Into Africa….Jan 25-26

The Dark Continent – at least it sure is at 10:00 at night! After flying overnight from Toronto to Amsterdam with an hour and a half layover, we then flew down across Europe, over the Alps, and headed across the Mediterranean from Greece to Egypt, Sudan, Kenya and finally Tanzania. Most of the trip was under cloud cover so there wasn’t much to see anyway. A good thing, since we needed a bit more sleep than what we got on the overnight flight. When Monica finally opened the window shade and looked down, all she could see was waves of red sand – the Sahara Desert at its finest. And it went on, and on, and on. It had gotten dark already (about 6:00 or so) before we saw anything that looked like civilization. Most of that was probably over Kenya. It was almost 8:00 by the time we landed and finally disembarked, in the heart of East Africa, 3 degrees south of the equator and about 4,000 feet above sea level (1,371 metres, if anyone cares to know).

First impressions – big, open, dark, warm (31 degrees C), and rugged. And great for star-gazing. Severin, one of our driver/guides for the Tanzanian part of the safari, met us and one other couple at the airport. We had been expecting the whole group to be about 24 people, but he told us that they had had a number of cancellations, and we would end up being the smallest group he had ever driven on safari – 12 people. Hey, we’re happy about that! The safari jeeps hold 6 people each, so that means only 2 vehicles for the tour, so we will have the opportunity to do more wildlife viewing if the opportunities arise.

Once we reached the hotel, the Arusha Mountain Village Hotel, we checked in and headed directly for bed after making arrangements with Severin to take us on a tour Saturday morning that included the twice-weekly open market, a drive around Arusha and lunch at a local restaurant.

Here’s a quick shot of the inside of our room:

 

The rooms are set in groups of 6 in separate buildings and are sort of wedge shaped. The front doors all come off of a small courtyard area,

 

but open up past the bathroom to the bed enclosed in mosquito netting at night, the desk and sitting area. It is actually quite roomy and, given there is no air conditioning, very comfortable with the overhead fan running at low and the windows open so you can hear the crickets chirping at night. Of course, that also means that you hear the roosters crowing at 6:30 in the morning (after all, it is a farming community in this area and you also hear the cows mooing throughout the day.

Our room overlooks Lake Duluti to the back of the hotel. Most of the rooms look out this way, and you can see why:

 

Here are a few other photos of the area around the rooms:

After a delicious breakfast – buffet cereals, fruit, breads and jam augmented by eggs to order, we met Severin in the lobby at 10:00. It was only the two of us - the other couple from our flight, Cory and Paula,  decided to take things a bit easier and stay at the hotel – so we set out to see the local market. And what a market! Since we were there early, there wasn’t too big a crowd, but there were still plenty of people around! Rather than going through the whole thing, we concentrated on the fruit and vegetable market. Here are a couple of shots from that:

 

Severin explained that many of the vendors are women because they decided a number of years ago that they wanted to contribute to their family income and sell their garden goods while their husbands did their jobs. So now many of the women have regular customers at their market stalls, their husbands appreciate the contribution they are making, and there is more equality in the family fortunes. All in all a good thing, according to Severin.

From the market, we wandered around to one of the small local ‘bars’ where the men socialize during the day. Many of them may not work jobs with regular hours, so they meet at the bars and if someone needs some work done, they will come in and ask for help. Anyone able to do the work will go out, do the job, get paid and then come back to visit with their friends again. There are a couple of Tanzanian specialty brews, one is a banana wine and the other a banana/alcohol concoction that looks sort of like a milkshake but a lot more dangerous! These are standard fare at the local bars, and often when one person ‘buys’ for another it is the local banana brew.

 

There’s a lovely system the Tanzanians have when they meet someone. If it’s somebody you don’t know, you say ‘Jambo’ which means ‘hello’, and shake hands. If it is somebody you know, be prepared for a barrage of questions after the ‘Jambo’, which include ‘How’s your family?’ and ‘How are your chickens?’ if you happen to raise chickens, etc. While we were in the bar, every man who came in, and some who were already there, came to shake our hands and greet us. They were a nice bunch of people and asked us a few questions about the social customs at home in Canada. It is a bit awkward to ask people to have their photos taken, especially a larger group, otherwise we would have had a shot of the guys. It was a nice way to spend a half hour and learn something of the local customs.

