World Wide Weldens

Snaefellsnes Peninsula 7-19-11

2011-07-23T10:48:00.005-06:00

Playing golf on a lava field course 7-19-11

2011-07-23T10:31:00.006-06:00

When is our tee-time?? 9:45pm
The land of the midnight sun allows you to play golf at midnight. That is when we finished our round of nine holes. After we climbed the glacier, Nicky and I went to a lava field golf course and played nines holes of golf. We rented clubs, cart (buggy), and bought 5 golf balls. The golf balls cost about five dollars a piece. We did not loose any balls! We hit some into the lava and cut them up pretty badly but managed not to lose any of them. If your ball hits the lava it can go anywhere. Not good. We were surprised at how busy they were. We waited on every hole. The golf course was slammed busy. We had fun and will enjoy talking about this "moon like" golf course forever.

Climbing a glacier (Solheimajokull)! 7-19-11

2011-07-23T07:45:00.009-06:00

In April of 2010, there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland that stopped airline travel for almost two weeks in Europe. The culprit, Eyjafjallajokull. It seems that the wind blew toward Europe and that is where the volcanic ash went. LOTS of it. There are pictures here of all of us and just Kathleen and Nicky in front of this volcano. There is a large photo of the volcano and a story about what happened out in front of a farmers house. When the volcano erupted the farmer was only displaced for a few days. Many of the locals people came to his aide to help him move his animals until it was safe to return to his farm. This southern part of Iceland has the highest concentration of known sub-glacial volcanoes in the world. The ash from the volcano blew over to the glacier that we climbed and made it very black in some areas. The local people are waiting on another eruption. This one will be Katla. That is the volcano we drove up to the other day. It erupts about every 10 years and is a little over a year late using that schedule. They expect it to erupt any day. Our guide was Cody. Nicky spent most of the climb right up next to him. That was fine with me, as I felt like the guide would be taking the safest route. Looking at the pictures you can see holes, crevasses, that are all over the place. You really have to be careful. Going up was a little easier than coming down. Coming down we took a different route and at times I had new appreciation for gymnastics. Having balance beam experience would come in handy on the glacier. It was about 2.5 miles up and 2.5 miles back down. Five miles. It tool three and a half hours. It was a learning experience for sure. It was also a blister experience. Those "crampons" cause blisters. We will be feeling that glacier for a few more weeks! The icepicks they gave us said "Nepal" on them but on the other side said "Made in Italy". Go figure.

Waterfalls are everywhere in Iceland. The glaciers melting in the summer months cause them to surge with thunderous amounts of water. The guides think that every one of them is worth stopping and getting a picture. We agreed with them until the last two days of the trip. At some point you feel like you have seen enough. Sadly, we stopped taking pictures but enjoyed seeing them all the same.
The picture of the farm that looks like they are growing giant marshmallows is hay. In Iceland, they wrap their hay that they roll in plastic to keep it from rotting. This brings on the Marshmallow look.
Dried fish anyone? This tasty snack is available most everywhere. Icelandic people love it. They don't really like the smell but they say once you get past the smell t is quite delicious! The people in Iceland eat some of the strangest things. Seered sheep's head. shark. whale, haggis, horse, and puffin! The one thing we all liked was the lamb soup. There is one picture of how they served it in room service at our hotel after we got off the glacier.

ALL IS WELL 7-20-11

2011-07-20T17:57:00.002-06:00

We have been going non-stop for over 48 hours. No time to peacefully sit down and tell you about our travels.
We are all healthy and having fun. Today was a 12 hour tour and then Nicky and I played golf!!
The land of the midnight sun does exist and it is in Iceland. The golf course was packed for our 9:45 p.m. tee-time!! We are just in and it is midnight.
Lots to share.
Have to go home tomorrow.
We will be back.
Post to the blog tomorrow.

Continuing our day on the 4x4 7-18-11

2011-07-18T16:18:00.013-06:00

We made our way to a camp site. Bjarki had no idea that we were not campers! Pretty funny but interesting to see all these Germans, French, locals, etc...taking off their clothes and running through a field to get to a warm spring where they sat with about 12 other people in a God-made hot tub! Not for us. Kathleen found the "mall" and went shopping. We got cookies for a friend of hers back home.
The weird shot is out the front windshield of our Super Jeep while we plunged into a river and took on a bunch of water. It went up and over the vehicle and it was thrilling. We stayed in river beds mudding and riding though river a lot of the day. Really fun.

This was a steel sign that was bent to point straight up...we should have known it was going to be scary!

Pictures from the top of Mount Helka

There are wildflowers all over the place. If I could did up some of this Lupin, the tall blue/purple flowers I would. Why? They say it grows like Kudzu!! We need a bunch of this stuff to "color-up" the tornado ravaged area of our neighborhood at home! A little wildflower color would be welcome there. Somebody google it and see if Lupin seeds can be bought and brought to Alabama!!
Horses. Icelandic horses are small and gentle. They are supposedly easy for beginners to ride. We managed to come across a herd just making their way down the road. Sadly, they eat horse here and say it is very good. We have not tried it. Another thing, the horses all have bangs!!

Smiling faces by the waterfalls. There was no wind to speak of. Our guide told us that last Saturday in this area that they could hardly stand here never mind the top of the volcano in all the wind!

There is so much water both crazy hot and crazy cold you can't have a day in Iceland without seeing a magnificent waterfall! Our guide, BRkey, that is not how you spell it but how you say it, his name is really spelled, Bjarki. He was great. He was very knowledgeable about all we saw and did and was smart enough not to get too close to the edges of the mountains even when I thought he was way too close. The letting the air out of the tires gave us a smoother ride STRAIGHT up the mountain. We even rode through ice/snow fields with ease. It was a little scary but we got used to it. The incline going up that mountain was about about 75 degrees. It was up, up, up, and when we stopped I was happy not to go to the very top.
The waterfall was a good place to "plank" or at least Kathleen thought so!

Landmannalaugar 7-18-11

2011-07-18T15:47:00.004-06:00

Nicky did not get much sleep, as he stayed up reading To Kill a Mocking Bird, required summer reading! Finished it but paid the price this morning in the lobby waiting for our ride!
He was happy to see that Iceland has the good sense to have Subway restaurants! Although we did not stop, (they were closed) I am certain he has it in his memory bank for a treat on the way to the airport!
Mount Hekla has some interesting history. You have to understand though, that people in this country, not all, believe in elves, both good and bad and trolls. Now fore the story, Mount Hekla was unclimbed until 1750 mainly because in the popular folk stories it was the gateway to hell. How about that! The rumblings the people could hear for months after an eruption were said to be tormented souls!! The volcano erupts about every 10 years now. The last time was in 2000. That did not sit well with me when I heard that because the locals are hoping for another eruption any day now! While we were standing on top of that volcano you could look down at what is considered to bethe world's most voluminous lava flow since the end of the last Ice Age The lava flow, now a petrified field of lava stones covered with moss and creepy/pretty covers about 500 square miles.

Mount Hekla is where this photo was taken. We were not quite to the summit, but very close. Very, very close. The vehicle we used to get there had 46" wheels!! It was a Super Jeep, as they call them here and it could go anywhere and everyone gets out of your way. We took so many pictures today, I hope I can give you a tour that will make you feel like you were with us because you should have been. Anyone that loves the outdoors, loves clean air and enjoys a surprise around every corner needs to come to Iceland!

The first stop of the day produces everyone grabbing a snack. Kathleen and Nicky found some unusual ones. Kathleens piece of chocolate cke was bigger than her head and there were a few trolls sitting by the door, YIKES!

White Water Rafting Iceland Style 7-17-11

2011-07-17T13:31:00.010-06:00

At the end of the day...there were smiles!!!

The drive to the river was about an hour and a half. Along the way was mostly just beautiful countryside. We met a family from Virginia on the bus and we talked to them about their trip. They have been to Iceland 6 times! They are practically writing the Frommer's Guides! They shared a lot of interesting information with us and instead of taking pictures along the way, we found out the best places to eat "off the beaten path"! Sorry.
We were picked up at the hotel at 8:00a.m. and off we went. You have to understand, Charles and I have been hold outs for white water rafting all over the world and for some crazy reason we agreed to do it with the kids here, in Iceland! Not in some warm wonderful spot, Iceland! We really did not know what we were getting into and sometimes that is best.
We arrived via nice tourist type bus and then were told to sign the waivers to not sue them if we died. After that, we were put in a large room and given very specific "rules" of the water. Then...the gear!! Oh my! If you have ever gone snow skiing and never really loved it because of all the gear you have to put on just to head to the lift, this is not for you! Again, this is not for you! They gave us wet suits that were wet. Yep, wet. They had not had a chance to dry from the previous groups that had come through to go down the river! I could hear Charles over in the men's area saying "Are these really wet or are they just cold"? I should have known then that things might not go so well. Wet, wet suit, wet shoes and a wet life jacket. Lucky for us that all these items do heat you up from the inside out, so the wet really wasn't that bad once you were able to pull the wet suit over your dry skin with about 25 other ladies standing in the changing room with you in all states of dress. Once in the gear...off we went. Where, to the lovely school buses that took us up to the river. May I say that my wet suit probably had been down the river a few dozen times before I got in it and the sweet smell of their fun was left in it for me to enjoy!
We were split up into groups and off we went to Louise, our river guide. It was Louise, our family of four, a couple from Chicago, sisters from Colorado and a couple from Florida. The youngest in their group was about 65. Kathleen and I volunteered to paddle the front and be the ones that kept everyone paddling in lovely poetic style. We had some practice drills of paddle forward, paddle backward, stop and hang on. Four commands. Not too hard. Ya think?? We pushed off and in the very first rapid, off fell Sharon...no last names. Sharon was so quiet about falling out, we did not even miss her! Our guide did and rescued her immediately. She was coming back into the boat drenched like a wet dog before we missed her. I would have been screaming my head off! The water was coming straight off a glacier...not cold but freezing cold. We had on wet wet suits for goodness sakes. Got the picture? Sharon, safely in, we got back to paddling. The people in Iceland waste no time with their fun. We hit large rapids very rapidly, guess why they are called rapids...sorry. The next big DIP caused much screaming and much water into the boat. We did not lose anyone but Charles was swallowing his first gallon of water for the day. He managed to hang on and not hit the lady that was telling him that he was not holding onto the boat correctly! He was just glad that he stayed in the boat. All scary parts and risking lives aside...it was FANTASTIC! We managed to forget that we smelled like hobos, didn't care that we might fall out, and had a ball.
The pictures may look like we were wet, tired and not having fun...wet and tired yes, the not fun, no. The kids said it was one of the best things we have ever done.

