Pacific Mysteries Live report

[loum140]

Thank you so much for your comprehensive reports. Really enjoy reading them. Hope to do this itinerary someday. Marsha

[no fuss travel]

any word on Dottie?

 

Dottie told me that her husband and her contract ran out in May on the Marina and I believe she told me that she will not be reboarding again until August. I know she told me she would not be on the Marina but I don't remember which ship she said she would be on. She was checking to see if she was CD for a future cruise that I have already booked on another ship.

[Lady Meer]

Hi sacarr - thanks for the commentary, I've really enjoyed it and found it very useful as we will be in that area in April 2014.

 

Just one question, were there any bugs :eek:? I like to be prepared as they absolutely love me.

 

Many thanks.

 

Brenda

[sacarr]

Hi sacarr - thanks for the commentary, I've really enjoyed it and found it very useful as we will be in that area in April 2014.

 

Just one question, were there any bugs :eek:? I like to be prepared as they absolutely love me.

 

Many thanks.

 

Brenda

I Don't want to say there weren't any bugs, but the only time I remember them bothering me was at the turtle sanctuary at Le Meridian on Bora Bora. There were little gnat like things biting my ankle. We left and had no other problem on Bora Bora or anywhere else. Others may be more knowledgeable about pests on these islands, but that was it for us.

[travelglobetrotter]

Can you please send the recipe one more time? Marlene

lenmarlene at aol dot com Thanks!!:):)

[no fuss travel]

Vanatua and Noumea had bugs. Mosquitoes or something close. Yes, they bothered you but if you use bug spray you will be fine.

[TKS]

I Don't want to say there weren't any bugs, but the only time I remember them bothering me was at the turtle sanctuary at Le Meridian on Bora Bora. There were little gnat like things biting my ankle. We left and had no other problem on Bora Bora or anywhere else. Others may be more knowledgeable about pests on these islands, but that was it for us.

 

Sounds more like sand flees. They are nasty little beasties with a bite worse than a mosquito. Definitely "bug spray worthy."

[cdn.cruiser]

Hello, could I please have the recipe as well.

Thank you so much in advance.

My email address is

freda61 at email dot com

No spaces.

Thank you

[cdn.cruiser]

Sorry,

 

At hotmail not email lol.

[vaitape]

Sounds more like sand flees. They are nasty little beasties with a bite worse than a mosquito. Definitely "bug spray worthy."

 

sounds like "no-nos". Those of you going to the Marquesas be sure to spray before going ashore....they are ferocious there. Bora Bora is noteworthy for them too.

[Lady Meer]

Thanks to all for the bug advice - will take plenty of spray / lotion.

 

Brenda

[orchestrapal]

Thanks to all for the bug advice - will take plenty of spray / lotion.

 

Brenda

 

Save your skin from all those poisons and try "Bug Off" patches (Amazon) which can be placed on a hat brim or any other item of clothing. All bugs love my DH and he has had no bites since using them. :)

[sacarr]

During the four days between Fakarava and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) the seas were rolling quite a bit and we felt ourselves bouncing off the walls! However it has been very calm sailing since we left Rapa Nui. There has not been much movement and today the Captain said that he expected it to remain fairly calm the rest of the way to Peru. The following is a short recap of the last few days.

 

Tuesday.

 

I would like to make a few comments about the Moai statues I talked about in a previous post. They are huge! They are as tall as 10 meters (33 feet) and weigh as much as 80 tons. These large rock carvings were moved many miles to their Akus (platforms). This seems incredible and there has been recent investigation as to how they could have done this. The prevailing theory is that they were rocked back and forth and "walked" to the sites. Whatever the case these are very impressive figures and we felt privileged to get to visit these sites.

 

After a workout at the Fitness Center and a leisurely breakfast we took the tender back to Rapa Nui for the third time. We walked around the town of Hanga Roa. Hanga Roa (population of the island: 5800) is the only town on the island. Some of the streets are paved but many of them are not. There is only one gas station on the island, which is a little hard to believe. It seems to me that there are an awful lot of cars for just one station. We enjoyed the ambiance of the town but found little reason to spend any money. The prices here are about as high as we encountered in Polynesia which is to say 3 -4 times what one would expect to pay. We made it back to the ship only a couple of minutes before the restaurant closed for lunch at 2:00. The ship sailed later in the afternoon for Peru.

 

 

We had dinner at Jacques. We both had the foie gras appetizer and the salad of Boston lettuce with shallots and Roquefort. Meg had Pork Rack which was very moist with a tasty sauce and I had the Dover sole which was also very good. For dessert Meg had the "chocolate cream pot" and I had the Mille Feuille with light vanilla cream. A wonderful ending to a wonderful meal. By the time we were finished it was late and we retired afterwards.

 

Wednesday.

