Lima, Second Day

Hi Girlies,

Just a quick post before we are off on our all day tour.

Nana before dinner.

We had a great dinner.  Here are the lamb shanks we both had.

After dinner we went to a show of Peruvian music and dancing.  It was very colorful, loud, and lots of fun.

We are getting ready to get the ship for our tour.  We sail tonight at 9pm for Easter Island.

Bye for now.

Love,

Gpa and Nana

xoxoxo

Lima, Peru

Hi Girlies,

Last night Nana wore this pretty Tommy Bahama dress to dinner.

We had a very nice dinner.  Nana had scallops and Gpa had salmon.  Both were very good.

This morning we arrived in Lima, Peru.  It is the second largest desert city in the world.  Can you guess what the largest desert city is?  I’ll give you a hint, it starts with a C.

We had a fun tour today.  It was a tour of local markets where we bought food that we took to a cooking class.  We prepared and ate for lunch a typical Peruvian dish.  We saw lots of interesting things at the market.  This first picture is meat waiting to be sold.  The meat is not refrigerated like in our country, so it all must be sold by the end of the day.

We saw this beautiful fruit.

How ‘bout this pig head.  How would you cook that?  Maybe soup!

Everyone in the market was so friendly.  They gave lots of samples of fruits and vegetables to taste.  Some of the fruit we have never seen before.  We will have lots more pictures to show you this summer.

Then we went to the cooking school.  Here we are with the chef that taught the course.

We made this dish first.  It is layers of potato and a vegetable mixture.  Each one of us (there were 5) was judged on their presentation.  Nana’s dish won, Gpa’s dish was last :(.  This is Nana’s dish.  I won’t show you mine, it was a mess!

Here was the main course.  It is shredded chicken on top of potato with rice on the side.  There were lots of spices in the dish and it was very good.  We did all the work to prepare the dish.  We chopped onions, garlic, carrots, peeled potatoes, shredded the chicken.  It was all lots of fun.  All the ingredients were purchased fresh at the market.

We then went back to the ship.  On the way, our van was stopped by the police because the window tint was too dark.  It was a few moments of excitement.  We didn’t want to go to jail in Peru!  In the end all was well and we were on our way.

 

So, we have had a wonderful fun day.  Tomorrow we are doing another tour in Lima.  We sail tomorrow night at 9pm for Easter Island.  It will take us four days to get there.

Bye for now, we love you!

Nana and Gpa

xoxoxo

Salaverry

Hi Girlies,

You are right KT, they are called moai.  And Budgie, Gpa doesn’t like milk!

We had a nice day in Salaverry.  We took the ship shuttle into town and did quite a bit of walking.  The areas we drove through on the way to town were very poor.  The shuttle dropped us off at this very nice square where Nana took a picture of Gpa.

 

Across from the square was this beautiful church.

Here is one of the streets we walked on.  The weather was very nice, not too hot.

When we got back to the ship there was a market selling “native" crafts.  Nanoo bought a hat.  When we got to the room she noticed the hat said Made in China, lol.  Here is picture of Nanoo in her new hat with this scary Inca Chief.

One last picture from in front of our ship.  That is a lot of sand!

OK, Girlies, that’s all for now.  Tomorrow we are in Lima, Peru.  We have an all day tour, so Gpa will be posting late in the day.

Love,

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo

Salaverry, Peru

Hi Girlies,
  We just arrived in Salaverry and will be getting off the ship soon.  I wanted to post about last night.  It was formal night and Nana wore this pretty black dress.

We had a very nice dinner.  We started with caviar.  Have you ever eaten it?

We then each had a salad.  Then our waiter made us this steak tartare at our table side.  This is raw beef that is chopped up and nicely spiced.  I always think it would make a great burger!

Then we had these yummy crab legs.

We had cheese and port wine for dessert :).
After dinner we went to hear a very talented piano player.  So, we had a great night on the ship.  I’ll put some pictures on the blog this afternoon from Salaverry.
Love you,
Gpa and Nana
xoxoxo

Nanoo's Pretty Dress

I see Nanoo’s dress picture didn’t post, so I’ll do it again.  She is the prettiest girl on the ship!

Also, this morning we got these nice gift bags from the ship’s spa.  Nana’s bag is the white one on top.  Gpa’s bag is the black one.  I got a lot more stuff, maybe because I need it! :)

Bye Bye

At Sea

Hi Girlies,

Your comments:  Gpa was drinking a local beer from Ecuador, it was very good. 

I’m going to do any early post today because we are at sea.  We are sailing towards Salaverry, Peru and will arrive there tomorrow morning.  

Last night Nanoo wore this pretty dress.  She hasn’t worn any dress twice yet.

 

 

We both had fish for dinner.  Nana had sea bass.

Gpa had a fish called Dorado.  Both fish dishes were very good.

After dinner we watched a DVD in our room about Easter Island.  We will be going there on Feb 5th.  We will be seeing these guys.  Do you know what they are called?

This morning I took this picture of the most unused piece of furniture on the ship :).

OK, Girlies, that’s all for today.  I’ll be posting again tomorrow afternoon after our day in Salaverry, Peru.  Today marks two weeks since the cruise began.  Lots to go!

Love,

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo

Guayaquil

Hi Girlies,

Lis, No, we are not going to the Galapagos.  We have talked about it.  Might make it a land tour and combine it with Machu Pichou.

Last night Nanoo wore this very pretty dress.  We had a nice dinner of meatloaf, comfort food.

Today we are in Guayaquil, Ecuador.  It is a very large city of over 2 million people.  We rode the shuttle into the town and got off at a nice park in the middle of the city.  These guys live in the park.

We then walked along the river.  There is a pretty walkway that goes for a few miles.

