

Apr 1

We are in Piraeus, Greece. Mona and I took separate bus tours of Athens and the Acropolis. The climb up Acropolis hill would have been impossible for her. She was able to view the Parthenon as her bus stopped at the base of the hill. I was amazed at the preservation of the building that was completed in BC 438. Several of our shipmates remarked at the improvement in the City of Athens since the Olympics of 2004. An improved subway and many new high speed highways and many new stadiums have added greatly. The city appears very modern, very prosperous and very cultured. I would love to spend two weeks exploring this great city.

Britannica says:Athens lies 5 miles (8 km) from the Bay of Phaleron, an inlet of the Aegean (Aigaíon) Sea where Piraeus (Piraiévs), the port of Athens, is situated, in a mountain-girt arid basin divided north-south by a line of hills. Greater Athens has an area of 165 square miles (427 square kilometres). The Kifisós River, only a trickle in summer, flows through the western half; and the Ilisós River, often dry, traverses the eastern half. The surrounding mountains—Párnis, 4,636 feet (1,413 metres); Pentelicus (Pendéli), 3,631 feet; Hymettos (Imittós), 3,365 feet; and Aigáleon, 1,535 feet—add to the impression of barrenness. Yet such considerations are superficial when compared with the fecundity of Athens' bequests to the world, such as its philosophy, its architecture, its literature, and its political ideals.
Some three centuries after the death of Pericles (429 BC), Athenians entered upon a period of bondage that lasted almost 2,000 years. The city was freed in 1833, and in the following 170 years it was the scene of more than a dozen revolutions, another brutal foreign occupation, and a civil war of especial savagery. This long history of passion and suffering has had considerable effect on the Athenian character. The core of that character is an implacable will to survive, buttressed by a profound sense of loyalty (especially to the family) and patriotism. The Greek Orthodox Church, which is directed by a synod sitting in Athens, was a main force in keeping alive the Greek language, tradition, and literature when such things were forbidden, and most people still support it.

The millennia of oppression, instead of driving the Athenians into obtuse moroseness, have honed their wit and rendered them tough but supple, while centuries of privation have only preserved their warmth and generosity. The long oral tradition, alive even under the invader, has reflected and stimulated a taste for rich talk. Of course, the poetic impulse to make a good story better leads to considerable exaggeration in daily conversation, suiting a vanity that goes with a sharp-edged sense of personal and family honor and the spoiling of children. The ancient heroes, too, were vain about both themselves and honor, boasting as much about outwitting the enemy as about outfighting him.

Apr 3

We are in Valletta, Malta. The earliest settlers left remains in caves on the southwest Malta coast in 7000 BC. Malta has maintained much of its ancient past while fostering a very modern prosperous nation. It has suffered thru two major sieges. First in 1565 by the Turks, then by the Italians and Germans in WW II. From 1802 until 1964, Malta was a British colony. It is now an independent country, a member of the British Commonwealth, the United Nations and the European Union.
Our bus tour took us thru the highlights of Valletta, the capital. We visited Mdina known as the "old city" Malta's first capital. It was built during the Roman Empire. Most of the country's nobles lived in the grand palaces and lavish houses that collectively form portions of the city walls. Its naturally strategic location at the top of a big hill, made it a perfect spot from which to repel attack. The city's narrow streets were not built for cars and trucks, but rather for horses and carriages so we had to explore on foot. Mona was able to drive her scooter all over the village. The palatial houses of Mdina are still used, some as private residences, but many have been converted into charming shops and restaurants.
A short distance away we visited the village of Mosta. The Church of St. Mary, built in 1860 is the pride of the village. Also known as the Rotunda, the church was designed by Maltese architect "Giorgio Grognet de Vasse. The first stone was laid in 1833. Inside a series of painting by local artists is well displayed and the structure features one of the world's largest unsupported domes. During WW II a German bomb pierced the dome and landed on the church's floor while 200 people worshiped. The bomb did not explode. We viewed the bomb.
It appeared that every building in Malta is constructed from a golden colored limestone. The stone buildings have survived thousands of years. St Paul ship was wrecked off of Malta in 60 AD. He is greatly revered here.

Britannica says:Republic of Malta , MalteseMalta , or Repubblika Ta' Malta country located in the central Mediterranean Sea. It is a small archipelago but a strategically important group of islands. Throughout a long and turbulent history, the archipelago has played a vital role in the struggles of a succession of powers for domination of the Mediterranean and in the interplay between emerging Europe and the older cultures of Africa and the Middle East. As a result, Maltese society was molded by centuries of foreign rule, with influences ranging from Arab to Norman to English.