We once more had to set our clocks forward over night. This is the last time this voyage. We are now on the same time as US Central Time Zone. Due to the time change I went to the Fitness Center later than usual. Afterwards we went to breakfast in the dining room. Following this we went to another astronomy lecture with Norman Caisse entitled "The lives of Stars" Interesting information about the size and formation of stars as well as their life cycle. This evening we had dinner in Red Ginger, the Asian restaurant. I had the Chef's sushi selection and Meg had a shrimp appetizer. We both had salads and the Sea bass in Miso plum sauce for our entrée. Every thing was very good, the sea bass was fantastic! We saw some friends walk in as we were finishing up and sat down with them for a few minutes to hear about their last day on Rapa Nui. After this we went to the Showroom for the "Liars Club" It is sort of like the old TV show "To Tell the Truth" but no Bill Cullen. We went to Martini's Lounge for about a half hour and then retired.

 

Thursday.

This morning after the workout we had breakfast with Gary and Louise after which we went to hear Paula Smith talk about the third and last voyage of Captain Cook. (Paula said while giving a lecture about Cook once, she was asked on which of his three voyages was Cook killed!) The lecture was very interesting and I certainly learned a lot about this seaman and explorer. Following this there was another cooking demonstration this time featuring the head pastry chef along with the executive chef, a rather entertaining gentleman from France. We enjoyed the presentation and the chefs made enough so that those in attendance could sample their efforts. This afternoon there was another lecture by Norman Caisse entitled "Movers and Shakers of Ancient Astronomy." Here he discussed the early astronomer. Later this afternoon the ship had "Gala Tea Time" where the pastry chefs go all out with impressive desserts. We decided to skip this, electing not to lead ourselves into temptation. I'm sure it was fantastic and I'm also sure I would have overindulged.

 

We have decided to have dinner in our suite tonight. We had Carpaccio, spinach with goat cheese salad and rack of lamb. All was delicious. We had the dinner served course by course and watched the movie Roman Holiday with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn (1953) afterwards. This was a very nice and relaxing evening.

 

Note: This was written Thursday but posted on Friday.

[sacarr]

Today after workout and breakfast we went to hear Norman Caisse talk astronomy. His lecture today was "Adventures in Space and Time: To the Edge of the Known." This was an interesting lecture with beautiful pictures of Galaxies as far as 10 Billion light years away. Later in the morning there was "Marina's Country Fair" on the pool deck. This consisted of about 20 or so booths with all sorts of crazy carnival games manned by the officers and staff. This was very well attended. Winning a game won you a chance at some prizes (sun visor, t shirt, ball cap, key chain etc.) but the real fun was in playing the games and every one had a great time. We have been eating a lot lately and skipped lunch and had a relaxing afternoon. Meg is using her Kindle quite a bit. Every once in a while she looks up and says hi! We went to afternoon tea for a little something to eat as well as a cup of tea to wake us up for this evening. In the early evening, we had martinis and cheese plate in our room. The temperature has been relatively cool the last few days. It was low 70's today. Considering that we are at 17 degrees south latitude I would expect it to be somewhat warmer. Also it is rather windy today between the actual wind and our ship's speed into the wind the apparent wind on deck is 41 knots which is about 47 MPH. Dinner tonight was in Toscana and was great. Afterwards we went to the Marina Lounge for a performance by John Charles. He said this cruise was his first time performing on a ship. John does a sort of audience participation music and comedy show. He does songs at the suggestion of the audience often with his own lyrics. He ad libs well and was very well received by the audience. He went for an hour tonight (extra 15 min) at the suggestion of the CD.

[Lady Meer]

Save your skin from all those poisons and try "Bug Off" patches (Amazon) which can be placed on a hat brim or any other item of clothing. All bugs love my DH and he has had no bites since using them. :)

 

Thanks for the tip - I've not heard of them here but will definitely investigate. If we have some EU rule which prevents them being sold here :rolleyes:, I will look for them on our trip to Canada in June.

 

Thanks again.

[grmmybtty]

Thanks again Sacarr for the Miso glazed sea bass recipe. I made it for dinner tonight and it was delicious. No banana leaf wrap, but otherwise is the same delicious sea bass we had in Red Ginger. Since I was only cooking for 2, I reduced the ingredients to one third and cooked it in a glass loaf pan in my toaster oven. Worked great, nice and brown slightly carmelized glaze. YUM :)

[sacarr]

Our ship is docked for the first time since we left Papeete. All our ports on this cruise we were anchored off shore and had to take tenders to the islands. We are in Callao which is a city right next to Lima.

 

Saturday night we had diner with two other couples in Polo Grill. We both had the Filet steak. I had a Foie Gras Appetizer and Meg had The Lobster Bisque. We shared a slice of Key Lime Pie. Everything was great.

