Panama Canal transfer, January/ February 2020
You may remember that I said we love to take smaller ships so that we don’t have to worry about taking tenders into the ports. Well forget about it! At four of our five ports we were berthed at an ugly container cargo ship port, and when I say ugly, I mean butt ugly! Not only were they noisy, dirty and filled with the dust of corn or concrete being off-loaded, they always required a 45-90 minute bus ride to the center of whatever town we were visiting. It goes without saying that we usually stayed right on the ship except in Quayaquil, Ecuador where I purchased a genuine Panama hat! Contrary to popular belief, that is where they are all made.
Sometimes we cruise for the ports of call and sometimes we cruise as a good way to cross the ocean without a long flight and jet lag, and always we cruise to dance. And dance we did on the Silversea Shadow from Ft. Lauderdale through the Panama Canal to Lima, Peru. As mentioned, most of the ports of call were a real bust, but we were able to add some countries to our lists: Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru. The evenings provided choices of dance venues including a wonderful jazz trio from Ukraine and a young Welsh guy who sang and played the guitar and was quite the entertainer. One of his tunes was "Country Roads" so we loudly proclaimed we were from WV and sang along. He played it several more times and added "Charles Town" and/or "West By God Virginia" to the lyrics. In addition, if we were still awake after 11 pm we could dance to disco music, and after the first night the DJ knew what we liked and always played our favorites (Donna Summer at the top of that list). Somehow I became known as "Twinkle Toes" and I did my best to maintain that image.
People often say that they love to watch us dance and even Thursday in the airport we were stopped by a woman who had been on the cruise who said that we made the trip so enjoyable for her because we danced like her parents who are no longer around and we seemed to be so in love. That seemed to be the common comment and it made us feel really wonderful, not only because we love to dance but because others can share our joy!
The food was terribly average for the first 5 days or so and then improved exponentially and was delicious for the rest of the cruise (another 8 days). Turns out that we weren't the only ones noticing the lack of quality and some of the others were smart enough to complain. Not sure how Silversea managed to make such qualitative changes while at sea (same staff and same food stores, presumably) but the changes were significant and were more than welcome. So who says whining doesn't work? What really makes us happy is when we train the wine steward to watch for us every lunch and dinner and have two glasses of ice cold Champagne delivered to our table within two minutes of sitting down. He even anticipated Cindy’s red wine choice for the night and had it slightly chilled for her enjoyment. That is service!
We were heading home as I typed this, and after a very early departure from the ship at 6:30 AM to catch our flight to San Salvador with a connection to Dulles, we were delayed in the San Salvador airport for hours longer than we'd planned. Ah well, at least we'll get home the same day (at midnight) which beats another overnight.
Every once in awhile even I have a moment of perspective. Yes, it is annoying to be stuck in the San Salvador Airport for four hours, but we are in a lounge with quality Scotch and some decent food and it is air conditioned and clean. On our early morning drive from the ship to the airport we travelled through some of the most depressingly desperate slums filled with open fires, feral dogs, poorly dressed workers, litter strewn everywhere, and a dense haze of windblown sand and smoke. Therefore relaxing in the airport with Johnnie Walker Black and a passionfruit tart doesn't seem that horrible.
As we sit here we are amazed at how many people think it is just fine to yell into their computer while on Skype or FaceTime or whatever. We have to listen to both ends of the conversation and there are at least five or six going on simultaneously! Perhaps everyone in El Salvador is deaf! While I can’t confirm they are deaf, I can confirm that very few of them have mirrors in their homes. Young, old, and in between, there is no such thing as appropriate dress, and it isn’t an issue of money since some of the most offensive clothing is EXPENSIVE! When I was young and my father saw someone whose pants were not touching his shoes, he would say, “he should have a party and invite his pants to visit his shoes,” but now it is the bare midriff that is the offender, not only in men but especially women whose ample midriffs really should be covered!
Cindy says I should keep my head down and keep reading without looking around. I'll give that some thought.
all the best, Cindy and Wm
PS: We finally arrived home at 1:30 this morning and for the first time ever we went to bed without unpacking! Now that is tired!