Our next stop was a trip into the city of Arusha. The road is one lane each way (and they drive on the ‘correct’ (meaning left) side of the road ) and rather busy with people coming and going from the market. The city itself is very clean and there are a number of new hotels that have gone up to support the safari market. The number of safari tours and tour companies was quite amazing to see, especially at the airport where they were picking up tour group members. But as Severin said, all of the safari tours that go to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti start in Arusha, and the businesses have grown in response to the need.

 

This is a monument shaped like a candle. It marks the beginning of, and is the symbol for, a Tanzanian equivalent to the Olympic torch run, except that it only takes place in Tanzania, and the run is held every year for Tanzanians to make donations toward a particular cause - it could be towards education, or health care, or anything of that sort. Large sums of money are raised each year and this is how the government keeps people involved in the social systems that are the foundation of Tanzania's domestic economy.

Lunch was in the Africafé, a restaurant that serves a variety of foods, many North American style, using processing methods that aren’t dangerous to those of us not used to the water in Africa. We both had Tarrazzinis, which are basically pita bread panninis stuffed with a choice of items. Larry had beef and tomato with cheese and Monica had grilled veggies and cheese. A delicious meal and not particularly expensive.

Severin dropped us back at the hotel after that, and we went to vegetate for a couple of hours before we had to meet the tour director in the lodge lobby. We sat in the Tea Garden with our books and a huge bottle of water, but took a few minutes to take some photos of the area so you can get an idea of the view:

 

 

 

 

We met 8 of the other 10 people on the tour this afternoon (the last 2 are flying in tonight at 11:00) and Rachel, our tour director, and got the overview of the next couple of weeks. Early mornings, lots of game drives, nice places to stay (all with safe food and internet!) and, from the sounds of it, the experience of a lifetime! After the meeting, we sat at the bar and got to know each other a bit better. We had dinner with Cory and Paula and have now finished repacking our stuff in preparation for tomorrow morning’s first trek out into the East African wilderness. More to come tomorrow from 7,500 feet up on the edge of the Nogorongoro Crater!

And now for something completely different...

Here we are again, but this time there will be very little water in sight - unlike September when we saw more than our share!

We're packed and ready to go on our African Safari. We've seen photos and blogs from people who did the same trip last year; if we have anything near the same experience it will be phenomenal!

Unfortunately, Franklin doesn't seem to care too much for poking his nose into suitcases, although he senses that something's up. So, instead of a cat picture this time, we'll just post this:

Packing has been a bit of a challenge since our luggage allowance is much smaller than it would be on a luxury cruise (although the lodges we are staying at certainly would merit formal wear in other circumstances from what we've seen of them), but many of the Christmas gifts we exchanged had a 'travel light' theme, so we're managing quite well on our two canvas duffel suitcases. Great idea, Bruce - boy, do they fit a lot of stuff, even hiking shoes!

So the cameras are loaded with empty media cards (and we have 8x more extra capacity in the camera bag), the video recorder is clear and ready, and we're starting to get itchy to move. We'll be on our way mid-afternoon today.

As always, we hope you enjoy travelling along with us via the blog. Look for the daily (unless we're too tuckered out!) updates.

All good things must end...

The last day of the cruise gave us some cloudy weather and seas a little rougher than we had experienced so far. But that didn't matter much. The main project for the day was to get packed up and ready for disembarkation on Sunday.

We did, however, come across a rainbow after a morning shower. We could see both ends of it, but it was unfortunately too big to fit into one photo frame:

Everyone managed to fit everything back into the suitcases, and there was even enough time left over for Monica to participate in the 'On Deck for the Cure' 5K walkathon to support finding a cure for breast cancer. So far she has 2 hats from Princess and now a T-shirt from Holland America. All we need now is for one of the other lines to sponsor gym shorts or ankle socks with the Pink Ribbon logo and she'll be completely kitted out!

Dinner that evening was an international extravaganza. The menu included: Roast Duck (Mom), Baked Alaska (Renate), Pavlova (Monica) and Cheesecake (Larry), so everybody could have a favourite to round out the cruise.

Pavlova - a New Zealand dessert of meringue,
whipped cream, kiwi fruit and mango sauce

Sunday morning we left the ship in good time and with a lot less standing in line than we expected, so we were about an hour early getting to the hotel, Hyatt Pier 66. Of course, the rooms weren't ready at that time, so we opted to get our rental car and drive out to Sawgrass Mills to look around. We hadn't had much breakfast, so our first stop at the mall was the Cheesecake Factory for brunch. Larry ordered what he thought was a reasonable-sized brioche sandwich - and look what he ended up with!

