GeorgeCharlie

In the early hours of November 27th, we crossed the Equator. Although, the King Neptune Ceremony was carried out at the Sea View pool mid-day on the 26th. All cruisers were welcomed to kiss the fish, to signify that they had officially crossed the Equator and were no longer a pollywog.

I forgot to mention one other thing about the Embera culture. One of the unique features of the Embera is the body painting that they do. The Embera use the inedible fruit JAGUA to create a black dye that is then used to paint their bodies. The pigment remains embedded in the skin until the external layer is naturally exfoliated, generally lasting between 10 to 12 days. It is done primarily for body ornamentation and each design has a meaning, and each is different for age as well as gender. The jagua body painting is still in use for all celebrations and is one of the most enduring and important customs for both Waounan and Embera people. Another thing of note regarding their use of the dye, is that they apply it to babies - due to it being a natural insect repellant.

In the early evening of Nov 25th, we waved goodbye to Panama City. And started our first true cruise to South America.🤠

The return boat/van trip took about the same length of time as it did to go out. Overall, even with the tour being rushed, the was very interesting and well worth the time to see.

As part of the last activities before departing back to city, we had to earn our return trip tickets by participating in a local dance. Each of us were paired up with one of the locals - with Lynne and I getting a pair of cute younger dancers.

After lunch we were entertained with the Embera ladies Dance performance, which is part of healing ritual and part celebrations. The dances are based on birds, flowers, mountain, or local animals dance performances. Following was a group of men playing local instruments, such as a flute made from Bamboo; drum covers made of wild leather (the chimbombo); the smaller the Requinta drum which is made of similar leather; the Maraca made of Gorge; the Wiro made from Gorge and Turtle shell.

We arranged an independent tour with the Secrets of Peru tour company, which picked us up directly from the ship at the San Martin harbour. In the morning the tour took us to the Ballestas Islands and in the afternoon to the Paracas Nature Reserve, and then back to the ship. The tour was well organized and very interesting. I am currently in the process of doing a review of our 31-day cruise and should be covering our visit to General San Martin fairly soon. If you are interested, the review is at:

We also have wood carving from around the world, some of them close to 50 years old, and have never had to do anything to them. It may be because we live in a relatively low humidity area and they have always been kept inside the house.

We then enjoyed some local Embera food (fried plantain, fried fresh catch tylapia, fruits and a bottle of water) wrapped in leaf – the ultimate disposable food container. The food was very tasty. We then had the chance to walk about the village, along with perusing the crafts tables for any items we may be interested in buying.

They also carve items out of ironwood. Carver demonstrating ironwood carving. What his carving looks like in its rough-cut form. After many, many hours of cutting and polishing, they end up producing a work of fine art. This is the hummingbird statue we purchased. It is about 5 inches tall and is carved out of a single piece of ironwood.

We were in General San Martin last month (Dec 02) and HAL provided free shuttle service between the port and Plaza Paracas, which is where most of the independent tours left from. The bus ride is about 30 minutes.

We just returned from a cruise which visited San Antonio and we used Philipp with San Antonio Tours. We found Philipp to be very good, plus flexible with his tour arrangements. I understand he provides day tour/transfers, so he may be able to arrange something which fits your schedule. https://puertosanantoniotours.com/santiago-de-chile/

Have you tried contacting Falkland Islands Tourist Board. We recently returned from a cruise which stopped in Falkland Islands and we found their Tourist Information Centre staff were very knowledgeable. Besides their website, I believe they also have a Facebook page.

We're just off a 31-day South American cruise on the Oosterdam. As our cruise was the first large cruise ship sailing down the west side of SA, we encountered a fair number of logistical problems, which I'd hope are corrected by the time of your cruise. We are 4-stars and when we queried if we could just use our status to get early access to a tender, we were told no. We had to get a tender number just like everyone else. Another thing I noticed, was that the first 2, or 3 tenders were open to whomever wanted to get on - regardless of status, ticket number, or brand of deodorant you were using. After that, the tenders loaded ship tour people, but there was usually still space on the tender for another dozen, or so people, so they would then let some of the independent people who were waiting, get on the tender. Of note: A lot of the free-for-all situation we enjoyed may have been due to how disorganized the tender process was for our cruise. But, as others have noted and I know from past cruises, if you are there early and they have a tender ready to go, they will normally let you just walk on.

