February 1, 2023
This will be a short but delicious post. The chefs prepared an amazing brunch today for the Around the World guests. These pictures do not even do it justice! Unlimited champagne, mimosas and bloody marys and every type of food you can think of. The food decorations were as outstanding as the food. It was sunny in the Grand Dining Room so some of the pictures are not as good as the real thing looked!
January 31, 2023
Norm went on the first shuttle to town. It takes about 40 minutes from the port to the town and the buses fill up fast!
He did do the 440 steps up and 440 back down to and from
Santa Ana Hill and the chapel at the top. The steps are all numbered and are a popular tourist attraction. His foot held up OK but I was not too happy that he did that many steps.
The lighthouse is at the highest point of the hill. It was inaugurated in 2002. It is the main symbol of the tourist campaign “Guayaquil is my destination.”
This statue is a sculpture of Juan Pueblo who is a popular character here in Guayaquil. His image dates back to 1918 when he first appeared in the newspaper. He represents Guayaquil’s common man, humble and hard working, trying to find a way to get ahead.
The sculpture was inaugurated on November 1, 2013.
Norm also went to Seminario Park. It is also known as Iguana Park. He saw many different sized iguanas there. They are happy and well fed and don’t bother people at all. I guess the cat and the iguana don’t bother each other either.
Here are some other pictures of the Rotonda, the Municipal Palace, the Cathedral, City Hall and the Park.
And here is our sunset. After we enjoyed freshly made Indian Dosa on deck, I enjoyed the show and we now have three sea days in a row due to the cancellation of Peru stops because of the conflicts there. One day we will be docked in Peru for supplies but no one can get on or off the ship so it is, for us, the same as a sea day on board.
January 31, 2023
Last night we were in port overnight and there was a really fun deck party. Our entertainment team can sure sing and dance and I had a great time. Even had a dance with Jared from the Vagabonds! The picture of Ilya and Keenan didn’t come out too well but they were great.
Norm and I went different directions today. I opted for the Flavors of Guayaquil tour and Norm took the shuttle bus into the town and explored on his own. I will post his pictures and commentary separately from the ipad because his new format iphone pictures weren’t jpg and wouldn’t load on the laptop! We fixed that for the future but this was the easiest way right now.
My guide was Javier – he was interesting and I learned more about Ecuador. Jose (yesterday’s guide) told us that Ecuador is “the belly button” of the world located near the equator. The weather is about the same all year. Javier shared more about the country.
Public colleges cost $50/semester and private colleges are about $4000/semester. Voting is mandatory here and if you don’t vote you lose your rights as a citizen for a year. This means everything like having and accessing bank accounts, your medical benefits and much more – anything that is provided by the government is denied for a year.
Javier pays $95 per month for the public health care plan. He pays 21% tax on his earnings. He loves soccer and says the tickets generally only cost $5. Gas is between $2.40 and $3/gallon. He says it used to be cheaper.
He pointed out a part of the city with upscale housing and many clubs. Though most have not been to Miami, it is known as “Guayami!”
Our first stop on the tour was a public market, and you know how I love markets! Here are some pictures. The market wasn’t huge but it was very clean and had all kinds of fish, poultry, vegetables, fruit, meat, snacks and household items. It also had an area where people could sit and eat. Here are some pictures. I bought 6 sunflowers, 2.5 pounds of cherries (almost the size of plums) and 3 mangoes for $10. The size of the avocados amazed everyone. They definitely have lots of cheese, bananas, plantains and there is no shortage of eggs here!
This little boy came up to me and gave me a big hug. I took his picture and showed him – he had a big smile. Another little guy was walking all around and dropping his candy around him. So cute.
After the market, we went to the Cacao museum. The signs and information were all in Spanish but Javier translated some in each room. It was a nice history of cacao and enhanced what we learned at the plantation yesterday. We each got a piece of chocolate as we left. We then went to the chocolate factory where we saw the processing of the chocolate and the finished products. There was also cacao wine for sale and it was white so I assume it was from the same outer covering that was used for the juice we had yesterday.
Not sure what this mural is on the side of a building nearby but thought it was cool.
Our last adventure was at the River Garden Hotel, just across the street, where we had a cooking lesson and then had the food for lunch. I, of course, did not have the pork, but everything else was delicious. They use a lot of peanut butter in sauces, etc. Here are the dishes we had. First was a polenta and cheese wrap, followed by the pork, the avocado and the mashed potato cake with a salsa made from sliced tomatoes, etc, instead of chopped. For dessert was a plantain pudding with 2 toppings – grated cheese and blue cheese whipped cream. For me, an unusual combination but very tasty.
The restaurant was on the roof of the hotel so the views were great. Nice pool up there too.
This is a shot of the around the world hostess, Carolyn, and me on the roof.
A few more pictures from around the town.
A cemetery with carrara marble crypts.
Watch for my post about Norm’s day.
January 30, 2023
First of all, I want to let my readers know about something special that is happening in our family. Here is a comment from our son, Adam Epstein.
I am thrilled to have the opportunity to run the 2023 Boston Marathon and support Cradles to Crayons! This year’s marathon is the day before my birthday, and it will my 41st marathon. Toward my goal of running a marathon in every state, Massachusetts will be #38.Thank you for your support!
I would love it if you might consider sponsoring him in the marathon – since we won’t be there for his 40th birthday. It is a worthwhile organization that is committed to ending clothing insecurity for children in Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago.
If you are inclined to sponsor him, here is the link: https://boston.epstein.run
Now on to our day in Guayaquil. Here is some of what we saw during the sail in. It is an estuary and it reminded us of some of the areas in the Amazon River. It is the gateway to the Galapagos and 30 passengers took a two day excursion there. We have spent a week there before.
We were greeted by some people in local costumes and some law enforcement officers with a puppet dressed like them!
We did a tour called The Cacao Route. We were a small group of 15 and traveled in a smaller bus than usual. Our driver was Victor and our guide (who was delightful) was Juan.
The trip to the Hacienda El Castillo took about an hour and Juan said he was doing a “podcast” – he gave us lots of information about Ecuador and about the area of Guayaquil.
The elections that I mentioned yesterday are for the regional mayors and representatives. We think we have complicated politics in the US – here in Ecuador they have 25 political parties so there are MANY candidates.
The main contributors to the country’s GDP are first, oil, second, shrimp, third, fish and fourth, tourism. It is the biggest commercial port in the country. The minimum wage here is $450/month.
Juan is an ecologist with a masters degree so he is quite knowledgeable about nature, plants, birds and animals.
The Hacienda is a working cacao plantation which has 35 employees. They all live at the 70 year old house on the property.
We had a Spanish speaking guide, John, and Juan did the translation.
We were welcomed with cacao juice which looked like lemonade and was naturally sweet, there was rum to add to it. We couldn’t figure out how to make cacao juice because we only associate it with chocolate. Later in this post you will see how they make it. We also had some delicious patacones and bolon – fried plantain in a patty with a mashed cheese on top.
Then we did a walk through the plantation. John carried his machete and showed us the cacao and plants at different degrees of ripeness. The bean is covered with a sweet white coating which is what they make the juice from! Who knew? He showed us how they graft the plants to shorten the growing cycle. We saw an iguana, many birds and termite nests in the trees.
We also saw the drying area, where the beans are spread out and are raked once a day. Depending on the weather it can take from 3 days to more than a week to dry. We saw the grinding and got to taste 100% cacao – very bitter!
After seeing the plantation and the operations, we returned to the Hacienda for lunch. The salad was delicious, and the main entree was a chicken dish with rice and plantains. It had a wonderful sauce – I gave my chicken to Norm and ate the rest, and then they brought me a whole new plate with the rice, plantains and a vegetable omelet, since I don’t eat meat! I was fine with the salad, rice and sauce.
We also had choices of local beer and three different local fresh fruit juices.
For dessert, it was a small piece of pound cake and fruit with an amazing chocolate sauce to pour over it all.
We had coffee or expresso and then got to taste three kinds of chocolate they make here and also a fabulous hot chocolate (Norm said it was the best he ever tasted!)
I bought the two large (1 kg) – 2.2 pound bars of chocolate – the 70% and the 55%. Each was just $10!! They should last us a while.
It was a truly wonderful and educational day. We do have a group picture but it is on another passenger’s phone, so when I get it, I will post it.
We are in port tonight and there will be a deck party. I have another tour tomorrow and Norm will decide how to spend his day – he will take the bus into town.
January 29, 2023
Yesterday, I was tied with another player in the blackjack tournament, so we chose to split the prize vs playing one more hand for first and second place.
Here is a picture of our wonderful casino team – we have a lot of fun at the tournaments and just having a nice time with other players and the dealers.
We had the second Oceania Club cocktail party and this time we had a song from two singers from our entertainment team, Abby Davis and Robbie McCartney. Here’s Abby’s picture. There are currently 578 passengers on board and most of them are returning guests.
We had a delicious dinner in Polo and then went to the show which was a wonderful flutist, Viviana Guzman.
It does feel great to be able to be out of quarantine and to take advantage of all the fun.
Today, we were supposed to arrive in port at 5 AM but it ended up being more like 6 AM. Some of the passengers were headed off the ship for a 2 day trip to the Galapagos.