We got to spot midway down the river to jump off a cliff. That was not in the paperwork and when they said that we were going to jump, it was not well received by Charles! The kids wanted to jump, so off they went. We don't even let them jump at Chimney Rock at Lake Martin, but here we are in Iceland and I guess the air is too clean, we went nuts and let them jump, they loved it. Again, sorry for the poor photos. I was worried they were going to hit their heads on the lava rocks and forgot to snap pictures! There are some on the edge and in the water after the jump. Most everyone that did jump, screamed went they hit the cold water. One Japanese man kind of lost his mind for a few seconds and forgot to swim back to the rock wall and started to float down the river and he was thrown a life rope and did not have the sense of mind to grab it but did start to swim! The guide called him a late swimmer, it was pretty funny. Scary for him but he never realized it.
We got back in our boat and made our way down the river with no more close calls. Actually, so of the guides started doing back flips off the back of the boats just for fun and tried to get us to do it...maybe next time!

The Golden Circle in Iceland 7-16-11

2011-07-16T14:36:00.011-06:00

You can hear it before you see it. Gullfoss waterfall. As the story goes, a young woman owned this property. The government wanted to put in a hydroelectric dam and ruin the beauty you see here. She threatened to throw herself over the edge it the project went through. Although the courts ruled against her, the project never happened due to the high public pressure not to build the dam, the hydroelectric company just gave up and the contract expired in 1928. She was a smart farmer's daughter because it is just beautiful. There is a bronze plaque there of her before you walk down right next to the falls. There is no barrier between you and the falls. You just have to use your own common sense not to go too close to the edge. We should have brought rain gear as, the closer you get to the falls the wetter you get. The wind coming off the glacier far away from where we were standing was what we thought was "high", seems it was light wind. Not for us. We could barely stand there in the wet and wind to take these pictures.

The English word "geyser" comes from this fascinating geothermal area that is crazy full of hot springs, creeks, and holes! To anyone reading this that has made the trip to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and thought that was wonderful...Good Night Nurse...you would love this! Old Faithful is but a spit into the air compared to this explosive giant! The geyser that was named, "Geysir", hence the English word today, was discovered in 1294! Yes, that is right, 1294. It erupted for hundreds of years but gave out of steam so to speak and had to be "encouraged" to erupt when locals put soap chips into it and aggravated it enough! Luckily for the locals, about 12 years ago, another geyser erupted only about 100 yards away, this one is named Stokkut, which in English means, The Churn. The water in the hole actually churns around and bubbles up before it erupts. You can see that the locals made good use of the stones and made them the "security roped area". These stones and ropes were the only things between us and the geyser! We were standing about 30 yards from it when it gave way and shot up about 120 feet into the air! It was very scary but very exciting. I think we were the only ones that screamed, I am not sure why. The build up of this hot water and gas was quite a show!

Pingvellir National Park. This is the very spot in 1944 where everyone in Iceland that wanted to celebrate gathered to really have fun celebrating their independence from Denmark. Their was a Parlament building here at one time but it was lost to fire. There are hands on learning centers here about their history and a "creek" that our guide called a river that is deep enough and clear enough to dive into in scuba gear! It was SO cold to the touch I do not know how they could do it. When you are looking at the pictures of the "creek/river" it is not a fake! The water Nicky is sticking his hand into is CLEAR. It was almost like Walt Disney made it with a fake bottom and a pump to put in the clean water. This is not Disney, it is real!
This is also the place where back in the day, if the Vikings did not like you or you had a difference in opinion from them, you were killed. The men by being beheaded and the women by being drowned in this beautiful clear water. The history of it all is marked along the path and a count of how many were killed. Amazing.

Before there were mile markers along the highway, you had to mark your way it something. In some countries, they just used one stone. Here in Iceland, they marked their way with a signature stack of rocks, so they would know their way back from where ever they walked! Great idea, right? However, the regular American teenager, does not have the stone stacking skills as the Vikings of long ago. Kathleen was much better at marking her path. Maybe the wives of the Vikings were in charge of this task?

Waiting to get there and a meal!

2011-07-16T14:29:00.001-06:00

These pictures are out of order but I missed them yesterday. This is how we spend our "down time" in airports. The statue that Charles is leaning on at the cliff's edge is of an extinct bird. Our guide called it by name but I have no idea what he said. All we got was, they no longer exist. Now, they have the Puffin as their National bird. However, they do not hold them in as high regard as let's say Americans do the Bald Eagle. Why? Because they eat them! Puffin is on many a menu and they say they are just wonderful! If you do not know what a Puffin looks like, Google it. They are smallish chubby mostly black and white birds with bright orange and yellow beaks. They have really big almost painted on black sad clown eyes. Adorable.

Reykjavik, Iceland 7-14-2011

2011-07-15T16:51:00.004-06:00

Lamb. Even their hot dogs are made out of lamb. That was lunch. A small fishing village where our guide lives was the best spot to try the local food. The President of Iceland lives in this white house with the red roof. He was not home but we were able to walk right up to the house. No security, no cameras, it was really nice. We were the only ones there.
One of the most interesting things we have ever done. We walked from Europe to North America today! It seems Iceland is where the two continental plates meet and have separated over time. There is a bridge to connect the two continents. We walked the walk today! We actually listened to a Geologist talk about this very place in 2009 at a lecture in Antarctica.
Seems that trolls are alive and well here. If they stay out too late and the sun rises on them, they turn to stone. That is what happened to these two we saw along the shore.
Planking? Very popular with teenagers. That is what Kathleen is doing at the big divide!
Looking out to the west and the north, there are beautiful views. To the north you can see the glacier about 60 miles across the water. That is the glacier we are set to climb later in the week.

The blue lagoon is a big attraction. Crazy weird. A giant hot tub. It was on the bachelor or the bachelorette one season! People get in for its healing powers for dry skin and other skin problems. We were there at 9:00a.m. I did not want to spend all day with wet hair smelly like rotten eggs so we did not get in. We will go back late afternoon one day and give it a go. The views are really amazing. We stopped at a golf course. There was a tournament going on. There are over 50 golf course here in Iceland. We have made plans to play at midnight this week on a course that has mostly lava fairways. Really unusual. The grass looks really green on their greens. Many women were playing and it was not even ladies day! It seems women here have really taken to the game. Good for them!

Boston, Mass 7-13-2011

2011-07-15T12:35:00.004-06:00

A trip to Boston would not be complete without seeing the Harvard campus. We took the subway to Cambridge and to Harvard University. Just beautiful. Very clean and crisp. People out and about studying on the Harvard yard! Fun afternoon.
The Old North Church. The place where Paul Revere had to hang the lanterns to warn that the British we coming. "Oneth by land Twoeth by sea" Wonder if those words work in scrabble?
The odd "booths" in the church were built that way to keep the church members warm. The closer your "booth" is to the pulpit the more it cost. Much like football tickets in the SEC on the fifty yard line! You'll be happy to know that Paul Revere had a very nice window booth and his ancestors still use it today. By the way, children were not allowed to go to church back then as they were loud and distracting, imagine that!

Spending time in a city that holds so much of American history was long overdue. We have been so many places outside of the United States, it is time to report on some of our own great history.
We spent most of the day touring on our own. The Quincy Market area was our home base so to speak. Lots of colorful people there and plenty of shops and food. When we were in Philly about six years ago we passed up the opportunity of a lifetime by not taking the "Duck Boat Tour". We were not so crazy this time! We jumped at the opportunity!! You can see by the looks on the kids faces how excited they were! Although rain set in on us and we got wet...it was great fun!

Home on Saturday, March 19th, 2011

2011-03-20T19:22:00.002-06:00

We made it home safe and sound. Another "small" chapter closed for this traveling foursome.
Where is the next trip?
No definite plans but have some ideas brewing.
Hopefully, we will see some of our old friends along the way!
Until then....

3-18-11 Birthday at Sea

2011-03-20T18:10:00.004-06:00

Kathleen had a birthday surprise planned to decorate our cabin!
We had a birthday dinner in Prime 7 and I got to blow out candles.
A bottle of champagne and a toast to many more. Many more birthdays and many more trips together!

New Friends

2011-03-20T18:06:00.003-06:00

We met a wonderful family from Dallas, Texas. We had a great time visiting, playing bingo, trivia and ping pong! Thank you for making our kids' spring break in central america like being at home while we were on the ship! Safe travels!

