DAY 21-PART 2---AT SEA ENROUTE TO POLYNESIA

 WEDNESDAY EVENING

        Here are photos of Terry Bishop's show that night.

                                                   Sierna joined Terry for one number.

Terry had been having Ukelele lessons to several passengers.  This is our good friends Charlie & Joan Davis.  They will be going with us on our safari.

    This is John Begg, another friend who will be going on our safari also with his wife, Cathi.

THURSDAY EVENING

        I have already explained Rebecca's doctor trip.  That evening we were to have joined Nickie, the General Manager, and Paul Reynolds, our cruise director, at their table for dinner.  I had to cancel it as they passed by me on the way to Compass Rose and Rebecca was still down with the doctor.  We will reschedule at a later date.

After Rebecca got done with the doctor we had a quick drink at the Mariner Lounge before heading into Compass Rose for dinner.  We both had vegetable spring rolls for our appetizers.

We had requested this special order of veal osso bucco for our entrees.  Again, it was very good.

After dinner I went to Linda Gentille's show.  Rebecca hated to miss the show but thought it better if she did not go.  Linda's show, her second and last one, was fantastic.  Probably the most amazing pianist and show person we have seen.

FRIDAY EVENING

        Rebecca took it easy this morning and did not do the treadmill.  I did do my treadmill time.

I had Joseph get me a big order of these beer braised black mussels to start with.  Love black mussels!

                                                        Then I had the turkey scaloppini.

       After lunch since all the tv news channels were blank, we watched the movie, "Elvis".  Loved it and acting was very good.  Very sad ending however.  We both were huge fans of Elvis and I did get to see him in concert twice.

        We may be losing internet again at 7pm as the Captain will be returning to the heading that blocks the satellite signal.  So I will post what I have for this evening.  We are at the Mariner Lounge having a cocktail before dinner but I ran up to post this.

DAY 21---AT SEA

 

This was our position at noon today (Friday, 27th).  Partly cloudy with passing showers today and 81 degrees.

        We have been without internet and ship's phone for the most of two days.  I did get online for a short time yesterday to make a post.  The internet came back up at 4pm but is very slow as everyone on the ship is now using it for emails and uploading photos taken on Easter Island on Wednesday.  

        I have been concerned as without wifi I could not see the temperatures inside out house and inside the garage to make sure the heat was still working.  At 4pm I managed to call Melissa, our next door neighbor, to have her go over and check the house temperatures.  I was also able to finally see the garage temperature on wifi.  I called Melissa back about 20 minutes later to see what she found.  I still do not my google mail (email).  She said all was well.  Now I can sleep better.

        Rebecca has had an upper respiratory thing going on since last Sunday.  She took a z-pack but it did not help.  She was coughing a lot at night so I made her to go to the doctor at 6pm last evening to get some cough medicine.  Well, she had not returned a hour and half later so I went down to see what was happening.  They gave her a flu test and covid PCR test and were awaiting the results.  She was NEGATIVE on both tests.  Maria, the ship's doctor, gave her a z-pac, cough drops, and cough medicine.  The "stuff" is breaking up and she is slowly getting better.

        The Captain said he had just turned 15 degrees on heading which unblocked the satellite signal.  So we have some internet back but it is very slow.  I managed to get the above photo on after 15 minutes of trying.

        I will be waiting to upload more in the coming days as our signal improves.  Thanks for your understanding.  We have two more sea days before reaching the next stop at the Polynesian island of  Fakarava.

DAY 20---AT SEA ENROUTE TO POLYNESIA

 THIS IS NOW FRIDAY EVENING AND THE INTERNET HAS NOT WORKED FOR TWO DAYS.  I WILL RESUME POSTING AS SOON AS IT IS ONCE AGAIN RELIABLE.

YESTERDAY EVENING--JAN 25TH

                                                  I had pan seared scallops as appetizer.

              Rebecca had a pan seared scallop with black dumplings in a rich pork ragout.

     Rebecca had this roasted BBQ pork chop with sweet corn and baked potato as here entree.

I had two entrees as I wanted to try this baked vegetable enchilada.  It was not bad.

My main entree was this penne pasta with creamy veal and mushrooms sauce.  

EASTER ISLAND PHOTOS

                  We drove over a half hour to our first stop on the north side of the island.

Here we saw these moai on their platform.  Some had "topnotch" hat like thing on their heads.  Historians are not positive if it represented their hair (as it was very long and never cut) or was a kind of hat.

            Wonders never cease, I finally got Rebecca on a tour.  We have never been here.