 

Our ship docked at Callao at 8:00 A.M. Sunday and we joined Gary and Louise for a tour of Lima. Louise found this on the internet a few days ago and booked it for us. It was just the 4 of us in a van with a driver and a guide. We went to the Colonial center in down town Lima, We saw the Cathedral, the Presidential Palace, the Catacombs in the monastery of St. Francis. We also saw the spectacular changing of the guard which was actually a big horse show. The Peruvian horses have a peculiar gait. Their legs appear to go laterally as they trot.

 

We went to Mireflores and visited the Park of Love. After this we had lunch in a typical Peruvian restaurant, Punto Azul, and we all had Ceviche. Ceviche is a fish dish with the fish "cooked" in Lemon and Lime juices with onions and some peppers. It was very good. Meg had a Pisco Sour which is sort of the national drink of Peru made from Pisco Liqueur. I had a local beer, Cusquena. As good as the ship's food is, it's nice to have the local fare sometimes.

 

After lunch we went to the Larco museum which has a huge collection of Pre Colombian artifacts. Most of which looked in perfect condition.

 

After this we drove back to the ship arriving a little before 5:00 P.M. This was a very good tour and we are glad that we took it.

[pembrokegail]

Hi,

 

I have enjoyed reading the postings of your trip. If you would please email me the recipe for the Sea Bass --I would greatly appreciate it!!

Please send my love to Meg

 

Gail ;)

pembrokegail@msn.com

[Andromeda93]

Thanks for the tip - I've not heard of them here but will definitely investigate. If we have some EU rule which prevents them being sold here :rolleyes:, I will look for them on our trip to Canada in June.

Re bug repellents - as another alternative to lotions or sprays if you can't find the patch mentioned by Orchestrapal, there is also insect-resistant clothing on the market now (shirts and pants for men and women). One such manufacturer is ExOfficio. They're made of a nylon or polyester blend fabric so they are lightweight and can pack down, and are treated w/ some kind of pest repellent that is supposed to survive a certain number of washings. Many of the collared shirts also have a UPF rating which is helpful to those of us who only burn rather than tan. Available online and at many camping/outdoor stores.

[oceanbabe]

sacaar: can u please send me the name of the person/company you used for your Lima tour. Did u see any sites of the ruins? How much was the tour? thank u so much,

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I thought these bug patches were applied to the skin, supplying B1 to the bloodstream. I've found they work perhaps moderately well, but not infallibly. I've also had some success with the Off Clip-on, although there's chemicals involved there.

[vaitape]

sacaar: can u please send me the name of the person/company you used for your Lima tour. Did u see any sites of the ruins? How much was the tour? thank u so much,

 

Oceanbabe: we used Cynthia at Lima Mentor. Wonderful clean van, first rate English speaking guide. Email me at vaitape at aol dot com if you want more info. This is a first rate company with enthusiasm for their country...and affordable.

[sacarr]

sacaar: can u please send me the name of the person/company you used for your Lima tour. Did u see any sites of the ruins? How much was the tour? thank u so much,

 

I apologize if it is not allowed to name tour providers in ports on this forum. We used Tours by Monica. For 4 persons it was $105 per person for the full day. We did pay for lunch ($30 for 2) and museum entrance fees (I don't remember exactly how much but it was not very much). We did not go to the ruins. Some others on independent tours did however. Monica was very accommodating and I think that she would take you there if you wish. She adjusted the our tour to our wishes.

[sacarr]

On our last evening on the ship we had a wonderful meal at Red Ginger. Our friend, Gary suggested the Malaysian Beef Penaeng. I probably never would have ordered it with out his recommendation but it was outstanding. Meg stayed with the old trusty Miso Glazed Seabass which is always very good.

 

After 18 days on Marina, it was time for us to debark the ship on Monday. Our flight home was not until late that night so we reserved a hotel room at the Costa Del Sol Ramada at the airport. It was actually a nice hotel for a Ramada, a decent restaurant, a spa and gym.

 

Our flight home was not without some drama. The midnight flight from Lima to Houston was about 20 minutes late. The problem was that by the time we actually got off the plane in Houston we had less than an hour to make our connecting flight. We had to go through immigration, get our bags, go through an unusually long customs line, re check our bags, take the tram to another terminal, go through security, and finally run to our gate which had been changed! As we got to the gate the plane was still there but gate had just closed. The gate agent had given our seats to standbys and he said there were no more seats. A supervisor told us there was nothing that could be done. They would give us breakfast and get us on a flight 5 hours later that afternoon. As an agent was re booking us another agent came to us and said "come with me". Apparently there were 4 seats blocked that were released. They opened the gate and he walked us on to the plane.

 

We were home by noon. We had slept well on the flight from Lima and are not too tired.

[jpalbny]

So glad you made your flight after all - we've had some experience sprinting through airports to make connections...

 

Have really enjoyed your postings! Hope to visit Rapa Nui some day.