Cozumel, Mexico 3-17-11 St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-20T17:03:00.004-06:00

Warm and windy, very windy Mexico. You can walk to Mexico from Alabama. Don't know why you would, but you could. It might take you a month or two but you could do it. It has taken us 4 years to get the kids to Mexico. Finally, a check mark by Mexico on the bucket list. Sadly, this part of Mexico is not the Mexico of days gone by of my memories from the 70's when I visited Mexico as a student. The streets are littered with touristy souvenirs that would most likely fall apart before you made it home. Most of which were made in China, not Mexico. When Mexico gets things squared away and travel to the country is welcomed and safe, we will go back. There are so many beautiful cities in this country, rich in history and beauty abounds. We will have to come back.

An old friend was with us on the trip. August!! August was with us on the Mariner in 2009 and the Voyager in 2010. He got a promotion and is now an officer on the Navigator! Thank you August for a wonderful cruise and for taking care of our family!!

Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala 3-16-11

2011-03-20T15:31:00.017-06:00

Some of the flowers. A basketball goal made out of rocks and a view from the pier in Livingston. We had a great day.

We made it to lunch and got to go to a real bathroom to wash up. They have very interesting toilet paper holders. They are made from bamboo. Resy nice and great way to use all that bamboo they have! The lunch was chicken fajitas. The entertainment was a combination of local and African dance. Kathleen was picked out of the crowd to join the dancing!

We made our way back to the mouth of the river to a town called Livingston. Here, we went to see a park. This is a picture of something unusual. Most parks in the US do not have sea crocs! There was a large concrete container that was about 8 feet deep and about 50 feet across. If you look at the photo carefully, you can see Kathleen and Nicky on the far side, inside the container you can see a salt water croc with his mouth open and another croc resting his head on him. If you look closer, you will see a man that has his small daughter, about 4 years old, sitting on the ledge of the container!! We learned when we were in Australia that salt water crocs can come up on their tails about 15 feet high! The thought of that little girl being lunch was enough to ruin our appetite for lunch, but off we went! Hopefully, that little girl lived to see another day!

We were riding up river when we happened upon a "resort" of sorts. A tiny hotel in the jungle right on the river. A great place for a honeymoon??

A photo of our vessel that we made it across the ocean in to get to the river! YIKES!! Reminded me of the "Minnow"...

The next time you open up a can of black beans for your Texas caviar or Taco soup from Paula Dean's coobook, think about this sight! Black beans for about 1,000 people!!

Our guide told us that they eat tortillas and black beans. Kathleen and Jimmy were in a contest to see who could make the better tortilla. Seems they called it a tie. We all got to taste their tortillas. We decided they should both stay in school and let these people from Mayan descent keep making the tortillas!

We made it to the school. We were invited into a classroom that was equivalent to 10th grade in the US. There were kids ranging in age from 12 to 19. There was no reason given for the wide range of age unless they just did not get to start school until later in life. Only 3 kids in that room got to go home. The rest of the kids board there. That was surprising. They all walk around with a plate and a cup. They must have to use the same one for every meal, every day. That held true in the town of Livingston that we visited as well. The people in that town were walking around with one plate and a cup. That was something we had never seen. Back to the school. The teacher looked like a student he was so young. None of the students speak ANY english. This was the first school we have ever visited that english was not taught. Really amazing when you think about how many different places we have been. They teach these school kids about their jungles. They want them to go on to a 2 year program outside of this jungle and return with more knowledge of what they have available in their rain forests/jungles that could be medicines, food, etc... All the kids have "jobs" and there are some adults there as well. We toured a "kitchen" of sorts. It was a "tortilla hut". They make 5,000 tortillas a day! Not sure why so many but they do. They invited Kathleen and a boy named Jimmy, who happened to be from Birmingham, Alabama...what were the odds?? to make tortillas. They told us that tortillas are not any god unless they rise and fall while they are on the griddle. The griddle by the way was a giant limestone slab that they kept putting scraps of wood under to keep it heated. The hut, needless to say, was HOT inside! They were churning out tortillas like they were at the Tostitos plant!

Flowers and fauna galore. One gal on our trip forgot to read the suggested footwear...open toed sandals in the rainforest/jungle??

We woke up to storms. Everyone in our group thought our tours would be cancelled. Not the case! Charles had gotten a "cold" and decided not to risk getting sicker or risk his life. The three of us decided, or rather I decided that we would go to the Rio Dulce (Sweet River) as planned. We walked off the ship into driving rain and our umbrellas were turned inside out. The small whaler boats that waited for us at the end of the pier were not looking so good. It would have been easy to turn around and skip the tour saying the weather was too bad, but we did not. We got in that tiny boat with about 9 other brave/stupid people and set out on our one hour ride to reach the river. The problem with the one hour was, it was into driving rain, waves that pounded into the bow of the boat and an engine that looked like it could fall off at any time. Off we went. To say that this one hour ride was bad...well, if you ever thought you had back trouble, this confirmed it for you because you do now. Wooded benches, no cushions, and no "sides" to keep the rain off of you. You will see a picture of Nicky trying his best to stay dry...no luck there but at least with your head buried into a towel, you were less likely to fear for your life! The engine did stop about 25 minutes into the trip. Our "captain", who did not speak english but our guide did, got it going in no time and we were back to pounding the waves. By some miracle from God, when we reached the river, the sun came out and our day turned out to be our favorite. Wet to the bone, we dried out nicely while we made our way up the river to a village. How many people can say they saw "The Village People" for spring break?? Only the Welden kids! ha! They did not appreciate the humor. Actually, this river area is now a protected park. There we saw lots of birds. We became birders back in 2006, so this was a treat. Eagles, herons, egrets, and terns. Loads of them. The pelicans were like squirrels back home...all over the place. I did not know that pelicans could roost in trees. They have webbed feet but they can do it! Once starting up the river, you loose you thoughts to "Oh my goodness, this is remote, beautiful and boy are we glad we came". Everything happens on the river. Small kids in canoes paddling on their way to school, kids selling their parents goods for them along our boat, the mailman is by water and will not leave your mail unless he can hand it to you, they don't have mailboxes (maybe a new business for someone), they fish, swim, do their laundry, wash their dishes...all in that river. We made our way up the river looking at beautiful limestone canyon walls, looking at water lillies and then making our way to visit the "Village People". We "docked" and made our way to a landing. We were at our destination. We were going to visit a school and walk through a rain forest.

Belize City, Belize 3-15-11

2011-03-20T14:11:00.007-06:00

What did we see besides the jungle and beautiful river? Lots of poverty. Not nearly as poor as west Africa but right along there. There is one photo of a small steel container that someone obviously stole from a shipyard and put it up on blocks, cut out a door and put a padlock on it. That is a home. No windows, no bathrooms, no kitchen...got it? There are a lot of Squatters in Belize from other countries. The government allows it. The country only gained it's Independence in 1973. They have people from Honduras, India, Africa (the poorest parts)..all squatting on small pieces of land. Belize is about the same size as Massachusetts. It has the second largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, second only to the great barrier reef. Belize is the only country in central america where English is the official language, Spanish is second. However, the locals speak a crazy kind of creole english that is not recognizable as english. This country only has about 250,000 people. They also have had many Chinese immigrants of late. This tiny country used to be part of Honduras, has a great Mayan civilization history, as well as pirates and slavery. Today it is and independent and democratic country. They have more trees than people that we found out for sure.
There is a photo of a cemetery. It makes you think that they bury their dead above ground. They do not. However, they only bury 3 feet deep and then put a concrete decorative vault on top of the grave, much like the people in Mexico.

We had a great guide in Belize, Ali. She knew everything there is to know about every tree in Belize! Very interesting. We had a jungle hike that took about 45 minutes, we were all carrying our inner tubes and wearing life jackets for the hike. When we reached the top, we all got in the river for our "float" through the caves and rapids. It was really interesting. Good news/bad news...no cameras! Ha! No great pictures of the four of us hiking/schelpping/trudging through the jungle! There were trees there that they call the "Tourist" trees. They have red bark, peel and then turn white! Ha! Sound like a sunburned tourist?? They have trees that you run to and chew on the bark if you happen to be bitten by one of their 9 poisonous snakes. Too bad we can't remember the name of the tree to run to!!
Did any of you know that termites have a minty taste?? Really? Minty, yes! We stopped along the path in the jungle, always on the lookout for jaguars and snakes so Ali, our wonderful guide, could crack open a termite mound and offer us a taste of those little wigglers!
Belize was last hit by a hurricane in 2006. Some of that damage is still in full view.
The river we floated down as cool and a welcome cool, as we were ready to cool off when we got to the top. We all had really nice headgear. Miner helmets fully loaded with halogen lighting so we could see formations in the caves and of course the bats!!

The catch phrase for the country is "Unbeliezeable"!! Very cute!

Welcome to Belize!

Key West, Florida March 13th, 2011

2011-03-20T13:12:00.010-06:00

Cuban sandwiches for lunch!
Visiting with Mr. Knight. We hope to see Mr. Knight again very soon!
Mr. Knight keep doing your 30 minute a day workouts and traveling the world! You are welcome in Alabama always. Hope to see you again someplace wonderful soon. You are a delight and pleasure to be with. Thank you for loving our family! We love you too!

When Earnest Hemmingway found out that his favorite bar had lost it's lease he was there to buy some of the things the bar owner was ripping out of the walls. This is a lovely drinking fountain for the cats but the basin is actually the old urinal that came out of the bar. His wife tried desperately and with a lot of success to disguise it with tiles. She wanted him to get rid of it. He told her when she got rid of "her" pool, he'd get rid of "his"! Too funny!!
We tried to eat at Blue Heaven but there was a long wait. This photo is for our friends Sondra and Hank, we tried!
The all too funny, Floyd's barber shop. It is not Mayberry but funny!

