Mike B Landlubber

Food and beverage post….. Cippiono Escargot bourguignon before and after (I happily ate them all) Biscuits and gravy Fruit (whose name I didn’t get) that was part of dessert at the mansion Entree on an excursion for dinner in a Lima historic mansion Pisco sour Baked Alaska Clothesline bacon

These signs were up in the Dive In bar. I thought the one about tastings and mixology would be of interest to those focused on activities.

Seals frolicking in rough water. Turn your sound on for the video! IMG_8567.mov

Fishermen, sea lions, penguins, and other birds cope with rough water during an excursion to islands off Lima.

One more batch of Nazca stuff. There is a video where you can hear crew narration. The Pan-American Highway runs right through the figures, and an observation tower has been built to help non-flyers. Other figures here include an upside down dog, a friendly giant, the hummingbird, and a general area shot. And one shot of disembarking the plane. IMG_8243.mov

This is interesting, though it doesn’t give an answer, and actually distresses me a bit: https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/south-america/peru/nasca-lines-of-peru-safety-tips-for-choosing-your-flight I am retired from a job where one of my duties was environmental risk assessment. What that means here is that I don’t easily get alarmed personally over very unlikely risks…So my views are probably more easy-going than those of most folks. But I’m very aware of the risks of flying in countries outside “nice” countries around the North Atlantic, Japan, and a few other places (and even in the nice countries sometimes). My evaluation beforehand was largely that I viewed HAL as better-qualified than me to judge safety, and I trusted their incentive to avoid accidents and scandal to motivate them to do a good job screening. This may be naive, I know. To answer your specific question, they had two uniformed guys up front, I assumed both were pilots, but I don’t know that. I didn’t watch during flight, though it appeared one mostly did narration during the actual flight. I assume, but don’t know, that he was capable of taking over if necessary. I’d say the risk of a single pilot becoming so incapacitated during flight that he wouldn’t be able to power his way through a landing that he does routinely several times each day is so low it is one of those “so unlikely I don’t worry about it as an individual” risks that I don’t worry about. I was thinking about safety as we boarded, as an airplane buff and guy who wants to go back to the ship outside a box, I can’t help it. Things I noticed included that the paint on the outside needed touching up. This was cosmetic, but didn’t please me. I noticed the sheet metal skin seemed a bit uneven in some places. Again it didn’t please me, but I knew these planes are subject to a lot of stress because of the rolls and tight turns involved with tight coverage of a small area. I didn’t think it necessarily indicated the structural soundness of the plane. I’m not sure you’ll be able to see these at the resolution of my uploaded picture. What greatly reassured me on boarding the plane was seeing that the pilots had a digital instrument panel that appeared new or at least well-maintained. Someone is spending money on this plane. You can see it in one of the photos I posted above. As we went through the flight, I also felt like the pilot(s) were practiced and competent at piloting. The risk assessor in me reminds me that even an airline that is very unsafe in the aggregate is probably quite safe for one flight if it has been in business for awhile and is financially sound. An airline with a fatal crash rate of one in one thousand flights would be considered appallingly unsafe and quite properly immediately shut down by the FAA. But passengers on 999 out of 1000 flights would have been fine—You’d have a 99.9% chance of being safe from one flight. My amateur unqualified opinion is that if you use an air service contracted by one of the major cruise lines you will probably be fine. Sorry to run on so long about it!

I just heard from a fellow in a group that booked a much cheaper Nazca flightseeing outside HAL. He reports they flew from an airport a three hour drive away, and barely made the all-aboard despite driving back at breakneck speed. Do as your wallet and blood pressure dictate…

I went on the Nazca Lines flightseeing this morning. I’d expect this to be of interest, so I’m going to go into a lot of detail. This must have been popular, HAL added a second round of flights mid day. My flight was early in the morning, be there at 7:15 am! Ugh….but I understand it is better for smooth flying weather. The ticket said to bring our passports, and we had to collect them in the morning since the ship was holding them. We had a longer than I expected ride to the airport, about 45 minutes through the desert. This is definitely a desert area, even by the sea. At the airport we actually checked in and went through security like a normal flight, including checking our passports and receiving paper tickets. Everything was surprisingly like a normal flight. We were in a little twelve-seat single engine plane, ten passenger seats actually used. They had called and asked weight on the ship a couple of days before, and weighed us before we got on the plane. Weight and balance is important on these smaller planes, especially when they are loaded. We were assigned seats with weight taken into account, so there is no rushing to get the best seat. Everybody had a window out one side. I talked to one fellow who sat by the strut under the wing and said it blocked a lot of his view, but otherwise no bad seats. I was by myself in the last two seats so I had a pretty good view out of both sides. Best seat in the house! 🙂 They offered us diagrams of the figures in the airport. I photographed mine for reference and put it away, but pulled it out again when overflying the figures as it was a useful reference to see what was next. I lost track about 2/3 of the way through as things were happening too fast. I had read some online suggestions that the flight was bumpy, and between the bumps and the rapid banking and turning to see the figures, airsickness was possible. I didn’t take any special precautions against it, but did notice it and “think” about airsickness for the first couple of minutes over the figures, but that feeling passed. I don’t consider myself sensitive to sea sickness or air sickness, anyone who feels they are sensitive probably should consider taking some kind of remedy ahead of time. Takeoff and the flight to the figure area was smooth.There was haze that concerned me for interference with photos of the figures, but we descended to be closer to the figures and it went away. The first figure we saw was The Whale. More to come! Side note just for photographers—I used a 24-105 lens for my photos. Other than a few iPhone shots, it was used for everything. I had dabbled with taking a wide angle zoom, but was glad I didn’t. Sometimes I really wanted the telephoto, and I seldom wanted wider than 24mm. I mostly just left the camera on shutter priority at 1/1000th and it worked well on this sunny day.