There are five islands—Malta ( the largest), Gozo, Comino, and uninhabited Kemmunett (Comminotto) and Filfla—lying some 58miles (93 kilometres) south of Sicily, 180 miles (290 kilometres) north of Libya, and about 180 miles east of Tunisia, at the eastern end of that constricted portion of the Mediterranean Sea separating Italy from the African coast. The islands cover a combined land area of 122 square miles (316 square kilometres). Valletta is the capital, although Birkirkara is the largest city.

Apr 4

We are in Catania, Sicily, Italy. It is the second largest city of Sicily. It is located on the east coast of the island, half way between Messina and Siracuse and is at the foot of the active volcano Mount Etna. It was founded as Etna in the 8th century BC by Greek colonizers. Earthquakes extensively destroyed it in 1169 and 1693 AD, and by lava flows, which ran over and around it into the sea. The city has been buried by lava a total of seven times in recorded history, and in layers under the present day city are the Roman city that preceded it, and the Greek city before that. Today, the tops of the immense Greek and Roman amphitheatres are at street level and several places the adventurous can descend into the numerous and uncharted tunnels under the city, although the perils of finding pockets of poisonous gas or being found down there by nasty people make this highly unadvisable. Under the city runs the river Amenano, visible in just one point. Catania is also the Italian city with the highest number of theaters per square mile, with numerous professional and amateur theater companies based here.
We took a bus tour to near the top of Mount Etna. The long, winding drive offers a glimpse at Sicily's natural beauty. Fertile rising fields dwindle into a stark lunar-like surface as we ascended the slopes. Evidence of the geothermal rumbling is not hidden-there are more than 250 active vents and craters on the sides of the mountain. We saw several houses half buried by the lava of 2001. It takes 100 years for the lava to be fertile for growing things. It was still snow where we visited but the weather was perfect. There were no clouds covering the mountain.

Apr 5

We are in Naples, Italy. I took a 4 hour bus tour of the ruins of the city of Pompeii destroyed by an explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Our guide said the cities including Naples a city of more than 1.5 million people have drills to prepare them to evacuate in the event there is another eruption. The volcano is still active. The last explosion was in 1944. I was impressed by how much of the original site has been preserved and how large it is.
Britannica says:Mount Vesuvius erupted on Aug. 24, AD 79. A vivid eyewitness report is preserved in two letters written by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus, who had inquired about the death of Pliny the Elder, commander of the Roman fleet at Misenum. Pliny the Elder had rushed from Misenum to help the stricken population and to get a close view of the volcanic phenomena, and he died at Stabiae. Site excavations and volcanological studies, notably in the late 20th century, have brought out further details. Just after midday on August 24, fragments of ash, pumice, and other volcanic debris began pouring down on Pompeii, quickly covering the city to a depth of more than 9 feet (3 metres) and causing the roofs of many houses to fall in. Surges of pyroclastic material and heated gas, known as nuées ardentes , reached the city walls on the morning of August 25 and soon asphyxiated those residents who had not been killed by falling debris. Additional pyroclastic flows and rains of ash followed, adding at least another 9 feet of debris and preserving in a pall of ash the bodies of the inhabitants who perished while taking shelter in their houses or trying to escape toward the coast or by the roads leading to Stabiae or Nuceria. Thus Pompeii remained buried under a layer of pumice stones and ash 19 to 23 feet (6 to 7 metres) deep. The city's sudden burial served to protect it for the next 17 centuries from vandalism, looting, and the destructive effects of climate and weather.

Apr 6

We arrived in Civitavecchia, Italy the port city for Rome. We took a 11 and half hour bus tour to Rome. I was amazed at the size of St Peter's Basilica. It is touted as the world's largest church. I felt like the size of an ant inside the Basilica. I was also surprised at the size of the Coliseum. Built in 80 AD it is enormous stadium, with a circumference of 1,580 feet, and a height of 137 feet, once accommodated 50,000 onlookers. Eighty separately numbered entrances allowed huge crowds to quickly claim their marble seats. Every turn of the bus there was a statute or an ancient ruin.

Britannica says:Italian Roma historic city and capital of Roma provincia, of Lazio regione, and of Italy.

A capital of kingdoms and of republics and of an empire the armies and polity of which defined the Western world in antiquity and left seemingly indelible imprints thereafter, a city called eternal, as the spiritual and physical centre of the Roman Catholic Church, and a city whose name evokes major pinnacles of artistic and intellectual achievement, Rome has retained all of these attributes: the capital of Italy, a font of religious authority, and a memorial to the creative imagination of the past. Probably more than any other city in the West, possibly more than any other in the world, it is a city whose history continues to shape nearly every aspect of its being but, at the same time, whose contemporary consciousness of that history projects it into the very core of modern life.