The t-shirt photo was taken for Chuck.

This in ground pool cost $30,000 dollars back in the 1930's! When he and his wife at the time got a bid to have it put in their garden, he said no way, too much! When his wife at that time found out he was having an affair, as soon as he was off to Europe with his girlfriend, she had the pool installed. When he got back and saw the pool there he told her she was going to spend his last "red cent". In the concrete, she had a penny encased as to relish the fact that she did at least try to spend his last red cent!

Being a tree lover/hugger we had to snap a picture of the Banyan tree. It was right near the estate of Earnest Hemmingay. The corner shot of Earnest Hemmingway's house is exactly that, a corner of the block. His estate takes up the block. Can you imagine what this would sell for today (if the real estate market was good)??

The extra large chocolate chip cookies were tempting but we were on our way to what we were hoping would be a really special Key West type of lunch and Cuban atmosphere. The big reddish building is a dance center and the large statue was just too great to pass up a photo!

Key West is certainly and interesting place!
The two big attractions were to see the homes of two famous people. One person you have heard of, or 99% of you have, Earnest Hemmingway. He is dead and gone. The other, Mr. Edward Knight. About 75% of you may know of him. He is alive and well, living on his island in Key West at the age of 94! What a wonderful man. Full of stories about Key West back in the 30's, what World War II was like in Key West, knowing Earnest Hemmingway, knowing President Truman, all the musicians that sat and played the same piano that he invited Kathleen to play in his home. Seems that Xavier Cugat was a regular there. His influence of Cuban music in Key West still exists today. Mr. Knight made many trips to Cuba and speaks of those days very fondly. We had a wonderful history lesson and really think the wold of Mr. Knight.
Our tour into Earnest Hemmingway's home was made really great by our tour guide. Stan from Ohio! He was great. Although Earnest Hemminway did not live in this home very long, he did most of his writing in a small guest house behind the house. This is where he wrote his classics, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. What we did learn was he was a very young man when he lived here. He was only 31 years old and did not resemble those grey haired pictures you see of him all the time. He was a dark haired nice looking man. Maybe that is why he was such a ladies man! He had 4 wives and many girlfriends. His love of cats still lives on. There are about 20 cats that still live on the property there. A special species of cats with six toes no less. One cat, named Frances, was on his king sized bed and never stirred while we looked through his bedroom. Almost looked stuffed but opened one eye and gave us a look!
The house is built on the highest point in Key West which is 16 feet above sea level. Very smart on his past. He got cross windsthat kept the house cool and he even had a basement in this house which is unheard of in Key West! He kept his favorite wine there, as it was very cool in the basement.

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-14T18:35:00.002-06:00

We are off to Key West, Belize, Guatemala and Cozumel.

Made it home May 12, 2010

2010-07-18T09:39:00.002-06:00

For anyone who kept up with our travels this past trip, you probably noticed that our trip "ended" before we made it back. It didn't. I was just not up to speed physically. That "parasite" I got in Tanzania was a souvenir that hung on for 2 weeks and really took me down. We had about 3 weeks of travel left the day I got sick, so the entire west coast of Africa was seen not at 100% for sure. The "crossing" was nothing spectacular, except some people reported that they had seen a "green flash". We have never seen one, so we watched many a sunset on the way home hoping to see one, never did! That means we will have to make another trip to the middle of the ocean again one day and hope for a severe clear sunset that produces a "green flash".

To end the story for 2010, it was one if not the most remote we have ever travelled. Some of the places we saw were take your breathe away beautiful and some were so poverty and disease ridden that it was hard to look at it. No matter where you go, you can always find beauty, even if it is not the kind of beauty you see in travel books or magazines. Sometimes beauty can be smiles and waves from people who have absolutely nothing, but are very happy you came to see their country. This trip left us with eyes wide open. Is Western Africa a place most people will travel, no. Should they if given the opportunity, definitely. It is the poorest part of the world. However, they smile and wave like they are living in luxury. That is beautiful.

I am hoping to post some of our favorites that you have not yet seen. If we get a lesson or 10 we might can do video as well.

There may be a "green flash" in our future. Stay tuned. We are considering a trip in the spring of 2011.

Cape Verde, Sunday May 2nd, 2010

2010-05-06T13:21:00.003-06:00

Arriving early on a Sunday morning, the Catholic family decided to take in mass on the island. Although they speak Portuguese here, all Catholics know that the parts of the mass are the same and you can fully participate, although the homily is hard to follow! We started out a little bit on the wrong road. We were given information from a gal that came onto the ship as a city representative that the Sunday mass would be at 10:00a.m. Knowing this we wanted to go early because we had no idea where it was and needed to take a cab or shuttle into the town and find it. After making only a few wrong turns on these very beautiful cobblestone streets, I stopped a man and he in broken English pointed out where to find the church. We got there. 40 minutes early!! Mass did not start until 10:30a.m. We walked around the church area for a while and then took our pew. You would have thought that we all had bananas on our heads! People were staring at us like we had certainly made a big mistake but when we did not leave during the almost 2 hour mass...they figured out that we were probably the family from Alabama that they had heard about on the Internet! Two hours of swatting flies and enjoying the really great music provided by their youth choir. It was great. However, the man across the aisle from us must have had bacon in his pocket because at one point there were about 25 flies on his pocket! fter mass we looked for a lunch spot. That wasn't too easy. he roads are not marked well and nobody really speaks English. We found two policemen and one of them spoke Spanish! Yippee! Communication at last! If you are considering learning a foreign language, don't just consider it anymore. Do it. Might we suggest Spanish or Mandarin. These are the two languages that seem to be taking over the world.
Found the lunch spot and had a great meal and watched the local life. We found a few small shops open. Not much was open because it was Sunday. It turned out to be one of our favorite tours and we had no idea what we were doing. We just got lucky and ran into some nice people.
Because of this islands' remote location it is different than any other part of Africa. It is also richer, better educated and healthier than any other country in Africa. They are well known for having HUGE Mardi Gras celebrations and it feels like you are in Rio here more than you are in Africa. They speak Portuguese like in Brazil, they dance like they do in Brazil and the people are beautiful like they are in Brazil. Although it is hard to get to, this would be a place we would tell you to highlight and make a trip. It is enchanting.

Banjul, The Gambia

2010-05-04T11:19:00.013-06:00

The Gambia is the smallest country on the continent of Africa. Just a small sliver of a country surrounded by Senegal on three sides and the Atlantic Ocean on one side The population is 1.6 million and is only11,300 sq miles large. It is crowded, poor and dirty. The people suffer in poverty, their literacy rates for males is 40% and for females is 20% Education is offered at early ages but most do not attend secondary school. Especially the girls, most of the girls never take their primary exams. Although their outlook is quite bleak in The Gambia, they were happy we made the effort to come see what was there. They said that they found oil off shore in 2003. Nothing has been done to try to drill for that oil. Not having anything there but a peanut factory and a few small exports, they might want to look into that oil!

A few pictures of the museum we visited that was all pretty much open air, a man there weaving cloth, the countryside and Kathleen with a lady that was happy that Kathleen bought some of her bracelets!

The mom on the porch putting some greens together to go sell from their garden. The bathroom they all share, the kitchen they share...it is a Campfire on the floor with some pots.

Some pictures of the school we toured. Our means of transportation all over The Gambia, one of the boys that tried to keep up with our truck. A picture of Kathleen and a little boy that showed us his house that he shares with two other families. His little sister that was not happy, she was hungry when she woke up. Really sad.

People live wherever they can find a place. These were boats that had families living in them and you can see that their "out house" went straight into the bay water. This exists many places in Africa.

Banjul is located where the Gambia River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It was the first place we have ever been that we had to arrive at a certain time because the tides are SO flucuating. We arrived, the tide went down and then we had to wait until late in the day when the tide came back up in order to leave. VERY few cruise ships come here. VERY few people come here. Knowing this, you may understand that there is really nothing here to make a person put this place high on their places to travel. There are no magnificent museums, the one we wnt to barely had anything in it and what was there was just a few pieces of weved cloth, a few local paintings, some rocks (of course) and some huts where they had real photos on the wall of what life in those village huts was/is like. There are no beautiful buildings. Most of the buildings are in a state of ill repair. No famous mountains, no scenic beauty, although they say they have it, we did not see it. They showed us what they could. That was, their countryside, which was all dirt roads (including the city roads), dirt and dust was on everything, cars, bikes, dogs, kids, even the leaves on the trees had dirt/dust all over them. They have a REAL problem with trash. There were piles of garbage all over the place and unfortunately people going through the trash looking for food. Their dirt roads felt like "off road" even in town. There were more holes in their roads than road! We were in the back of a truck that held about 24 people. We bounced all over the countryside trying to get to a school. On the way, we passed hundreds of children smiling and waving, although, I think Ghana has all countries beat on the waving! The kids would try to keep up with our truck and run as fast as they could in their "not running shoes". Some had sandals, most were barefooted. Three little boys ran and jumped on the back of the truck and hung on for dear life hoping that someone would have a piece of gum, candy, bottle of water...sad. Some of them have learned that visitors have cameras and totes that they can pluck out of the trucks. One boy alsmost got one man's camera but he was not successful and ran off into the bush...
The school we visited had just gotten outfor the day but there were about 25 kids there. They sang and danced for us in their school uniforms and showed us their "campus". That consisted of 3 buildings, no a/c, no electricity, no computers for sure. Chalkboards here are all the rage. They don't even have wipe boards. Chalk. We did not see any books but they may have some for the teachers. The kids love going to school and many of them wanted to talk after their performance about the United States. One girl asked if we dance. So we danced for them. They liked that. Too many of them were in clothes that had not been washed in weeks/months and no shoes. That did not stop them from coming to school. They are eager to learn. It is a shame that most of them will never be able to get out of the horrible poverty they are drownding in.
Suprisingly, they had a beautiful beach. It was not relly big but it was lovely. There was one Sheraton Hotel there and it looked quite nice.
There were street vendors set up on the pier when we got back from our tour. MANY of them. hey all knew that the tide was rising and we would be leaving in a few hours so they were very aggressive in trying to sell their goods. e managed to work our way through the people and found lots of intersting African "souvenirs". Bracelets...good night nurse, who knew a person would need do many. The cow bone bracelets go with everything...we bought a bunch. When there was only about an hour before we sailed, the prices got even lower. T-shirts from The Gambia, Soccer shirst from the National Gambia team....all real treasures! We had a great day here even though there is not a lot here, they were very happy we came to see their country. We were all gald we did as well.

Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana April, 26, 2010

2010-04-28T05:18:00.006-06:00

Lome, Togo Sunday, April 25th 2010

2010-04-27T15:49:00.015-06:00

An independence square so to speak, in the city made a good photo backdrop.

Look at these beaches. Very white sandy welcoming beaches. People playing soccer, praying, spending family time. These are the beaches where tens to hundreds of people were taken into slavery and shipped to Europe, the Americas and some were enslaved and kept right here in Africa. The horrible vision that stimulates when you think about it is quite unbelievable really. To think that SO many people were taken and SO many died before they even reached where they were going. Not a few hundred people died but hundreds of thousands died before they reached their final destination. Unless you come to this part of the world or go to lectures given by authorities on the subject of slavery, or have managed to study up yourself on the history of slavery, you can't fully comprehend what happened here. The business of selling slaves were people turning on their own people. In most cases, European nations (particularly England, Spain, France and Holland)had established colonies in the Americas and were growing sugar, cotton and tobacco. The demand for help and slave trade began to increase. In most cases, European traders encouraged Africans on the coast to attack neighboring tribes and take captives. These captives were brought to these beaches and exchanged for European goods like guns and clothing. A big triangle route developed. The slaves were loaded onto ships to the Americas, the raw material they produced was sent back to Europe and the finished goods were sold in Europe and sent back to Africa in trade for more slaves. The whole system kept moving from the end of the 15th century until 1870 when slavery was abolished. As many as 20 million slaves were captured and up to half of those, 10 million died before they ever reached their final destination due to the overcrowding on the ships and poor unclean living conditions they were held subject to. Sadly, slavery still exists in Africa today. In Mauritania, in 2007, 3 million people lived in slavery, 18% of their population. Slavery there was criminalised in August of 2007.

Trying again:

Lome, Togo Sunday, April 25th 2010

2010-04-26T15:58:00.003-06:00

Togo is a tiny country. It is 365 miles from south to north from the coast and at it's widest point is only 90 miles wide. It is bordered by Benin to the east and Ghana to the west and Burkina Faso to the north.
Internet reception and telephone reception is extremely poor here, as are the people for that matter. Voodoo is the largest "religion" here, so says our guide. They believe that when a baby is born, he/she is coming back as a former family member and it is not unusual to have a little baby with the name grandpa! The voodoo ceremonies here they say are "the real thing". We went to one. What was real was, they buried a live chicken, they cut their arms until they bled, they put their hands in boiling hot oil and rubbed it on themselves and they put a baby boy in a basket out in the sun while he screamed his head off until his mom came out and got him. People were spinning around in grass skirts and had some sort of dirt smeared all over themselves.
We were in a village, off the beaten path so to speak and to say that it was a hot day...well, it felt like it was 1,000 degrees. It was comforting to know that we are all on Malaria pills! The internet is not strong enough to post photos tonight.
The photos of the school children singing to us and the villages and the voodoo ceremony will have to wait until we have better service. You won't believe it!

Togo and Ghana April, 26th 2010

2010-04-26T08:19:00.002-06:00

We were able to get to both of these countries. Pictures and stories to come. We are currently still in the port at Ghana.

Cotonou, Benin never got there (really)

2010-04-26T08:15:00.003-06:00

We arrived in the port of Cotonou and there was a ship in our berth, so we had to wait. It had engine failure and had to be towed out of the space. By the time all this happened, a huge storm came up and the wind was too high for us to port! We could see Cotonou fro distance and have some pictures of the coastline, but we never got there!

Walvis Bay, Namibia

2010-04-21T09:05:00.001-06:00

Sand dunes that are 7 stories high. Would you sandboard down them?

Cape Town, South Africa

2010-04-21T08:55:00.001-06:00

Hello Table Mountain and new Wrld Cup stadium! Good-bye to sweet friends that we have had fun traveling the world! Goodbye to David and English and Bob and Barbara! We hope that the volcanic ash did not hold you up too much on getting home!

The Ngorongoro Crater

2010-04-18T08:25:00.007-06:00

This place is beyond belief.
When you stop at the very edge of the crater and get your first glimpse of the crater, it looks like something out of a movie, really not real but it is. After crossing the Serengeti (which in Maasai means "endless plain") and is about the size of Connecticut, it was quite a change to be looking down into this BOWL of life. The crater is home to all animals of Africa except giraffe becasue they eat from high branches of trees and those are limited in the forest in the crater and there are no crocs. It seems that elephants get 6 sets of teeth. When they lose their last set of teeth they "know" they need to walk over the mountain and go down into the crater, as there is a huge marsh there and they will be able to live out their days eating that wonderful mushy food. Kathleen described it as one giant nursing home for bull elephants. Elephants are crazy smart. Once a year, a grand daughter elephant (of course) shows up at the crater to visit her old grandfather. They interlock their tusks and somehow communicate what has been happening over the past year and she might stay a day or two and then climb back out of the crater and head back to her herd! Just like the nursing homes in the USA!

Maasai Village in the Serengeti

2010-04-17T04:26:00.022-06:00

The visit with the Maasai people will be one of our favorite experiences in all of our travels. We stopped at this village, where 74 Maasai live. Our guide knows the son of the king of this village and he, Sangi, was our guide through the village. He was educated and his English was perfect. We were welcomed with song and dance. The Maasai "jump". They are well known for this. They jump for exercise, fun, ritual dance and "to get the girls". However, the girls also dance, so the same might be said that the girls jump to "get the guys". They don't just jump. They crazy jump! They jump over three feet high from a perfectly still standing position!
Sangi, took us through the village and into one house. The houses are made of sticks, that the young girls collect, hay and dried cow dung. If they have rain, they put goat skins on top of their houses if the dung washes away. There is one photo of a skin that is staked to the ground with wooden pegs drying in the sun.
Nicky needed to use the toilet! Their toilet is a outhouse. There are a few Maasai warriors stationed in the distance always watching for predators, so Sangi thought it was safe for him to head down the dirt path with the goats. It turned out to be safe.
Their jewelry was displayed along a fence. We walked all the way around the fence and picked out some things that we thought we could not live without. The ladies that had made the jewelry were all along the way, not pushing their wares on us like in some places we have been, but were very polite and happy we liked their work.
The lonely building you see is the school. The children that were in "class" were all very young. They were 3-5 year olds. When we stepped inside the school all of the children stood up and sang the ABC's in English! They were adorable. The little girls wanted to kiss Kathleen's hand. The little boys all wanted to shake Nicky's hand. All the boys were on the left side of the room and the girls were on the right. They were all sitting on wooded benches, no desks, no pencils, no paper, no crayons, no books...all they had was one small chalkboard and written on it was the ABC's and numbers. There was a donation box to help them with their school. It was a real eyeopener to say the very least.
There is a photo of a Maasai warrior in the distance coming back to the village. Sangi said he had been over the mountain either checking herds or delivering a message. Look how far away that mountain is! It must be about 6 miles to get there and then he had to climb over it and go wherever he needed to go and then turn around and come back! They are all very tall and very thin! When the warrior returns from a journey like that he can have milk. There is a photo of the shade of a tree and in the shade there are goat leather containers of milk! Those containers would have to be warm milk! There was one Maasai warrior laying in the grass in the shade exhausted for his trip. I don't think we took a picture of him, we were wondering if he was alive!
The whole idea of stretching your earlobes goes to a new level here. The small earlobe stretchers you see on people in the US are starter kits for these Maasai. They have large wooden pegs with which they stretch their earlobes. Some of them have stretched them out so far that they can wrap the bottom of their earlobe up and over their entire ear. It is a sign of beauty here.
Our visit was for a couple of hours. It was 2 of the best hours we have ever had.

Day two in the Serengeti...One Yellow Lion!

