Cartagena

 It has such a romantic ring to it, doesn't it? 

Cartagena

I need to watch "Romancing the Stone" again with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. I think it gave me my romantic notion of Cartagena, Colombia.

Pulling into the port at night, it looked like jewels.

We had signed up for the included tour here. A bus ride with commentary around the old part of town with one stop for shopping. I found a T-shirt I really liked and we got our obligatory souvenir magnet.

The main tourist attraction is the fort

The narrow streets of the old town were quite picturesque. And, here a local stops Jim to compliment his mustache - (it happens all the time!! 🥸

Interesting to see how the old town is completely walled-in. Then there's the modern Cartagena in the background.

It was a nice, easy tour. Then there was this park right at the port - so you could wander around and see the peacocks, parrots, coatis and more. And, I always love these photo op signs.

All aboard a Viking Ocean Cruise

 The hurricane didn't bother Fort Lauderdale. In fact, this is where a lot of people from elsewhere in the state came to evacuate. However the Coast Guard did close all the ports in Florida on Oct 10, so this delayed our departure by one day. It also meant we would not be stopping at Cozumel. This is not a huge loss to use because we've been do Cozumel many times, but always as scuba divers, so we really haven't see the tourist view. Oh Well.

So, it would be 3 full days at sea before our first port. People who cruise a lot tell me they really like the days at sea, so I set out to see what they meant. It is very relaxing, and the ship is just gorgeous. I had already made 2 appointments in the spa - one facial and one hair treatment. Ahhhh. Have you ever had a view of the ocean going by as you had a spa treatment? It was nice!

Time that you explore the ship it time well spent for the rest of the cruise. Jim and I took the tour given by the Travel Manager, Hamed. He was so good. He has a model of the ship right outside his office, and Jim is pointing our our room.

We were on the 3d deck, right in the middle of the ship. It was a great location - #3056. This is a huge ship but still less than one third the size of the giant cruise ships these days. It holds a total of 930 passengers, and we had 768 on board. The giant ones hold 3,000 to 5,600. Yikes.

I have been in rooms both with and without balconies and I've told Jim don't ever expect me to go cruising unless I have a balcony! Every stateroom on the Viking Ocean Cruise Ships have a balcony!

We even found the pool on deck 7 called the infinity pool. So pleasant! And, we had great weather.

Richard Lovelock was the naturalist and wildlife photographer on board and he was on the observation deck (explorer's lounge) every morning spotting sea life for all to see. Lots of birds, some dolphin and a few whales. He also gave fantastic talks in the Star Theatre. If you missed one, no worries, they were all recorded and could be watched in the TV in your room. He spoke of animal adaptations, migrations, all about whales, and more. He even gave one talk about "Secrets of Good Smartphone Photography" 😮 I'm happy to say that I was familiar with everything he covered, but I was interested to see how he put it all together and what features he highlighted. He was very good, and very entertaining. You can check him out at RichardLovelock.com His fiancee, Laura, also gave some great talks on geology and world travel. Then there was Corey Sandler gave many talks on topics both general and obscure about the Panama Canal and beyond. And another speaker was all about spies! 

Every cruise line has a drink package that you can buy so it is all you can drink, all the time. We did not get that on this cruise because part of the standard fare includes unlimited beer and wine at lunch and dinner. If we wanted some in between, we were free to bring our own wine on board - we brought a couple of boxes. The cost of this cruise was roughly $7,000 each for the 17 days.

Tracking Hurricanes and Cruise Ships

Note: This post was made in our business website first, but I figure it belongs here too. 

Both our cruise ship and Hurricane Milton were scheduled to arrive at the same time. Not good. Jim became obsessed with tracking them both.

Tracking the Hurricane

He tracked the hurricane with a website called Windy.com. This is the map from the morning of Oct 10. The same day we were scheduled to board the Cruise Ship. It actually missed us in Fort Lauderdale, but you couldn’t know that for sure as of the day before. Port Everglades closed down on Oct 9 and our Cruise Ship informed us they would be delayed at least one day.

The special feature of Windy.com is that you can actually see the way the wind is blowing.

Tracking the Cruise Ship

The Viking Neptune cruise ship was on another journey up in NE US waters. Jim could see it when it was in Maine. Then it stopped in New York City. He could watch it leave port in NYC on a web cam. It was headed to Fort Lauderdale to pick us up for our Panama Canal cruise. It was still in New York City as late as Oct 8 and we were supposed to board on the 10th. This boat is fast. Jim watched its progress using CruiseMapper.com It only took it 2 days to get here, but then the port was closed due to the hurricane. 😒

Tracking Geeks

We received official notice that the port has reopened and our cruise ship will be docked and ready for us to board tomorrow Oct 11. We will be on board for nearly 3 weeks. We cruise thru the Panama Canal and up the west coast to Los Angeles. Then we fly home. You can track us on the CruiseMapper.com website by looking up the Viking Neptune cruise ship. You can also follow us by watching our photo album.

In preparation for the cruise, we’ve been reading the book The Path Between the Seas. It’s the story of the building of the Panama Canal. An Epic story!

We expect to have good Internet connectivity on the ship, so stay tuned. You’ll be hearing from us.

Make the world go away

I didn't particularly want to stop the world and get off, but that's what happens when you have No internet or connectivity of any kind on board the Aggressor in Cuban waters. 

Getting away from the constant onslaught of news is a good thing, not being able to take care of business I didn't like. I did send out an email before we left letting everyone know that we would be completely off grid, but who knows how many read it. We're so accustomed to having internet when we're traveling so we can take care of anything we need. It was definitely interesting to be off grid for a week. We both had downloaded kindle books and we actually read! 

I wrote a bunch notes about ideas for a button show on being off grid. The hardest part for me was the fact that I used 2 different phones. Usually, when there is connectivity, anything I do on one phone syncs to the other. This time, I'd pick up my iPhone and want to add to that list, only to realize I started the list on the Android. 

Everyone on board has iPhones so photos were being shared using airdrop. That works so well. Jim and I tried using the qiuckshare on android and couldn't get it to work. 

No emails, no Facebook posts, Google photos experts, no googling for news or answers to questions, no photo albums, no checking on bank account transactions, and a growing dread about how all of these things are getting backed up and I will get a deluge once my devices do get connected. ONe thing that I has become such second nature is Googling things that you can't remember. Like, who was the author of Lonesome Dove? I said, oh that's one of my very favorite authors - his name is ... uh ... uh .... And, I can't look it up!?!? Two days later I look at Jim and say, "Larry McMurtry" 😂 He knew exactly what I was talking about.

I have enjoyed the time off however, because I'm bad about 'doomscrolling.' That's where I read some political garbage news and say "omg, that's horrible! … tell me more"

Here's our YouTube show where we gave tips about being offline:

Cuba es finito

Although we do have a couple more dives tomorrow, today was the last full day of diving. And it was a doozy. First off, I slept in and skipped the first dive, finishing my book "The subtle art of not giving a fuck" it's a self help/philosophy book about finding your priorities - what you do give a fuck about. I rather enjoyed it! 

Then I got ready and joined Jim in the second dive. Very nice. Decent visibility, lots of spirit fish, a lobster or two and a stingray or two. On the ride back to the main boat we came close to shore and spotted a crocodile! That's a first. Then, on the way back from the second dive we saw an eagle Ray jumping out of the water - a couple times. It was such a gorgeous day : sunshine, blues skies, calm seas. It doesn't get better. 

Then my third dive (Jim's fourth) of the day, we saw a huge grouper...a Goliath grouper! 

We ditched the wetsuits about day 3 because the water was 89-92 degrees. Just look at this fashion statement:

Three exceptional sights today: crocodile, jumping eagle Ray, and Goliath grouper. 

Then a traditional Cuban dinner, ropa vieja, piña colada, and a small pasta salad using little tube p pasta with mayonnaise, cheese, ham, and pineapple. I loved it! 

Good night

Last Day = one dive in a canyon. Fantastic!!

After we got home, I gave a speech about it to our Earlybird Toastmasters Club. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/yPOKVwfkt10?t=2960.