For well over a millennium, Rome controlled the destiny of all civilization known to Europe, then fell into dissolution and disrepair. Physically mutilated, economically paralyzed, politically senile, and militarily impotent by the late Middle Ages, Rome nevertheless remained a world power—as an idea. The force of Rome the lawgiver, teacher, and builder continued to radiate throughout Europe. Although the situation of the popes from the 6th to the 15th century was often precarious—at times tragic, ridiculous, or shameful—Rome knew glory as the fountainhead of Christianity and eventually won back its power and wealth and reestablished itself as a place of beauty, a source of learning, and a capital of the arts.

Apr 7

We took a 4 hour bus tour of the island of Corsica, France. We went high into the mountains and stopped at the Village of Vivario. Two hundred and fifty people inhabit the village. We ate at a local restaurant sampling local food and wine. We ate food with various ingredients of sheep milk cheeses, sweet chestnuts, and half wild boors, and sipped red, white and rose wine; while viewing the snow capped mountains surrounding us. Today's tour was the perfect antidote for the constant hammering of visual stimulants of Rome. We returned to Ajaccio, a city of 60,000 inhabitants and capital of the southern district of Corsica.

Our guide says most mountaineer's life philosophy is: Life is good if I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, wine to drink and time for myself. It is not important to be the richest in the cemetery.

The staff says: Coastal resorts draw ferry passengers from France and Italy and those seeking sand and surf are never disappointed. The island's magnificent resort areas are as blessed with natural beauty as the rest of the island. Ajaccio, Bastia, the fortress city of Corte, and Calvi are linked by rail, but Bonifacio is accessible only via bus or taxi. Much of the island has been set aside as national parkland to preserve a variety of microclimates and habitats. The rugged coastline, rocky as it may be in places, is fringed with perfect sandy beaches. Outdoor enthusiasts enjoy interior mountains, and there are many hiking trails with varying degrees of difficulty.

Apr 8

We took a 2 and half hour bus tour of Barcelano, Spain a city of 3 million people. First we went to the top of a mountain Montserrat and viewed the city. We viewed the Monastery and Shrine of the Virgin of Montserrat. Because of her dark complexion, the virgin is also known by the name La Moreneta or the Black Virgin. Not only is the monastery gorgeous, but its setting in the eerie mountains is lovely as well. Then we toured much of downtown and stopped at the Holy Family Basica. Begun in 1882 it is expected to be finished in 2020. Antonio Gaudi a famous architect from Barcellano died in 1926 before he finished his beloved Cathedral. His designs combine stone, iron and ceramics in a rather commanding fashion. It is a magnificent landmark. The city was founded in 79 BC by the Romans. There are 70 museums, 3 universities and 16 parks.

Britannica says:
Barcelona, long the principal Catalan province, is the heart of the greatest industrial concentration of Spain, and its main city is the chief seaport. It produces three-quarters of the textile manufactures and a high proportion of the output of the chemical and engineering industries. Exports include table and sparkling wines and manufactured goods. The province has utilized the hydroelectric power sources of the Pyrenees and its strategic location to good advantage. Pop. (1982 est.) 4,949,892.

Apr 10

We took a bus tour of the highlights of the city of Cadiz, Spain. The city has two downtowns, the old city and the new one. The old one dates back to 1100 BC when the Phoenicians arrived. We visited a sherry wine factory and learned how the the Polomino grapes are processed into sherry and brandy. The web site is: www.gonzalezbyass.es Then we went to the Government owned and operated stable to train horses in the unique Spanish dance. The horses and their special gate are unique in all the world and a beautiful sight to behold. We viewed the many lavish estates and opulent churches and returned to Cadiz and our ship.

Britannica says:
Cadiz, city, capital and principal seaport of Cádiz provincia, in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain, on a long narrow peninsula extending into the Gulf of Cádiz (an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean). With a 6- to 7-mile (9.5- to 11-kilometre) circumference, hemmed in by the sea from which it is protected by walls, the city has only one land exit. Traditionally founded as Gadir (meaning “an enclosure”) by Phoenician merchants from Tyre as early as 1100 BC, it was occupied by the Carthaginians about 501 BC. Credence was given to the city's Phoenician origins by the discovery in 1980 and earlier of Phoenician sarcophagi at two separate sites.