2010-04-14T13:41:00.016-06:00

Day two in the Serengeti started out with seeing a leopard in a tree after we had only driven about 700 yards away from our tents!! Exciting!! We also saw a troop of baboons coming up a river bed and some that were just on the roadside. If looking at thee pictures makes you think we posted too many, we took almost 2,400 pictures in a five day period and it was a photographers dream. Since none of us are professional photographers, we did the best we could and picked out the ones we thought we blog worthy, 62 of them for this small section of our day. You have to keep in mind that we saw all these animals in the time it took us to leave our camp around 8:30a.m. and to arrive the other side of the Serengeti about 4 hours later. We spent the balance of the day visiting a Masaai village and another stop at a museum out in the middle of nowhere that is the site where the first signs of homo-erectus and homo-sapiens were found. Those photos will be the next posting.
This day was filled with lions, hippos, zebra, gazelle, wildebeests (gnu), mongoose, lions, leopards, giraffe, ostrich, warthogs, and the unbelievable sight of those thousands of animals in herds. Someone asked us when we returned if we saw a "crossing". That means, did the animals run in front of your vehicle. Well, the answer is WE were the crossing! They were constantly crossing. You can see in the photos that all kinds of animals were crossing and we were right in the middle of it all.
The zebra and the gnu. They are buddies. They hang out together and they protect each other. Some lay down and rest while the others stand as lookouts for predators. The zebra can stand in groups of three and rest their heads on each others backs and rest that way while standing. Very cool. If one gnu gets spooked, it causes thousands of zebra, gazelle, and gnu to start running off into the horizon as far as you can see. They were in this are of the Serengeti resting and eating. There was no wide river here for them to cross to see a big croc come up and snatch an unsuspecting gnu. Although, that is what Nicky wanted to see! Too bad. He will have to see it on National Geographic. To say we saw all there was to see may be a lie, but not really. We saw all we could ever hope to see and more. It was like a show. All the thousands and we aren't talking a few thousand, we are talking hundreds of thousands of animals were all around us. It was the great migration we had traveled so far to see. It was better than wonderful. It was surreal. A trip to this part of the world is hard to get to for sure. Worth it? No question. This will be a day we will love to remember forever.
The odd photos of the flat tire. A couple of missionaries for The Salvation Army had a flat tire out in the middle of nowhere and our guide gave him one of our spare tires! We served as AAA in the Serengeti!

First afternoon in the Serengeti

2010-04-14T09:51:00.012-06:00

If getting there was easy everyone would be doing it right? Of course! You have to go through what feels like being a large rat that squeezes him/herself through a very small hole! It takes a while to recover. We did and had to rather quickly. Our guide, Amani, through Ranger Safaris picked us up at an airstrip that was in the middle of nowhere Serengeti/Seronera. He was fresh and happy and raring to show us one of the most spectacular things on earth. Well, we were not as fresh, but were very excited, so off we went. What we should have told him was, we are really tired and would like to take a quick spin through and start heading toward our camp. OOPS! We had no idea that he drove directly opposite our camp from the air(dirt) field and off we went into the wild blue yonder with one eye open! He could not have made a better choice. We saw elephants, hippos, cape buffaloes, giraffe, impalas, gazelles, crocs, eagles, all kinds of spectacular birds and for those of you who are "birders", the lilac breasted roller is still one of our very favorite birds. Nicky took another great picture this year of a female. He said "the girls just aren't as pretty." He is right. They aren't. We saw what many people never see, leopards. One beautiful leopard just laying in a tree and then she got spooked or saw a "treat" and decided to climb down. What a sight that was. Her beautiful coat rolling over her very well developed muscles. You have a sense of real appreciation for a leopards space when you see how long, lean, mean and muscular they are. Why would anyone want to kill such a majestic creature, unless of course they were about to pounce on you or your baby!! Nevertheless, they are worth the trip to see in the wild. As are, as much as I am surprised to say it are the elephants. We saw many elephants families and one "trumpeted" when the leopard started down that tree, that was like being in an episode of Wild Kingdom! The largest elephants were waiting for us on day two, but these were up close and curious, breaking off branches of trees right beside us. Of course, Amani told us that the bull elephant that was staring us down at one point was not showing signs of charging! That made us all fell really much safer, almost where you could just relax and stop white knuckling the seat! The bull elephant did not charge us, Amani was absolutely correct and should have some sort of honory degree from the elephant body language college, as he always knew when an elephant was happy or not, thank goodness! After about 3 hours, we asked Amani how much longer it would be until we got to our camp, the answer, one more hour. That wasn't the best news but worse than that, picture this...One large green Land Rover plenty large enough for 9 people with only 5 in it, with a top that pops open about 18 inches to 2 feet so you can stand up in the vehicle and look around and take pictures. Our Land Rover was clipping along the dirt road and all of a sudden Amani slowed to a stop and said that he would not be able to slow down or really stop to look at any animals for the last 20 minutes or so of our ride to the camp because we were about to get into Tse Tse fly infested area! Not good. I don't know if I have ever seen a Tse Tse fly before, but I know that nobody in this group wants to ever again! Only armed with regular Americano bug spray and some pamphlets I had in my "lifebag", we drove into the swarms. Swarms is not an overstatement, sadly. They are awful. Worse than awful. If you get bitten, don't scratch it, it makes it worse. They like females better than males I guess because the boys did not get bitten, only Kathleen and me! Looking at the photos now, you can understand the need for the mosquito netting over the beds. It does make you feel like a princess, but it also keeps those flies away! There are research teams in that part of the Serengeti now developing ways to lessen the flies. One way is cutting down the trees nearest the roads and they found out that flies are attracted to dark blue and black colors. They have dark navy and black flags in the trees. I guess they are helping. Seems the Tse Tse flies are more prevalent in this part of Africa than any other place. The camp, Mbuzi Mawe, was lovely. The photos of our tented room give you some idea that we were not roughing it. The funny photo of the Saran Wrap tote is because the airlines wraps your bag like this probably to keep anyone from going through your bag after it has been through security. Not a bad plan but we did not have scissors...getting into the bag was a bit difficult. We had a nice dinner and then were escorted back to our tents with "security". Security from any animals that is. We did not have phones but they gave us whistles in case we had any kind of emergency! We made it through the night without blowing the whistle and were ready for day two!

Getting to The Serengeti

2010-04-14T03:23:00.009-06:00

A 6 hour flight from Mauritius to Joburg, South Africa. A 6 hour layover (and lost 2 hours). A 6 hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya. A 3 hour layover. A one hour flight to Kilamanjaro. A 2 hour jeep ride to Arusha, Tanzania. A one hour flight in a TINY plane to a dirt strip in Seronera..The Serengeti...Finally!!!
We met a couple that graduated from Auburn University in the Kilamanjaro airport! Nicky had on Auburn shorts and they had a piece of luggage with an AU on it! Instant friends!
The day/night/day was exhausting as you will see but when you see the next posting, you will be as happy as we are that we made it!

Port Louis, Mauritius

2010-04-14T02:53:00.005-06:00

After the ship's captain made the decision that it was too dangerous for our ship to travel to Kenya, we headed due south to Mauritius. We arrived 2 days after leaving The Seyshelles. While we were in route, it ws becoming very evident that our trip to The Serengeti was not going to happen. We were being safe not to travel into the pirates, but we were about to miss an opportunity of a lifetime. Our travel agents, Jay and Mary Pat Silberman worked night and day to try to figure out how to get us to Tanzania from Mauritius. If you look at a map you will see that Mautitius is 560 miles east of Madagascar! We were out in the middle of nowhere but a beautiful nowhere. After MUCH headache and calls that got dropped and internet that failed, we they were able to find a way! Almost as soon as we arrived in Port Louis, the four of us got in a cab and left for the other side of the island. The plan was for the ship to sail WITHOUT us! That was a first. We checked into a resort for one night. As you will see in the photos, we made the best of it as it was all inclusive! Nicky and Charles got to play golf and Kathleen and I ventured out on our own.
This island was uninhabited until the 17th century when it was founded by the Dutch and then the French took over after the Dutch abandonded it. The British took over during the Napoleonic Wars and Mauritius became independent in 1968.
This island was known for having been the only home of the Dodo bird. However, they became extinct less than 80 years after they were found here.
They speak Creole, French and English.
It was a nice place to stay before we started are more than 24 hour trip to The Serengeti!

One for now, 1,000 later 4-11-2010

2010-04-11T10:25:00.002-06:00

The computers here at the hotel do not have a way to compress photos. It would take a lifetime to upload photos and there are other people wanting this computer. We were able to send one photo and it is of the village we visiited. More, lots more, sometime on 4-12-10.

We made it! April, 11, 2010

2010-04-11T07:52:00.004-06:00

Many of you that read this blog know that our ship was detoured and we did not go to Mombasa, Kenya. Too many pirates in the water.
We went south to Mauritius. A beautiful French speaking island way out in the middle of nowhere east of Madagascar. To think about that now makes me tired because we have been all over the eastern continent of Africa to get to where we should have started. It was taxing to say the very least, however, we are fine. The trip was more than incredible and to say that it was life changing...that would be right. Why? If you are in Alabama reading this, NYC, California, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia,Louisana, Florida, Texas, Alaska, Washington DC, Hong Kong, England, Irealnd, Portugal,....wherever we have friends reading this, look around where you are right now. Take a mental snap shot and say a prayer that you have what you have. Lucky? Is that the right word? Blessed? Hopefully, grateful. Even in the VERY worst economic times or when you have felt the very worst you have ever felt, having NO water and begging for it would trump any pain or empty pockets you may have ever had. Our family of four, here on this experience of a lifetime, we have burning memories, seered into the deepest parts of our brains of this country, Tanzania. We will try to share our experiences on this blog. We took thousands of photos. It will take a while. However, we are in a hotel in Dar ES Salaam tonight and have high speed internet! We will start posting stories and photos asap.

A Photo Album of Paradise? 4-5-10

2010-04-05T05:15:00.012-06:00

Arriving Male, Seychelles 4-1-10

2010-04-04T11:47:00.006-06:00

The Seychelles this trip lived up to every expectation we ever had. We have too many pictures to post. 50 or more to show you what some people say really IS or COULD have been the REAL Garden of Eden. Even some of the restrooms are marked Adam and Eve, instead of Men's and Ladies! Looking around, they do have a Golden Apple tree here! The pictures we have chose out of the hundreds we snapped will be of dinners out at a pizza joint that we hopped in a cab and dragged the priest on the ship to go with us. Turns out the pizza joint is right on the beach, sand floors with an open fire oven that produces what rivals Sicily for the best pizza this family has ever had. Vista from the top of a granite mountain that are so breath taking, you might want to use them as a screen saver! Rocks. We have seen rocks all over the world. These 100 of millions of year old granite monster rocks reminds you of scenes out of Jurassic Park! Especially with the giant ferns and mahogany trees around! Snorkeling in Windex. Go to your laundry room or wherever you keep your Windex. Look at the color blue of your Windex and then look at these pictures. Same, same...just like they say in Vietnam! It looks like you are swimming in Windex! The Internet is slow. We will post pictures tomorrow when reception may be better. The sunset photo Nicky took as we were leaving Praslin could be the most beautiful we have seen in all the world. More tomorrow

Male, Maldives and Kuda Bandos Island 3-29-10

2010-03-31T00:45:00.006-06:00

Hundreds of tiny islands spread over 26 atolls, sitting on top of, or REALLY near the equator, The Maldives. The capital city is Male. It is an island city totally surrounded by a concrete retaining wall. That comes in handy for tsunamis! The highest point above sea level can't be more than 5 feet. It is LOW and very vulnerable to storms. The tsunami in 2006, took out many resorts that have not been rebuilt. The global economic crisis has affected the Maldives as well.
The Country is 99% water and 99% Muslim.
You really don't see women walking in the streets of Male. We saw one. When we got off the "tendor" to go to our boat that was taking us to Kuda Bandos, an uninhabited island, we saw many men/boys hanging out. The intense heat makes for slow moving people and they crowd around shade trees. The thought of women having to have their bodies covered head to toe made you want to melt. We were able to avoid this "rule" because we only went onto Male for a few minutes and then boarded our small boat to the island for a half a day of snorkeling and exploring. To explore Kuda Bandos Island, you don't need much. It takes maybe 12 minutes to walk around the entire island. The water. Can you imagine severe clear? That is what it was. So clear you could see forever down and you really thought you were in shallow water! The reef there is very easy to swim to and just beyond the reef the ocean floor drops for many feet, but still clear.
The young man in the photos with us is John Cooney, originally from Birmingham, Alabama! He is on the ship with his jewelry line. It is called Forbidden City. He has studied all over and speaks 7 languages! We have enjoyed visiting with him and his jewelry is more like art than jewelry.
They had a sundowners on the ship before we left the Maldives and as you can tell it was crazy windy! The sunsets are a blaze of red and orange. We have 2 and a half sea days before we reach The Seychelles. We are crossed the equator last evening, so the heat continues. We will be in warm/hot climate for the rest of our trip.
We do have sunscreen, thank goodness. The mention in an earlier blog about getting sunburned was absolutely true. Kathleen wanted to "get some sun". We went to the pool for the very first time and stayed 45 minutes. In 45 minutes we were able to roast. She bought a jade cross necklace in Vietnam. She had it on that day. You may be able to see that cross on her neckline for quite a while!

Penang, Malaysia 3-25-10

2010-03-28T08:08:00.007-06:00

Apologies for duplications of pictures. The internet is so slow and it is too difficult to go in and delete them right now. I will clean it up when we are in the USA.
We also toured a village. There are some pictures of a typical home on stilts. They use the underneath area for storage and eating and sleeping in hammocks. We also saw rubber trees and the man at the herbal hut "tapped" the tree for us and let us roll the liquid rubber in the palms of our hands and it actually rolls up like a bouncy ball. They had the large hand presses to make large rubber mats there as well.

Penang. Who knew it was our Captain's favorite port! Too late for us to know. Guess we will have to go back. Seems that the Chinatown here is the most authentic Chinatown in the world, even in China!!! This is where the first Chinese settled in Malaysia.
Since we did not know to go to Chinatown, we went to the Snake Temple, via the Batik factory that we saw in 2007 and a stop at an herbalist man's hut along the roadside. We bought Penang Clove Oil that is good for Rheumatism, backache, Insect bites, Lumbago, Stiff neck, Muscle Pain, Swelling, Bruises, Sprains, and TOOTHACHE!! The toothache is what sold us! Remember the teeth problems we had in 2009??
We toured a typical Malaysian village and then hit the road to the snake temple. The snakes are sedated from the incense they burn and should not bite...we hope! Kathleen was the only one in our family that would don the snakes! It was just awful, you can imagine the sweaty palms we had while the snakes were crawling on her! YIKES!! When in Rome?? Does this really apply here? Not really. They even had snakes in the trees that you had to walk through to get to the temple. Pictures will follow.

Malacca, Malaysia 3-24-10

2010-03-28T07:38:00.004-06:00

A 2 hour bus ride to Malacca from the port of Port Klang was interesting for sure. Early on, we passed condos that if someone asked you where you were, you might have said Orlando. It looked like new development in Florida. The we reached an area that was nothing but what a regular person would call palm trees. They were. However, these palm trees produce the palm oil that the people in Malaysia use for many purposes.
When we arrived in Malacca, we went to the oldest part of town to tour an old museum of a house that was owned by a wealthy. Very interesting. These people lived a wonderful life. They had huge houses, even though their front doors were tiny. The reason the doors were tiny was that back then, you had to pay taxes on your house by how large your front door was. They built narrow homes with many floors with very small openings on the front door. The built in security system was ingenious. The master bedroom was located right above the front door. Back then, there were chamber pots in the bedroom. The Peranakans built their homes with a 4x4 inch hole in the floor of the master bedroom. If someone was at their door trying to break in, they would open the 4x4 inch hole and if they did not know who was standing there, they would dump what they had in their chamber pots onto the heads of the intruders!! No cameras needed! The intruders left...maybe a little smelly!
We were able to tour the town on a walking tour and saw the oldest church, or the ruins of, in southeast Asia. It actually was where St. Francis, attended mass regularly when he was in Malaysia and when he died this was his burial place until they dug him up and moved him to Goa, India where he lays at rest today.
HOT! These people get no relief from the sun or the heat of any kind. No spring and no fall. Just hot. The kind of hot like you have in August in Alabama in the summer with no rain in sight and no hope for any! The kind of hot that hats and umbrellas make it tolerable for a little bit longer, but not really. The kind of hot that makes the average white family from Alabama burn in less than 30 minutes poolside! True story sadly.
Glad we went. Glad we survived the long day. It was a day of long bus rides and long walks in the heat.
Learned a lot. Had a great LONG day. Pictures to be posted.

Indian Ocean Sunday March 28, 2010

2010-03-28T05:09:00.003-06:00

We are all fine. Very busy. We will try to post to blog tonight. The water here where we are in the Indian Ocean is the color blue in the 64 box of Crayolas that you always wanted to use for your oceans!

Sea Day 3-22-10

2010-03-22T01:27:00.002-06:00

We are off the east coast of Malaysia headed south toward and around Singapore to go through the Straits of Malacca (pirate area), up to Kuala Lumpur. We will arrive at KL on May 24th. It is HOT and very sunny in this part of the world today.

Bangkok, Thailand 3-20-2010

2010-03-20T20:44:00.004-06:00

Breakfast in Cambodia, lunch in Bangkok. Nice. It was only an hour by air to Bangkok. Upon our arrival we were met by a guide to get us safely to our hotel. He did. Along the way we saw many police barricades for the protesters in the famous now red shirts. One year ago when we were here there were maybe a few hundred of red shirt people at the very most. This time, there were THOUSANDS. Not even exaggerating this time! We had gone across town by Tuk-Tuk exploring and when we were ready to come back to the hotel, we needed to cross the bust street. There was a cross-over, so we walked up the stairs and started walking over the bridge to the other side. In the distance we could see and hear the red shirts. They were headed our way by the thousands and they would be passing underneath us. These people have been unhappy with the election results for over 3 years and they may have finally gotten to a point where they are being heard. THOUSANDS of people obviously make a large sound. They had horns, bull horns, speakers, truck loads of people, old people, children, adults...all in red shirts. They were not rioting, they were just protesting and making a statement. We were safe. We stood on that bridge and watched the red shirts ride underneath us and literally at one point it was as far as you could see in one direction, red shirts and as far as you could see in the other direction red shirts. Quite the sea of red! We were able to enjoy the peaceable protest from a high perch and sort of enjoy the experience. Not that we are taking sides of the politics here in Bangkok, but it was nice to see first hand what was on the TV and it really was not the same. We did not see any violence, there could have been in other parts of town and we never saw any police officers. It was more like a parade. People that supported them were coming out of their homes and waving red rags in support of the red party, I guess and hollering out. The local cab drivers keep red rags in their cabs to wave out their windows just in case they get in the middle of a protest and the red shirts will leave them alone if they think they are part of their efforts! Today, Sunday, many people have the day off. There will most likely be a huge splash on CNN about it. We leave Bangkok in about one hour, or at least our group of four does. We may see some things heating up on our way out of town but we were able to see it all and enjoy the Bangkok experience, in a much different way. Today's headlines in the paper said "Tens of Thousands Join Red Shirt Convoy". Then there was a huge photo of them. 7,000 vehicles and 65,000 thousand people is what the paper said. We saw at least that many just where we stood. The government may have down played the number a bit!

Siem Reap, Cambodia 3-19-10

2010-03-19T07:07:00.007-06:00

A person, or rather a family of four, may set out bright and early to go look at temples at many places on the globe. Nothing compares to this place. Temples on steroids. This is what Angkor Wat has for you. The horribly dry lands that surround the temples make you kind of happy really. If there had been rain here in the past few years, there probably would have been snakes in every tiny crevice of every temple we climbed..YIKES! That goodness for a good old drought, or at least the dry season! The photos that you will see will not give the temples their due. They are old and beautiful. Covered in mold, falling apart and some are in a state of almost Jurassic Park! They have been taken over by the jungles around them and lost forever...until someone discovered them and unveiled their beauty. Shocking is a word. Really crazy shocking that over 800 years ago, in a deep jungle in Cambodia that birds could have rested on top of the wall and just because of their droppings, new trees emerged from the soil. Those trees are now towering over the temple and engulfing it. The roots have busted through floors, walls and ceilings. It is certainly something you won't see anywhere else in the world. Angkor Wat was simply pristine. The 5 towers graced the skyline like skyscrapers of the 10th century. Just magnificent. It is the largest temple in the world. Walking the grounds we can attest that it is.
You will see one photo of a lady holding a very sweet baby boy. I named him Joseph. He was sleeping on a stone wall while his mom and grandmother were collecting plastic bottles. We walked over to see the sweet baby sleeping and he rolled to the edge and was rolling off the edge. I lunged forward and caught him before he could roll to the stone ground below. His grandmother never even noticed it happened until Hank, or friend kind of screamed out and she turned around. He woke up happy and hungry. Sad. Today is St. Joseph's day. He will always be Joseph to us. We would have liked to have brought him home with us! A vendor at our hotel was selling goods made of silver that her dad makes. One of Nicky's jobs this trip is to ask people in all the countries we are visiting what the biggest problem their country is facing and what is their government doing about solving it. The gal tonight said the biggest problem in Cambodia is orphans. Children with no parents, trying to get an education but really can't and where do they go besides the streets to beg? We saw many small children selling small bracelets etc...25 bracelets for $2.00. I wondered where their moms were. They may not have had any.
This country lost 3 million people between 1974 and 1979. People were taken from their homes and murdered. Anyone thought to be educated or a threat was killed. This country is still recovering from that horrific part of their history. Rent The Killing Fields. Our guide lost his oldest brother, an uncle and a cousin during that massacre. He said every family there was affected. If there had not been some very brave and horribly thin people that ran from the fields to the border of Thailand, who knows when it would have ended. A true nightmare.
Today Cambodia is a Monarchy. They have a king. Let's hope he can find homes for all these beautiful orphans. Enjoy our day. We did. Imagine walking through an oven on 400 degrees while you look at the photos!

We arrived here last last night, pretty tired. Our flight from Saigon wasn't until 7:30p.m. but we left the ship at 3:30p.m. That was a long time to wait in the airport. Great thing about Southeast Asia is that they have massage available most everywhere you turn, even in the airport. We all got 45 minute foot and head massages. $26.00. Wonderful way to pass the time.
By the time we arrived at the hotel we were pooped. We ate dinner with one eye open and then headed off to bed. Hank and Sondra Davis ordered a birthday cake for me that was some type of green cheesecake like cake and I blew out candles and we were off to bed.
When we were in Agra 3 years ago, they told us we needed to see The Taj both in the early morning light and at sunset. We opted to pass on the $:30a.m. call for that and waited for the 8:00a.m. all day temples tour and it was until 5:00p.m. One of the most tiring and fulfilling days we have ever had.
They have tigers, cobras, bears, golden cats...never saw any of them! Only saw a few lizards and some monkeys.
More later...

Leaving for Cambodia Today 3-18-10

2010-03-17T20:36:00.002-06:00

We leave for Cambodia today, this afternoon at 3:15p.m. Very excited. This is one of the BIG highlights of our trip. Have no idea what kind of Internet if at all will be available. After Cambodia, we fly to Bangkok and will be there in a hotel overnight. We will be back to the ship on March 21st.
The Internet here stays extremely slow. It is like they have squirrels in the bottom of the ship running in wheel cages to operate them and someone forgot to feed them!
I will try to post photos now to previous postings.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam 3-17-10

2010-03-17T20:18:00.002-06:00

The French called this town, The Pearl of the Orient. Wonder why? Most of the people here still call this town Saigon. This area has long been a hot bed for fighting because of its' location as a port. Saigon was controlled by Cambodia until the French kicked them out and then the Communists kicked the French out. Today, it is a worn out town with some new construction. The areas we rode through to get to "downtown" were typical Asian sights. People living right along the street selling this that and the other and you have to wonder how they all can live. You'd have to sell a lot of bread to get by. They do see bread. Since this country was controlled by the French for almost 100 years, they left a lasting wonderful impression on their bakeries! They make french pastries! We were able to buy French bread at the market for 30 cents a loaf. We bought 6 loaves. There were the 4 of us and Sondra Levy Davis. We were so hot and hungry we ate 3 loaves while we walked through the market. Kathleen had intended to give the other loaves to the homeless people we passed along the street getting there. On our way back, she only saw one guy and gave him a loaf and we had 2 left over.
The market was full of locals and visitors like us just wandering through the stalls wondering at times what exactly we were doing. We saw lots of sights...who knew that a bottle of wine with a cobra inside it with a scorpion in its mouth would be something everyone would want? These things were both shocking to see and intriguing. How do they get the snake in the bottle?
It was St. Patrick's Day. We ate lunch on the roof of the famous Rex Hotel. Famous for the media that stayed there during the Vietnam War. The hotel is only about 5 stories high but it still gives a nice view of the city and a very welcome breeze.
We took many photos. However, in the process of downsizing them, we may have deleted them! We are trying to get the ship's computer guru to retrieve them. If we do, I will post them.
Nobody but our small group on the roof of that hotel was celebrating St. Patrick's Day! Their loss. Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Nha Trang, Vietnam 3-16-10

2010-03-16T07:48:00.004-06:00

This town has some well preserved beach areas that we did not go to. Should have. Instead, we took the shuttle into "town" to see where Hindu worship was ever popular in the 2nd century. What we found were about 10 guys that followed our every step trying to get us to take a cyclo ride for one dollar (they said). We found a gal named Han. She showed us the way to the Dam Market area. It was about 5 long blocks one way, two blocks another way, then 2 blocks another way. We followed her and the guys with the cyclos all followed us. It was a parade of sorts. We finally found the market and wondered why we wanted to go there. It was crowed, hot and did not have what we were looking for, those ever famous pearls from 2009! What we found were small shops that were full of things like from Claire's at a mall and some pearls that were WAY over priced. Nicky got too close to a dog that was chained and the dog lunged at him and thank goodness Nicky had a big Auburn jersey on. It protected him from getting a very unfortunate dog bite in Vietnam! The dog bit the jersey instead of Nicky! We quickly took 4 of the 10 guys on for a ride and got out of there. They peddled us back to the shuttle bus and we went shopping at stalls non the pier. There we were able to find a few treasure to bring home. We have some interesting photos but have to find a time when the internet is better able to handle the posting of the photos ( really late at night or VERY early in the morning).
We are on our way to Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon). We will spend St. Patrick's Day there!

Hanoi, Vietnam 3-14-10

2010-03-14T21:58:00.013-06:00

An eleven hour plus tour to Hanoi from Halong Bay was emotional, educational and exhausting. We all needed to get worn slap out in order to get our body clocks set. We are all finally operating like human beings again instead of zombies.
Hanoi has five million people living there. There were about 3 million in the traffic we were in trying to get there. It was a slow bus ride that went through miles and miles of rice fields. People out in those fields working bent over in water up to their knees at times hand picking every grain of rice. The land is not theirs. The governement requires that the people pay a "tax" to farm the land. Then they can grow enough rice to feed their familes and have some left to sell for a profit, they hope. Families. They have a law in Vietnam that limits married couples to having 2 children. If they have more than 2 children, they are "fined". The "fine" may be that if they work in a factory, they will never get a raise or promotion from where they are currently positioned. This was according to our guide.
Factories. Facories were dotted along the way to Hanoi. Coal is mined and burned in Vietnam much like in China. This causes a pollution problem that you will most likely see in the photos we took. There seems to be a layer of dust on most everything that sits still for a while. When we had our bathroom breaks on the bus ride, the bus driver would take the bus to be washed because the windows had gotten so dirty! During our eleven hour tour our bus was washed 3 times!
The reason many people, probably most people visit Hanoi is to see the famous Hanoi Hilton. The horrific prision where many Americans were imprisoned during the Vietnam War, which they call The American War still today. Due to our rigid schedule to visit the oldest University in Vietnam, a pagoda or two, see where Ho Chi Minh is in a mauseleum, see his house, cars, etc..., have lunch and ride back for 3 hours, we only had about 25 minutes to tour the prison. The prison now has been closed off to one very small section of what was HUGE!! The prison building was built by the French when they were running things in Vietnam. The French were in control here for almost 100 years, hence, the romance language letting instead of the Chinese letting in their road signs etc...thank goodness for the French! The prison was built to house political prisoners way before Americans ever were involved in Vietnam. Before you even enter the prison, chill bumps come over you. I would imagine even if you don't remember the Vietnam War and you take this tour, you'd have the same reaction if you are an American. That is probably true for any war torn area that American fought and were held captive or died. This was, for our family, worth the very LONG day to get there. John McCain. An American hero. For almost 7 years he lived in this GOD AWFUL place. How that man managed to stay alive never mind make it home to continue to serve his/our country is beyond comprehension. No photos we could take can explain the conditions.

Photo problems! 3-15-10

2010-03-14T21:53:00.001-06:00

Getting settled into the workings of the computers on the ship. Posting photos is a bit harder than previous cruises. Trying to get it worked out. Patience is definitely a virtue!