When we looked outside, there was a large fishing boat unloading tons of tuna. This port is known as the tuna capital of the world. These huge nets would be lifted and drop the fish into the waiting container. Manta is the largest seaport in Ecuador.
Our tour today, with friends Erin and Mui and Sonia and Boris, was a coffee and beach tour. Our guide, Javier, picked us up a the port entrance. We aren’t allowed to walk on the pier here, so there is a bus that takes us to the entrance. Javier told us some things about Manta and Ecuador. The population of this city is 300,000. Their school year is May – February so they avoid the rainy season which is 6 months long but the worst rain is typically in March and April.
Ecuador uses the American dollar as their currency. They do have the driving restriction by the license number so many working people have 2 cars, one with each type of number so they can drive every day.
They get lots of whales in their season from June to October so sadly no whales for us to see today.
We drove to a much higher elevation through the rain forest where baby bamboo grows to full size within 3 – 4 months! We saw many of those bamboo plants.
What a nice day it was! There were showers predicted, but it never rained at all. We traveled in a van to a coffee farm run by Juan Delgado. He is originally from Puerto Rico and has previously lived in the US. He left because of the politics, he said.
We walked in the farm, and the noise of the howler monkeys in the distance was quite loud. They were too far away to see though.
Juan told us that the “cherries”, the outer coat of coffee beans, is quite sweet. There are red ones and yellow ones, and we were able to find some to taste. Yes, very sweet. He also grows some cacao, bananas, pineapples and many other smaller crops. He has a very nice building with swings, hammocks and decks with a view of the bamboo forests.
Ecuador has its elections next Sunday and we saw political posters everywhere.
We then went to the drying area and Juan showed us how the coffee is dried, raked and ground. Small batches are processed here but the bigger batches are done at a larger location. After our time at the farm, Juan took us to his home which is right on the beach and just a lovely location. He is a very philanthropic person and has donated money and time to the infrastructure of the area. We sat outside overlooking the beach and had his coffee.
The white structures on the beach are where there are turtle nests.
Juan has a chihuahua named “monkey” and the dog barely left his side. We visited Juan’s office where he has artifacts and gifts from all over the world.
After we said goodbye and gave a big thank you to Juan, we went for lunch at a beach front restaurant, Fish Cevicheria. Javier gave us great suggestions. Boris and I had viche which is a fish and shrimp soup with vegetables and peanut in the soup itself. It was delicious and unlike anything I have ever had. Norm had ceviche as did Sonia and Mui. Erin had the fish and shrimp tacos which would have been my second choice. All really great. Most had the local beer, Club.
We relaxed and then left to spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach. We had a nice hour there and the water was warm – nice.
On the way back to the ship we stopped at two groceries in search of their chocolate, but no luck. The ship had run out of bananas though so I bought two bananas, a mango and a container of this spice that Javier said is popular there and that I would love it. The total charge was $2.55!
We arrived back to the ship before half time to cheer for the Eagles.
Tomorrow we will be in Guayaquil Ecuador for 2 days. It wasn’t on the original itinerary but was added when Peru was taken off.
January 28, 2023
First the very good news, we were tested for covid yesterday after day 5 of quarantine and we both tested negative. They tested us early in the morning and when the nurse called us with the results I did a happy dance in the hall. So we could now be out and about with masks on for 5 days.
It was a day at sea today and I got out for my walk, we ate in the terrace cafe for lunch (breakfast was still room service) and I was back at the blackjack tournament where I won both games!! I don’t think my fellow players (we call them the “usual suspects”) were very happy to see me back.
Tonight we had the first of two Oceania Club cocktail parties. As has become pretty standard, they need to do two because there are so many guests who are repeat Oceania travelers. We have reached the highest level, the President’s Circle and there are 19 of us on board with 11 including us reaching that level on this cruise. Pretty impressive loyalty. We enjoyed the party with friends Marilyn and Charlie. One of the singers, Laura Pachnos, entertained us during the party along with the Insignia band who are simply amazing. No matter who our guest performers are, the band just gets a short rehearsal with them and plays all of their music flawlessly.
After the party, we continued to dinner with Marilyn and Charlie. It was the second of two Mexican theme nights in the terrace and as usual, Farid, our chef, outdid himself. Beautiful presentation and delicious food.
After dinner, Norm relaxed and I played a bit of blackjack and then went to the show. It was a group called Jared and the Vagabonds. Jared played Jerry Lee Lewis on Broadway in the play Million Dollar Quartet. They were simply amazing and they got a standing ovation. They will perform again in 2 days.
Tonight at around midnight we will cross the equator and tomorrow we will be in Manta, Ecuador where we have a tour of a coffee plantation and then relaxation at the beach. This is the place that Panama hats are made and if you want a good handmade one, it can cost anywhere from $300 to $1000. Good thing I don’t wear too many hats!
