Central and South America

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

From the tiny port of Puerto Quetzal we took a 1.5 hour bus ride to Guatemala’s ancient capital Antigua which was founded in 1543. Following devastating earthquakes the capital was moved to Guatemala City in 1773 and today Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Along the way we passed through a village decimated in June 2018 by a volcanic eruption (Guatemala has 33 volcanoes, three of which are active) and despite the bumpy roads we enjoyed seeing coffee plantations, sugar cane fields and of course the odd volcano.

Antigua’s narrow cobblestone streets are full of colonial houses, churches, hotels, restaurants, markets and archaeological sites, many the remnants of earthquakes from hundreds of years ago. We spent several hours wandering through the town and visited Central Park, the Arch of Santa Catalina which frames the Agua Volcano, Antigua Cathedral, Carmen Market and the remains of El Carmen Church.

At lunch time we found a Jordanian restaurant called ‘Petra’ and dined on kebabs whilst chatting with a New Zealand couple and listening to Lionel Ritchie. The local Mayans sell handcrafts on the streets including fabric and scarves, jewellery, shoes, cloth dolls and tiny wooden animals, all incredibly colourful. And since Guatemala produces some of the best coffee in the world, we enjoyed a cup at Café Barista.

The bus trip back seemed shorter as our local guide, who had provided constant commentary all the way there, put on a CD of his favourite music and we bopped along to the likes of the Bee Gees, Chicago and Australia’s very own Air Supply.

At Petra Restaurant

Carmen Market

El Carmen Church

 

Arch of Santa Catalina - you can just see the tip of the volcano inside the arch

Central Park

Antigua Cathedral

All the streets are cobblestone

Inside Cafe Barista

Manta, Ecuador

Ecuador is perhaps best known for the beautiful Galapagos Islands. But it is also famous for its Panama Hats, which despite their name, originated here.

Our port of call was Manta which is Ecuador’s fifth largest city and has existed since pre-Columbian times. We were shuttled from the ship to the end of the pier where we had access to wi-fi in the brand new cruise terminal. Then we were shuttled to Plaza Civica, the central area of the city which houses a wonderful local craft market.

Aside from Panama Hats, they produce jewellery made from Tagua. Penny had been gifted a necklace and bracelet earlier in the year and was keen to see more of this beautifully crafted nut which is as hard as ivory and able to be cut, smoothed, coloured and polished into a variety of shapes and sizes. Naturally she purchased another necklace and bracelet!

In Manta we chanced upon the Cancebi Museum which contains artefacts from the ancient Manabita way of life as well as memorabilia brought to Ecuador by the British. The temperature was 27°C but felt more like 37°C so finally we escaped to the veranda of the Casa Rosada café situated in a beautiful colonial building and dined on Caesar salads and delicious natural lemonade and local beer.

Plaza Civica

Cancebi Museum

Lunch at Casa Rosada

Buildings - the good and the not so good...

Market

The Tagua nut!

Lima, Peru

Lima, which was founded in 1535, is the capital of Peru and boasts the oldest university in the Americas, in operation since 1551. We started the day with a 45-minute shuttle bus ride into the city through the port city of Callao with its colourful buildings and street markets.

Upon arriving at the modern Salaverry Plaza shopping centre we discovered it was too far to walk to the Plaza Mayor or main square. Fortunately, our new friends Rudy and Bruce appeared and the four of us were able to team up with a taxi driver. We were grateful too that Rudy was able to converse with the driver in Spanish!

Our driver stayed with us for almost two hours whilst we walked around the square past the city’s important buildings including the Iglesia de San Francisco, a beautiful church where a Sunday service was in progress, the Palacio de Gobierno or Government Palace, various municipal buildings and museums and the city’s library. We toured the magnificent Basilica Cathedral of Lima and Museum of Religious Art and even crawled through an underground tunnel into its fascinating crypt.

With our driver in tow we shopped at a few of the local craft stores and then watched a brass band and dancers outside the cathedral before returning to the taxi for our ride back to the shopping centre, and shuttle back to the ship. What a brilliant day!

Cruising into Lima

Callao

Cathedral

Library

Church of San Francisco

Clowns

Brass band and dancers

Inside the Cathedral proper

The crypt

The Art Museum

Christmas Display in the Cathedral

Lima Square

Policeman in costume patrolling the square!

Arica, Chile

Our day began very early when we were woken by a strange rumbling within the ship, even though we were still an hour or more from the port. It was in fact, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake!

It never rains in Arica which relies on underground aquifers for its water supply. Plants and trees are rare, and wildlife is almost non-existent. ‘Man and Desert’ was the title of our shore excursion which began with a bus tour through the city of some 250,000 people and included a visit to St Michael Cathedral. This building, which is 90% iron, was built in 1876 over the previous cathedral which was destroyed by a tsunami. The cathedral was designed by Gustav Eiffel (of tower fame) and installed at Arica. Back then the region was part of Peru but two years later during a war between Peru and Chile, the city finally came under Chilean rule.

From the city we drove out towards the Atacama Desert, the driest desert on Earth. Geoglyphs are diagrams made of small stones and set into the mountainsides, and those we saw, of shepherds herding their llamas, are 800-1,000 years old.

The Chinchorro people occupied this land some 5,000-7,000 years ago and next we visited a museum where we saw the oldest mummies on Earth. The Chinchorros mummified all of their dead because they valued all people. And because water was also a problem back then, many babies died and the mummies are on display in the museum.

Our final stop on the excursion was to the gigantic Tutelar Figures. These figures were created in 1996 by Juan Dios Fleming, a professor at the university. He wanted to represent the heavens, earth life and the underworld, vertically rather than horizontally like the geoglyphs, and created these enormous figures out of concrete, iron and clay. There are also two whirlpools created from stones, one of which is said to be a portal out of which came the dinosaurs… but this is just folklore.

St Michael Cathedral

Geoglyphs

One type of housing...

Inside the museum

The river

The desert

At the Tutelar Figures

Rural housing

City housing

Aboard Celebrity Eclipse

We socialised with a terrific group of people on this cruise, particularly Linda and John from Florida, Rudy and Bruce from Texas and Gwen and Rob from Aberdeen, Scotland. Another highlight was our ‘Inside Access Behind-the-Scenes Ship Tour’ which took us to the Bridge, Engine Room, Stores, Laundry and Galley. In each location we were given a rundown of the activities and equipment and we saw parts of the ship not normally available to passengers like crew quarters and internal stairs and lifts. It was a fascinating tour and a real eye opener.

At QSine Restaurant 'Le Petit Chef' prepares your dinner which is 'projected' onto your plate - whilst a team of mini chefs runs all over the table and across your plate gathering ingredients and getting up to mischief. In the first photo the food is a projection, in the second it is real, brought to the table by real waiters. Incredibly entertaining!

At Murano French Restaurant

On the Bridge

From the Bridge

Alcohol stores

Food stores

Giant washing machines in the laundry

The Engine Room

Internal crew stairs

Inside the Galley

Rob and Gwen

Linda and John

Bruce and Rudy

Guess who?

From Tuscan Restaurant at the stern

Now we head to San Antonio, the port for Santiago in Chile. We say a sad farewell to Rudy and Bruce but look forward to spending more time with Linda, John, Gwen and Rob who are joining us for our second ‘back-to-back’ cruise.