Around the world in 113 days; our epic voyage.
‘LIFE is a journey, make the most of it’. Unknown.
Why do it? We looked forward to retirement but with no specific plan other than that we will not fade away. On the day after his retirement General Norman Schwarzkopf in charge of American soldiers in the Gulf War is quoted as saying “ Yesterday I commanded 100,000 troops, today I can’t even command my dog.” There are many exotic places in the world still to be discovered and this journey fulfilled a lot of those untold stories. We were left a quote almost every day relating to our journey and I’ll include some of the more pithy ones.
‘To me, travel is more VALUABLE than any stupid piece of bling money can buy’. Raquel Cepeda.
The trip started in Fort Lauderdale. Thankfully my wife had the foresight to allow a day in town before the cruise started. Because we left a day early we managed to avoid one of the most debilitating storms of the year which closed down New Jersey. Fort Lauderdale is well, Fort Lauderdale, quintessentially American, wide boulevards with large cars sprinting and lurching between traffic lights only be held up in another jam. It is the epicentre of ocean cruising closely rivalled by Miami. The city’s oceanfront is festooned with high-rise concrete blocks some as high as 30 stories or more. As a lifelong confirmed acrophobic (fear of heights) I could not imagine sitting out on the balcony at the top of these buildings looking down 100 feet or more. By the way vertigo is a term which is derived from the Latin vertiginosus which means to turn, hence it should be reserved for true rotatory dizziness. The port housing the behemoth cruise ships is slightly away from the busy centre of town. I find Florida confusing; on the one hand it is open sunny and somewhat welcoming but on the other hand sterile lacking charm and character.
Embarking on our ship Amsterdam was a tedious event with lines and lines of passengers but the receiving staff processed them relatively quickly.
“Do you have your yellow fever card?” Asked the receptionist.
“Yes but we were advised at our age not to have the injection as it has more side effects than the disease” we answered. As we looked around we saw aging characterful faces with a variety of clothing reflecting previous cruises. We think of ourselves as a lot younger than the majority of the passengers until we pass by a mirror. The gangway was lined by glass; I hate this architectural phenomenon as I get systemic weakness and tachycardia (increase in heart rate) when exposed particularly when travelling through airports, Toronto airport being a particularly bad culprit. I don’t understand what the fascination with glass is and wish the offending architects could suffer as I do. On board our cabin is deck 2 with a window nicely above the water level but not high like the upper decks with the accompanying balconies to produce high-rise symptoms. The only initial requirement is the lifeboat drill and as normal there is always at least one person who does not understand the clear instructions to assemble at our designated station, but after some consternation she was found at the wrong station. I just hope we never have the situation of having to board the lifeboats in real life. The multiplicity of wheelchairs and motorized scooters as well as walking aids would make the evacuation a nightmare. On the other hand, as was pointed out, the cruise is a fantastic facility for those elderly and infirm who are living In their poorly functioning bodies with perfectly functioning brains. I understood that 75% of the passengers were over the age of 75 years.
Our luggage arrived as promised from our home in Canada but the four cases were impossibly large to store in our cabin. I said to our cabin steward “Robbie, our luggage is far too big for our cabin.” “Don’t worry I’ll take care of it” was his reply. To be fair when we came back to the cabin there was no sign of the luggage and only later did we find our cases hidden under the bed. “I suppose he’s done this once or twice before but I find it amazing” I said to my wife. So we only needed hand luggage for the trip from Nova Scotia to Florida.
‘I TRAVEL not to cross countries off a list, but to ignite PASSIONATE AFFAIRS with destinations’. The Cultureur.
After nightfall with minimal fuss the cruise left the dock unnoticed by the chattering diners making new acquaintances and renewing old. It was remarkable to see how often these professional cruisers met up with the reminiscences of previous adventures. As I write this we are passing the northern shores of Cuba soon to dock at Grand Cayman. Our cabin, our home for the next almost 4 months is quite adequate with a queen size bed and cleverly planned storage space for the amount of clothing needed for the voyage. A window gave us the reassuring view of the sea. A television small desk and sofa completed the cabin as well as an en suite. Just think, no more wondering about what to cook or cleaning or finding entertainment for almost 4 months. Perhaps not a lifestyle but for a short time as a self retirement prize nothing can beat it. Others make cruising a permanent lifestyle with up to 35 around the world voyages, but with a Presbyterian upbringing we find that difficult.
‘You lose sight of things… And when you travel everything balances out’. Daranna Gidel.
That night’s entertainment was a very creditable performance in tribute to the pop group ABBA. The audience for this was just about right demographically and my wife and others were up dancing away to the music bringing back memories of yesteryear. “It doesn’t matter what you do just do your own thing because you will never see the other passengers again” announced the leader of the band. The drummer offered to sing a ballad he had made up to the tune of ‘let it be’ lyrics of which were ’days at sea, days at sea’ in continuum reflecting the days at sea.
