Quote of the day: “I was just talking to an English lady. She wants to go home already and she only got on the ship today. Can’t stand the heat, poor thing.”
The captain has announced that our route to Panama from Ft. Lauderdale has had to change, due to the arrival in the area of tropical storm Emily. She has apparently caused 7 ships to change their schedule, and is expected to develop into a full-blown Hurricane before she gets to Miami. So Cartagena is off, and is to be replaced by a port with the unfortunate name of Colon… and talking to someone who’s already been there, it may well be aptly named!
I’ve now been joined on board by Mike and Heather, friends from back home in New Zealand. We’re having a blast – well apart from drinking a little too much last night, and waking up feeling a little seedy today, that is… No wine for me with dinner tonight!
I caused a minor storm in the dinning room this morning at breakfast time by walking out. I ended up on a table with a couple who don’t talk to anyone (I’ve struck them twice before at breakfast) and argue with each other constantly. On previous occasions, there have been other people on the table, so we were able to ignore them. Today I was stuck with them by myself, so I up and left.
The Maitre d’ was shocked, and asked why I was leaving. I explained to him I wasn’t willing to have breakfast with those people, and when I turned to point out where I’d been sitting, I found about 10 waiters, all looking horrified, and thinking I was complaining about one of them! Oh dear… I then went and had coffee, and returned half an hour later, and fortunately finished up with a lovely group of people… Ah, the joys of life at sea…
A shame about missing Cartagena ... the old city is such a lovely place to explore. There's not much in Colon, that is true. We've only been there following Panama Canal passages when the ship needed to make a service stop for a couple of hours. If you're going to be there all day, maybe you can make arrangements to go out to the locks to see them from the ground up. We did this on one trip and was fascinated by the different perspective. Also, at some point during the day there's usually a folklore show in the big hangar-like terminal that is colorful and fun ... maybe they'll have one for you guys as well.
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