 

I WILL ADD MANY MORE EASTER ISLAND PHOTOS ON NEXT POST OR TWO DEPENDING ON INTERNET STABILITY.

DAY 19---EASTER ISLAND

                                                      EASTER ISLAND, CHILE

We arrived at our anchorage off the west coast of Easter Island near the only town on the island, Hanga Roa, at 9am.  It is a lovely morning with clear skies and 73 degrees.

Historical/Background Info:

        Easter Island (its native name is Rapa Nui) is a volcanic island consisting of three extinct volcanoes.  Terevaka volcano is over 2000 feet high and forms the bulk of the island.  The other two give the island its roughly triangular shape.  The island is only 14 miles long by 7 miles wide.  It is a special territory of Chile in the southeasternmost Pacific Ocean and is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world.  The nearest inhabited land is 1300 miles away.  The straight line flight distance from Lima to the island is 2338 miles.  It took us 5 days of sailing to arrive here from Lima.

        Experts disagree on when the island’s Polynesian inhabitants first reached the island.  The range is between 300 to 1200 AD (our lecturer is saying 1000 AD) and probably coincided with the first settlers to arrive in Hawaii.  First inhabitants came by canoe for distant lands.  The early inhabitants created a thriving and industrious culture as evidenced by the island’s numerous enormous stone maoi and other artifacts.  However, land clearing for growing crops and the introduction of the Polynesian rat led to gradual deforestation.  By the time of the first Europeans to arrive in 1722, the island’s population was estimated to be 2000 to 3000.  European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1800’s along with islanders leaving for Tahiti depleted the population to 111 by 1877.  The population today is nearly 7800.

        Easter Island is famous for the large stone statues, or moai (pronounced mow-eye).  They were carved in the period 1100 to 1680 AD.  A total of 887 of the maoi have been inventoried on the island.  Almost 95% of the maoi were carved from volcanic ash and found at a single site on the side of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku (our tour is going here).  They were carved with stone hand chisels.  Only 25% of the maoi were moved and installed.  Although often called “Easter Island heads”, they have torsos with most of them ending at the top of the thighs.  A few figures are kneeling on bent knees with their hands over their stomachs.  All the moai face inland, not to the sea.  They were said to watch over those living on the island as they were carved when a chief had died.  Kind of like a marker in one of our cemetaries.  Interestingly, most of the moai were buried due to erosion over the centuries.  Most have been dug up and placed back on their stone platforms.  The average height of the moai is approximately 13 feet with the largest being 30 feet high.  Today was incredibly fascinating.

        There is jet air service from Chile, and seasonally from Peru to the island.  Non-residents are prohibited from staying on the island for more than 30 days.  There are approximately 156,000 visitors to the island annually providing $120 million for its economy.  The island was closed for over 2 years during the covid pandemic.  We will be anchoring near the only town on the island, Hanga Roa, on the west side of the island.

YESTERDAY EVENING

                                                                             Budi

                                                             Some goodies to start with.

              Elvis, a bartender, was helping out by serving wine in Sette Mari last night.

Budi, sommelier, brought this nice Italian valpolicella for me to enjoy with my veal parmesan. 

Minestrone soup to start with

                         I shared my veal parmesan with Rebecca and still could not eat all of it.

This is the training officer, Kateryna.  She is from Ukraine and very nice lady who came by and chatted with us.

TODAY

"Land Ho"  Taken at 8am.

I had this omelet with hash browns and sausage this morning as our tour will not be back until around 1:30 this afternoon.

I believe our tenders will have to go to small pier on other side of the waves breaking on shore.

                                            Setting up the gangway and lowering a tender.

         Small boat from shore arriving.  I assume it is local authorities to give ship clearance.

        Our tour, "Easter Island Mystical Moai Statues & Highlights",  met at 10am in the theater.  Due to island authorities taking everyone temperature and checking suite cards it was a slow process of boarding the tenders to head ashore.  It was 11am before our tour was called to go board the tenders.  The island authorities also wanted everyone to spray with insect repellant before going ashore.  We told them we did but didn't.  Not sure what that was about as never saw even one insect on the island.

        So it was after 11:30 when we boarded our tour bus.  There were 11 of us on our bus and not sure how many was on the second bus.  Our guide was good but never rode in the bus.  Just explained what we were seeing at the stops.  The air conditioned was about nonexistent and I complained several times but no help.  We paid over $100 each extra for this tour so I expected better.