After two days at sea we arrived at Grand Cayman in conjunction with two other anonymous cruise liners and a downpour. Due to the limitations of docking all the ships are anchored offshore and the participating passengers are transported by tenders to shore. These boats double as lifeboats when necessary. We had previously visited Grand Cayman on a cruise but were somewhat disappointed with the banality of the local architecture and points of interest and opted to swim with the manta rays. They are very friendly and loved to brush by human forms giving both fish and man a thrill. The present weather precluded that. Most other tours involved scuba diving or some other sea sport. On this short trip we decided to continue with our book reading, sudoku and crossword puzzle solving. As it happened we discovered the memory card from our camera had disappeared and the rain stopped so we got on a tender and went ashore to Georgetown. Thankfully a memory card was bought to record our journey. . We had visited the island before and found it dowdy. Today it was even worse. I don’t know which is worse Nassau or Georgetown. They redefined the words cheap and tacky and full of tourist ‘tat’. Hamilton in Bermuda has gone downhill but not as much compared with these islands. The islands are named after a type of shark. I did not see any but there were many two-legged ones giving rise to the notoriety of a tax haven. Back on board my wife went to a lecture on how to understand Windows whereas I looked for the chess companion who had beaten me in three minutes the previous day for a fresh challenge. In the meantime my wife was developing a talent for trivia quizzes which are held several times a day.
‘If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your entries, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears’. Cesare Pavese.
It was interesting seeing our fellow passengers who were not particularly eclectic as almost all were successful retirees because working people could rarely take four months off. Being of Scottish descent I am a bit reticent for idle chitchat but my wife loves to meet people. In my previous job as a doctor I talked all day every day so I was too tired to talk after a heavy office. Indeed one American once told me I was a work in progress. On the other hand everybody has a story and it was occasionally interesting to share. Tonight it was a Gala night which meant dressing up in tuxedos and cocktail dresses which pleased my wife. I have to admit I required to loosen the waistband of my trousers. We were sat beside two emeritus professors of linguistics. This is where the egos began to shine. They talked incessantly about themselves. Try as we might we switched off. That was one of the problems with the seating arrangements at the formal dinner so we became much more selective about our dinner partners. The North Americans tend to exchange Christian names only and search for some commonality to prolong discussions as well as an earnest “you must come and visit us”.
‘If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it is lethal’. Paulo Coelho.
Another two days at sea and we arrived at Puerto Limon, Costa Rica which means rich coast. It was named by Christopher Columbus because of all of the gold owned by the natives but in fact the gold came from Peru. It is unique in the fact it has no army and depends on the benevolence of surrounding countries if one is ever needed. Its main export is technology followed by bananas and then coffee. We had briefly visited the country on a previous cruise but despite all the advertising for the booming economy and cheap housing on the Pacific seashore we eschewed further investigation. This cruise was not only interesting but informative. We learned that bananas develop from a rhizome in nine months from the shoot producing a bunch and the next year a different bunch. As our tour we opted for kayaking downriver in the jungle. In the surrounding heavy foliage we saw wildlife including birds as well as a sloth and monkeys. These latter have a tail used as a third hand and only found in North America. The two of us shared a kayak and required to paddle strenuously on our return upriver against the wind and found muscles which had been long forgotten. A refreshment at the end of the tour was in the form of a coconut with the surrounding copra and coconut chopped off at the top and a straw inserted to suck up the liquid inside. I had not seen this before. Overall we enjoyed the trip but it was not particularly stupendous.
‘Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world’. Gustave Flaubert.
The next day we entered the Panama Canal. From here on we were breaking new ground for the next several days. The Panama Canal was begun in 1904 after the revolution one year previously. It is a 80 kilometre waterway with a rise and fall of 85 feet and joins various lakes. Each ship moves 53,000,000 gallons of water and with 35 ships a day water is a premium although the rainfall is 200 inches per year. Seventy five thousand workers were involved in making the canal and 25,000 died, mainly from yellow fever and malaria. They combated mosquitoes producing malaria with a mixture of oil and water. The Culebra cut was the most difficult to construct going through mountains and subject to landslides producing multiple deaths. The locks pump water in and out to move the ships up-and-down. The lock gates are hollow making less strain on the hinges. Movement of the ships is aided by small train engines on the side of the canal pulling the ships forward.