At the close of the Second Punic War the city willingly surrendered to Rome, and from that time, as Gades, its prosperity steadily increased. A Roman theatre, one of the oldest and best-preserved in Spain, was discovered in the suburb of Pópolo in 1980. In the 5th century the city was destroyed by the Visigoths. Moorish rule over the port, which was renamed Jazīrat Qādis, lasted from 711 until 1262, when Cádiz was captured and rebuilt by Alfonso X of Castile.

Its renewed prosperity dated from the discovery of America in 1492, when it became the headquarters of the Spanish treasure fleets. During the 16th century it repelled a series of raids by Barbary corsairs; in 1587 its harbour shipping was burned by an English squadron under Sir Francis Drake. After being blockaded (1797–98) and bombarded (1800) by the British, it was besieged by the French in 1810–12, during which time it served as the capital of all Spain not under the control of Napoleon. There the Cortes (Spanish parliament) met and proposed the famous liberal constitution of March 1812, which led to the 1820revolution.

The loss of the Spanish colonies in the Americas dealt a blow to the trade of Cádiz from which it never recovered. Its decline was later accelerated by the disasters of the Spanish-American War of 1898 and by its antiquated harbour works. After 1900, considerable improvements were made in quayside construction, and recovery proceeded steadily. In the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39 Cádiz fell to the Nationalists almost at once and served as an important port of entry for reinforcements from Spanish Morocco. In 1947 the city suffered great damage from the explosion of a naval arms store.

Industrial development is rather limited, but important naval and mercantile shipbuilding yards and various factories exist on the mainland, and there are tuna fisheries off the coast. The city is primarily a commercial port, exporting wine (principally sherry from Jerez de la Frontera), salt, olives, figs, corks, and salted fish; and importing coal, iron and machinery, timber, cereals, coffee, and other foodstuffs. Several shipping lines call there, and passenger traffic is important. A military airfield and a Spanish-U.S. air base are nearby.

Notable landmarks include the old cathedral, originally built by Alfonso X of Castile (1252–84) and rebuilt after 1596; and the Baroque cathedral, begun in 1722 and completed in 1838, where the composer Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) is buried. It also holds a magnificent collection of art treasures. Other landmarks include San Sebastián and Santa Catalina castles, numerous museums, and the famous Torre de Vigía (100 feet [30 m]), a signal tower in the centre of the city. Pop. (1982 est.) 146,048.

Apr 12

We went on a 7 and half hour bus tour of West Madeira. We visited Camara De Lobos, Cabo Girao, Ribeira Brava, Encumeada, Sao Vicente, Porto Moniz, Ponta do Sol. This island is our first choice of all the places we have visited, to visit for a two week stay. It is fantastically beautiful. The mountain are very tall with their slopes terraced with banana trees and vineyards for hundreds of feet up the mountain side. Attached is one of the photos we took today. At 6 pm tonight we are continuing our cruise across the Atlantic Ocean. It will take us 7 full days at sea and we arrive at 8 am Thurs April 20 in Ft Lauderdale. Tomorrow I will give you more details on Madeira. (click image to enlarge)

Apr 13

The staff says: Thanks to the exceptional climate, fruit trees from all over the world thrive on their shores. Passion fruit, papaya, pineapple, cherimoya, various nuts, and sugar cane are grown. Even bananas are exported, but Madeira' most famous agricultural product is the grape. The vineyards are plentiful and lush. Local wine is excellent and the archipelago is famous for its special fortified varieties. Funchal is the largest city on the largest island, but Madeira has no shortage of beauty. Not only is the landscape exquisite, the climate supports an amazing variety of plant life. Since everything seems to grow, a hodgepodge of shrubs and flowers have been imported from all over the world. Majestic mountains not only add a dramatic touch to the countryside, they help regulate temperature. They are also responsible for the existence of several microclimates that enable various plant species to thrive. The island's tree species number in the hundreds. Some are rare and originate from places as far flung as China, Japan, or the Andes. Some are native only to the archipelago. Another photo is attached. (click image to enlarge)

Apr 15

We have changed course to go to Bermuda. One of the crew has appendicitis and will be put ashore in Bermuda for medical care. The Captain says he thinks he can make Fort Lauderdale same time as scheduled I.e. 8 am Thurs April 20.

Apr 21

We arrived in the Villages after a 3 hour drive from Ft Lauderdale. During the cruise we did not have one rain out of our 34 port stops. When we arrived at our house we had to wait 20 minutes during a downpour before we could enter our home.

2006 Cruise Ship Trip

click here for pictures of our trip

click here for the Holland America home page

click here to view ship details

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