We were sure that the portion sizes were larger than when we were last here, and found out that they had in fact been increasing over the past few months.

An hour or so's shopping done, and we left the mall. Instead of heading straight back to the hotel we took the ladies on a tour up to Boca Raton, drove past the old apartment and down along the A1A, through Hillsboro and all of the 'old stomping grounds'. It was a nice way to spend an hour or so, and once we got back to the hotel we could move into our rooms.

Having a drink down by the pool

We went to the 15th Street Fisheries for dinner that evening, for a lovely local South Florida way to round out the trip. Well, actually, we rounded out the trip pretty much as we started it - with a breakfast at the Harbor Cafe. The waitress even remembered Mom from when we had visited, numerous times, during our week here in February 2011!

Dessert at the 15th Street Fisheries

All in all we had a great time. A little rainy weather here and there didn't really put too much of a damper on the cruise. We hadn't cruised with Holland America for quite some time, so it was nice to see the new ship layout and experience the service and entertainment. We hope that Mom and Renate had as good and relaxing a time as we did!

So, we'll sign off for this vacation, and get ready to spend some extra time at the gym to work it off! Next up will be the African Safari at the end of January. Keep an eye out for that - it promises to be an adventure as none before...for this blog, anyway!

Grand Cayman and Mahogany Bay

The plan for Thursday, after a couple of late nights and early mornings, was to sleep in. Grand Cayman is a tender stop and we were not too keen on trying to get Mom into a tender. Plus, we have all been there numerous times before, seen all there is too see and done all there is to do. But it was also pretty much the only shopping port, so the plan was for us to get up “whenever”,  have breakfast and take the tender in to see what we could see. Forgetting, of course, that Grand Cayman IS the only real shopping stop, meaning when we opened the curtains we discovered we had company; RCI’s Freedom of the Seas (4700 pax), Carnival Magic (2800 pax), Norwegian Pearl (2500 pax), Coral Princess (2300 pax) and us (2100 pax). If you’re keeping score at home, that is 14,400 cruise passengers all descending on Georgetown, all with one goal in mind………. CHARGE IT!!!!

 

There are certain perks that came with our Suite, and one of them was a $100.00 Diamonds International gift certificate, so we actually went ashore looking for a birthday present for Monica. Once we actually found the DI store we also discovered 90% of the other tourists had apparently been looking for it too. It looked like a cross between Black Friday and Boxing Day in that store, so we left. And went to Tanzanite International around the corner. Same company, same jewelry, only about 20 shoppers total. And yes, we were successful and found a very nice pendant for Monica. We had to wait for a minor adjustment to be made, so we took a short stroll around the off-shopping area of Georgetown. And look what we found:

We had seen something that from a distance looked like a cat running across the road up ahead. It was more likely this guy, so you can imagine just how big he was! And there was some British tourist trying to get him to come closer…It takes all kinds to make up 14,000 cruise passengers!

After picking up the pendant, we beat a hasty retreat to the sanity of the ship and some quality time around the adult pool. While all this was going on, the Ladies were having a leisurely day around the ship, sitting in the sun, dipping in the pool and generally taking it easy.

Thursday evening we went to Tamarind, the Asian restaurant, which together with its own bar, Silk Den, are hidden away on Deck 10. The evening began with fancy cocktails in Silk Den. None of us remembers what Mom and Monica’s drink was called, but it sure looked pretty.

 

 

We then moved over to the restaurant. Dinner is a four course affair, with appetizer, soup, main course and dessert. The menu is pretty extensive and we ordered what seemed like one of everything. All of which were very good. Check out Mom’s fortune cookie dessert!! While we were enjoying our coffee, the entire staff showed up with a birthday cake for Mom, followed by the Happy Birthday song in Indonesian!

 

 

Friday was our day in Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras. Roatan is an island quite some distance off the coast, and Mahogany Bay is the cruise ship tourist area that has been developed there. It isn’t owned by any of the cruise lines, so there is nothing ‘included’ at the facility except any special accommodation that you may have pre-booked. Food and drinks are an extra cost.

