Well, here we are anchored in the Lima bay. The Captain made a PA this morning saying the port is closed due to swells and no ships are allowed to dock. There are several other cargo ships also anchored out here with us waiting clearance. Unfortunately, we have to dock here for fuel and a big provisioning before proceeding across the Pacific. Who knows when we will be allowed to dock.
Historical/Background Info:
Lima is the
capital and largest city of Peru with a population of nearly 10 million. Today we are docked at Callao, Lima’s port,
which is about 5 miles east of the downtown area. We have been here on 2012, 2016, and 2019
cruises. The west coast countries of
Chile, Peru, and Ecuador are so rich in culture, history, scenery, and
archeological treasures that I never get tires of visiting them. The Peruvian
people are most helpful and so friendly.
Lima is
considered to be the political, cultural, financial, and commercial center of
Peru. It is home to one of the oldest
institutions of higher learning in the Americas. The National University of San Marcos was
founded in 1551. It is the first
officially established and the oldest continuously functioning university in
the Americas.
The
metropolitan area has around 7000 factories producing textiles, clothing, and
food. Chemicals, fish, leather, and oil
derivatives are also manufactured and processed. Lima is also the largest export industry and the
Callao seaport is one of the main fishing and commerce ports in South
America. The main exports are: oil, steel, silver, zinc, cotton, sugar, and
coffee.
As the main
entry point of Peru, Lima has developed an important tourism industry which
includes its Historic Center, archeological centers, its nightlife, museums,
art galleries, and festivals.
LAST EVENING
Melissa is a sommelier who brings our wines most evenings.
This is Dara one of our favorite waitresses. We try to sit in her section every evening. They save a particular table for us.
This is the beverage manager, Isadora. She is from Brazil.
Bagus is an assistant waiter
We had ordered French fried soft shell crabs but then they served them the crabs were not French fried. We sent them back and ordered the above entree instead. Pork medallions with grilled polenta. The chef apologized but we told him it was ok. I gave him a photo of the way we wanted them next time.
I got the last two photos out of order. I had two double orders of these black mussels to start with.
We did not go to the comedians show but retired instead.
TODAY
Making matters worse today is the internet signal is really bad. Not sure why but the Kus, the internet manager, said it will remain that way until after we leave this port. Unfortunately, because today is the day I can book our excursions for our January 19, 2024, Grand Asia 59 night cruise from Sydney to Tokyo. I need to do it before others fill up the tours. Even when at home and trying to book them Regent's website is so bad it takes me hours to book them.
So this mid morning I went down to Janina, the Cruise Consultant, to see if there was anything she could do to help me. She took my 4 pages of selections, scanned them, and then sent them to Regent in Miami for them to book me. Not sure if that will work but hopefully it will.
Afternoon update: I tried calling Regent reservations again and this time got a super nice lady, Teresa, who wrote down all my excursion requests for all the ports and she will book them for us. She said she also knows, Susan, our travel agent, and will copy her on this. While I was on he phone our Captain came back on the PA to say the port is still closed and the next update will be at 6pm. We may be stuck here for a few days. I am not going to be happy if we miss our Easter Island stop on the 24th.
So same plan as usual for this evening except we have dining reservations in Prime 7 this evening. We will try to see tonight's production show, "Divos & Divas", as we missed the first production show.
Standby for tomorrow's posting and hoping we have good news by then.
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