If you order a Coca Cola on board, it comes in a can marked especially for onboard airline or maritime consumption?! My guess is it has to do with geographical distributor’s rights. We have been at sea two days, and won’t make land till tomorrow morning, but this little grasshopper was hanging on for dear life.

Torques, you are in luck—I am doing flightseeing over Nazca and booked my tour with the ship months ago when it first came open. I know a group in the roll call thread was planning to book independently and it was loads cheaper. It is coming up day after tomorrow I believe, and I’m excited! I’ll give a full report. i know the debate has raged for years and I ask that we not repeat it here, but my lady friends always insist that I not wear blue or purple because they clash with the huge yellow stripe down my back—I usually take excursions booked through the ship.

The bad news is I’m not a big participant in activities, though maybe your request will cause me to break my sea day sloth tomorrow. The good news is I’m attaching shots of tomorrow’s sea day schedule, and I’ll try to come back with some menus. Note that for two days in a row we’ve moved clocks back (giving us an extra hour of sleep!).

At dinner last night, I discovered a food I like that is new to me. I ordered buttered garlic shrimp in the MDR, and they were served on Forbidden Rice and Spinach. Forbidden Rice, aka Black Rice, is a mutant rice that has the same purplish-black nutrient found in blackberries and eggplant. It gives the rice a nutty taste and crunchy texture that I liked, and is actually good for you! Full of antioxidants. In ancient China, it was rare because it is not nearly as productive as normal rice. As a rarity, it was only served to the emperor and to nobility. But being on HAL makes us noble enough now! 🙂

Dolphins during lunch in Pinnacle! IMG_8103.mov

For anyone interested, here is the all-night room service menu. I had the chicken quesadilla and a chocolate milk for $5.90. I suspect the charge was for the chocolate milk. Food arrived commendably fast. The quesadilla was good, and I’ll do it again without hesitation. Good job by the staff.

My recollection is that many items are free but there is a charge for some. The food was good and delivered quickly at 2 or 3 am, so I feel I came out ahead on the deal! 😉

Your wish is my command, Sahib! Attached are the schedules from today (port day) and tomorrow (Sea day). The schedule that starts with setting clocks back is the sea day. Remind me a time or two over the next couple of weeks and I’ll try to post others.

As it happens, I have HIA and I asked for fresh-squeezed OJ this morning, and obviously had a shake this afternoon. No charges for either yet. I will watch my account to see if anything shows up, it has only been a few hours since the shake. I had post-midnight munchies and ordered room service last night and I see there is a $5.90 charge for that (which seems more than reasonable to me). That’s my only non-routine charge so far.

I goofed when I set up the thread! I fly home from Miami after the cruise, but it actually does end in FLL! Unfortunately, my window to changing after I post is very short and I can’t do anything about it now.

A dreary morning, but the Sun came out in the afternoon. We saw fishing boats and more Coquimbo Harbor. In the background on the other shore, you can see The Cross of the Third Millenium, erected in 2001, and on the near shore, you very appropriately see Saint Peter here with his fellow fishermen. Pete wears a knit wool cap, which is supposed to give good luck to fishermen…. This tree seemed kind of spooky. I had the feeling if I got too close, I might not get back on the bus, let alone the ship! Easter Island is a dependency of Chile, so they brought one of the famous stone heads to a mainland museum. Vastly easier to get to than the lengthy flight to Easter Island, but it’s vastly less impressive as well. Street musician… After a hard day of “excursing”, what could be better than a hot dog and shake at The Dive In to cap the afternoon!

Glad it is good. I was just stopped for a couple of happy snaps and feared it might be too spread out!

A few more shots. The main dining room on two levels. A interior view of the passenger terminal. The name “Explorer Africa” caught my imagination, but The reality of a mundane bulk carrier didn’t! 😉

Fun fact….Santiago, Chile has two different cruise ports! Valparaiso and San Antonio. I didn’t realize till I fortunately saw mention of it just a couple of days before sailing. If you depart from here, make sure you know which one (HAL makes that easy) but make especially sure your transfer driver knows! checking in was pretty quick and easy, because of me being conservative about transit time from Santiago I arrived 45 minutes before the Noon schedule, but was able to start checking in after waiting less than ten minutes after arrival. My room was ready, and I was relaxing in my balcony stateroom minutes after Noon. Headed up to the Lido for roast beef, corn, and cauliflower. I took full advantage of the wonderful view from my stern veranda… I couldn’t log onto the internet, and had to go to customer service who quickly sorted it out. I stopped and made some dining reservations, and was surprised to pass the library. Spacious and attractive, but I’m not sure the selection is that great! hopefully, I will have more interesting shots after a port call or two!

I have no knowledge, but the part about “main tourist attractions” here may be interesting. Going to Viator and looking for stuff at Brest may also give you some ideas. The cruise lines contract with many of the same people. https://www.shuttledirect.com/blog/brest-shore-excursions/

Actually, I am cheating on my main squeeze HAL when I sail on NCL! 😉 I am mostly driven by itinerary and price, but I really try to be faithful to HAL. I strayed to NCL for the first time when I took a cheap TA fling with MSC and wanted a quick trashy affair with one of those stylish European trips before I flew home. NCL had a port-packed Baltic cruise that was inexpensive if I used an inside cabin, which I did. I recently signed up with NCL again, not for a cheap thrill this time, but for a rather pricey cruise from South Africa to Portugal. An itinerary I lusted after for some time… 🙂 I generally prefer dining on HAL, but really enjoy the Pub food on NCL.