We had pre-booked a private cabana for 4 people, and at the beginning of the day were wondering if we were going to get any value out of it. At 8:00 in the morning we were sailing in fog, but looking ahead we could see hints of actual clouds and a bit of blue sky. By the time we docked around 9:00, it had closed in again and was raining rather heavily. We sat on our verandah and wondered if we should even bother, since it looked like everything, even the beach, was a soaking wet mess. But as the rain showers started to peter out into drizzle, more and more people headed off to shore. We decided to join them around 10:00, dodging a few raindrops along the way.

 

Mahogany Bay is set up with a small shopping area near the pier that also includes a Fat Tuesday’s Bar and Restaurant, for anyone who needs some food but just can’t make it all the way back down to the ship. The beach is on a separate little island that you can reach via either a footbridge or the ‘Flying Carpet’ – a 4-person chair lift. The cabana rental included use of the Flying Carpet, so that’s what we did.

The private cabanas are also on a private stretch of beach, complete with security and our very own cabana steward to fill drink and food orders. The cabana includes a room with a couch and coffee table, air conditioning, a porch with 2 lounge chairs AND a hammock under a lattice covering and a 2 person lounge right on the beach. Some of it, like the A/C, was kind of lost on us given the weather, but we could imagine how handy it would be in the sunshine and heat. Here are a couple of photos:

Monica and Renate went snorkeling but since the sun wasn’t out the underwater colours were a little more drab than bright. Even though the area has the second largest barrier reef in the world, it is mostly outside of the marked swimming area. Monica got out towards it and saw some interesting fish – Parrot Fish and Wrasses, and an eel of some kind among the grasses on the ocean floor. Here’s one shot – find the fish hiding among the fronds of this bush:

We stayed on the beach until about 1:00 and then headed back to the ship as we were due to set sail at 2:30. Of course, just as we left the harbor pilot behind, the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds…

This was the second formal night of the cruise, and since we got an early look at the dinner menu every day, we decided to go to the Dining Room. Our timing was just perfect; we were about halfway through our main courses when the waiters began the Baked Alaska Parade for the first seating diners. We may not have mentioned that we had to switch to the ‘anytime dining’ option, so we weren’t tied to a particular time to arrive for dinner. So Renate got to see the parade and hear the traditional ‘Horse Guards Parade’ music that they play as the waiters come around the dining room. The Baked Alaska was pretty good, too!

We went to the early production show, stopped at the Crow’s Nest Bar for a nightcap and called it a night.

Birthday at Sea and Ocho Rios

Tuesday morning as we were ready to head out to meet Mom and Renate for breakfast, we found this on our stateroom door:

 

It was a greeting from our cabin attendants, Yaya and Andi, and the concierges in the Neptune Lounge. A very nice start to the day. After breakfast everyone split up for a while. Monica had a spa appointment for a manicure, Larry and Renate went strolling around the Promenade Deck – they managed to finish a mile – and Mom took the opportunity to rest a bit in their stateroom as we had been doing quite a bit of walking in the last few days.

Renate, being a Four-Star Mariner, was invited to a ‘meet the Captain’ cocktail party, and took Mom along. This was just ahead of the Mariner Society lunch in the main dining room. After that, we just happened to be passing by the Culinary Arts Centre a few minutes before the cooking demonstration was to start. So we picked up the recipes – Lobster Salad and Crème Brulee – and sat down to enjoy the presentation.

Still later in the afternoon some of us went to a wine tasting run by the ship’s Cellarmaster that was not only very informative but delicious as well!

Dinner had been reserved for the Pinnacle Grill, and Monica had heard some really good things about the menu from the girl who did her manicure, so we had taken it easy, as much as we could, on the food at lunch, and NO snacking! We went down for pre-dinner cocktails at the Pinnacle Bar, conveniently  located directly across from the restaurant. The meal was every bit as great as what we had heard, and the service staff were great, too. Renate had insisted she was buying the wine for Monica’s birthday dinner. Never one to turn down such an offer, Monica carefully scrutinized the wine list, but since there was no Opus One ($750/bottle) and we didn’t recognize the fancy ($2,200/bottle) French wine, she settled on a nice Oregon Pinot Noir. Times two!! Yes, it was that kind of dinner!!! Here are some photos of the evening:

 

 

After dinner we headed for the late show,  but didn’t hang around afterward. We had an early morning in Ocho Rios and wanted to make sure we would all be up early enough for breakfast.