The next stop was Panama City. We had no idea what this was going to be like and envisaged a small insignificant town but to our complete surprise Panama City has not only a long history but is a vibrant skyscraper bustling financial centre. We opted for a tour of the city with a tour guide who unfortunately did not have good English and had difficulty emphasizing important facts giving insignificant ones the same weight. We would have liked to know more about the importance to the world finances and industry. The walking tour was blistering and humid and the traffic as well as jack-hammers made hearing the tour guide almost impossible. Much of the city centre seemed to be under construction or rather reconstruction and the traffic disrupted our tour. At the end of this day we were very tired and dehydrated and needed to jump in the swimming pool on board to refresh.
The next eight days were spent at sea which in fact we both enjoyed thoroughly with lots of things to do. The sea was calm and it was cloudy. Initially on any cruise the temptation to overeat is incredibly tempting so I started doing a daily gym effort. Treadmill and weights were my tools to avoid weight gain and also I attended a bridge class to understand the basics of this challenging game. Lesley went to water colouring painting classes as well as drawing classes and developed great talent. Lesley was also keen on trivia quizzes but my only contribution was to correctly identify the reason for somebody who could not ride his horse somewhere in America, the answer being haemorrhoids. This by the way was also the reason for Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. The artist in residence teaching us how to draw was excellent and flamboyant reflecting his artistic personality. He taught the basics of shapes so that drawing portraits or other interesting scenes became easy. Unfortunately I cannot draw a straight line so I opted out of the drawing but was fascinated by his talks on the history of art. Microsoft employed someone on board to talk about their products. Unfortunately again I did not have the knowledge or expertise to fully benefit from these talks. My bridge lessons were getting complicated and I did not care for the teacher particularly so again I opted out this but played a simplified game with a pleasant American lady.” You don’t have to play that complicated team we are being taught, I have played for many decades in a simplified version which is just as enjoyable” she said. Another diversion was to ‘name that tune’. Some of Lesley’s trivia companions held a cocktail party in their upmarket cabin which was very pleasant meeting some other co-passengers. We crossed the equator for the first time but without any celebration which is a little disappointing but we crossed the equator on four occasions altogether so celebrations were withheld until the last one.
‘As you move through this life… You leave MARKS behind, however small. And in return life and travel leaves marks on you’. Anthony Bourdain.
There were interesting characters on board including Lynn a retired nurse who worked in the Congo, Bob and Marsha who owned an IT company, and Keas and Alexander who were nuclear physicists and computer experts. Robert and Bill were a retired gay couple who Lesley joined doing trivia and were great companions throughout the voyage. These two were almost professional cruisers. They had booked another cruise just after this one. In fact there was one lady who had been on a world cruise 35 times. Apparently she never worked a day in her life. Jackie an over 80-year-old American retired teacher was sharp as a tack and taught me a lot about bridge and in return I taught her Sudoku. Lesley enjoyed the trivia questions but I was somewhat inflamed when the so-called answers were wrong so I decided to forgo that pleasure. I found the majority of the Americans were pleasant and outgoing but was to find later on this was not for all Americans. There was a gala night tonight followed by a masked ball. It sounds very exotic and exciting but in fact there were far too many people for the dance area and when we danced our seats were taken as soon as we turned round. There was no point in arguing so and confrontation usually ends up negative so we decided to return to our cabin and watched a movie.
Another day at sea with bridge and I attended the Microsoft tutorial on how to Skype and make interesting photographs. Another day at sea and the evening entertainment was absolutely dreadful with dancing and singing. Not being an expert in Opera, although I had experience of seeing opera singers as an ear nose and throat surgeon when they attended Edinburgh Festival, even I could tell the singers could not hold a note. I was reliably informed that this was vibrato but this was very poor. However Lesley enjoyed them.
‘We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, their souls”. Anais Nin.
Our next stop was TAIOHAE, NUKU HIVA in French Polynesia. At last land. It was roasting and bright and we awaited tenders to take us on over to our tour. We were greeted on the dock by beautiful traditionally dressed ladies with accompanying Hawaiian style of music. In fact this welcoming became routine at subsequent ports. The surrounding scenery was lovely with mountains rising steeply and covered with trees. We climbed into a 4 x 4 vehicle. The road we took was very high and winding with a precipitous drop. Unfortunately the driver could only speak French so I tried my best with schoolboy French that was not particularly successful. We drove up high and then down into the valley to palm trees and coconut groves. The scenes have proven to be a backdrop for several movies. We were told that the tourism industry was in its infancy which became obvious from the lack of interesting stops. I was very disappointed with the whole trip but again Lesley enjoyed it. This trip was particularly overpriced which detracted from the experience. We were told that Herman Melville the author of Moby Dick and Typee was stimulated to write the latter novel from his experience on the island so he obviously enjoyed his stay.
Thereafter followed a succession of putting the clocks back between 30 minutes and one hour every two or three days.
‘Travel is at its most rewarding when it ceases to be about your reaching a destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life’ Paul Theroux.