Pacific a little better today or maybe I am getting sea legs. John Malay spoke about creatures of the sea. Good as usual. I joined a new activity! A choir! There are 12 so far. 1 tenor, 2 basses, 3 altos , and six sopranos. We are singing. Blue Skies and Its a Wonderful World. We are rehearsing in the tenth deck lounge just under the captain’s bridge with a glass wall in front of us. Up and down. Up and down. Repeat. Sea birds are visiting us. As we cut through the water, flying fish (look at those little wings!) fly out of the water and the birds get them! Some of the birds are resting on stateroom balconies. We are urged to gently shoo them away. Are you kidding? They have big beaks and beady eyes. I’m taking you in a little tour today. The apparel shop and the jewelry shop. Handy if you left your designer brand stuff at home or need to impulse shop for some new diamonds.

Getting the hang of staggering. JohnMalay talked about the history of deep undersea exploration. Interesting with good visuals. Am beginning to notice more groups of travelers playing cards and games around the different seating areas. Also have noticed how many have gone on a great number of voyages. Some are sharing as a small part of the conversation. More it seems just cannot wait to tell about every ship, every country, and every excursion and experience they have had. We wonder where the money has come for all of these cruises. One couple has spent over nine hundred nights in the Azamara line alone. If they ask me where I have been, there is a blank stare when I say I am a newcomer. We ate at the Chef’s table for a private French dining experience. Five or six courses with drinks to match. Beautiful presentation. Fabulous flavors. Colinda took pictures of each course. I will publish those and the menu soon. Have to get them sent to my phone. Nice people at the table. Fun evening.

Still staggering around. Sea is a beautiful bright deep blue. Had a deep tissue massage. My first deep tissue experience. Emitted a few yips! Will surely do this again. Now I know why my friend Steve Sharf loves these. We are making new friends all the time. Of course I get to pronounce and explain my name frequently. Attended a show showing off all the talent for this leg of the voyage. No pictures today!

Stayed on ship while others went on tours, left the cruise, or boarded. Since we had been in Lima before and seen everything we wanted to see we decided to hang out on board. We’re a very few on board. Colinda went to iron some clothes and met the new magician/comedian while he was ironing his clothes! We lost a few people and gained about 189 more. Will be about 575 people from 15 different countries. Was interesting watching the workers in the dock as they were loading and unloading various things.

This is the informal dining area. There is a formal restaurant area on deck above. There is a sandwich, salad bar, area by the pool. They have a yogurt self serve machine there. DANGEROUS!!!!!(And different flavors every day) what are you doing?

Docked around noon. There were buses ready to take us to Lima. Was an hour and twenty minutes to get there. We had set up a local tour of our own. We’re let out at the AztecMarket. After much attention we settled on the taxi driver who was not trying to argue over us trying to get business. Went for a long way to the city square where we met our guide Lorena. We took off walking and were noticing how many people were around. Turns out this was the eve of Limas anniversary of their founding. I broke off from the tour when I spotted a beauty salon that was open to the street. I got a manicure, a pedicure, and a haircut for $44.00. Had a lovely time watching the people who were passing by. (A haircut in the ship is over $100.00) Made friends with the shop folks although no one spoke much English. I now have extremely short hair. !!! I expect it will look perfect in a week or two. Or three or four? We had a little pisco sour and returned to the ship via taxi then bus again. Found out Colinda and Janis went places where we had been before when we were in our first trip there. There were lots of people dancing and singing to a band in the square. We just made it to the last bus to the ship. Whew!

Dock and leave same day. Two museums and an archaeological site. Visited the UNESCO World Site Chan Chan. This huge site was built by the Chimu Kingdom and predated the Incas who overtook them. The Chimu were there from the 9th to 15th century. It was very large and well preserved. Built of adobe, with walls that reached over 100 feet in places. Was decorated with raised adobe designs of waves, birds, fish nets, and fish. The museums had objects found in the site. Many ceramic faces that were realistic were my favorite.

Last day at sea before Salaverry, Peru

Three lectures today. First about Princess Diana’s Family Heritage. Seems she had a very rich American Grandmother. Second was about the history of Central and South America Today. Made me think “ No wonder there are so many people trying to get as far away as possible from their country “. Three was sharks by Nigel Maven. Finished the evening with a special Taste of India buffet. Seemed a bit out of place because we go to Peru tomorrow.

This was a party day. For each segment of the trip as Azamara plans an amazing evening which is usually entertainment of the country were in. And also a white knight. For this for these events there is a special buffet on deck by the pool. For the white nights everyone is dressed in white and there is a buffet on the pool deck. As we had a little rain squall, we ate in the usual restaurants in board and then went to the dancing bar. Lots of fun!

Went to two lectures. Nigel Marvin spoke about hummingbirds..He is fabulous and very funny. If you can catch him on TV, you will enjoy him. Is big on BBC. I found out that humming birds can fly backwards and upside down. Dr. John Short spoke about the ecology of South America. Took a guided tour of the boat. What fun! Started off in the meal prep area. Spotless. Was between meals so very little staff was there. Saw the stations for meal prep . Fish, meat and poultry are separated. Have a bread bakery and a dessert station. Sauces and soups, salads, etc. They squeeze 60 pounds of oranges for orange juice every day. Person who does that starts at five am. Next we went into the freezers and saw how they stored all the food. Saw where the wait staff comes to load up their big trays.. they go down a flight of stairs and up an escalator with their plates to serve. They do have lessons for that. We saw the main control room where the engineers keep track of everything on board. Have tvs, and dials, etc to monitor. Looked like what I saw at Diablo Canyon. The laundry was fab. They have a huge machine that washes over 100 pounds of linens at a time. They have smaller washers that washes our clothes individually. Also a dry cleaner station, several people ironing,, and a person operating a sewing machine. Two men were working together to put sheets through what we used to call a mangler. As they sheets came out the other side, the machine folded them. We were amazed at that. Next we went past a ship where things get repaired. Had a complete woodworking shop . Last, we went to the bridge and met the captain. He showed us around and answered questions. We all felt very safe knowing about how they operate.

Ship is again the only one in Port. We took a tour of the lake that is on the other side of the canal. We took a boat tour to see the flora and fauna In islands near the canal. We got a good tour the city as we went past. It has many colorful buildings including one by Frank Geary. Got a quick view as we bused past it. Lots of colors and weird angles. The boat ride was fun. Saw A crocodile three kinds of monkeys a heron a sloth andLots of beautiful flowers.