We saw these very colorful houses.

And then, Budgie, Gpa needed another beer.

So, we are now back on the ship and have a couple hours to relax before dinner.  Gpa is going to the pool!

We sail tonight for our next port of Salaverry, Peru.

Hope you are having fun playing in the snow.  Too bad our FaceTime didn’t work today, we will keep trying.

Love, 

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo

What is that thing?

OK, girlies.  That thing is a solar charger for cell phones.  Those are solar panels on top.  If you look closely, you can see the battery at the bottom.  You can also see the outlets to plug in your phone.  I have never seen one of these before.

Manta, Ecuador

Hi Girlies,
Today we are in Manta, Ecuador.  Manta is the largest seaport in Ecuador and is famous for its tuna fishing fleet. We had a private tour today, and the first thing we did was go to the market where the fishermen bring their catch.

In this picture a man is cutting tuna steaks.  They cost $3 per pound.  Ask Mommy how much they cost at Wegman’s.

Next we went to the town of Montecristi.  The town is famous for making Panama hats.  Now why would hats made in Ecuador be called Panama hats?  Shouldn't they be called Ecuador hats?  Well, it seems that so many of the workers on the Panama Canal wore the hats that they became known as Panama hats.  Here is a picture of a lady weaving a Panama hat.  She leans over like this all day making the hats.  I’ll bet her back hurts!

Nanoo got a very pretty hat here.  Cost $20.

Gpa didn’t buy a hat, but I did get two nice leather belts for $9 each.
We are back on the ship now.  We left Manta pretty early at 1pm.  We are now on our way to our next port of Guayaquil, Ecuador.  One interesting thing we learned today is that Ecuador’s currency is US dollars.  If you use an ATM here, you get US dollars.  Go figure.  This last picture is of Manta as we sailed away.

Yes Budgie, I do wear my blue sunglasses.

OK, girlies.  That’s all for today.  Congratulations on your times at your swim meet.  Awesome!
We love you!
Gpa and Nanoo
xoxoxo

Food, Food, Food

Hi Girlies,
  Today we are in Manta, Ecuador. But first I want to blog about yesterday’s food.  We had a huge Jazz Brunch in the ship’s piazza.


There was so much food!  I didn’t take very many pictures, and we tried not to eat too much.
Later it was time for dinner.  Nanoo looked so pretty :).

It was French night in the dining room.  We started with Escargot.  They are snails.  Would you eat snails?  It was so good.

Then we had a small salad.  For the main course, Nana had sea bass and Gpa had lamb chops.  Both dishes were fantastic.


Then desert was an amazing Chocolate Grand Marnier Souffle.  You can see the waiter pouring the Grand Marnier into the middle of the souffle.  This was without a doubt the best meal we have had on the cruise.

After dinner we went to a show featuring  the music of Edith Piaf, the French singer.  It was fantastic.

Yesterday we crossed the equator into the Southern Hemisphere.  People who have not crossed the equator are called Pollywogs.  People who have crossed the equator are called Shellbacks.  When we got back to our room, we had this certificate saying we were now Shellbacks (we already were).

So, that is what happened yesterday.  I will be posting about our day in Manta a little bit later.
Love,
Gpa and Nanoo
xoxoxo

At Sea

Hi Girlies,

First your comments.  Yes, Budgie, I do wear my blue sunglasses.  I wear them almost every day, they are my favorites.

KT, I don’t know why you can’t make your blog pictures bigger.  I can make mine bigger on my iPad by spreading my fingers.  OK, one more hint.  Those things on top of the picture are little solar panels.  Now can you guess what it is?

So, a little more about the Panama Canal.  I told you yesterday that we entered the canal from the Atlantic Ocean.  We went through the first three locks that raised the ship 85 feet above the Atlantic, or 85 feet above sea level.  We then traveled 50 miles through the length of the canal.  Here is a picture of the narrowest part of the canal called the Culebra Cut. The bridge is called the Centennial Bridge.

At the end of the canal we had to be lowered the 85 feet down to the Pacific Ocean.  This was also done with three locks.  Here is a picture of our ship entering the last two locks.

And here is a picture of the last lock opening.  We are now in the Pacific Ocean!  I think instead of using these locks they should have just built a giant water slide for the ship to go down :).

At the last locks there is a canal visitor center.  Hundreds of people were watching our ship go through the locks.  They were waving and cheering and our ship blew its very loud horn in reply.

This last picture is looking back at the canal channel next to us, and it gives you a nice view of the lock.  All that water is let out of the lock to lower the ships.

As we enter the Pacific Ocean, we passed under The Bridge of The America’s.  We had a narrator on board the ship and he said you could drive on this road from Panama to Alaska. Maybe Nana and Gpa should do that in the RV:).

We did not take any pictures before dinner last night, we dressed casually.   We went to one of the specialty restaurants called Tastes.  They serve small plates, kind of like tapas.  We started with Spanish Morcilla Sausage.

 Oven roasted Cauliflower….Nana’s favorite

 Saffron Marinated Lamb Kebabs

Chimichurri Steak with Sweet Potatoes ……Gpa’s favorite 

Bananas Foster Bread Pudding (Oh my!)

 We also had a Ceasar Salad, Seafood Ceviche, Greek Octopus Salad, Spinach Quesadillas, and Buttermilk Fried Chicken.  I took pictures of those but couldn’t get the blog to load with that many pictures.  All the food was great!    

So, we had a great day going through the canal and a wonderful dinner.  Today we are cruising to Manta.  BTW Lisa.  I know you don’t like Keith’s blog, but he has been posting some really great pictures. Nana put a nice post up today on our blog.

So, bye for now.  We love all of you!

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo