Monthly Archives: November 2014

We spent a day in Cape Verde on the Island of Sao Vincente off the coast of Senegal. We docked in a town called Mindelo. It had colorful if small buildings and a lazy port. Total population of all islands is 450k.

Our jeep tour guide took us into town. He did not speak English, was 24 years old and showed us a photo of his baby son named Emerson. Another English speaking tour guide explained that Cape Verde was captured by the Portuguese in the 1490s from the local Guanish people. It became a thriving centre of slave trade for hundreds of years. Slavers would drop slaves ‘captured’ in Africa here, clean them up and sell them to traders from the Americas. It was a quicker and safer way to purchase slaves then to venture up the disease infected rivers of Africa proper.   I say “captured” because often it was African tribal leaders who sold their people into slavery for trinkets.

After the slave trade was abolished in 1876, the islands suffered economic decline. Supplying ships with supplies and fuel became economical for awhile. But continuous changes in technology soon meant Cape Verde was no longer economically viable.  There was severe drought and thousands died in the early 20th century of starvation.

Our tour continued across the island to several deserted beaches a small town and up the mountain to 3500 feet. Nothing but dried out rock and sand greeted our eyes the whole way. There has been no rain here in 2 years!
Despite their poverty (45% unemployment, collapsed housing market, only 1 cruise ship stops/week), the people seem content and happy. Many would stare and smile shyly as we walked thru the town. Ranging in colour from fair to darkest skin, there is no racial discrimination here. It is not uncommon to see dark-skinned people with blond hair and blue eyes and fair skinned with jet black hair. The genetic mixture from centuries of migration is evident.
There was relatively little to purchase in town. There were no conventional stores at all. Marie was able to find a nice present for Michelle for her birthday. Dave found a surprisingly nice sport shirt.

Returning thru the town, we were happy to arrive back on board having glimpsed an old county in an old world divorced from modern day prosperity but, nevertheless prosperous in spirit.

And now 3 sea daze ahead on our way to Brazil. We will be crossing the equator soon.

Our 2nd sea day in a row, we are finally getting relaxed. There are so many activities going on and the weather is so nice, it has been hard to sit still.

Spent the day reading our books, walking the deck, going to tea time and meeting nice people.

What is unique about this ship, the Oceania Marina, is it is never crowded. You can always get an elevator or deck chair by the pool. We have never had to wait more than a minute to be seated in the main dining room which is open seating. And, you can bring wine and liquor on board without any restriction.

We are meeting lots of friendly people and waiters. The crew is international and we have met people from Canada, the U.S., India, Portugal, Brazil, Roumania etc.

The ship was built in 2011 in Italy. It is medium sized (some would say small) at 66,000 DWT. Full it holds 1250 passengers with a staff size of 793. That is only 1.56 guest to staff ratio. Oceania is a “premium” line known for it’s best in the industry food and exotic meandering itineraries.

Tomorrow we are up early for a jeep tour around Sao Vincent Island, Cape Verde off the coast of Mauritania in West Africa.

Cau!

Here we are in the beautiful Canary Islands 200 miles off the coast of Africa. Our stop is at Santa Cruz.

We started our day with the view of mountains in the background framing the beautiful tropical setting. We were running late but managed to get on our bus tour to Tiede Mountain National Park. Tiede mountain is volcano towering 12,250 ft. It erupts every 100 years or so and is due.

This park, 2nd to Yellowstone, is the most visited park in the world. It was well worth the drive. We have beautiful pictures of our hike and the scenery.

Then we descended to Puerto La Cruz town to walk and shop the beautiful seaside boardwalk. Tapas for lunch of course – shrimp, mushrooms and garlic. Needless to say after 3 full days of coach tours, we are getting a little weary.

Getting back to the ship, we relaxed on the balcony before heading for dinner. Paella, cornish hen, lobster tail, jumbo prawns followed by key lime pie and tea. Spain is truly all about siesta and fiesta. Muchos gracias.

PS The Canary Islands belong to Spain. They are not named after the birds but rather the large dogs that were found here (canaris in Greek = dog) when the islands were conquered by the Spanish in 1494.

Tangier is a medium sized city (700k people) on the NW corner of Morocco at the entrance to the Straight of Gibraltar. We went on a tour with 12 others arranged by Miriam Cole thru Cruisecritic.

