Archive for Traveling
January 22, 2008 at 1:08 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Arriving off the Red Sea ferry in Aqaba, Jordan was rather uncoordinated and somewhat chaotic. There was a question of whether to get a group visa, which is free, or individual visas. The caveat of a group visa is that the group must go to Petra, which we were, and must hire horses there, which we weren’t. Despite all the confusion, we still got to our hotel much earlier than expected; normally the ferry is significantly delayed, which the leader prepared us for, but ours was on time.
Aqaba was unexciting and the next morning we left during a drizzle for the desert conservation area of Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum has desert sandstone rock scenery very similar the western United States, even like Arizona. Unique to Rum, though, are sites associated with Lawrence of Arabia, such as Lawrence’s Spring and House. We also saw Thamodian petroglyphs, similar to those you’d see in Arizona deserts and sand dunes and the Um Fourth Bridge, which Andrew quite daringly (in Toffler’s opinion) climbed. Throughout the day it drizzled on and off, only to turn to very cold rain by night fall. And what were our accommodations for that night? Bedouin tents. Yes, that’s right, we camped out in wet sandy tents with the nomadic tribespeople. These weren’t just any nomadic tribespeople, they were cellphone-toting, Toyota-driving Bedouins. They told us they hadn’t seen weather like that for 15-20years.
So then it was little surprise when we woke up the next morning and it was…still raining. We wanted to hurry up and get out of the cold and wet, but little did we know… Pictures from Jordan
January 20, 2008 at 9:35 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Another early morning start had us passing the Suez Canal in the morning and to the middle of the Sinai peninsula by
lunch time. In the afternoon we were climbing Mount Sinai. Being the masochist that I am, I opted for the 3,750 Steps of Repentance. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. In fact if its possible for me to ever have the least bit of enjoyment in hiking, this was it, perhaps because the climb was primarily stairs, and the atmosphere dry and cold. Mt. Sinai tops out at 2,285m where Moses supposedly received the 10 Commandments from God. We watched the sun set over the Sinai mountains, which, while not all that spectacular, was quite meaningful. Then we had a precarious walk down in the moonlit night and I rolled my left ankle a little, but certainly enough to renew my dislike of hiking.
The next morning we returned to visit St. Katherine Monastery, built around the descendant bush of the supposedly original Burning Bush. However the monastery is closed on all Greek Orthodox holidays and the day we happened to be there was apparently Epiphany.
After the disappointment over the closed monastery we drove to the town of Nuweiba to buy a few snacks and supplies before the restful part of the trip: laying on the (very cold) beach of the Red Sea for 2days. Our accommodation consisted of beach front property and individual grass huts, each with a small mattress and mosquito net inside. We had the whole place to ourselves and while the place would have been wonderful in spring or fall, in the middle of Egypt coldest winter in 40years, it was just cold. At night I managed to keep warm because the hut blocked the wind and my sleeping bag was warm. While the weather was not ideal, the relaxation and extra sleep was certainly necessary after many very early mornings and poor nights sleep earlier in the trip. The time has also allowed me to catch up on this blog and to contemplate the next few weeks with regard to the Kenya situation and what to do in the weeks immediately after that when I return to China.
Tomorrow afternoon we take the ferry across to Jordan… Pictures from Egypt
January 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Luxor, known in earlier times as Thebes, is across the river from the famous burial sites of Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. But this will have to wait until the next day…
The afternoon that we arrived in Luxor, we had a local guide take us to Karnak Temple, regarded as one of the best and most impressive Pharaonic monuments after the Pyramids at Giza. More hieroglyphs, more statues, 2 obelisks, and more structures higher than you can fathom since they’re 5000years old, but perhaps the highlight was running around the scarab. The scarab is the beetle-like creature that the Ancient Egyptians believed brought good luck and so is frequently depicted in carvings and paintings. At the Karnak Temple, there is a pedestal-mounted scarab which the guide told us to run around: once for health, 3times for money, 5times from marriage, and 7times for kids. Guess how many times I ran around…Well, I wanted to achieve more than just one of those but I faced the dilemma of how to determine which I was running for, so in the end I just ran 3times: money. According to Andrew, money can buy all the rest. Well I don’t know if I want to buy a marriage…
The following day it was off to the west bank, not the Israel-Palestine one, but the west bank of the Nile where the Valley of the Kings is located. We took a boat across the river and stopped at the the Colossi at Memnon, two very large and very broken ancient statues, before getting on donkeys. Yes, that’s right, donkeys. Everything from conventional forms of transportation (cars and trains) to traditional forms of transportation (felucca) to animals forms (camels and now donkeys) have been used on this trip. After about an hour on the donkey climbing up the mountainside we walked the rest of the way down into the Valley of the Kings. The Valley was used as the burial place for Pharaohs after the Ancient Egyptians realized that the Pyramids were not very secure and actually were very likely to be robbed within even a few years of completion. Since the new tombs were built into a mountainside, access was more difficult with the entrance at times being completely hidden, hence why King Tut’s tomb was still intact when it was discovered in the early 20th Century.