One item they carve is the Tagua nut, which comes from the Ivory Palm. This palm tree is considered to be endangered due to the fact it only grows in South America. Once the nut is dried it exhibits the same features of ivory - colour, texture, density, and overall look. The Tagua nut in its natural form. The nut at various stages of carving.

Arriving at the Emberapuru Village we were welcomed to the Embera community with a local music performance. The village has a population of 128 people. We then we had some time to use the local ‘facilities’. Then, in the local round-house community center we received some various talks regarding the Embera Culture, hand craft as iron wood, Tagua carving, process of weaving baskets, tradition lifestyles, body painting, & education. Lining the inside of the building were tables displaying the local handcrafts, which were, of course, available for purchase.

After finally getting to the tour pick up point, we set off on a tour to one of the local native Embera villages. It was a private tour for six people by a local native guide. He was highly recommended by several past Cruise Critic reviewers, along with top rating on TripAdvisor. Our experience with him certainly backed up his ratings. The owner/guide is well recognized as providing a truly unique & authentic travel experience. He grew up in an Embera village and was further educated in the USA , receiving training in Natural Resources. He is trilingual in Embera, Spanish, and English. His website is Embera Village Tours – Embera Tours Panama One of the TripAdvisor's reviews of the guide can be seen here. After about a one-hour drive, we arrived at the river where we boarded a dugout canoe. And no, we did not have to paddle, as it had an outboard motor! It was about a 45-minute trip to the village, which was interesting, but the low wooden seats were extremely uncomfortable for us older folks.

In most cases HAL does not require the at-home test to be medically observed. A person can perform their at-home test and record the results on their phone for presentation at cruise check-in. From HAL's FAQ regarding testing requirements: For cruises not visiting Australia that allow an at-home, self-administered PCR or Antigen COVID-19 test, guests should take a photo of their test result with their mobile device. Their full names, date and time of test should be written on, or next to the test device result like the below: First Name: _____________________ Last Name: ______________________ Date of Birth: ____________________ Date the self-test was taken: ____________________ Self-test type: ___Antigen    ___PCR Place self-test device below: For cruises visiting Australia that allow an at-home, self-administered Antigen COVID-19 test (RAT), guests should take one photo with their mobile device that meets all of the criteria outlined below: Negative RAT test next to the guest’s government issued photo ID with a clock showing the time the test was complete (a wristwatch, mobile phone screen or a wall clock, etc.).

We were dropped off at the Flamenco Marina, which is right beside the new terminal complex. This is where tendered cruise ship passengers are normally taken. From there you can meet your tour guide, catch the 'hop-on hop-off' bus, or take a taxi.

I did a video of the shuttle drive back to the ship. It clearly shows why you can not just walk off the ship.

Panama City's new cruise terminal is 'work-in-progress', as it has been for several years - and from what I could see, it will be lucky if it is finished by the end of this year! The only area that is mostly completed is the pier. The terminal building, along with access roads and parking areas are still under construction. With the whole area being a construction zone, the only way off the ship was by shuttle. This requirement caused much grief for people who were on independent tours. Seeing we were staying in port overnight, we arranged for a private tour to pick us up at 8am. The tour guide notified me at 7am that he was waiting at the port pick-up point. Unfortunately, the ship/port authorities had other ideas. They had lined up all the ship shore excursion buses on the pier, which meant the shuttle buses to get everyone else who wanted to go ashore were unable to get on the pier until all the shore excursion buses were gone. This meant we did not get to the tour pick up point until late morning. So, our full day tour became a rushed half day tour. Needless to say, there were many unhappy passengers!

After we passed through the locks, we then sailed over to Fuerte Amador, where they are building Panama City's new cruise terminal. Along the way we sailed by the Frank Gehry designed biodiversity museum, which focuses on the natural history of Panama.

Posting error.

During the cruise we had the opportunity to chat with Ali (Food Services Director) about the ongoing staffing and food quality issues. His straightforward answers and explanations did a lot to ease my concerns with HAL and showed they were really trying to get ahead of the situations. We did notice an uptick in food quality on the second segment of the cruise. Just the same, I am in agreement with his position, that it will take at least two more years before most of the issues related to staffing and supply chain quantity/quality reach acceptable levels. I discussed at length about some of these issues in my Somewhat 'Life' Review, which I did while on board. If you have any further questions/comments related to what was happening on the ship, I ask that you post to the Somewhat "Live" review, as I would like to keep this review limited to what we experienced off the ship.

We are no longer on the ship, but maybe you can try contacting @cruisn71, who is presently on the ship.