Less hectic than Casablanca, it is nevertheless a busy city with a bustling marketplace. Our tour guide Abdul, was very knowledgable. We toured the outskirts first driving by the summer palace of the King. We stopped high on a hill overlooking the city and saw several beautiful but deserted beaches.

After heading back into town we did a 3 hour walking tour. In the market were hundreds of vendors selling spices e.g., safron, fruit, vegetables, fish, meats and dry goods. They speak arabic, french and some english. We stopped at a carpet store for the traditional tourist sales spiel. Next we visited an apothecary where they make their own skin lotions, perfumes and package spices. Marie bought some natural oils and skin cream that are free of preservatives etc. I bought a leather belt and some saffron.

People were friendly, many of them smiling as we passed each other. However it is a hard life here, many people are just surviving and we were constantly approached by men selling scarves, belts and other things. A gentle no and they would cease. In one area, kids would approach us selling cigarettes, chewing gum and kleenex tissue.

Abdul took us to a restaurant for a traditional Moroccan lunch. Half the group were not interested and this caused a big confusion as they had already started serving everyone bread, olives, spreads and soup. None of us were interested in a big lunch. We ended up walking out after paying 5 euro each. The owner was nice about it but obviously disappointed.

Finally we were taken back to the ship saying goodbye to Abdul who did a reasonably good job except for the captive sales pitches we had to endure.

The weather is getting warmer. We are off to the Captain’s meet and greet tonight – fancy, fancy.

Docked at Cadiz, Spain today with a big sunny sky. We set out on our bus tour to Seville, the capital of Andalusia.

But before we set out we moved to our new cabin with a balcony which we got for less than the ‘F’ inside category that we had originally booked. Awesome room upgrade!

We saw a truly beautiful city today. Host of the 1929 World Fair, there are numerous magnificent country pavilions along the seville orange tree lined streets. We visited the Spain Pavilion encompassing a huge crescent shaped building, fountain and square.

We then walked around the ancient Jewish quarter before visiting the Real Alcazar palace.. What a spectacular structure with Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious symbols and themes.

Seville is known for its oranges (seville marmalade), olive oil and cherry port. The downtown core is like a huge park. Our tour guide Pepe was very knowledgable and interesting. We walked for 4 hrs plus stopping for a ‘menu del dia’ lunch of tapas and salad.

We returned to the port of Cadiz (Columbus started 2 of his 3 new world voyages here). Went shopping and got lost in the maze of pedestrian streets. Took a bus back and found our way to the ship exhausted. We topped the day off with a delicious surf and turf supper after some red wine.

Off to bed now, heading for sunny Morocco tomorrow.

Bonne nuit, love Marie and Dave

Pingo Doce (pengo dohsay) is a grocery store in downtown Lisbon near Rossio train station. We had the hardest time finding it on the first day. It’s a crowded little affair that sells great wine for 2 Euro or about $2.90 a bottle. We have been back 3 times, ha!

We have completed 3 days in Lisbon and it has been a wonderful time. We walked: the Alto stroll, the Baixa stroll and the Alfama stroll (thanks Rick Steeves). We visited many beautiful old churches like Sao Domingos with an all stone alter and chapels inside. We saw St Anthony’s crypt and Se Cathedral. But the highligh was attending a sacred concert at the Sao Roque Church, a Jesuit church daring from the 16th century.

Went to a fado concert at Cafe Luso which included dinner. In addition to 4 different fado singers they had wonderful folklore dancing,entertainment and salt cod called backalau here, dinner.

We loved our 1 bedroom apartment close to all the amenities. Shopping, sightseeing bus, catalana (fish and potato stew) and seafood paella helped pass the time.

Now tomorrow, we embarque on our trans-Atlantic cruise to Rio. We are having a great time celebrating our 30th anniversary. To be continued.

Love and blessings,

Portugal’s King John 1 on horse.  There were lots of burnings at the stake here during the Inquisition.

We made it safely to Lisbon. Nice flights and service by United via Newark. Only incident was while having lunch with the Clarkes at Moxies in Ottawa on the way to airport. Two waiters collided, dropped dishes and this white sauce sprayed 5 ft up in the air all over our coats and Glenn and I. No damage.

Feeling kind of bushed. Only slept about 2 hours. Going to rest in the basement lounge of our apartment for awhile before we head out. It’s warm and muggy here.

Taxi driver spoke a little English and told us of some spots we must see. Looks like a great city to explore. Update you later.