Today we ran out of fresh milk and had to move to UHT. It’s a reminder of the joys of long cruises. However, this is one of the most entertaining sea days imaginable.
Guatemala has invested a lot in developing the local cruise market and we dock in Puerto Quetzal, the country’s newly-developed main Pacific port. Perhaps because we’re the last ship before the rainy season, the President and some 120 dignitaries and travel agents are visiting the ship for lunch. I flee for a self-guided tour of La Antigua, the old national capital.
I could start each sea day’s report with a “Gripe of the Day” but that would suggest the voyage is less fun than it is. So it should perhaps be called “If I Ruled the Ship”. Today there would be a beheading and if it isn’t someone else’s it’ll be mine.
Looking through the voyage’s sail plan in Australia, the two highlights for me were Cartagena and Costa Rica. After a lot of deliberation, I picked a tour that involved a long drive to the top of the country’s main mountain ridge to go for a walk in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.
Another sea day. And some of us are looking forward to it after three days of intense activity. It’s good to pick a cruise with sea days so you can enjoy the ship and on this voyage we’re covering a lot of nautical miles. But it’s also a time when you can be annoyed by details.
It’s lonely on Sydney Harbour now that the cruise season has officially ended, but thanks to Carnival Australia we still see ships regularly from P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises that are based here all year round.
Attempt No. 2 to catch the train from Sorrento to Pompeii worked – a 30-minute journey that takes you right to the gates of arguably the most famous archeological site in the world. Having had local guides at Valletta and Mt Etna, we knew we’d benefit from the services of an official guide here, and, after paying the entrance fee (11 euros), were lucky enough to find the wonderfully informative and entertaining guide Mario Visconti (10 euros).
Our plan was to take the train from Sorrento to Pompeii but when we arrived at the station we discovered that there was a rail strike – these occur at random with little or no warning. Plan B was to take the local bus along the Amalfi Coast to Positano – but of course that was everyone else’s Plan B as well, so the queue was horrendous.
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