        It was 3:30 before we got off the tender when returning after our 3 1/2 hour tour.  I picked up some turkey meat and roll at Coffee Connection on the way back to our suite.  Needed a little snack before dinner.  Rebecca had her Atkins bar.  I hit the shower right away which felt good.  

        I have over 60 photos to download that I took today.  An hour later only half have downloaded.  So now we have 4 more sea days prior to the next port.  I have decided to start putting the Easter Island photos on tomorrow's blog.  It will all depend on the ship's internet.  I know you will really enjoy today's photos and so glad we were able to see all the moai.  Also enjoyed the perfect weather.

        So plan for this evening is much needed cocktails in Mariner Lounge before dinner in Compass Rose.  Terry Bishop will be doing tonight's show so absolutely want to see it.

                                                      Tonight's Compass Rose menu

        
        

DAY 18---CROSSING THE PACIFIC (DAY 4)

 

This is our position at noon today.  We should be anchoring at Easter Island around 9am tomorrow and the tendering operations should begin by 10am.  For my new to blog folks, tendering is taking folks to the shore in our life boats because there is not a dock for the ship.  Hopefully the sea conditions at the island will allow for safe tendering.  There are some long swells of the ocean today even though the ocean appears calm.

The skies are clear today and the temperature is a little warmer at 77 degrees.  Winds near calm.

YESTERDAY EVENING

I wore this t-shirt yesterday.  It's one of my favorites as I am doing my best during cocktail hour to do this.

                                                                This is Wenty, a cleaner.

                                  We all enjoyed some pig-in-a-blanket during cocktail hour.

                                Great time at dinner with Eddie & Lyn Zito and Marcia Rector.

                 I gave the chicken satay with peanut sauce for a appetizer.  Not so good.

                                            Rebecca chose the safe choice, shrimp cocktail.

We both had this roasted chicken breast with ricotta-spinach filling and truffle polenta.  It was ok but won't do it again.  Very dry.

Eddie and Lyn had dover sole.  Pedro is removing the bone here.  Marcia had the roasted rack of lamb.

                          Executive chef, John Pugh, and the pastry chef stopped by to say hi.

Marcia and I went to the production show, "Broadway in Concert".  Rebecca decided to head back to the suite.

          Marcia and I thought the three female singers were "screechy".  The guys were good.

TODAY

        I went to the fitness center at 9am and did 50 minutes on the treadmill.  Rebecca has not worked out the past few days as she is fighting an upper respiratory thing and coughing.  (Not covid as tested negative yesterday as you will recall)  She is taking a z-pac to try and get rid of it.  Seems she gets this upper respiratory thing on every cruise.  

        Usually they have this brunch on Sundays but this one today is on a Tuesday.  After working out I ran down to take these photos before people started devouring it.  Photos just do not do justice to seeing the spread in person.  Here are the menus.

Here are some photos of the people responsible for this wonderful brunch.  Here is our Executive Chef, John Pugh, with our General Manager, Nickie Sheils.

                       Beverage Manager, Isadora, with our Food & Beverage Director, Nino.

    L to R:  Jason, Compass Rose maitre'd;  Budi, sommelier; and Arthur, head sommelier.

                                                                  Wendy, bar waitress.

                                 Honey roasted ham and roast striploin of beef carving station.

                                                                   Crepe station

                                                                   Seafood station

                                                            Seafoods and Sushi

                                                                            Seafoods

                                                                            Desserts

                                                                    Breads display

                                                              Breakfast bakery items

                                                                           Desserts

Daniela came on board back in Lima and is the new maitre'd in Chartreuse (French restaurant).

        We went down to the brunch at noon.  I did not want to eat much so had this:  green lip mussels, anchovies, boiled eggs, prosciutto, sauteed garlic shrimp, lasagna, and ham.  Just a little of each.

        Then we ran up to La Veranda.  The Todd's were on the elevator so I told them I had just had brunch and now I was going up for lunch.  Actually, I wanted to ask Donald, maitre'd in evenings at Sette Mari, if he could have chef Seigfred prepare a veal parmesan for us this evening.  We will split one as it is always huge.  

        This afternoon I watched the taping of James Grant-Peterkin's lecture, "Easter Island Today".  Rebecca took a little nap.  Internet is not allowing the streaming yesterday or today of her soaps.

        So this evening we will have our cocktail hour in the Mariner Lounge then go up to Sette Mari for our dinner.  Tonight's show at 9:30 if featuring Ritch Shynder's second comedy show.  Doubt Rebecca will be going but I may.