West Africa

 Friday, May 8 to Sunday, May 17

It took us 30 hours to get from Louisville to Cape Town and that included a 3 hour layover at Dulles, 13 hours to fly to Ethiopia, and another 6 hours to fly to Cape Town.  It was a successful trip in that we made all of our connections, there were no flight changes, and our luggage made it with no complications.  By the end of our journey, however, my whole body hurt: I couldn’t concentrate to read, my eyes couldn’t focus, and I had difficulty with my balance.  Our first two ports were cancelled because of the weather and I was grateful because these two additional sea days gave us a chance to settle in.

Monday, May 18, Day 9: Ghana

Our first stop was to see the Bisa Aberwa Museum.  Bisa Aberwa means “ask the old lady” and the museum features a statue of an old woman instructing children on the ways of her tradition.  Also in the museum are statues of Obama, Lincoln, Muhammad Ali, and WEB Dubois to show the influence of Africans in America history.  Our second stop was to the Second Methodist Church, which was uneventful except for the fact that the church shared a border with a local school.  I grabbed a couple of my U of L coasters and started to give them away.  Right after I flung one to the crowd I could feel a few hands, and dozens of fingers, padding my back to get my attention.  A swarm of kids really wanted those coasters and they surrounded me and pulled on my shirt to get one.  I found their teacher, gave her a couple of coasters, and fled.

Tuesday, May 19, Day 10: Ivory Coast.

It was well over two and a half hours from the time that we met in the gathering space to when the bus pulled out of port.  It was probably the bureaucracy of the Ivory Coast that took so long to clear us.  Their government did provide us with police motorcycle escorts, however.  Sometimes it is the journey and not the destination which is the best part of the trip.  For example, just looking out of the window in the bus was worth the price of admission.  I saw miles of shantytowns where plywood walls and corrugated steel counted for a roof.  Sometimes, in a bow to modernity, there were satellite dishes poking out from the roof. Otherwise, I saw goats, horses, and cows grazing in the mud and the puddles that passed for streets.  When we drove past the local shops, I noticed that they were built from parts of cargo shipping containers. Meanwhile, we were touring in a luxury bus filled with comfortable seats, air conditioning, and guilt.

When we told our friends that we were going on a cruise to West Africa, the inevitable question was “why on earth would you want to go there?”  My reply was that “if I wanted to be a tourist then I would go to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean but what I really want is to be a traveler and see how the people in the developing world live.”  In that light, there are two images of the Ivory Coast that will always stick with me.  The first is of a modern church that was being built on the outside of the capital.  The steel girders that made up the frame had collapsed on itself and it was apparent that all new construction had halted.  You can almost hear the people think, as they walk by, “we can’t have anything nice.”  The other image was of three little girls playing by the road wearing nothing but diapers.  They were about four years old and they pointed at our bus and waved as we went by.  It probably never occurred to them that they were poor until they saw the rich tourists in their luxury bus.

Friday, May 22nd, Day 13: Dakar, Senegal

Goree Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous for its “Door of No Return” where the enslaved Africans were shipped off to the new world.   The main attraction on the island is the “House of Slaves,” a museum with dark cells and exhibits detailing the slave trade.  Our guide said that the first recorded African taken as a slave was in 1502 and, since then, seventy percent of enslaved Africans passed through Goree Island.

Monday, May 25, Day 16: Canary Islands

We took a TukTuk tour of Las Palmas because it made our day special.  It was weird to be in a modern city when our three previous ports showed us desperate people in dismal living conditions.  Forty percent of the income for the Canary Islands comes from tourism so Las Palmas has just finished building a brand new mall, hotels, and an expansive park right outside of the port.  They decorated the park with statues, like the one of a giant blue man that was a gift of friendship from South Korea, and a huge tented area where the old men could play Dominoes and chess.  I don’t ask a lot from our tours, just a good guide and something interesting to see, and Las Palmas filled the bill.

Tuesday, May 26, Day 17: Tenerife, Spain

The members of the crew were just so happy to get off of the ship for awhile.  Cherise, one of the women in sales, was so excited that she literally bounced in place while we talked to her.  Our guide for the day was Sophia and she was a pure joy to be with because she was filled with youthful energy.  It was clear that she enjoys being a guide as she used to be a teacher.  “I still get to teach,” Sophia said, “only the people are much nicer.”  It felt good to take a long walk with Sophia because the exercise lifted our spirits.  It was a short tour but Sophia pointed out Trafalgar, where Admiral Nelson defeated the French Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is just over the horizon from her island.  She pointed out the statue of a sardine because that is Tenerife’s major export, and we saw the Aquadoro, or the statue of a water women, which was erected to show the importance of potable water to this island.  Finally, Sophia walked ten minutes out of her way to escort us to our gate and this demonstrates that the guides are not always in it just for the money; she was truly interested in us and enjoyed talking with us. 

Wednesday, May 27, Day 18: Funchal, Madeira, Spain

You just have to appreciate it when things go right.  We paid extra money to go on a small group excursion and it was money well spent because we rode in a powerful Mercedes van.  This mattered because we drove straight uphill for miles to get to the church and botanical gardens.  The weather was perfect for a long walk through the gardens because we could really smell the flowers.  Our guide was Helena and she knew all about the plantings in the gardens and gave us a detailed descriptions of why each tree and bush was important.  We took a cable car back down the mountain and then our last stop was at a Farmer’s Market where I saw a fisherman carving up a tuna.

Saturday, May 30, Day 21: Vigo, Spain.

The day was a wash in terms of what we were supposed to see.  It was so overcast that we couldn’t see the valley from the church even though we drove an hour and a half to get to that site.  To make up for it, our guide took us to a castle but it was underwhelming.  So I decided that it is the journey, and not the destination, that is important.  Vigo is the official starting point for the final 100 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago Portuguese Coastal Route.  I spent a lot of time looking out the bus window to watch the dozens of walkers who were committed to the Camino out of an act of devotion, to seek penance, or to get off the fast track and do some slow travel.  Most people take five days to complete this route.  Also, because it was a Saturday, there were literally hundreds of bicyclists on the route because even though it was a bad day for tourism, it was the perfect day for a long ride.

At Sea Days

I liked going to the dance classes but I never joined in.  It was just nice to be around the energy that the instructors brought to the floor and I spent the time by working on crossword puzzles.  Black, white, Asian, and Indian women all danced to the classics, pop, and disco.  It was fun to watch the old people shake their butts because they were not self-conscious at all and were happy to let their guard down to shake it in front of a bunch of strangers.  One lady danced while using her walker and another chair danced in her wheelchair.  It is easy to be snarky but they were dancing to get out of their comfort zone and have some fun.

On sea days, Tracey and I start off with two mimosas for breakfast and then I drank strawberry daiquiris for the rest of the day.  Aside from watching the dance classes, we played trivia twice and attended the various activities that were sponsored by the ship, and I went to the casino to watch them play poker.  It wasn’t much but we managed to stay busy.

Conclusion

Everything went so well that we signed up for another cruise.  In the spring of 2028 we will do a three week cruise to Chile, Antarctica, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.  Also, our cruise for this fall has been modified.  We were supposed to go through the Suez Canal, circumvent the Arabian Peninsula, and then end up at Dubai.  Unfortunately, with the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, we will have to end our cruise at Oman and will miss Dubai and Abu Dhabi.  Norwegian gave us a huge discount and we took it because we still get to see Greece, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.  We have never been to these three places.