January 26, 2023
We arrived here in darkness this morning just before our scheduled port time of 6 AM. This is El Salvador’s principal port and handles a large portion of its coffee, sugar and balsam exports. Not too many cruise ships come here. It is interesting to watch the trucks coming and going all day, we assume with products to be loaded and exported on the many ships.
It has a privileged geographic position because it is located outside the Pacific ocean’s coast and has protected beaches and coral reefs.
Here is a picture of the port area.
About 90 minutes before we were scheduled to depart at 2 PM, this rig pulled up on the pier and what looked like a group of high school musicians got out and set up their instruments to play for us as the tour buses got back.
It did get some video but the WiFi was apparently not fast enough to load it.
Tonight we move 1 hour forward and we will be in the US eastern time zone. We have 2 days at sea on our way to Manta Ecuador on Sunday. There are two Oceania Club parties on the next two nights and we hope our quarantine will be over.
January 25, 2023
Well, there isn’t much to write about. The room looks about the same as it has since Sunday! I did watch The Woman King yesterday and am still watching a lot of Australian Open tennis even though my favorites are out of the competition already🎾.
We were both up and about to see the beautiful sunrise this morning as we sailed toward the port.
There isn’t much interesting to see from our balcony on the starboard side of the ship today. It is mostly industrial. Here is one picture.
We really enjoyed Guatemala on our last visit here. It is a small country, about the size of Ohio, and as I posted yesterday, it is a very important producer of coffee. Honduras now produces more than Guatemala but this country is still the second largest coffee producer in Central America.
Norm continues to feel better each day and I am still feeling fine. On Friday we will test negative and will hope to join all of the ship activities and our tours.
January 24, 2023
We are into day 3 of our COVID quarantine and are feeling pretty good. I am fine and Norm is feeling better every day. The medical people check on us twice a day and we get any food we went from any restaurant – delivered of course. The only thing I really miss is exercise. Reading books and watching Austrailian Open tennis is keeping me occupied. Maybe I will try to see one of the movies today. We do love to sit on the balcony and watch the sights.
Here are the pictures of last night’s sunset and the quintet dessert from Polo – a sample of 5 of their desserts. A bite of each was great.
Today we arrived in Puerto Chiapas, Mexico. There was a pretty narrow channel into the port and a beach with MANY birds waiting for us. Lots of my favorite – pelicans. Here are some pictures of the port, all we will be seeing of this place is from our balcony!
We got word last night that all stops in Peru are canceled due to the political unrest there. We weren’t surprised. We had tours scheduled in all 3 ports but have been there before so it is not too disappointing. They are adding two days in Guayaquil Ecuador. I am sure that the people who were planning to go to Machu Picchu were unhappy but that’s the way the world is. No guarantees.
This area is second among Mexican states in the production of cacao, the product used to make chocolate. We were scheduled to visit a place that makes it today. I love chocolate, so will miss that, but perhaps one of our friends will bring some back. The area is also responsible for 60% of Mexico’s coffee output.
Tomorrow we will be in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. When we were here before, we visited a coffee plantation and learned a lot about coffee beans and how they go from the plant to the product we all know. And the guide had a belt on that I admired. She made it herself and when I mentioned how nice it was, she took it off and gave it to me. The world is full of wonderful people even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes. Travel is eye opening, you never see things through the same lens again.
January 22, 2023
Last evening we had dinner with Paul and Carolyn, the around the world host and hostess. They are from the UK. There were two other couples with us as well and it was a fun time. Very few people were in the dining room because our chef, Farid, did a Red Ginger dinner in the Terrace Cafe for Chinese New Year. They will do it again tomorrow night.
I had the lobster pad Thai. Delicious.
The sky just after sunset tonight was just beautiful.
Last night and then this morning, Norm wasn’t feeling well. So we both decided to do Covid tests as I have had a post nasal drip and a bit of a cough.
As you see, we both tested positive much to my surprise (about me, but kind of expected it for Norm.) He had a fever and a lot of congestion since last night.
We called the medical office and they did a confirming PCR test, both positive. So now we will need to quarantine in our suite for 5 days at which point we will have another test, then we will need to wear a mask inside and out for 5 days.
We are very thankful for being fully vaccinated and for the antiviral meds they gave us.
So, you won’t see many posts from three upcoming ports – I will post what we can see from our balcony, and updates on how we are feeling. For the 5 days, we will miss one in Mexico, one in Guatemala and one in El Salvador as well as 2 sea days. Nothing we haven’t seen before! So room service, movies and books here we come. We are watching the NFL playoff game now and we get the Australian Open, so I am happy about that. We also get all the news channels but don’t watch them unless there is some really important news.
Stay tuned!
Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures 