Monday January 20, 2025 – At Sea between New York City, and Miami, FL
Another day at sea on our way to Miami. There were strong seas with a fair amount of movement. It certainly is not the Queen Mary 2 that cuts through the water.
We attended the port lecture on Cartagena with a good old “friend” – the 2016 World Port presenter – Graham Howell. All the tours are fully booked and there will be 4 cruise ships in port that day so it will be a bit of confusion. Apparently the Port is some distance away from the town and there is no shuttle. There will be a shuttle from the ship to the Port facilities (about 10 minutes). The Port Facilities have shops, a mini zoo, restaurants and other such activities. To go into town there are many taxis, but no busses as they are not permitted in the old town. Our tour – Cartagena by Land and Sea, will consist of a 1 hour Boat ride, then we will be dropped off from the motor boat, near the main part of the old town where we will wander around then be picked up and transported back to the ship. The entire stay will be just 1/2 day as we have to line up for the Panama Canal Crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Next was an interview and Q & A with the Entertainment TV Presenter Nelson Aspen. He shared some more stories about his life and the people he knows and stories about the celebrities he has known and interviewed.
The next lecture was George Kourounis, a Canadian Explorer who started off in the music industry as an engineer. And then got into his passion which was looking for and reporting on bad weather. He started storm chasing and various TV networks started looking for him to report on all the violent weather phenomena. This led him to other dangerous adventures such as going several times to the boiling lava lake, climbing frozen waterfalls, going into a cave in Mexico that has spectacular enormous crystals developed over 500,000 years (but it is 100% humidity and over 50 degrees centigrade, so without adequate protection you would die within 20 minutes). Imagine a cold glass of water sitting on a table on the hottest most humid day of the year. The water condensation on the outside of the glass is quite extensive. Now imagine that same effect in this cave, but the condensation is in your lungs, so as more condensation occurs, your lungs fill with water and you drown! A bit of a crazy life!.
After lunch an and a lazy afternoon, we got dressed for dinner as it was a “Red and Gold” Gala night so all were in dinner jackets and long dresses. The evening show was the Chanteuses – 2 women from New York singing with the Cunard Orchestra, classics from Dolly Parton to Streisand etc. A nice evenings entertainment.
Roger & Anne Travels 