We had all ordered room service breakfast since we figured the Lido Buffet would be busy and it would take too long to eat in the Dining Room. It was OK, but not spectacular. A far cry from the table setting service we got on the luxury cruise lines, but it did the job and we were out on the pier to meet for our tour in plenty of time. And to show you just how early we did get up, here’s the sunrise we saw from our verandah:

 

The tour we chose visited the Coyaba Gardens, where we went for a walk around the garden and waterfall area. This was the most strenuous exercise of the day.

 

The rest of the time was spent in the bus, on a short souvenir shopping stop and a trip to a local pottery shop where we could also watch the potters make their creations.

Renate and Mom noticed that Ocho Rios had changed quite a bit since the last time they were here – not surprising since we think that might have been back in the 80’s!!. It is much more built up and the crackdown on hawkers and drug dealers seems to be working for the most part. Everything still seems to be a bit disorganized, as it always seems to be in Jamaica,  but once we got going our tour guide and driver did a great job of getting us around.

We were back at the ship before noon, and were starting to get quite hungry after our 6:30 a.m. breakfasts. We had hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch at the grill and split up, to meet on our verandah at 4:00 for the sailaway. And to put a further dent in the wine supply we “smuggled” onboard in Ft Lauderdale.

As we had no dinner reservations, we wandered down to the Dining Room about 6:00. We are on “As You Wish Dining”, which is kind of like going to The Keg, You show up and ask to be seated. But unlike The Keg, you do have the option to share a table, which the Maitre D’ asked us to do. We were shown to a table for six where another couple had just been seated. Now, there are 2100 people on this ship, so what do you figure the odds of meeting another couple from Germany might be?? This couple was from Frankfurt! Needless to say there was much animated conversation all through dinner, and since they also spoke English, Larry wasn’t totally confused!! At least not any more than he normally is!! And to put the ‘icing on the cake’ so to speak, one of the featured desserts was Rote Gruetze, one of Mom’s favourites. Not quite the way we would make it, but it got an approval from the four of us who had it.

After dinner we headed to the show, the first production show. Unlike Crystal, there are no elaborate sets, just the orchestra, the singers and four highly energetic dancers. While it was upbeat and very good, the last four very busy days started to take their toll and e called it an early night. 

On – and In – the Sea

Our 5:00 sailaway was just around sunset. Once we left the port and breakwater behind, we got a good view along the beachfront and our hotel. It’s the low one on the beach with all the trees in front:

 

In the afternoon, once we had settled in on board, we went for a stroll around to see where things are on the ship. None of us, even Renate, had been on Holland America for a few years, and had not seen this newer style of ship. We have to say we’re quite impressed. The public areas are very nicely designed and laid out; the only potential bottleneck as far as crowds go is the usual one – the buffet. We had to go through the Lido Buffet at lunchtime to get to the back deck and pool, and, of course it seemed that there were people everywhere, none of whom knew where they wanted to go…

As far as bars and lounges, there are plenty, each offering something a little different in terms of entertainment before and/or after dinner. We’ll see how many of them we can sample before the end of the week. Keep an eye on the photos!!

Our stateroom is one of the larger suites with a full couch and two chairs in the sitting area, and a very nice verandah  (no, not as big as the one on Allure). Mom and Renate have a room a little smaller, but still a good size; their verandah also has enough room for a table and chairs and a couple of lounge-style wicker chairs.

The sitting area

 

The other view (bathroom is off to the right). The verandah stretches
all the way across the door and the window.

Monday morning we arrived at Half-Moon Cay, Holland America’s private beach area on Little San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. We had decided that we were going to the beach and that Monica and Renate would do a bit of snorkeling, so to make sure we didn’t all burn, we booked a couple of clamshell shades for our lounge chairs. And it was a good thing, too. It was a very warm, sunny day – easy to get a sunburn if you didn’t have sunscreen or other protection. Here are a  few shots from the morning:

The ship from our tender boat

Some of the fish we saw as we snorkeled

 

 

We returned to the ship around 2:00 to laze around for a couple of hours before dinner, and watched the island disappear as we headed off toward Ocho Rios. Pre-dinner cocktails at the Explorer’s Lounge, then dinner and the featured show in the main show lounge, and we were all ready to pack it in for the night. The two ladies seem to be doing this quite a bit:

 

More tomorrow!