On The Equator

On the Equator
January 11, 2013
ms Amsterdam

We've been aboard almost a week now and this is truly the first free time I've had to myself and that's only because I've sequestered myself in our stateroom to write before I forget where we've been!

We're docked in Manta, Ecuador. Although we are less than one degree below the equator, Manta is a bit of a fluke. It's Ecuador's deep water port (all the big tuna boats and processing plants are here) but it's not that hot and not that humid; it is actually almost arid. Go ten miles up or down the coast though and you are in the jungle.

We took a morning tour to see a little and learn a little. It's one of those countries that has the resources but hasn't really developed the market. Jaime, our native guide who spent his teenage years in New Jersey and California, explained that they grow excellent bananas, plantains, pineapples and cocoa beans but not enough to provide a steady supply to buyers who therefore purchase elsewhere. The city looks pretty low profile with just the occasional multi-story building. Truth be told, it looks dusty and trashy and you probably won't ever see it featured on "House Hunters International!"

It's a quirky place. Construction seems to begin with concrete pillars around the perimeter of the shop or house but the finished building is not the height of the columns. I would say that most of the completed and occupied structures have one or more feet of column extending above the roof line and then another couple of feet of rebar sprouting from top of the column. It's just the oddest thing. I don't know how rebar is cut, but if you had that tool I believe you could make some dollars here.

And in fact the currency is US dollars. A decade or so ago inflation was out of control so the then-president closed the banks (LOTS of corruption here in finance and politics) one Friday, pegged the Ecuadorian currency to the US dollar and on Monday it was so. No namby-pamby congress got in his way! Of course they have had the occasional junta to spice it up. After one governmental overthrow they actually had three different presidents in as many days. Downright Italian of them.

Although we've been gone almost a week, Manta is only our second port of call. First was Cartagena, Columbia and then only for five or six hours. Contrary to what we read beforehand, Cartagena was quite pleasant. It's a mixture of the old town of narrow streets and brightly-colored, balconied two and three story buildings behind the original city wall and the new town of skyscrapers and commerce and taxis and motorbikes.  (Factoid: the motorcycle or scooter driver has his license plate number on the back of his helmet, too.) We climbed up the ramps to the fortress of Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas 135 feet above sea level that once guarded against pirates and other intruders. In past centuries fleets stopped in the harbor to load up gold for convoy to Spain. Cartagena also became a center for the Inquisition and a major slave market. Where once it was isolated from Columbia's interior, now it's a bustling city revitalized by the opening of the nearby petroleum fields. There are a number of big, modern, luxury hotels along the beaches and lots of tourists wandering about. However, it's a bit off-putting that every window on every house, shop, business and dog house is protected by wrought iron bars and most of the buildings are behind wrought iron fences and gates with the occasional gun-toting guard out front in case you didn't take the hint. The pirates may be gone but the bad guys are still lurking about.

In between we transited that Panama Canal. To tell the truth, I missed most of it. First of all, the day-long passage began pre-dawn. I'm talking 4:45 am pre-dawn. In my misspent youth I would have just stayed up the night before but that was long ago and far away. This time I slept through the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side and was learning to water color as we went through the last locks on the Pacific side. In between I was desperately trying to post a blog alerting everyone to the webcam pictures streaming online. However, shipboard internet is both expensive and exasperating so I either posted it ten times or not at all. In between I did dash out on one of the decks to snap some pictures so at least I'd have photographic proof of the experience.

Fortunately the one place we've been before on this itinerary is the Panama Canal. Everyone else on board has been everywhere. OMG! These are intrepid cruisers. They spend months on ships every year; most have made multiple world cruises, never get seasick ("slight gale force" winds - the captain's exact words - and resultant seas between Cuba and Columbia) and all seem to know each other. And EVERYone knows Dolly. Dolly is not five feet tall, a very senior senior and more or less lives on this ship. Rumor has it that she has over 14,000 days at sea. Rumor also has it that the captain always takes her calls. Dolly has become my role model!

Our fellow cruisers are a mixed bag, probably 99% retired, from all over the world. Because they've cruised so much they have the drill down pat and seem to know every crew member, too. We're on board for 40 days disembarking in Sydney, but the entire trip is 115 days. (I met a lady yesterday who lives across the bay from my childhood home in Newport Beach. She hates to fly so she cruised from San Diego through the Canal to Fort Lauderdale to go on this trip. When this world cruise ends in Fort Lauderdale in April she will board another ship and go back through the Canal to San Diego. 145 days and no airplanes and no one bats an eye at this arrangement) It's one big extended family. The daily list of activities takes up an entire page, single spaced in 10 pt type. While I'm taking a water color class, Jim is at the movies (different one every afternoon with popcorn of course). They have a revolving stream of experts presenting programs (so far) on the Canal, Broadway musicals, stars of the Southern Hemisphere as well as cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, high tea plus dance, Tai Chi, yoga, pilates and Mah Jong, bridge and poker. There is also a group on board who gather every sea day at 10 am to knit and crochet blankets for the Linus Project. If you're bored on board it's your own damned fault.

And let me tell you, on a world cruise (even for those of us going on just part of the trip) every passenger is special. The waiters, busboys, bartenders and room stewards all know your name by Day Two, how you take your coffee, when you like your coffee, every dietary issue, do you want your laundered clothes folded or on hangars (I tell ya, I'd live on a ship for the laundry service alone!), green apples or red in your stateroom fruit bowl and on and on. And did I mention the gifts? Every other day or so when you head to your stateroom for the night (after dinner, music, show, etc) on the bed is the swag du jour! It's like you're six years old and can hardly wait to see what's in the gift bag from little Freddie's birthday party! So far we have received nifty totes, a zippered "Stay Healthy" bag of aspirin, bandaids, Purel, sunblock, etc., windbreaker jackets, lightweight backpacks, passport holders, stationery with our name and stateroom number and of course a chocolate on the pillow each night.

This is turning into an epic so I'll stop for now. Getting it to Blogspot is the next challenge. I'm composing this in our stateroom on the iPad document program. Now I will go to one of the wireless hot spots on the ship to email it to myself as a Word document. If all the planets are in a line I should be able to open that, copy and paste to the blog. If not I will forward the document to my dear son Jay who, bless his heart, will
do it for me.

We crossed the equator last night! It was dark so we couldn't see the line but we felt the bump.

And now it's off to Peru.