Mackdogmolly

La Palma today. Took the panoramic Island drive tour. It’s the 3rd smallest Canary Island and has a population of about 80,000. It also has plenty of water, so lots of vegetation and many banana plantations and avocado trees spotted. A marked difference in weather from the eastern side (port), where it was cloudy and cool, to the western side, where it was sunny and much warmer, with people sunbathing on the beach. There was a volcanic eruption in 2021 that is still smoking that destroyed many many homes. Fortunately, they had plenty of warning and were able to evacuate. You can see fields and fields of lava. A couple of disappointments: 1. While the scenery was beautiful, there weren’t a lot of photo opportunities, and I’m not great about capturing pics from a moving bus. 2. Azamara hyped a stop at a giant crater, but the bus driver said that parking had to be reserved in advance and Azamara hadn’t done that, so it wasn’t on his agenda. Photos upside down again. I tried a couple of different ways. Sorry!!

My sister is in Madeira now and she said that there was cheap transportation to town, so maybe she was talking about the pedicab.

Could be. Some people see Cruise “Critic” and think that implies that the group criticizes the brand, when for the most part, we are its biggest supporters. There is lots of complaining on the FB page, lol

I’m a little concerned about this too!

It was pretty tasty and done in about 20 minutes or so. The setting was really pretty too. A courtyard of a restaurant that was a former mansion. Should have gotten pictures!

I agree that would be a shame. Not sure Azamara is aware the value of all of this networking in the service of the brand.

Docked at Tenerife today. We went on a ship’s excursion traveling around the island and ending up at a restaurant where we sampled local cheeses, boiled potatoes, sauces, pork, wine, and then had a paella cooking class/demonstration of four different kinds of paella. Great fun!

And the onboard shop sells lanyards with a plastic sleeve to hold them

It was fascinating! And very well attended.

Right. It listed an Antarctic cruise as a Perry Golf Cruise 😂

Yes, we are “rocking and rolling” a bit today. Big St Patrick’s Day party in the Den this morning with a singalong, beer, snacks, etc. The captain gave a very interesting talk about a recreation of Columbus’s three ships and subsequent Atlantic crossings that he was a part of when he was a very young man. Relaxing this afternoon!

Can anyone currently on the Onward tell me how embarkation went at Grand Canaria on 3/11? Thanks!

Also, sometimes the Patio (just outside Windows) is sometimes open for dinner. They have table service and a different menu than the more casual lunch time fare.

I quite agree about our berth position and the last time I had checked CruiseMapper, the Fred Olsen was not even scheduled to be here. My DH cannot walk that far either, so were not able to see the town or have lunch there which we were hoping to do.

It’s the same

Another upside down one!

And in other views (from our balcony), currently offloading lots of trash. God knows where it goes. Our tour guide said there is no recycling on the island.

That has been the experience on our current cruise too.

Can’t figure out why some of these photos are coming out upside down! Anyway, the last one (the rock with the white structure) is a lighthouse, now automated, but families used to live there , virtually as prisoners, according to our tour guide.

Our excursion today was a panoramic tour of Cape Verde. We had a very comfortable bus that seated about 22 and a charming tour guide. We traveled to the interior of the island and on a narrow winding road to the top of Mont Verde. The island gets very little rain, so is not very green and not a lot of agriculture. But still some striking scenery, which was hard to capture on the move! The island is poor though and I was hoping that there had been an easier way back into town after the tour (no shuttles or taxi ranks that we could make out) because we would have liked to have had lunch and spent a little on the local economy. It seemed a bit of a hike for us.

I had a lazy sea day yesterday, while DH enjoyed the aquatic talk by Dr. Greta and the Engineering talk in Discoveries Lounge. Quite agree with BrazilGirl’s review of the guitarist. We had enjoyable 3 hour Italian Chef’s Table in Prime C. Both food and wine were delicious and we enjoyed the company. Now approaching Cape Verde and looking forward to our excursion.

The curtains on the Pursuit are the new cloth ones and don’t cling at all! 😊

Today was a gorgeous, sunny, sea day, with plenty to do, including a crew expo this morning in the Cabaret Lounge. Interesting to see how all of the departments function. I took advantage of the good weather to spend some time on the pool deck, where there were plenty of available sun beds.

The crossing of the equator ceremony was yesterday with a parade, a crew tug of war (engineering won - those guys are big!), and some hazing of some newly promoted officers. Captain Antonio took a dunk too, although I missed that shot. IMG_2785.MOV

My DH is sad to be missing the rest of spring training, by will be home for opening day! 😊