At the Valley of the Kings we went into the burial tombs of Ramses I, III, and IV where we saw every square inch of walls and ceilings covered in paintings & hieroglyphs. Particularly notable was the difference in styles and decorations between the tombs, some with stories expressed primarily in pictures and others with stories told in hieroglyphs.
After Valley of the Kings we went to Habu Temple which still had colorful paintings on the columns and ceilings depicting pharaohs and gods. After seeing these creations of the Ancient Egyptians in honor of their Pharaoh Kings and deities, I’ve decided they had too much time on their hands… but I’ve also decided the massive scale of the monument building is far more impressive (especially considering this was 3000-5000years ago) than their paintings. The paintings while fun to look at and speculate at their meanings are actually very 1-dimensional and very flat, much like a child would draw.
When I was younger, I used to be very interested in Ancient Egypt and knew many of the gods’ names and functions and the symbolic meaning of a few hieroglyphs. While much of that has since faded from my memory, some random bits of knowledge did come back when seeing these monuments. Its truly amazing to be here seeing these colossal monuments which are among the oldest and most famous in history and especially the sole surviving Wonder of the Ancient World.
For lunch we went to our local guide’s house, the second time we’d been invited into the local’s house and again it was a special treat. We sat on the floor around a low table to eat probably the best and most varied meal of the entire trip so far. (Egyptian food has gotten quite repetitive with rather dry and flavorless meat, bread, and rice.) After lunch our guide wrote our names in both Arabic and hieroglyphs, which was good fun as we got to laugh at each other names and see how much (or little) they reflected the person. Following that we learned a little more about life in ancient Egypt as we went to a papyrus studio to see the process of making paper out of papyrus.
That night we took the overnight train back to Cairo and after one last day in Cairo we went out to the Sinai peninsula. Pictures from Egypt
January 18, 2008 at 11:34 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
After the overnight train from Cairo, which was very comfortable in 2 person private compartments, we arrived late into Aswan. Arrival afternoon we were met our guide who took us on a boat down the Nile and provided us with a home cooked traditional Nubian lunch, one of many wonderful home cooked meals we’d have on this trip. While eating lunch we cruised past Elephantine Island and saw hieroglyphs carved into the rocks. Later in the afternoon we took a camel ride to view the monastery of St. Simeon.
The morning, or perhaps I should say, the night of my birthday we got up at 3am to join the police convoy (a means to protect tourist vehicles from terrorist ambushes in the desert) for the 3hour drive to Abu Simbel. Aside from the Pyramids, Abu Simbel is perhaps one of the most famous and recognizable symbols of Egypt. Abu Simbel consists of 4 giant carved figures of Ramses II, a temple behind this imposing entrance and the temple of Nefertari, itself with 6 giant carved figures. This was one of my favorite sites of the trip 
. Abu Simbel is actually only 40km north of Sudan and was intended to scare the Nubian Africans into submission when it was built in the 13th Century BC. It was cut into large blocks and then moved piece-by-piece to higher ground during the building of the Aswan High Dam which otherwise would have submerged this amazing temple underwater.
Three hours drive there, 3hours at the temples, and then 3hours drive back toward Aswan already seemed like a full day, but then we stopped at Philae Temple, located on a island in the middle of Nile River. This temple, like Abu Simbel, was moved to higher ground during the construction of the Dam. This temple is remarkable not only for its original carvings but also for the Roman and later Napoleonic-era and even later British graffiti on it.
Late in the afternoon, and amazed that I was still awake, I went to the Nubian Museum in Aswan. The museum is incredibly well-done with everything explained and labeled in English; its devoted to preserving the history and culture of the Nubian people since many of their dwellings were lost under water during the building of the Dam.
The following day we set sail on a felucca, a traditional Egyptian sailing vessel, moving downriver toward Luxor. However, the prevailing wind blows south, back toward Aswan, so in a full day of sailing we only made it about 1/3 of the way to Luxor because of needing to zigzag down the river. While hard work for the crew, it was a relaxing day of watching the Nile banks glide by for the rest of us.
January 17, 2008 at 9:25 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
After spending 3days in Miami living the non-foreign, non-challenging American life, I was ready to get to a foreign country again and check off my 7th Continent. It was time to begin the second half of my 3-month trip, the organized group trip part, the Africa part. However, Lufthansa had other ideas. A problem with the plane caused Lufthansa to delay the flight 24hours making many people including me quite nervous and upset.
Finally arriving in Cairo 24hours after planned and without my cousin (who had arrived on time), I had to figure out how to get into the city from the airport by myself. I decided I was better off trying my luck with a fellow passenger than with the numerous touts to get into town. So I approached an American-looking guy (baseball cap gave it away) since he didn’t seem to have a pre-arranged pick-up and asked if he wanted to share a taxi into town. Well, in fact, he did have someone picking him up; his friends were coming in a private car. This Cuban-American guy had lived in Cairo for about a year-and-a-half working for the American University of Cairo bookstore and so, not surprisingly had friends willing to pick him up at the airport. What was perhaps surprising is that his Egyptians friends were most obliging in taking me into town and searching around to find my hotel. What was interesting about this guy and quite apt given my non-interest in living in the US, is both of us moved out of the States directly after college having gotten fed up with people, life, and politics in the US.
Shortly after arriving at the hotel and getting settled in, I met the Australian tour leader for our Intrepid Pyramids to Petra trip (ESW) and then went to dinner with the whole group. The group consists of 1 New Zealander girl, 3 Argentine girls, 3 Aussie girls, and an Aussie mother and son. Soon there after, the long travel time set in and I called it a night.
The next day we were up early and after breakfast included with the hotel we jumped on the subway to take us out to Giza and the Pyramids. We saw the Three Great Pyramids and I commemorated my arrival on my 7th Continent! The Great Pyramids were just the introduction to the awesome monumentalism and masterful building of the ancient Egyptians. Andrew and I opted to go into the Solar Boat Museum. The Boat was supposed to carry ancient pharaohs into the afterlife. I didn’t think the Boat museum was worth the entrance. The entrance into the Second Pyramid was worth it though. We followed the low, cramped, steep path deep into the pyramid where it opened into the spacious burial chamber. Nearby the Great Pyramids is the Sphinx with its lion’s body and man’s head and is great fun to photograph.
As if all of this weren’t enough in one day, we headed back into Cairo to visit the Museum of Antiquities. With our guide we moved very quickly through the highlights of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. Forget about all of that, what I really wanted to see is the Tutankhamen rooms. Gold, ivory, precious and semi-precious stones, intricately carved wood, jewelry galore, its absolutely stunning. There was a temporary exhibition of King Tut’s tomb in LA a few years ago that just gave me a hint of the splendor but to see it all together in the Museum in Cairo complete with the gold face mask and the sarcophagi is beyond words. Its unimaginable how much work and extremely valuable raw materials went into making decorative pieces to be buried underground with an unimportant dead child-King.
That night we took an overnight train to Aswan but would return to Cairo 5days later. Our 1 day back in Cairo, a few of us went to the Citadel, a fortified hilltop in Cairo which contains 2 mosques, old Sultanate palaces, a few museums, and offers great views of the city. I really enjoyed this for the opportunity to go into mosques in an Islamic country. Mosques, while not nearly as splendid and visibly appealing as Catholic or Orthodox churches, usually have very nice detailing work along the columns, ceilings, and minarets, and are very spacious inside for the devout to kneel in prayer.
After the Citadel, Andrew and I went over to the Coptic Christian quarter, which was a huge relief from the noise and the constant in-your-face nature of the rest of Cairo. We wondered in and out of a few churches and I kept telling Andrew, if only we can find a Synagogue to go into we will have covered the 3 Abrahamic religions in one day. We just enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of this medieval part of town for a little while before heading back to the busy part of Cairo for some lunch.
After lunch, knowing that this was my last chance to shop in Egypt, I dragged Andrew along to the market, Khan al-Khalili. The market was a lively, busy place and much like you’d except for an Arabic bazaar, and would have been great fun if I wasn’t so tired and worn out by this time from the freezing cold overnight seater train. So I found what I was looking for, had another quick look around, and decided I’d had enough of Cairo.
In Cairo, and to a somewhat lesser extent across the rest of Egypt, everyone talks to you, whether they’re trying to sell you something or not, though most of the time they are. And they all ask the same question, ‘where are you from?’ After awhile the all of the friendliness of the chatty Egyptians just becomes exhausting, particularly the frequency and the repetition of the same question. It was amazing to me that soooo many people knew how to say ‘where are you from’ but then less than half half understood the response. This and bargaining for everything (like in China) are two overriding aspects of the tourists’ experience in Egypt.
Pictures from Egypt
January 13, 2008 at 8:02 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Known as a Panama Canal Cruise, we did in fact go through the Panama Canal. I’m no expert on such canals but to me it seemed rather narrow and old-fashioned. What I mean by old-fashioned is that men in row boats had to row out to our ship to tie a rope between us and this mini train-type car that would pull us along through the locks. Furthermore, the canal is restricted to ships under a certain size, therefore large cargo ships and mega cruise ships have to go all the way around Cape Horn to get to the other side of the Americas, a very long and dangerous way. That being said, they are in the process of dredging and enlarging the canal, though I’m not sure if that’s to increase capacity by number of ships or to allow larger ships to go through. After navigating the Panama Canal we had a stop at…Cristobal Pier…As unexciting as that may sound, encountering locals in native costumes which rendered them bare-chested and rather more exposed than most passengers coming off an elegant cruise ship expected, was plenty of distraction. Besides these locals jumping and dancing to rhythmic beats, others were selling all sorts of crafts and wares in the terminal. 
Not surprising, I liked our other Panamanian port, Bocas del Toro, better; in fact, it was my favorite port on the whole cruise. It is said Panama is the next Costa Rica, gorgeous beaches, lush tropical rain forests, and even cheaper than Costa Rica. That sure seems to be true, with clear blue water, pure white sand, and 3-star waterfront hotel rooms for $10-15 per night. It appears that Bocas has a good backpacker community and the nightlife to go with it. We took a boat to a small private island where we crossed the island through the rain forest to find a beach with rolling waves on the other side. We had good fun playing in the strong waves. My grandma even went in! I just wish we’d had more time in Panama.
San Andres Island
Colombia, would you believe this cruise included a stop in Colombia? Well to be honest, we didn’t go to mainland Colombia, we stopped at San Andres Island, off the coast of Honduras. San Andres island now belongs to Colombia after the two countries competed over the island to control the fishing rights in the area. We took a short island tour including seeing a blow hole which sprays water when a big wave washes up and seeing the town, which wasn’t very exciting. We also went to a beach but our time there was rained away by a quick moving storm with high winds–it must have come and gone in 15minutes but with all the furry of a hurricane. San Andres Island also had a reputation as a pirate hideout where pirates used to store their treasure. However, today, no treasure.
Key West
The last port before disembarkation in Miami was Key West. Key West was cute but touristy and had a number of very eccentric characteristics, even the tour guide said residents of Key West were a little off. Key West touts itself as the Southernmost Point of the (Continental) US and is only 90miles from Cuba. Famous people such as Earnest Hemingway have called Key West home; President Truman also spent a fair amount of time here at the ‘Little White House’ during his presidency.
And after Key West is…Miami!
All the pictures from Azamara Quest Cruise
January 7, 2008 at 10:48 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Puerto Caldera
Day 5 we were in our first Costa Rican port, Puerto Caldera. We had set up a tour through Charlie at Okey-Dokey Tours. We thought ‘the Charlie’ was meeting us at the port, and a man who called himself Charlie did meet us; however, we were later somewhat skeptical as to whether our guide was actually Charlie. It seems Charlie hires many look-a-likes to pretend they are him and give tours as ‘Charlie’ of Okey-Dokey Tours.
Regardless of whether of our guide was actually Charlie, we had a good excursion around Puerto Caldera. The highlight of which was probably the Crocodile Canal Tour where we saw countless birds such as egrets, ibis, and a lot I don’t remember their names, iguanas, Jesus lizards that walk on water, and of course, crocodiles. I was surprised how fast crocs can actually move if they want to. Another fun activity was feeding the monkeys. They weren’t scary monkeys like at Emei Shan in China but cute small monkeys, who very nervously came and took the bananas out of our hands. We also had lunch at a beach-side restaurant that served ‘Viagra Soup’. I don’t want to know what’s in that…
This day was a good introduction to Costa Rica, but the next Costa Rican port was even better.
Puerto Limon
Augustas Beckford a taxi driver in Puerto Limon, after getting off to a slow
start, had a jammed packed day planned for us. First we headed out to a zipline course and started there with a tour of the tropical rainforest we were going to be sailing over. Going through the rainforest we saw beautiful flowers, poision dart frogs, a sloth. Then we zipped from platform to platform more than 50feet above the ground below. Woooosh. After zooming across the tree tops, we went to the educational part of our trip: a tour through a banana plantation. I had never been to a banana plantation before and it was very interesting to see the big bunches of bananas slide in on wires–banana ziplines!–be split, sorted, washed, dried, and packed. It takes 3months from flowers to bananas and a banana tree only produces one set in its life. The best looking bananas are shipped to the US while the worst are sent to markets in Honduras. All these outdoor activities are making me thirsty. Time to drink a fresh coconut; coconut water is the best natural Gatorade. We drank our coconuts as we boarded another canal tour similar to the one in Puerto Caldera. We saw many birds, a few monkeys, and a sloth. Another scenic day in Costa Rica!
January 6, 2008 at 9:49 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Acapulco
Check-out of my hostel in Acapulco was at 11am and having nothing else to do, I headed over to the cruise ship terminal to be told wait. Already 5people were wanting to check-in and by about 11:30 they let us into the terminal where we could check-in. First, rather burly Mexican men hand-searched (!) our luggage. Then we proceeded to the counter to do passport formalities and credit card swiping, neither of which was successful on the first 3 tries as the scanning machine seemed to be having difficulty. Good thing there wasn’t a long line at that time! Eventually all was set and we were allowed to board the ship, along with an additional 10 or so passengers who had arrived by this point. I later found out why they were hand-searching luggage, because it is the embarkation port’s responsibility to supply the luggage-scanning machines and similar facilities and services crucial for embarkation. However, the Port of Acapulco is not equipped to be a port of embarkation, therefore they did not have scanning machines so the staff was expected to be able to find scissors, knives, other sharp objects, any bombs, and any and all alcohol. Needless to say, an almost impossible task and they were more successful in some people’s luggage than in others.
Finally getting on the ship shortly after noon, I figured I’d go straight to my room, but then a crew member offered to take my bag and told me to go enjoy buffet lunch until 1pm when my room would be ready. Not being very hungry for lunch, I went back into Acapulco to go shopping around the Zocalo, the Old Town shopping area. Besides this area, Acapulco is also famous for its cliff divers who dive off cliffs into the ocean at night with fire torches and for the Fort that still dominates the bay. It seems to me that Acapulco has really become a destination for Mexican tourists rather than for foreign tourists. There are certainly nightclubs and restaurants catering to all crowds. One night I ate at Carlos’N'Charlies and I have to say, that is the most overpriced, overrated restaurant. There was no atmosphere, nothing special about it, the food was fine but waaay too expensive, and large margaritas were approaching US$20.
One restaurant that I did like alot was 100%Natural (many locations along Costera in Acapulco). Its a fresh, healthy restaurant with emphasis on fresh juices, salads, whole grains and other healthful foods. It was very reasonably priced with an extensive menu and excellent food. What I found interesting was that this was not the only place catering to a healthy crowd. There was a chain of ‘healthy’ frozen yogurt meets GNC-type supply store that were always packed with people having granola on their fro-yo or buy vitamins. There was also numerous GNC-type stores stocking everything from vitamins to protein powder. This was all very surprising to me considering Acapulco is primarily a beach destination for Mexicans and I hadn’t realized Mexico was a particularly health-conscious nation. Apparently the wealthier, beach-going Mexican have an interest in health and the money to spend on it. I further noticed that there must be some monied Mexicans who vacation in Acapulco when wondering around shopping malls as nice as those in the States and which sold items I wouldn’t even pay that much for in the US.
By about 7pm that night, after my family had all come aboard, the ship set sail for Huatulco. A Mexican beach destination farther south down the Pacific side of Mexico.
Huatulco
From before I’d arrived in Huatulco, Mexicans telling me ‘ooooh, Huatulco is nice,’ so I had high expectations. Huatulco was beautiful with cliff side-dwellings looking over crystal blue water and a small beach. The beach was nice and the water warm enough to swim in, so on that day it was very popular. There’s also a small outdoor market nearby, but a taxi ride will get you into a bigger town with more local color. But I saved the town with local color for the next day…
Puerto Chiapas/Tapachula
The following day the ship docked at Puerto Chiapas, a new port, very recently
developed for cruise ship. The terminal is supposed to be the 1-stop place for all passengers: shops, restaurants, bars, live shows, and even a swimming pool. Well, all of it seems rather contrived and unappealing, so we decided to pay $10 to take a bus into the bigger town. Given that it was Christmas Eve, this town called Tapachula was packed with locals buying all their last minute Christmas gifts and provisions. It was certainly not a town that saw many tourists but it was good fun wandering in the markets and seeing all the locals (who are primarily more ethnically similar to Guatemalans than the rest of Mexico) prepare for Christmas. It was hot, very colorful, and a very attractive little town.
Unfortunately, the ship was unable to reach Playa del Carmen (on the Caribbean side of Mexico) as planned due to poor weather conditions. From what I’ve heard Playa del Carmen is absolutely stunning with great beaches and fanstastic snorkeling. Well I guess that’ll be another trip…
January 6, 2008 at 10:47 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Traveling
A side note: My apologies for being absent from blogging for so long, I had very limited access on the cruise as internet was $.65/minute(!!) from a satellite feed and very slow. Also, I may still write another blog about Buenos Aires because I loved it so much and I have more to say, but then my posts will be out of order, ahh well. On to Azamara…
While in the taxi to the ship terminal, the taxi driver asked me in Spanish, ‘is it a big ship?’ Good question…well it depends on your point of reference I guess. I said to him ‘medium-big.’ Suffice it to say its a lot larger than the Antarctic vessel, 10times that by passenger capacity. In reality, though, its a lot smaller than the cruise ships we normally go on, which have at least twice as many passengers. Most of the cruises I’ve been on (about 10 spanning Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, and now Azamara lines) have passenger capacities upwards of 1500-2100; therefore, given that this has 700, it is significantly smaller. This makes for a very different dynamic.
Noticeable differences include the size of the ship, activities, passenger-crew interaction, ports of call, other passengers, etc. The Azamara Quest only has 2 stairwell & elevator banks (compared to 3 or 4) indicating a shorter vessel, which means getting from one location to another is much quicker (if you’re willing to take the stairs). As a result of a smaller ship, there are a lot fewer public areas, not as many lounges and bars, fewer/smaller shops, smaller buffet area, much smaller main theater, etc, all of which make for a more intimate environment. At first I was a bit worried that there would be huge lines at the buffet and not enough seats in the theater but neither has really been a problem. If anything, the opposite has been the case, as the theater was frequently near empty for evening shows and other activities.
Activities was another interesting dynamic on this ship compared to larger ships. Each day numerous organized activities were offered; however none seemed to boast much attendance. Then, when given the opportunity, people complained there were not enough activities. Perhaps the activities were not to passenger’s liking but I was thinking, why should they schedule more activities when there’s not enough attendance as it is. As far as I’m concerned, I went to very few of the activities and also fewer of the evening shows than I normally go to, however I wasn’t complaining about the options.
One aspect of the smaller ship that I’ve really enjoyed is getting to know and interact with the same members of the staff frequently. I know far more of their names (and they mine) than I ever have on a ship before. Everyone from the senior managers (Cruise Director, F&B Manager, Hotel Director) to activities, restaurant, and security staff to Daniel, the Romanian waiter who makes my fabulous smoothies every morning, are known to me by name and recognition. While I’ve found this to be a plus, the crew has pointed out that on a smaller ship they’re required to work much harder in a greater variety of jobs than they have to on bigger ships and many have found this less than ideal. Despite everything, we found this crew to be the most cheery, friendly, and willing-to-help of any ship we’ve been on.
One of the selling points Azamara uses for these smaller ships is unique ports-of-call that are unreachable for larger ships. Well, it seems that bigger ships go hand-in-hand with accessible, interesting ports-of-call. At least on this itinerary, I’ve been relatively disappointed with the ports. There has been a high proportion of tendered ports (as opposed to docking). Frequently, the port has been very far from anything of interest such that a make-shift entertainment center has been created at the dock to amuse the passengers or passengers must take transportation a long way. Perhaps being able to go to unique ports of call is more beneficial in other parts of the world, but I was not impressed with the ports on this Panama Canal cruise.
According to the crew, thus far Azamara has attracted a more premium senior crowd of passengers. However, since this is over Christmas, there are a lot of families traveling with children of all ages. While the children’s programs are not as developed on this ship as on other larger ships (no devoted area), they do offer a few and kids who are committed can meet other kids of the same age. It seems as I’ve gotten older its been harder and harder to meet people of the same/similar age on cruises. On this cruise, though, we have managed to collect a group of about 10people that daily keep the ‘disco’ open past midnight, though. As is typical of cruises, its primarily Americans and this one had surprisingly many Mexicans. There was also a family of 30+ Dutch people, that along with a smattering of other Europeans gives the EU a fair representation on board as well.
The staterooms are fairly spacious and well-appointed. The ‘Butler’ assigned to each cabin is, in the words of my cousin, ‘over-glorified and overworked.’ The balconies are nice but they refuse to open the dividing doors between them. A visit to one of the larger staterooms/suites left me unimpressed except for the wrap around balcony. A self-service laundry room has been a plus. At $2 per wash including soap and an additional $2 (all in quarters) per dry, its a huge savings over shipboard service and as such, I did laundry twice.
The alcohol and age limit policies (including entrance to the ‘disco’ after 11pm) have been ridiculously restrictive and frequently caused many cruisers (parents, underage children, and sympathizers) more stress and frustration than enjoyment. I managed to get 2 bottles of wine on board the ship on embarkation day, partly because they didn’t find them and partly because wine, unlike hard alcohol or beer, may be brought on board on embarkation day. The next day my mom bought a bottle of wine in port and had it confiscated as she reboarded the ship.
Perhaps one of my favorite things about this cruise is being able to custom order meals (one day in advance). Besides of course my morning made-to-order smoothie, I’ve started requesting Indian food every night. A CruiseCritic meeting with the senior officers introduced me to Dejan, the F&B Manager whence I proposed we have Indian food day. While he didn’t think all the passengers would find that as appealing as I did, he told me, you can request Indian food for dinner any night you’d like. Therefore, almost every night for the final week, I pre-ordered an Indian chicken dish and due to the (supposedly) Indian chef, they’ve been excellent. This system is particularly useful for people like my cousin who only eats chicken and would get incredibly bored of having the same chicken dish every night since there is rarely chicken on the changing menu.
The newness of Azamara as a cruise line is certainly apparent to a seasoned cruiser. While Azamara has some advantages over sister company Celebrity, it will be even better when it has finally created its own efficient systems and unique style. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a wonderful time and I attribute that to good, quality time with family, the wonderful staff, particularly Cruise Director Becky Fields, and the passengers I met on board.
December 21, 2007 at 7:31 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Arrival in Buenos Aires at midnight was just as I wished, warm and balmy after chilly Patagonia.
First Day
The first day I walked north up Avenida Florida, a pedestrianized shopping street running through the heart of the city. At the north end, is Galerias Pacifico, a shopping mall with frescoed ceilings and an elegant interior making it far more a piece of architecture than a standard shopping mall. After that I went back south and stopped for lunch at Richmond Cafe, an old haunt of the Argentine write Jorge Luis Borges. I stopped in at another cafe (Confiteria Ideal on Suipacha) that offered tango dance classes as well as had milongas every night of the week (more on that later). Then I continued south via the Casa Rosada/Pink House (equivalent to the US White House), past a number of plazas, including the Obilesk (commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Spanish settlement), and on to San Telmo area (famous for tango) and wandered around the antiques market there.
I returned to the hostel in time for Latin dance lessons offered for free at the hostel! (Hostel Portal del Sur, I highly recommend it!) Although I’d learnt most of the basics of salsa, cha-cha, and merengue before, the instructor also taught mambo which quite a challenge (think dancing to ‘Mambo Number 5.’) I had signed up for dinner at the hostel, a traditional Argentine BBQ, which was supposed to be at 8:30. However in true Latin fashion, dinner wasn’t ready until 11:30pm! Although the night hadn’t even begun by Argentine standards, my 2am arrival that morning killed my enthusiasm for going out that night.
Second Day
Weekends in Buenos Aires are prime days for ‘ferias,’ outdoors festivals with crafts vendors, all sorts of performances, and general atmospheric times. Saturday morning I went to the Recoleta Feria at Intendente Plaza. After a warm morning there, I decided to try one of the best ice cream vendors in the city, Freddo (as recommended by LP). I had Dulce de Leche flavor (more on that later), which was absolutely decadent. I continued walking, to burn off all those ice cream calories, down to Avenida Santa Fe, another popular shopping street. Some shopping time later, I stopped in for lunch at Cumana. After more shopping and wandering, I started heading back toward the hostel, with a few more detours into plazas and a view of the Palacio Barolo. The palace is built with the same number scheme as Dante’s Divine Comedy.
The evening plan was tango lessons followed by a night out on the Buenos Aires bar/club scene. More on tango later. At tango, I invited another American girl traveling alone to come to the hostel and join us in going out for the evening. We stopped for a dinner snack at 11:30pm at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires. We went back to the hostel and finally by 2am we’d made a decision where we wanted to go out that night, perfect timing for actually going out. Are you getting the impression things happen late in Buenos Aires? Yes, they do, very late.
About 2am we left for a global chain of techno/electronica clubs knows as Pacha (also in Spain, Germany, etc). (When I was in Barcelona, DJ Tiesto (think Olympics DJ right before 2004 Athens Games) was spinning at Pacha there and entrance charge was about 40-60euros.) Needless to say, this is a high-end, expensive club. Maybe I should have thought of that…entrance was 45pesos with a discount through the hostel (I can’t imagine what cover is without a discount), and 1drink was 25pesos, don’t even get me started on cab fare. When we got there about 2:30am, hardly anyone was dancing and the music was not to my liking. By the time I gave up on club, about 2hours later, (4:30am!) the main DJ of the night had started spinning and the dancing had picked up but by then I was over it. Time to get some sleep.
Third Day
More ferias! First La Boca, the reputed dangerous but colorful neighborhood at the mouth of the river. This is the old immigrant neighborhood that has never really been pulled out of poverty. The area along El Caminito is famous for its brightly multi-colored buildings. La Boca is also the home of tango, though these days Tango is more commonly associated with San Telmo. I really enjoyed La Boca including the colorful buildings, the shops, the tango imitators, and live band, and just the general atmosphere; its too bad I was warned not to wander around.
On to San Telmo, with its own weekend feria, replete with street side shows of both tango dancing and tango musicians as well as other street performers similar to those you’d find along Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Besides the performers, there were endless crafts booths, antiques, restaurants, and cafes.
Other weekend ferias are at ‘the big flower’ (Floralis Generica) on Ave. Libertador, in a suburb called Matadores (’Feria de Matadores’), and elsewhere around the city. Needless to say Buenos Aires, unlike Santiago, Chile is very lively on the weekends with many places to go and to shop, and things to do.
The evening was capped off with…more tango and dinner while watching tango.
Fourth Day
Having not seen any museums in such a cultural city, it was time to go to MALBA, the Museum of Latin American Art. This museum came highly recommend by a friend and was reputed to be the best in Argentina by the guidebook. Well, it is a great museum with art spanning the 20th Century; however, it was not exactly to my liking, as most modern art is not. So I took a good look and hurried to find lunch as it was past 3pm and most restaurants finish serving lunch at 4pm (the museum didn’t even open until noon, ahh Latin time again).
Knowing I wasn’t going to get lunch by 4pm, I had another ice cream, this time at Volta, widely considered the best ice cream shop in BA. While eating my ice cream, I walked over the the Las Carnitas area for lunch, which is supposed to be a fun district at night, though mid-afternoon it was very laidback, still it was the only nearby area with restaurants serving lunch after 4pm. I had lunch at Las Cholas, a northern Argentine restaurant, and I enjoyed a lovely juicy steak.
Following lunch I wandered over to the area known as Palermo Viejo with many small boutique shops and Plaza Serrano (a supposedly good weekend night area). What struck me about this area was, despite the many boutiques already there and the high-end nature of the neighborhood, many of the retail spaces were available for rent. Perhaps I was there at the wrong time of the day or week but I can see how it’d be difficult to drive foot traffic with so few pedestrians (compared to say, Ave. Florida), justifiably leaving shops vacant. Coincidentally while wandering around, I ran into a guy from the hostel and we decided we’d have a drink together, to kill time until I went to…more tango (a performance this time).
Fifth Day
On Tuesdays and Thursday at 11am, free guided tours in English are given of Recoleta Cemetery, perhaps the most famous cemetery in Argentina, and burial place of Eva Peron. The cemetery is similar to that of New Orleans with above-ground mausoleums; however here the mausoleums also usually have basements and 9 coffins can fit in the first level of an average size basement. Many of Argentina’s historical and political figures are buried here along with socialites who can afford the US$25,000+ price tag to buy a tomb. Many mausoleums have statues or mosaics or other artworks to commemorate the dead, making it very much an open air art museum as well as a cemetery and definitely worth the visit.
After the cemetery and before my next and last museum I sought out a little healthy cafe called Florencio where I had a salad to balance out the steak lunch from the day before and the planned steak dinner. The Museum of Decorative Arts doesn’t open until 2pm (wish I worked there), but on Tuesdays its free. Since I didn’t have to pay entrance and I’d found the cemetery tour far more rewarding that wandering around unguided, I decided to pay the 3pesos for the guided tour at this museum. The museum used to be the private mansion of a Chilean-Argentine couple complete with some very fine European antiques dating from the 14th-20th Centuries, rivaling those found in the Hearst Castle in California. The couple made their wealth through agriculture(!) before and during WWI. Eventually they sold the house with antiques intact to be a museum and the grandeur of it as a private home is incomprehensible.
After the museum it was time to stock up on Argentine wine and pack before my early morning flight the next day. I chose a Malbec, typical Argentine red, and a dry white wine known as Torrontes, only found in Argentina. For my last night in Argentina, I met up with my Ecuadorian friend from China (and her brothers) and a friend whom I met on the Antarctica trip but lives only 10mins from my mom in Phoenix. How’s that to remind you its a small world and you have friends everywhere you go? We had a very happy dinner at Desnivel, a famous old bodegon in San Telmo, where we joked and laughed and compared cultures and travel stories. Thanks Leslie, Byrom, Pato, and Chicho for a great evening; that was the best time I had in Buenos Aires.
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